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Date: 1867-02-01
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “The Protestants of Lower Canada and Mr. Galt”, The Montreal Herald (1 February, 1867)
Other formats: TBA

THE PROTESTANTS OF LOWER CANADA AND MR. GALT.

—The Gazette very naturally desires to wriggle out of the extraordinary position in which it has placed itself as to Mr. Galt’s mission, and if it were a mere question of its accuracy of statement or correctness of information we should not have another word to say on the subject, and, indeed, should never have said a word. But this matter touches the interests of a very important body of our fellow citizens, who ought to know what is really being done in their interests or against their interests; and besides it very much concerns public morality, that men occupying high positions should not be allowed with impunity to play fast and loose with those in whose service they affect to occupy themselves, nor go on through a series of false misrepresentation misleading those who confide in their honour, until there is no way of escape for the persons who have been betrayed. Now, we all know the history of this affair and its relations to what are regarded by some as the peculiar interests of the Protestants of Lower Canada, though for our own parts, we have never believed that the proposed remedies could ever be of any real avail. In the first place Mr. Galt, afraid to make an open statement in the House, took the unusual and suspicious course of writing a private letter in which he promised in the name of his colleagues that certain guarantees should be inserted in the local constitution of Lower Canada, in favour of the Protestant population of that part of the country. Why he wrote a private letter instead of making a public declaration was only too obvious. But the members of Parliament for whose benefit he epistle was composed probably did not want much convincing, and they did all that was required for that time. When the time came for fulfilling this promise it was thrown to the winds, as a promise given in such a manner was certain to be, and Mr. Galt went through the farce of resigning. We call it a farce because there can be nothing serions in a formal pretence of indignation or dissent, when the person thus affecting anger or dissent, at the same time declares that he approves the breach of a promise to which he has pledged his honour, and continues to aid the measures which he ought if consistent to oppose. Then there came new ministerial promises, too vague to be very closely scrutinized, but just as impossible of fulfilment as those which had gone before. At last Mr. Galt appeared once more upon the scene by a flaming announcement of the services he was about to render to the people for whose cause he had professed to feel so warmly, but had served so ill. We need not ask who wrote the notice, because whoever wrote it, it could manifestly have been dictated only by some official person. That statement copying the not very accurate verbal citation by a correspondent in the Gazette, was to the effect that Mr. Galt was to be in England, “the representative of his Protestant friends,” No rational man believed this story in any natural sense; and we said so. We did not assert, however, that we did not believe a statement that no one had ever made—the statement-to wit: that Mr. Galt had a “special mission from the Protestants of Lower Canada.” We might just as well have imagined a story that he had a special mission from the Choctaw Indians to protect Protestants interests, ana then have expressed our doubts of the truth of a manifest absurdity. Such as it was, however, the assertion made on behalf of Mr. Galt grated harshly upon those who had prevented his previous promise from being fulfilled, and the Minerve undertook to deny it, on behalf of Mr. Cartier, with just that official authority with which the Gazette had spoken for Mr. Galt. Did the Minerve’s denial apply to anything so ridiculous as a statement which no one had made and no one had thought about—to the pretended assertion that Mr. Galt had been sent on a special mission from the Protestants, when it was evident to every one that the Protestants had no possible capacity for making any such appointment? Not at all. The Minerve stated distinctly that Mr. Galt had gone for no purpose connected with Protestantism, and leaving the negative form proceeded to tell us positively, “Mr. Galt has gone to England as a financier.” Now then, what was meant on the part of the journal which made the original statement by contradicting something which no one has ever asserted, nor thought of, and which was just about as impossible as the case we have supposed of an appointment by the Choctaw Indians? When a man has said that another has gone to England “as the representative of his Protestant friends,” it is quite easy to say afterwards, and with perfect verbal truth that he has not asserted the envoy “had a special mission from the Protestants.” But why raise such a quibbling issue of mere words about very serious interests? We think that question answers itself. When Mr. Galt having professed to resign his place in the Ministry on account of the breach of the promise he had made in its name, afterwards desired to get back again, the promise still unfulfilled, and when, failing to get back, he hooked on to the Cabinet under the name of a delegate, it became desireable to make some excuse for such inconsistency. This excuse was in substance that, having resigned out of respect for Protestant interests, he was returning to quasi official life, for the purpose of furthering or protecting these interests, by influencing the legislation in England, or the agreements made in England, on Protestant behalf. It matters not as to the precise words—that was the meaning. Now the Minerve tells us that this is not true, and the Gazette far from being able to confirm the Protestants in the pretended good news which it had formerly conveyed to them, shows itself anxious only to save its own consistency by a verbal quibble which deceives nobody, but those who make it. In the meantime what is quite clear is, that the Protestants will get nothing from Mr. Galt’s presence in England. That is just what we have all the time told them; that is the single question which concerns the public.