Lord Elgin - Sir John George Bourinot (distant reading .txt) 📗

to the worst, there is always in the country that saving remnant of intelligent, independent men of whom Matthew Arnold has written, who can come forward and by their fearless and bold criticism help the people in any crisis when truth, honour and justice are at stake and the great mass of electors fail to appreciate the true situation of affairs. But we may have confidence in the good sense and judgment of the people as a whole when time is given them to consider the situation of affairs. Should men in power be unfaithful to their public obligations, they will eventually be forced by the conditions of public life to yield their positions to those who merit public confidence. If it should ever happen in Canada that public opinion has become so low that public men feel that they can, whenever they choose, divert it to their own selfish ends by the unscrupulous use of partisan agencies and corrupt methods, and that the highest motives of public life are forgotten in a mere scramble for office and power, then thoughtful Canadians might well despair of the future of their country; but, whatever may be the blots at times on the surface of the body politic, there is yet no reason to believe that the public conscience of Canada is weak or indifferent to character and integrity in active politics. The instincts of an English people are always in the direction of the pure administration of justice and the efficient and honest government of the country, and though it may sometimes happen that unscrupulous politicians and demagogues will for a while dominate in the party arena, the time of retribution and purification must come sooner or later. English methods must prevail in countries governed by an English people and English institutions.

It is sometimes said that it is vain to expect a high ideal in public life, that the same principles that apply to social and private life cannot always be applied to the political arena if party government is to succeed; but this is the doctrine of the mere party manager, who is already too influential in Canada as in the United States, and not of a true patriotic statesman. It is wiser to believe that the nobler the object the greater the inspiration, and at all events, it is better to aim high than to sink low. It is all important that the body politic should be kept pure and that public life should be considered a public trust. Canada is still young in her political development, and the fact that her population has been as a rule a steady, fixed population, free from those dangerous elements which have come into the United States with such rapidity of late years, has kept her relatively free from any serious social and political dangers which have afflicted her neighbours, and to which I believe they themselves, having inherited English institutions and being imbued with the spirit of English law, will always in the end rise superior. Great responsibility, therefore, rests in the first instance upon the people of Canada, who must select the best and purest among them to serve the country, and, secondly, upon the men whom the legislature chooses to discharge the trust of carrying on the government. No system of government or of laws can of itself make a people virtuous and happy unless their rulers recognize in the fullest sense their obligations to the state and exercise their powers with prudence and unselfishness, and endeavour to elevate and not degrade public opinion by the insidious acts and methods of the lowest political ethics. A constitution may be as perfect as human agencies can make it, and yet be relatively worthless while the large responsibilities and powers entrusted to the governing body--responsibilities and powers not embodied in acts of parliament--are forgotten in view of party triumph, personal ambition, or pecuniary gain. "The laws," says Burke, "reach but a very little way. Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state. Even all the use and potency of the laws depend upon them. Without them your commonwealth is no better than a scheme upon paper, and not a living, active, effective organization."


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE


For accounts of the whole career of Lord Elgin see _Letters and Journals of James, Eighth, Earl of Elgin_, etc., edited by Theodore Walrond, C.B., with a preface by his brother-in-law, Dean Stanley (London 2nd. ed., 1873); for China mission, _Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan_ by Lawrence Oliphant, his private secretary (Edinburgh, 1869); for the brief Indian administration, _The Friend of India_ for 1862-63. Consult also article in vol. 8 of _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 9th ed.; John Charles Dent's _Canadian Portrait Gallery_ (Toronto, 1880), vol. 2, which also contains a portrait; W.J. Rattray's _The Scot in British North America_ (Toronto, 1880) vol. 2, pp. 608-641.

For an historical review of Lord Elgin's administration in Canada, see J.C. Dent's _The Last Forty Years, or Canada since the Union of 1841_ (Toronto, 1881), chapters XXIII-XXXIV inclusive, with a portrait; Louis P. Turcotte's _Le Canada Sous l'Union_ (Quebec, 1871), chapters I-IV, inclusive; Sir Francis Hincks's _Reminiscences of His Public Life_ (Montreal, 1884) with a portrait of the author; Joseph Pope's _Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, G.C.B._ (Ottawa and London, 1894), with portraits of the great statesman, vol. 1, chapters IV-VI inclusive; Lord Grey's _Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration_ (London, 2nd ed., 1853), vol. 1; Sir C.B. Adderley's _Review of the Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration, by Earl Grey, and Subsequent Colonial History_ (London, 1869).

For accounts of the evolution of responsible government in Canada consult the works by Dent, Turcotte, Rattray, Hincks, Grey and Adderley, just mentioned; Lord Durham's _Report on the Affairs of British North America_, submitted to parliament, 1839; Dr. Alpheus Todd's _Parliamentary Government in The British Colonies_ (2nd ed. London, 1894); Bourinot's _Manual of the Constitutional History of Canada_ (Toronto, 1901); his _Canada under British Rule_ (London and Toronto, 1901), chapters VI-VIII inclusive; _Memoir of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Lord Sydenham, etc._, by his brother G. Poulett Scrope, M.P., (London, 1843), with a portrait of that nobleman; _Life and Correspondence of Charles Lord Metcalfe_, by J.W. Kaye (London, new ed., 1858).

For comparisons between the parliamentary government of Great Britain or Canada, and the congressional system of the United States, see Walter Bagehot's _English Constitution_ and other political essays (New York, 1889); Woodrow Wilson's _Congressional Government_ (Boston, 1885); Dr. James Bryce's _American Commonwealth_ (London, 1888); Bourinot's _Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics_, in _Trans. Roy. Soc. Can._, vol. VIII, sec. 2 (old ser.), and in separate form (Montreal, 1891). Other books and essays on the same subject are noted in a bibliography given in _Trans. Roy. Soc. Can._, vol. XI, old ser., sec. 2, as an appendix to an article by Sir J.G. Bourinot on Parliamentary Government in Canada.

The reader may also profitably consult the interesting series of sketches (with excellent portraits) of the lives of Sir Francis Hincks, Sir A. MacNab, Sir L.H. LaFontaine, R. Baldwin, Bishop Strachan, L.J. Papineau, John Sandfield Macdonald, Antoine A. Dorion, Sir John A. Macdonald, George Brown, Sir E.P. Taché, P.J.O. Chauveau, and of other men notable from 1847-1854, in the _Portraits of British Americans_ (Montreal 1865-67), by J. Fennings Taylor, who was deputy clerk of the old legislative council, and later of the senate of Canada, and a contemporary of the eminent men whose careers he briefly and graphically describes. Consult also Dent's _Canadian Portrait Gallery_, which has numerous portraits.


INDEX


A

Amnesty Act, 91.

Annexation manifesto, 80, 81.

Annexation sentiment, the, caused by lack of prosperity and political grievances, 191 f.

Archambault, L., 186.

Aylwin, Hon. I.C., 45, 50, 53, 187.


B

Badgley, Judge, 187.

Bagehot, on public interest in politics, 250, 251; on the disadvantage of the presidential system, 253, 254.

Bagot, Sir Charles, favourable to French Canadians, 30; 31.

Baldwin, Hon. Robert, 28; aims of, 31, 45, 50, 51; forms a government with LaFontaine, 52; his measure to create the university of Toronto, 93, 94; resigns office, 103; death of, 104; views on the clergy reserves, 160, 162.

Blake, Hon. W.H., 50, 53, 69.

Boulton, John, 123.

Bowen, Judge, 187.

Brown, Hon. George, 110; editor of _Globe_, 111; raises the cry of French domination, leads the clear Grits, 112; enters parliament, 113; his power, 114; urges representation by population, 117; 125, 137, 138; his part in confederation, 225.

Bryce, Rt. Hon. James, on the disadvantages of congressional government, 255-257.

Buchanan, Mr., his tribute to Lord Elgin, 123, 124.


C

Cameron, John Hillyard, 50, 112.

Cameron, Malcolm, 50, 53, 110, 113, 117, 126, 134, 163.

Canada Company, 145.

Canada, early political conditions in, 17-40; difficulties connected with responsible government in, 26; the principles of responsible government, 228; a comparison of her political system with that of the United States, 241 f.

Canning, Earl, 217.

Caron, Hon. R.E., 43, 53, 109, 113, 126, 187.

Cartier, Georges Étienne, 135, 136, 226.

Cathcart, Lord, succeeds Lord Metcalfe as governor-general, 38.

Cauchon, 126, 164.

Cayley, Hon. W., 140, 163.

Chabot, Hon. J., 126, 141, 164, 186.

Chaderton, 48.

Chauveau, P.J.O., 46, 50, 109, 113, 126, 141, 164.

Christie, David, 110.

Church of England, its claims under the Constitutional Act., 145, 150 f.

Church Presbyterian, its successful contention, 153.

Clergy Reserves, 101, 102, 103, 119, 127; secularization of, 142; the history of, 143, f.; report of select committee on, 147; Imperial act passed, 158, 159; its repeal urged, 161; value of the reserves, 161-162; full powers granted the provincial legislature to vary or repeal the act of 1840, 167; important bill introduced by Sir John A. Macdonald, 168.

Colborne, Sir John, his action on the land question, 154; the Colborne patents attacked and upheld, 155, 156.

Company of the West Indies, 175.

Craig, Sir James, 1, 19.


D

Daly, Dominick, 35.

Day, Judge, 187.

Delagrave, C., 187.

Denslow, Prof., 254.

Derby, Lord, his views of colonial development, 121.

Dessaules, 108.

Dorchester, Lord, 1.

Dorion, A.A., 108, 134.

Dorion, J.B.E., 108.

Doutre, R., 108.

Draper, Hon. Mr., forms a ministry, 35; retires from the ministry, 43.

Draper-Viger ministry, its weakness 44, some important measures, 45; commission appointed by, 64.

Drummond, L.P., 109, 113, 126, 141; his action on the question of seigniorial tenure, 186.

Dumas, N., 186.

Durham, Lord, 2, 14; his report, 15, 23, 25; compared with Elgin, 15; his views on the land question, 144, 145, 148, 154, 155; his views on Canada after the rebellion, 191; his suggestions of remedy, 192, 193.

Duval, Judge, 187.


E

Educational Reform, 87-89.

Elgin, Lord, his qualities, 3-4; conditions in Canada on his arrival, on his departure, birth and family descent, 5; his parentage, 6;