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Date: 1866-11-22
By: Montreal Herald
Citation: “The “Globe” on the School Laws” Montreal Herald (22 November 1866).
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THE “GLOBE” ON THE SCHOOL LAWS.—The Globe writing on the changes which it is said are to be made in the Quebec constitution on the subject of the School Laws, talks the following nonsense:—

“It is with this plot—this outrageous violation of the compact agreed upon at Quebec—that we in Upper Canada are chiefly concerned. It is in that part of the scheme that our great danger lies, and it is for that breach of faith, if the treachery shall be consummated, that Upper Canada will hold Ministers to strict account.”

Hold Ministers to strict account, eh! That means that Mr. Brown will vote want of confidence in them, if he can get any fools to join him after past experience; and as soon as he has done so, will leave those who voted with him, and join the men who have been so held “to strict account;” then ignore all the sins for which the latter are supposed to have been declared unworthy of confidence; and finally take part in committing all those other offences which they had not previously been strong enough to effect, on account of his opposition. Or suppose that Mr. Brown is not himself in a condition to play this little game again—he has shown how it can be done so neatly that it is too much to expect there will be no imitators, and it is with imitators that the chief danger lies, for we do not suppose that Mr. Brown will ever be in a position to repeat the experiment. The truth is that the Coalition, should it be successful in carrying Confederation, will have destroyed constitutional government in Canada for the next generation. The rump of the liberal wing of the Coalition having no strength either in the popularity which once belonged to Mr. Brown; nor in their own abilities, and still less, if possible, in their own characters, are absolute nullities in the Cabinet, and Mr. McDougall will, we presume, never appear again in the character of a liberal; having informed us that his past professions in that line were merely “exaggerations.” Thus we have, as the Government, precisely that party which Mr. Brown has pretended to oppose all his life, only that he might saddle their rule upon the country more firmly than ever. They have had carte blanche for the last two years to do as they pleased, and they have not neglected the moral conveyed in the parable of the Unjust Steward, as to the propriety of making friends, no matter at whose cost. They will still have carte blanche, until Confederation is carried, if it shall be carried, even to the extent of making any alterations in the constitution which they may think that it requires, in order to become precisely the instrument they want; for the Globe does not pretend to oppose the enacting in England of the so called constitution, even should it be completely changed from its pretended purpose. It is so wedded to Confederation that it is ready to accept anything provided the makers of the article continue to call it by the original name. And after Confederation the whole organization of the country will be in the same set. They will, for one thing, appoint the entire Legislative Council for life, with no power in any hands—those of the Crown nor of the people—even to add to the members of that body, which constitutionally will be alike despotic and irresponsible. They will appoint the Governors of Upper and Lower Canada, who in their turn will create the whole body of officials for each of those provinces. They will, moreover, have the formation of the first Cabinet. With all this executive power on the one hand, and with the experience of the manner in which people who are in opposition upon principle are prevented from effecting any good by desertions at critical times of persons who, like Mr. Brown, only see in the defeat of a bad ministry an opportunity to make their own bargains, who can believe in any possibility of “ministers being held to strict account?” We all know better than that now, however much some of us once believed that the right must prevail at last; and it is Mr. Brown and the Globe who have taught us the lesson. Let them enjoy the position they have made; but let them cease talking the old cant, which has now become even more unbearably stale and stupid than it is hypocritical.