Document Information
Date: 1866-11-24
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “The Position of the Country and the Government of the Country”, The Montreal Herald (24 November, 1866)
Other formats: TBA
THE POSITION OF THE COUNTRY AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNTRY.
—We do not attach very much importance to the oracular statements of the Government organs, for one reason, because they contradict themselves only a little less often than they contradict one another, as we have seen in the stories which have been circulated by them with respect to the School Laws; the Gazette making assertions to cover the position of Mr. Galt, which the Minerve denies to save the reputation of Mr. Cartier. However, there may be something in the announcement made on Thursday, that the Imperial Government had called the attention of the Provincial Government to the necessity for vigilance, in consequence of movements now going on in the United States. That announcement came from the Minerve, a recognized organ of the Government, especially of Mr. Cartier, and besides is by no means unlikely in itself. Whether it be true, or whether its probability only has caused its publication, what a comment does it not suggest on the position of the country, in which, according to another organ, the departure of so many members of the Government has made it impossible to hold a Cabinet meeting for want of a quorum! And then, such Ministers as are left behind, even if they could make up a legal meeting of Council! To leave a country to be governed, and a Governor General or Administrator be advised by such men as remain, in whom nobody has any confidence, and who, with one exception, could hardly be named in connection with their offices by any average citizen outside their own families and their own clerks, at a time when special vigilance is thought necessary against a possible enemy, is a piece of folly which can only escape its appropriate punishment by good luck. A few days ago we pointed out the probability that the best man in the Ministry might be required in Canada, by the pressure of circumstances. Now we are told that the pressure, in the opinion of the British Government, is upon us; and yet we have, as a Government, only two or three men, mostly unknown beyond their own immediate circles, and when known at all, no where recognized for business ability or habits, or for the confidence reposed in them by their fellow-subjects. “My son, see with how little wisdom the World is governed.”