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Date: 1866-11-27
By: Montreal Herald
Citation: “The M.P.P. (From the St. Thomas Despatch)” Montreal Herald (27 November 1866).
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THE M. P. P.

(From the St. Thomas Despatch)

The Montreal Herald has published two letters signed M. P. P., addressed to Lord Carnarvon and intended as an answer to the Remonstrance of certain Lower Canada M. P. P.’s opposed to the Confederation of the British North American Provinces. With the help of the Herald we do not think we shall err in attributing the authorship of these letters to the most eloquent member of the Cabinet. No other man could have traced his own public career so well, and no man could have had a better opportunity of learning the antecedents and knowing the political characters of the Remonstrants. “No gleam of light has ever penetrated their minds since their first instinctive hostility to the Quebec scheme of union was avowed”—and then the Hon. M. P. P. goes on to show up the remonstrants and their motive in asking for delay in no very favourable light—”their trust is that the future may bring forth some new condition of things which will drive us into Independence or Annexation. If a compact legislative union, such as now unites the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, has to be dissolved in order to reconcile the political difference of two races, alien in laws, language and religion, existing difficulties will only be increased by stringing together these Provinces under a federal Head. Any person who has studied with an impartial eye the history of Lower Canada since the conquest must know that French Canadians will not abate one jot of their pretensions to a distinct Nationality, and that now setting them off again into a separate Province will only serve to strengthen and confirm them in their deep rooted prejudices. If the Anglo Saxon wishes to be assured of this, let him read Garneau’s Historie du Canada.

The present union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada was adopted, comparatively a few years ago, on the recommendation of Lord Durham in his report, after mature consideration, as the plan best adapted to amalgamate and gradually to render the two races more homogenous; but confederation will perpetuate the distinction of races, and render all hopes of fusing them abortive. The result will be that the minority, the Anglo Saxons of Lower Canada, will seek other means of relieving themselves of the incubus of a dominant race, who will be French, although they profess to be British. We have heard the cry of annexation from Lower Canada before, and know what gave rise to it. The same cause will produce the same effect. The Hon. M. P. P. has acquired a world wide provincial fame as an orator, but we question whether he will ever become so distinguished as a statesman, and this, we think, may be proved by his own shewing. The members of a Coalition Cabinet must necessarily divest themselves of political principles, but this is a proof that they are the best adapted to administer the affairs of an integral portion of the British Empire. However, let an M. P. P. speak for himself. We give here a considerable portion of his second letter to Lord Carnarvon, which contains an honest avowal of shifting political principles, if not a wise one.”

[We are very much afraid that our Western contemporary either does not read or does not believe the Montreal Gazette, which informed the public that the second letter was a joke, and “meant for sarcasm.”—ED. M. H.]