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Date: 1864-06-24
By: True Witness
Citation: “The Bogus Committee”, True Witness (24 June, 1864)
Other formats: TBA

THE BOGUS COMMITTEE.

— The parturient mountain has brought forth its ridiculous mouse. Mr. George Brown’s Committee on sectional difficulties, and constitutional reform has presented us with its Report, and a most absurd little bantling that Report is. It is the product of only one portion of the Committee, and in substance it amounts to this—that many of its members have thought a good deal about a Federation of the British North American Provinces, or of the two Canadas at all events, and that the only definite conclusion by them arrived at is, that they should meet again, and lick their unsightly cub into some kind of presentable shape. We have, we suspect, seen the last of this bogus Committee.

Of course we do not pretend to attach any blame to its members, for not having done more or better, for the problem presented to them for solution is, by its very terms, insoluble. The “sectional difficulties” which render the Government of the United Provinces, in a manner satisfactory to both Upper Canada and Lower Canada impossible, cannot be removed or mitigated; and only two possible, or even conceivable solutions of the question—“How is Canada to be governed?” present themselves. Of these, one would not be satisfactory to the people of one section of the Province; the other is, one which though uppermost in men’s minds, no one is bold enough to enuntiate.

The first solution—that which the people of Upper Canada, and the Anglo-Saxon and Protestant portion of the population really wish to adopt — consists in the complete subjection of Lower to Upper Canada, of the French and Catholic section, to the Protestant and Anglo-Saxon section of the Province. This solution, though unjust, is possible; and though it would be unsatisfactory to the subjected Province, it would remove the governmental difficulties which at present exist. It would not reconcile indeed, but it would crush out, and extinguish the antagonism of Lower Canada; it would stifle the voice of the latter, by placing her in the same position with respect to Upper Canada, as that in which Poland now stands towards Russia.—This is the solution of the problem which presents itself naturally to the minds of Clear Grits, Liberals, and Protestant Reformers of the George Brown stamp.

The other solution consists simply in the Repeal pur et simple of the Legislative Union, which binds together the two antagonistic Provinces in unloving embrace. This solution would inflict no wrong, no injustice upon either: it would leave both free and independent, but it would not satisfy the Protestant Reform party, of which the real object is Anglo-Saxon and Protestant Ascendency.

No other solution of the problem than these given above is possible or even conceivable.—The machine of Government stands still, because there are in our political system two equal forces, constantly pulling in two directly opposite directions. If we want motion therefore, we must do one of two things. We must either destroy the existing equilibrium betwixt the opposing forces, or in other words so increase the power of the one as to enable it not only to neutralise the force of the other, but to drag it along helpless in its train; or we must detach the one from the other, in which case also motion will be produced, and freedom of action restored. It is because our legislators refuse to recognise the plainest truths in politico-dynamics; because they will persist in striving after the impossible, and in endeavoring to elicit motion from an arrangement which can only give rest or equilibrium, that our political machine stands still. Instead of motion, heat is generated: political heats and animosities, which if not extinguished in time may lead to a blow up and a general smash.