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Date: 1865-03-17
By: Perth Courier
Citation: “The Last of Confederation”, Perth Courier (17 March, 1865)
Other formats: TBA

 THE LAST OF CONFEDERATION.

On Friday night, the 10th inst., a final vote on the Confederation Scheme was taken in the Canadian House of Assembly, with the result of 91 to 33. The government had previously used their strong majority to swamp discussion and prevent the reception of amendments, by which bold and high-handed proceeding the right of the people to vote on the question was destroyed, an amendment to that effect being thrown out by the Attorney General, John A. McDonald, with the support and sanction of George Brown. Having thus assumed the responsibility of forcing the measure down the throats of the people of Canada, whether they were willing or not, the Scheme is now a fixed fact, and we stand confederated with the bleak hills and barren rocks of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, whenever the inhabitants of those desolate Provinces signify their willingness to receive us. As yet they have not shown any readiness to do so, even with our kind offer to build a railroad past their doors. Being a perverse people, stubborn and stern as their snow-capped mountains and inhospitable valleys, they have rejected the measure of the Quebec ball-room and oyster-supper statesmen, and swept them out of political existence wherever they made their appearance at the polls since their return. Ministerial difficulties having arisen in most of the Lower Provinces in consequence of the scheme, it was referred to the people, and almost universally rejected. It being thus impossible to carry out the measure just now, it may be considered as “dead as a door nail” until Providence gives G. Brown and John A. another chance to save their bleeding country from the horrors of Lower Canada domination. Indeed, so anxious are those patriots to sacrifice themselves to the public good, that the former advocates the idea of asking the Imperial Parliament to force the measure on the obstinate colonists at the point of British bayonets, and, like a kind-hearted but stern doctor, ram down their throats a pill that will purge the British American body politic of all its ills, but which shrinking colonial nature loathes to swallow. If there were any prospect of this idea being acted on, a revolution would be raised from one end of the country to the other that would soon settle all difficulties between the people and the politicians, but as all attempts at forcible legislation has long since disappeared from British policy in America, the idea of the Globe merely excites a smile of derision without causing the least appearance of being acted on. It is no doubt very distressing to our statesmen to be baulked in their ambition by a few miserable bluenoses, who may know a great deal about codfish and kindred subjects, but who certainly exhibit a woeful ignorance of the science of government when they reject the grandest scheme that modern wisdom has produced. The bayonet is the right argument to apply to people of such dull understanding, but for all that, we fancy it will not be applied, and the happy trio may thank their stars if they can pocket the five thousand a year a little while longer. Confederation is dead! It will soon be buried, and by the next session of Parliament we shall probably be prepared to announce the joyful tidings of the birth of its smaller sister, the Federal Union of Upper and Lower Canada. If Federation has to be applied to the Government of the country at all this scheme is big enough to begin with, and if it is found to work well it is then time enough to seek a union with the Lower Provinces. It may be that the Lower Canadians will in the meantime become frightened at the admission of the Federal principle into our system of government, and rather than risk the destruction of their institutions under such a system, will grant to Upper Canada an increased representation under the present arrangement. They could always count upon enough of Upper Canadian assistance in Parliament to prevent any injustice being done to their views or interests, whilst in a union of the whole provinces they would be in such a hopeless minority their language, laws, and religion, would be constantly encroached upon. If this result comes out of the confederation agitation, Upper Canada will have reason to be thankful to Mr. Galt for swindling the country out of a hundred thousand dollars, but whether it does or not, its people have reason to be thankful that Confederation is dead for the present, as much on account of the outrageous extravagance of the scheme itself, as for the high handed and unconstitutional manner in which it was attempted to carry it.