Document Information
Date: 1865-03-15
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Parliamentary Proceedings”, The Montreal Herald (15 March, 1865)
Other formats: TBA
PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
The varied and important events of the past week seem worthy of a brief review, especially as there are some points which call for particular attention. A great thing was sought, but the seekers have failed to obtain possession of it, and although they appear to smile contentedly under their humiliating defeat, we can see the cloud through the faint glimmering of sunshine, and fancy them murmuring to themselves? “ah which of us has his desire,” while they say to us as poor Thackeray said in closing his greatest work, “Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets.” They are anxious to shut up the box and the puppets, and take themselves away to hide their chagrin, for the play is played out to the last word of the last act, and the curtain falls over discomfited performers and a discontented audience. The quack medicine has only been swallowed by the poor Canadians, who have submitted to be taken by the nose and have the nauseous thing forced down their throats after it had been pushed aside in disgust by most of the other patients in whom it was to work such wonders But they console themselves with the reflection that it will never operate and that they will see no more of it. Requiescat in pace. Confederation is dead; let us sing hymns for its repose.
A more gloomy week has seldom passed in the Canadian Parliament than that which has just closed. Perhaps the late fracas had something to do with depressing the usually joyful spirits of honorable gentlemen. They may possibly have felt that it was but becoming in them to conduct themselves with a certain degree of shamefacedness after their late misbehavior, in order to atone for it in so far as in them lay. All joking aside, however, the scene in the House to which I referred in a former letter, has had and will have a most beneficial effect. It will teach members that there is such a thing as going too far; that to occupy themselves in making each other out to be liars and pilferers is not the healthiest or most profitable employment, or that to which those who sent them here wish them to devote themselves But apart from this, there were other causes operating to produce this calm which has fallen upon the House. It is the lull after the revolution in the constitution, and betokens the pitiable humiliation of the would be Constitution makers at the utter failure of their project. Until recently the gentlemen on the Treasury Benches used to laugh at any hints of the rejection of their scheme in Newfoundland or Prince Edward Island. Such insignificant places would be only too glad to come in when they found New Brunswick casting its lot in with the great province of Canada. Then came the event of the defeat of two delegates and one Minister in this same New Brunswick—this hot-bed of Confederation as we were led to believe—by anti-Confederation candidates. The intelligence was received one evening while the House was sitting, and blank consternation rested on Ministers faces as they heard it. Two of the Delegates to the Quebec Conference defeated, and the Post Master General! Why it was not possible; the thing was incredible. But nevertheless it was quite true, and, cruelest cut of all, next day came the news of the defeat of Mr Tilley himself, and of other Confederation candidates. No one need be afraid of exaggerating the importance which Ministers attached to the result of the elections in New Brunswick. They evinced it the following day in coming down to the House and making the announcement with which your readers are already acquainted. They acknowledged, to make use of a very expressive term, that the whole thing was a “fizzle;” that there was no use in discussing it any longer. They want a vote of credit, and they will prorogue the House and betake themselves to England to make us a constitution in Downing-Street; to pledge us to this, that and the other thing, hoping for Parliament to sanction their acts when there is no help for it, as they were asked to sanction the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds on the Grand Trunk, in addition to what had been voted, when Mr. Hincks returned from a visit to the same quarter. Ah! we know, for we have paid dearly for it, what is the result of the blandishments there brought to bear on Colonial ministers. We are told that we are in imminent danger; that great defences are necessary. But if the danger is so very imminent, why leave us exposed to it while they take a tour across the Atlantic? If the necessity is so very pressing, is it a proper time for them to desert their posts? Do they forget the example of that legislature which was sitting when a great darkness suddenly brought business to a stand still, and members thought the end of all things was come and wished to adjourn, when a venerable statesman arose and said that if it were the end the proper place for them to be was at their posts doing their duty, and forthwith candles were ordered in and business proceeded. But the whole thing is a sham—a continuation of the sham that has been practised upon the people since June last by men in difficulties and seeking an escape from them—seeking to retain the administration of affairs in their own hands,— seeking eclat and prestige. Whether there be danger or not, it is a mere pretext to urge that at the present time in justification of the course that is being pursued. How rapidly the danger has grown up? How quickly it has loomed in sight? Surely we are not to suppose that the sword was hanging thus dangerously over the heads of honourable gentlemen a few days ago when they stood up in the House and proceeded with the utmost leisure to give us five, ten, aye, twenty column disquisitions on constitutional history, and the history of their constitution in particular! Oh, no! The danger is only created, or is only made apparent to them by the result of the elections in New Brunswick! The humbug of the whole affair—no other term can be used—is too palpable to be mistaken. Is it not a fact; can any one deny that, so far as actual danger goes, it was much more imminent five, six, seven weeks ago than it is now; that our relations with our neighbours are much more friendly; that a much happier feeling exists between the two countries? And yet forsooth we must send these gentlemen off to England to save us from being swallowed up immediately. There is not such a great difference between the United States now, and the United States two years ago. Yet what was the language of Messrs. McDougall, Howland and McGee, members of the Government then, and members now of the existing administration? Why when the late Duke of Newcastle proposed that fifty thousand men should be drilled they almost ridiculed the idea. In a minute of the Executive Council, dated October 28th 1862, they said:—
“The proposal of His Grace to organize and drill not less than 50,000 men is not now for the first time presented to the Province. The measure prepared by the late Government and rejected by the Legislature contemplated the formation of a force to that extent, and Your Excellency’s advisers cannot disguise their opinion that the Province is averse to the maintenance of a force which would seriously derange industry and tax its resources to a degree justifiable only in periods of imminent danger or actual war.*** They (the people of Canada) feel, that should war occur, it will be produced by no act of theirs, and they have no inclination to do anything that may seem to foreshadow, perhaps to provoke, a state of things that would be disastrous to every interest of the Province.”
The expense of keeping up this army was to be met by direct taxation, and on this point the Government said “without entering into a discussion of the relative merits of direct and indirect taxation, Your Excellency’s advisers feel that it would not be prudent suddenly or to any large extent, to impose direct taxation for military purposes. This is not the occasion for adopting a principle hitherto unknown in the fiscal policy of the Province, and assuredly this is not time for plunging into an experiment for which the people of the Province are unprepared. No more serious mistake can be committed than to conduct an argument upon the supposition that the ability of the Canadian people to sustain taxation is greater than has hitherto been acknowledged in the fiscal arrangement of the government. The wealth of the country is in its lands. If the people are in the enjoyment of comparative wealth it is so invested as to be not readily available for the production of a large money income. Your Excellency’s advisers believe that no government could exist that would attempt to carry out the suggestion of His Grace for the purpose designed. The maintenance of the Provincial credit abroad is undoubtedly an object which the administrators of the affairs of the Province should at any cost accomplish. Your Excellency’s advisers submit that their various measures demonstrate the sincerity with which they are striving to preserve the public credit unimpaired. They contend, however, that not the least important of the agencies to be employed to this end is the exhibition of a due regard to the means at the command Province. They hold that they are more likely to retain the confidence of European capitalists by carefully adjusting expenditure to income than by embarking in schemes, however laudable in themselves, beyond the available resources of the Canadian people.”
Nothing could show more clearly the hollowness of the pretexts now got up. But the honourable gentlemen are in difficulties again and they must get out of them, even if it be by pledging the country to enormous expenses when it is in a much more calamitous state than it was at that time.
But there is another matter to which I would direct attention, and which is of some importance. The printed copy of the resolutions adopted in the Conference in Quebec sent to members by the Provincial Secretary before the meeting of Parliament, and worded “private,” differ from the English version first adopted by the House, but agrees with those laid before the Legislature of Nova Scotia, and also corresponds with our own French copy. In other words, we have one thing in English and another thing in French. Nay more, notwithstanding that this was a treaty, inviolable and sacred, which must not be altered in any particular, yet of course all parties must be reconciled, and one thing is submitted to [the?] [Legislature?] [of?] [Nova?] [Scotia?] [and?] another to the Legislature of Canada. The French members of our Parliament would of course read the French version, and if they voted according to their own judgment, they would vote on the resolutions as there set down. Which are the resolutions which are to bind us? Where was the alteration—and it is one of some importance—made? By the Canadian Government or the Nova Scotian government when the delegates returned there and found that the resolutions as they took them with them would be unpalatable to the people? Why did not the government answer the question when it was put on Friday night, or rather Saturday morning by the Hon. Mr. Mr. Dorion instead of sulkily refusing a word of explanation? This was only of a piece, however, with the rest of their conduct during the session. Happening to possess a majority of the House, they would bully the House into doing anything and the President of the Council, who has brought them this majority—who knows with what deference words of his must necessarily be listened to by his colleagues whom he could turn out of office at any moment, connives at this sort of thing? Ah! what indignation we should have had if he had happened to be on the other side of the House; what remonstrances, what protests, what appeals! But circumstances alter cases, and to be sitting at the same desk with the Finance Minister, and standing opposite him shaking your fist in his face, and denouncing him as all that was unfair, and corrupt and dangerous, as I and many others well remember, the President of the Council doing just before he was President of the Council, are, of course, two very different things. But we must not be astonished at any of these things when we observe the course the Government are pursuing, and recollect what they promised to do; what they distinctly pledged themselves to last session, to wit, “to bring in a measure next session for the purpose of removing existing difficulties by introducing the Federal principle into Canada.” We were to look after ourselves first, and if we worked well, the other provinces might be invited to join us subsequently, for this scheme which was to be specially framed to settle our difficulties, was to be “coupled with such provisions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the North-West Territory to be incorporated into the same system of Government.” The ‘next session’ has come, and nearly gone, and no such scheme has been laid before us. It has been distinctly stated by the Government that no such scheme will be laid before us.
The House met for the evening, sitting at the usual hour on Friday, and did not rise again until half-past four on Saturday morning. It was during that sitting, about two o’clock, that the subject to which I have referred, was brought up by the Hon. Mr. Dorion, and owing to the unseasonable hour, very brief reports were made; but I shall endeavour to-morrow to send you an account of what took place.