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Date: 1865-03-08
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “What Next—The Globe at Toronto and Mr. Brown at Quebec”, The Montreal Herald (8 March, 1865)
Other formats: TBA

WHAT NEXT—THE GLOBE AT TORONTO AND MR. BROWN AT QUEBEC.

—Of course the great political question of the day is what next? Is the constitution of the country to be kept any longer in abeyance while legislation is performed by unauthorized conferences, or, according to the new idea, by deputations from Canada meeting Imperial ministers in Downing Street; Parliament being told it must say nothing but yes or no;—or are we to return to the normal condition of a State governed according to the principles of responsible government and the British constitution? Mr. Brown and Mr. John A. Macdonald, at Quebec, seem to have deposed the constitution and the Union Act indefinitely.—The session of Parliament is to be ended without any vote of Supplies, and without any legislation—except the Alien Bill—merely because the people of another country have rejected a certain set of politicians at the polls. The Globe on the contrary, not having had at that time we presume any inspiration of the course which was to be adopted, takes another, and we think a far more rational view of the matter.

Canada can live without the Lower Provinces. We did not seek union with them to filch money from their treasuries, as so many of their people have said, and, we suppose, some believed.—We desired union for higher reasons, which involved their gain as well as ours. Nor do we forget that Canada has a great destiny independent of the Lower Provinces. If the people of New Brunswick should continue for ever in their present mind, Canada will still continue to grow and become a great country. There is a straight and clear course before her. We have only to settle our local difficulties in an equitable manner—not a very difficult matter in the present state of parties—and proceed to develope the North-west territory, which we can acquire on not very onerous terms. The money which would have gone to build the Intercolonial Railway will amply suffice to extinguish the title of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to open the territory for settlement. We hoped until two days ago that we could have both. We can content ourselves with one if necessary.

In carrying out this programme, we should not set up barriers against union with the Lower Provinces when they see the error of their ways, but the contrary. A settlement of the relations between Upper and Lower Canada, on the basis agreed upon by the Government last June, and the addition of a large territory, will make an alliance with us more attractive to our eastern friends. While, therefore, the result of the New Brunswick election disappoints us, it does not cause us to lose heart. A year ago, union of all the Provinces seemed a vast deal less attainable than it does now. We have but to follow out the policy laid down by the Reform Convention of 1859, and the ultimate result will be the full accomplishment of a great union of all the British Provinces on this continent.

That is the proper course, and it is the one laid down on the programme of last year. Settle our own local difficulties and let others join us at their and our leisure on terms which can be discussed in open daylight, instead of with the mystification and falsehood of protocols, the exoteric sense of which is repudiated by some of those who signed them. Ministers, however, are not likely to give up the unlimited power they have under the present system, till they are obliged to do so, and even if Mr. Brown were not, as, in all probability, he is more completely the humble servant of Mr. Cartier than ever was John A. Macdonald, whom, for ten years, he so bitterly reproached for his servility, he seems to take to contempt for popular forms of Government with as much kindness as if he had been a true blue Tory all his life, instead of having been only a few months in contact with the “corruptionists.” We don’t understand, however, the payment for Hudson Bay rights. The Globe used to say there were none.