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Date: 1854-10-05
By: The Globe, Montreal Gazette
Citation: “The Elective Legislative Council Bill” The Globe (5 October 1854).
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THE ELECTIVE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL BILL.

(From the Montreal Gazette.)

The introduction of this Government Bill fairly launches our ship of state on the great ocean of change; and we shall have to invent new rules of navigation for her guidance, as well as to discover new land marks, while we are altogether uncertain if the compass will prove true. It is ridiculous to go to Great Britain for precedents, for it would be a jest to compare the condition of this Province with that which is found there; nor can we go to the United States, for Responsible Government is so utterly at variance with their system, that not a point can be found in common. We have then to make a system of our own; and whether we are on the right track, in the present patchwork, is a question that may be fairly debated, and one that will admit of divers [sic] opinions. Where all is so uncertain and so doubtful, the very strong views held by Mr. Gamble are worthy of respectful consideration; especially, as the ablest of all the Colonial Tory writers, the Hon. Mr. Justice Haliburton, of Nova Scotia, in his “Rule and Misrule,” goes very far towards endorsing them. Mr. Brown, also, who has so long and so strenuously opposed the elective second chamber, said a few days ago in the debate on the Address, that if change were to be the order of the day, he would not be one of the most backward in urging that it be made thorough.