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Date: 1867-05-30
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Representation According to Population”, The Montreal Herald (30 May, 1867)
Other formats: TBA

REPRESENTATION ACCORDING TO POPULATION. 

— The new Dominion being so near its birth, it is worth while to endeavour to comprehend how far the new constitution will create a change in our system of government. In some respects it is obvious that a very great alteration will be effected. The local Governors, Governments and Legislatures will make up so much new machinery, which will certainly complicate that with which we formerly worked, and like all complications will probably be found to create friction and obstruction instead of facility of movement. The precise operation of the patent attachment will only be understood after a tolerably long trial, and can hardly be predicated in advance. It is easier to forecast the effect upon that which after all will be the paramount and predominant power in the country—the general or federal government,—and inasmuch as a considerable change has been effected in the constitution of two of the bodies which we suppose must in courtesy stand for two of the three traditional estates of the realm, it is to the influence which that change may cause that we naturally look with the greatest interest. It is possible to imagine a state of things under the new form of government in which in one or more of the Provinces, especially of the smaller Provinces, the public opinion shall be very hostile to that which is represented in the general government, just as we have frequently seen a decided conflict between the policy of the government of individual States, and that of the United States. In the latter country, however, within certain limits this conflict may exist—it may, indeed, be almost said to have been intended that it should exist by the framers of the constitution. There each State has a separate legal status of its own, which may of course be invaded by force, and respecting the precise limits of which there may in times of excitement be considerable difference of opinion; but which is constitutionally as free from the interference of the Federal Government as the action of the Federal Government with in its sphere is independent of any opposition from individual States. We do not admire this division of powers, when it can be avoided, as it could not be in the formation of the American constitution; but holding that things should really be what they seem, we think it a misfortune that this distinction was not observed and acted upon when we adopted a federation of the various Provinces as the basis of our future political condition. If it were desirable to have these local legislatures at all, we judge that it was desirable to mark out their duties and, within the prescribed boundaries to give them co-relative responsibilities and obligations, free from any external dictation. Quackery, however, not science, is the characteristic of our rulers, and hence the appointment by the general Government of Lieutenant Governors, who will be party men, chosen for party purposes, and who having the manipulation of the local Ministries, will probably reduce the local Governments to mere simulacra—expensive, but inane spectacles, except indeed, they shall by some kind of revolt extort from the General Government the concession of a conventional standing, which is not granted them by the fundamental law. In this way then the Federal Ministry will exercise a real control over every department of the adminstration, no matter to which of the two Governments that department may be attributed by the Imperial Act. Hence it becomes important to comprehend by what influence this Ministry will have its being. The rule of the British constitution is that the Ministry must have the confidence of Parliament, the gloss on which last word is of that House of Parliament which holds the purse strings—in other words of the House of Commons. The same thing has been hitherto true here; but it is manifest that in the Imperial Act passed at the suggestion of the Provincial Ministries, there is an attempt to counteract the popular influence exerted through the lower branch of the Legislature, by means of the Senate, which hereafter is to be a permanent body beyond the influence of the Crown or of the nation, which can no longer act upon the Upper House, either directly by way of election or indirectly through the Ministry of the day. We have frequently pointed out the inconvenience of this foolish attempt to import a heterogeneous element into a system, which admits of no conflict between the several branches of the Government. It is another piece of mere charlatanism; for if the House of Commons is to rule, as rule it undoubtedly will, what but temporary obstruction and useless irritation can arise from interposing between its will and the object of its desire the irresponsible veto of a few old gentlemen, in no immediate contact with and deriving no support from the the popular feeling. The attempt to set up this independent body of men, who will be as a rule remarkable for nothing but their wealth and their subservience, is almost certain to create trouble, and is quite certain to fail. Once in possession of their dignities, the Senators will have no desire to provoke a contest of which the loss of their positions will be the certain issue; but should they do so, no one can doubt what will be the result of a petition to England from the House of Commons, setting forth the necessity of removing the obstruction. A conflict between the two houses is quite possible, and that has been our objection to this part of the scheme; but with the traditions of our form of government, and the preservation of the rest of the mechanism, it is utterly impossible that in such a conflict the Senate can prevail. That being so, the change in the character of the Legislative Assembly becomes the leading fact in the alteration which has been brought about: and this change has given to Upper Canada that preponderance which she has long sought for, under the title of representation according to population. There can be no question that this concession has been really obtained, in spite of the many assertions that it should never be granted, and that the chief engineer of the arrangement by which it has been granted is its former great opponent Mr. Cartier. The fact may be obscured by the other changes which have been simultaneously brought about; but it is there in all its real strength and importance,—and that it is so may serve, like many other movements which we witness, to show how futile it is to struggle against a cause which is commended by its intrinsic justice and reasonableness. Just as we see the Conservatives in England granting what virtually amounts to household suffrage, after refusing a much smaller measure of reform, so we see Mr. Cartier combining with Mr. Brown to give Upper Canada her full measure of representation according to population, under Confederation, whereas an addition of half a dozen members under the late system would have satisfied the Western demand for a quarter of a century.