THE last chapters have
dealt separately with the most important of the lines of policy
carried out by Macdonald after his restoration to power in 1878.
From that time to his death in 1891 he held the premiership of the
Dominion, and was, as no man had ever been before, or has been
since, the determining force in the administration of the government
and the development of the country. His countrymen, once having
forgiven his greatest political fault, restored to him and renewed
again and again a confidence almost unique in the history of
constitutional government. During these thirteen years there were
three general elections, in 1882, 1887 and 1891. Twice in that time
the Liberal party changed its leadership in the effort to strengthen
its position and make headway against him. Mr. Mackenzie made way
for Edward Blake in 1880, and on the resignation of the latter in
1887, Mr. (now Sir Wilfrid) Laurier succeeded to the difficult post.
Change of policy, it
must be said, was tried by the Liberals as well as change of
leaders. Commercial union with the United States was brought forward
as an alternative for the system of protection which was the note of
Macdonald's National Policy, and for a time the new cry seemed
likely to catch the popular ear. Later, "unrestricted reciprocity "
was adopted as a term less repugnant to Canadian sentiment. But
change of leader and change of policy alike failed to displace the
veteran of so many political fights, the skilful wielder of so many
kinds of influence. Macdonald's name had become one to conjure with,
and so long as he lived the Conservative party maintained an
unbroken, though perhaps not wholly unshaken, hold on the country.
This was due partly to the extraordinary affection and devotion that
he inspired among his followers in parliament and the country;
partly to his own consummate political strategy. Still more may it
be attributed, there can be no reasonable doubt, to the fact that
the country at large credited him with a deeper and truer insight
into its real needs and aspirations than was ascribed to his
opponents. The course of events since that time may be said to have
amply justified this opinion. All the greater lines of policy which
he initiated or directed have become fixed in the Canadian system.
Protection to native industries—the so-called National Policy—was
adopted in all its main features by the Liberal party on its
accession to power in 1896, and has since been maintained with the
minimum of dissent from any quarter. The Canadian Pacific Railway,
once vigorously denounced as likely to bring the country to ruin,
has proved not merely one of the most successful of business
ventures, an instrument of the first importance for the
consolidation of the Dominion and an inspiration to the national
life, but it has also been the parent of other vast enterprises
looking in like manner to the development of the interior of the
continent. The policy which he advocated both in England and Canada,
of welding the whole empire together by preferential trade, has
steadily grown, has been adopted by most of the greater colonies,
has been put into actual practice by the Liberal party of Canada,
and, in spite of serious obstacles arising from the commercial
system of the mother country, seems to be making headway there also.
The main basis of his
power, therefore, and of the hold which he retained for so long a
time upon the confidence of the Canadian people must unquestionably
be considered to have lain in his solid qualities as a statesman,
his sound judgment in dealing with the present, and foresight in
regard to the future. But these qualities, which fix a statesman's
place in history, would scarcely have carried him successfully
through his long administrative career had they not been
supplemented by others equally rare: keen insight into human
nature—a singular capacity for the management of men—skill in
parliamentary tactics—naturally high spirits which made light of
difficulties—fertility of resource in dealing with them when they
arose, and a personal liking for the political game, however
perplexing and complicated it might become. No one knew so well as
he the truth of his own saying that "Canada is a hard country to
govern." When we remember that his cabinets, selected with a view to
the representation of all important interests, contained Liberals
and Conservatives—men not only of British and French birth, but with
British and French prejudices—Roman Catholics and
Orangemen—advocates of Irish Home Rule and keen opponents of that
measure—men from provinces thousands of miles apart and with widely
divergent interests—it is impossible not to admire the skill with
which he drew and held them together in the early days of
Confederation, before the national sentiment of Canada had as yet
been consolidated.
That he did not fear
to have strong men around him was amply proved in the selections
made for his earlier cabinets. If this was not so apparent in some
of his later ministries the fault may have lain, not so much in any
fear of strong colleagues, as in the lack of material on which to
draw. It must be remembered that he was bound to make his cabinets
represent not only different provinces, but also different
interests, so that his field of choice was often extremely limited.
"Let the country give me good material," he used to say, "and I will
give you strong cabinets." Indeed no small part of his success was
due to the care he used in selecting colleagues of ability and in
giving each an adequate opportunity for the exercise of his special
talents. So, also, the devotion felt towards him by his followers
sprang largely from his loyalty to them through the many
vicissitudes of political life, and the recognition which he was
always ready to give to meritorious service. No doubt the strongest
of the men who came around him when Confederation was established
had already been marked out by public opinion in their different
provinces as natural leaders. But it was the most signal proof of
Macdonald's ruling ability that the leadership assigned to him in
1867 among this group of powerful men was at no time questioned and
was steadily maintained and confirmed in the long series of
succeeding years.
Of the men who
assisted Macdonald in working out the confederation of Canada and
securing the large results which flowed from that epoch-making
measure, three at least demand special mention in any biography of
their leader, however brief, both for the weight which they brought
to his councils, the length and importance of their service, and the
loyalty of their allegiance throughout life to himself and to the
national ideals which he and they held in common.
Circumstances had
drawn him at an early period into close alliance with Georges
Etienne Cartier, and it was the cooperation of the two men which for
years made the government of the country possible in the difficult
period before Confederation. Cartier was a typical French-Canadian,
and commanded, as no other man of his generation, the confidence of
his compatriots. In his impetuous youth he had joined in the
rebellion of 1837, and after the defeat of the rebels he fled with
Papineau to the United States. He returned under the general amnesty
of 1839, and from that time forward sought to maintain the rights
and forward the interests of his people by strictly constitutional
means. Attracted by the largeness of spirit and the readiness for
conciliation and compromise which he found in Macdonald, he formed
with him a political alliance based on equal consideration for the
rightful claims of both nationalities. The key to Canadian politics
for many a year rested in the fact that the French-Canadians trusted
Cartier, and Cartier trusted Macdonald. This alliance, strengthened
as time went on by sincere personal friendship, lasted through all
the anxious years that led up to Confederation. It was through
Cartier that Macdonald so long retained his hold on Quebec. Without
Cartier's loyal help it would scarcely have been possible, when the
effort for union came, to allay the anxieties of French-Canadians
lest they should be swallowed up and their individuality be lost in
the large proposed confederacy, plainly destined in the course of
time to be preponderantly British.
One shadow, it must
be acknowledged, did come at last to mar for a time the friendship
which had so long existed between the two men. When Confederation
had become an accomplished fact, and the sovereign wished to
recognize the labours of the men who had brought it about, Macdonald
was made a K.C.B., while only a C.B. was assigned to Cartier and the
other leading delegates. To Cartier this was a stinging
disappointment, conscious as he was of having performed the most
conspicuous and difficult feat of all in having by his personal
address and influence won over to the support of Confederation a
timorous and reluctant province, which might have proved hopelessly
obstructive. He felt it also, no doubt, as a slur upon the French
race whose chief representative he was, and whose equality with
their English-speaking fellow-subjects was a principle on which no
shadow of doubt could be allowed to rest. He blamed Macdonald for
the discrimination, though apparently it was entirely due to the
action of the imperial authorities, as no intimation had previously
been given of Her Majesty's intention to any of the recipients of
honours. The mistake was remedied in the following year, when,
doubtless on Macdonald's recommendation, Cartier was created a
baronet of the United Kingdom, a dignity higher than that assigned
to Sir John himself. The correspondence of later years shows that
complete cordiality was restored between the old friends. When
Cartier was defeated in the election of 1872, in Montreal East, an
event which hastened his end, Macdonald wrote to Lord Lisgar: "I do
not anticipate that he will live a year, and with all his faults,
or, rather, with all his little eccentricities, he will not leave so
good a Frenchman behind him —certainly not one who can fill his
place in public life. I cannot tell you how I sorrow at this. We
have acted together since 1854, and never had a serious difference."
Macdonald at once
found a new and safe seat for his defeated colleague. Cartier went
to England in the autumn of 1872, in the hope of having his health
restored, but died there in 1873, before the crash of the Pacific
scandal, for which he was in no small measure responsible. To the
last the two old colleagues were in the most intimate and friendly
correspondence. "Cartier was as bold as a lion. He was just the man
I wanted. But for him Confederation could not have been carried."
Such was the tribute Macdonald paid to him on the day when he
unveiled the statue of his friend at Ottawa.
The Maritime
Provinces, fruitful in vigorous political thinkers, contributed for
Macdonald's assistance two men of altogether exceptional ability.
Charles Tupper was not included in the first Dominion cabinet for
reasons which have been mentioned; but, once in office, became the
most powerful of the colleagues who helped Macdonald to carry out
his large schemes of constructive statesmanship. He and Macdonald
first met at the Quebec conference, when the latter at once
recognized in the Nova Scotian leader the qualities which, having
placed him at the head of affairs in his own province, were destined
to make him a power in the larger field of Dominion politics. The
recognition of strength and common purpose was mutual; and before
the conference had broken up the two men had made an informal
alliance, which was strictly adhered to through all the vicissitudes
of the coming years.
Never was Macdonald's
intuitive capacity for discovering the essential man for the work
that had to be done, exercised more intelligently than in this case.
In the reconciliation of Nova Scotia to Confederation, in carrying
out a great, expensive and hazardous railway policy, in the
establishment of a national fiscal system, in making Canadian
expansion compatible with complete allegiance to the empire, the aid
which Macdonald received from Sir Charles Tupper can scarcely be
exaggerated. In him great natural ability and power as a platform
speaker were united with a splendid optimism about his country, a
courage that feared nothing, and a resoluteness of purpose which
despised any obstacle with which he could be confronted.
If Macdonald looked
upon Cartier as an essential factor in effecting Confederation, he
would probably have felt no less strongly in reference to the part
which Tupper played in carrying out the great railway policy which
confirmed and completed the work of union. The speeches by which he
defended that policy—the forecasts which he made of north-western
development—were at the time ridiculed by the Liberal party in
parliament and the Liberal press in the country as exaggerated and
absurd. Though the fulfilment of his prophecies was somewhat
delayed, he has lived to see his critics put to confusion by the
ample justification of his high hopes which time and events have
brought about. It is only fair to say that he has also received the
frank apology and recantation of more than one great organ of public
opinion which once denounced his projects as visionary and fraught
with ruin to the country.
Of scarcely less
influence in moulding the early history of the Dominion was Samuel
Leonard Tilley, who at first took his seat in the cabinet as
minister of customs, and later for many years was minister of
finance. Previous to Confederation he had long been the foremost
figure in the public life of New Brunswick, and it was his weight of
character and tenacity of purpose which more than anything else
determined that wavering province to commit itself finally to the
scheme. Ability in administration and patriotic zeal were in him
combined with a strength of moral purpose and a steadfast
uprightness which enabled him to go through a long political career
with less of the soil of politics than any of his contemporaries of
equal standing. It was upon Tilley's financial ability and the
confidence which his character inspired among business men that
Macdonald chiefly relied when it became necessary to put into actual
operation the national policy of protection for native industries.
The system which he introduced has remained the settled policy of
the country, accepted practically by all parties, for more than a
quarter of a century.
It is perhaps the
highest of all tributes to the genius of Macdonald that he was able
to draw to his support a group of men of the weight and worth of
Cartier, Tupper and Tilley, and retain through a long series of
years their loyal devotion to him as a leader. Each in his own way a
commanding personality, they were of one accord in following
Macdonald with unswerving fidelity through all the vicissitudes of
his fortune. Along with him they grasped and held tenaciously the
idea of a great and united Canada forming an integral part of the
empire, and to that end devoted the work of their lives. Many
co-workers assisted in the great task. But probably every one of the
long list of ministers who served with Macdonald in the Dominion
cabinet would have agreed that to Cartier, Tupper and Tilley was due
a niche in Canadian history peculiar to themselves, and that
something would be lacking in the perspective of Macdonald's career
if their names were not specially associated with it.
The material
available for making any final record of Macdonald's life during his
last long lease of power, is in some respects scanty. Mr. Pope, to
whom his papers were intrusted, makes no attempt to cover this
period exhaustively, believing that the time has not yet arrived for
giving to the public documents connected with a period so
controversial. Seeing that many of the actors upon the stage of
public affairs at that time are still alive, the wisdom of this
decision cannot be questioned. It is therefore only possible to
follow Macdonald during these years along those lines of his life
which were fully open to the public. Here the material is so
abundant as to perplex a biographer and almost to defy any attempt
at analysis or condensation. His name was the centre around which
the political journalism of the time revolved from day to day. The
cartoonists of the comic press found in his well-known features
their most popular and effective study. The pages of Hansard from
1878 to 1891 reveal as nothing else can his tireless devotion to
parliamentary life. In those official records, the reader recognizes
his unfailing industry, the variety and minuteness of his knowledge
of public affairs—the versatility of his mind —his readiness in
debate and repartee—his adroit management of the parliamentary
machine through which he worked out his purposes.
The election of 1882
turned chiefly upon the endorsement of the National Policy. The
friends of the policy claimed that doubt about its continuance
prevented capitalists from investing their money in the country. The
system had now been in operation for three years: the country was
prosperous, and Macdonald had every reason to look forward to the
contest with equanimity. The Opposition, however, unconvinced by
facts, still viewed the matter in a different light. "The N. P. is
unpopular," its leading journal said, "with the producing classes. .
. . . A protective tariff must necessarily mean death—or, which is
the same thing, that living death signified by a state of
nonexpansion—to all Canadian manufacturers." As regards the
popularity or unpopularity of the National Policy, something
remained to be learnt from the coming election, and still more from
others to follow. Meantime, Sir John was preparing a measure
intended to make assurance doubly sure, and one which he relied on
his parliamentary majority to carry.
The fourth session of
the fourth parliament of Canada had begun on February 9th, 1882. On
April 28th, Sir John brought in a bill "to adjust the representation
in the House of Commons." A bill of this nature had been rendered
necessary by the census of the year before, which had shown that
Ontario was entitled, on the basis of population, to four more
members than it actually had but it was not necessary that it should
have been converted, as it was, into a means for placing the
Liberals at a still greater disadvantage in the electoral struggle
about to ensue. Certain of the changes proposed were natural and
proper, and others plainly desirable; but it has been generally
admitted that the Act, as a whole, involved an unjustifiable
manipulation of the constituencies. Mr. Blake, at that time leader
of the Opposition, said that "the honourable gentleman, having a
great duty to discharge, one which demanded that he should discharge
it upon principles of general public justice, has determined to use
his majority to load the dice in the political game which is shortly
to be played." In point of fact, county boundaries were roughly
altered, and townships flung this way or that in the attempt to
alter the political balance. To Liberal constituencies were added
Liberal townships from other constituencies previously doubtful,
which thus, by the reduction of the Liberal vote, became
Conservative. Conservative municipalities were in like manner
detached from counties whose majority could be lessened with
impunity, and joined to others which trembled in the balance.
Macdonald humorously, but too audaciously, described the process as
"hiving the Grits," and more seriously defended it as paying back in
their own coin what the Ontario Liberals had similarly done on a
previous occasion to the detriment of his party; but whether he was
particularly careful not to exceed the measure of previous Liberal
misdoing may be doubted. The Globe (April 29th, 1882) described it
as "an Act to keep the Tory party in power till the next census,"
and added the vigorous comment - "Even in the United States, with
its many examples of vicious legislation, we have never heard of
such a villainous act of legislation as this. It strikes at the very
root of the representative system." A few days later the same paper
published a letter from "A Constant Reader," who had reached, as a
Liberal, the depths of political pessimism and despair. "Another
mistake," wrote this gentleman, "which our leaders make is this—they
seem to think the people are pure. It is a great mistake; they are
as corrupt as the government that represents them at Ottawa. Until
the Reformers can score one against Sir John by superior low
cunning, they will be beaten at the elections."
The Globe reproved
its correspondent for these remarks, which nevertheless went
broadcast through the country. The suggestion made fell into
fruitful soil, if we are to judge by the abundant crop of similar
sentiments and principles which sprung up in Ontario a few years
later, when to support a Liberal regime ballot-stuffing and other
gross forms of electoral trickery brought deep disgrace on Canadian
politics. The "gerrymander" did harm by the feeling of unfairness
and the desire for retaliation which it stirred up in men's minds.
It illustrates the manoeuvres to which Sir John Macdonald, despite
his intellectual breadth, could on occasion descend. It was an
unfair piece of party strategy, and in some constituencies worked as
it was intended to do. That it had not more influence on the
elections was due to the indignation which the measure excited in
the minds of his opponents, and the greater intensity of the efforts
they put forth in consequence ; also, it was alleged by some of the
Reform journals, to a certain lukewarmness induced in the minds of
thoughtful Conservatives who shrunk from accepting the maxim that
everything is fair in politics. The Liberals at this time had
troubles of their own, for there was open dissension among their
leaders. Blake, who was far less hostile to the National Policy than
were Mackenzie and Cartwright, found his attempts to conciliate the
manufacturers were neutralized by doctrinaire pronouncements on the
part of his lieutenants. Still, in a speech delivered a few days
before the House closed, he confidently predicted that "an indignant
and honest people, of whatever political complexion, is about to
resent at the polls the fraud which is attempted to be perpetrated
upon it." Whatever resentment honest people may have felt, the
general result was that the government was sustained by a majority
of over sixty, very nearly as many as in the last House. The few
votes gained by the "gerrymander" might, therefore, well have been
spared.
Amongst the notable
incidents of the session of 1882, was the passing by a practically
unanimous vote of certain resolutions moved by Mr. Costigan, and
supported by Mr. Blake in a very elaborate speech of some hours'
duration, recommending the British government to grant Home Rule to
Ireland. In the senate alone was there a division, when the vote
stood thirty-six "yeas" to six "nays." Sir John Macdonald supported
the resolutions in a brief, but not very emphatic, speech, in the
course of which he characterized Mr. Blake's oratorical effort as
"demagogic" and calculated to do much harm. There was a more
pronounced antagonism between the two men than there had been
between Sir John and Mackenzie. Both were lawyers; both, in their
separate ways, were "intellectuals"; and each was probably conscious
of a somewhat deeper penetration by the other of the secret
weaknesses of his own character than was altogether comfortable. Sir
John never delivered orations; Mr. Blake did. It would have been a
labour for Sir John to "embroider" a theme, to use a French
expression, and in point of fact he never attempted it; Mr. Blake on
the other hand had great facility in that line and an unbounded
copiousness. Just as heartily as Sir John disliked the long speeches
of Mr. Blake, did Mr. Blake dislike the short speeches of Sir John.
One or two that the latter delivered in England towards the close of
the year 1884 gave his adversary matter for criticism in the ensuing
session of parliament. Speaking of Canada, Sir John had said that
there were no industries materially suffering, and that every
industrious man could get a good day's pay for a good day's work—a
statement which Mr. Blake did not think warranted by the condition
of things in the country, which he asserted was one of general
depression. But there was worse. Sir .John, impelled by what spirit
of mischief there is no guessing, had also said that "any Englishman
in coming to Canada, if he was a man of education, invariably joined
the Canadian Conservative party, no matter what his home politics
may have been." This Mr. Blake took seriously, and declared to be a
gross insult to the Liberal party. In the following year the Liberal
leader himself went over to England for a visit of some months—as
also did Sir John some three months later—and in a speech delivered
at a banquet to Lord Rosebery in Edinburgh, made the acknowledgment
that "many British emigrants who are Liberals come to Canada, and of
these some become Conservatives in Canadian politics." If Sir John
took the proverbial ell in the statement he made, here at least was
the inch, perhaps a little more, that he was entitled to.
Sir John again had
the misfortune to incur the censure of Mr. Blake by some remarks he
made a day or two before leaving England in the month of January,
1886. On that occasion he said that Canada was ready to join the
mother country in an offensive and defensive league; to risk her
last man and her last shilling in defence of the empire and the
flag. To this Mr. Blake demurred. He declined to accept
responsibility for a policy he had no share in moulding ; and if we
did not get, and would not take, a voice in shaping the foreign
policy of the empire, we should not come under liabilities beyond
what our own immediate and direct interest demanded, and should not,
he said, be called on to expend our blood and treasure in carrying
out jingo schemes, whether of Tory or Liberal politicians, on the
other side of the water. These accents have had comparatively recent
echoes; but Sir John in his impulsive way, with no excessive
refinements of phrase—he was no great master of language — had
probably more nearly expressed the instinct of the Canadian people.
It is not uninstructive to note what, in a broad sense of the word,
may be called the ethical differences between these two great
political leaders, each with qualities complementary to those of the
other. Had fortune but united their efforts, and made them
sympathetic co-workers instead of jealous rivals, it seems certain
that the effect on Canadian politics and on the status of Canada
today would have been very beneficial.
The circumstances
under which the elections of 1887 were contested, differed
materially from those which had prevailed in 1882. The old issues
were still under discussion but new ones had been added.The second
rebellion in the North-West had, as we have seen, been suppressed
and its leader Riel had expiated on the scaffold his twice-repeated
crime of high treason. Mention has been made of the severe pressure
brought to bear upon Sir John Macdonald to stay the sentence of the
law, and of his unrelenting firmness in refusing to do so. If there
had previously been any division in the cabinet on this painful
subject, all trace of it had disappeared when parliament met on
February 25th 1886. To appease in some measure racial and religious
feeling Mr. Landry, a supporter of the government, moved a
resolution affirming "that this House feels it its duty to express
its deep regret that the sentence of death passed upon Louis Riel
for high treason was allowed to be carried into execution." In the
division which followed the "yeas" were fifty-two, the "nays" one
hundred and forty-six. The French-Canadian Liberals supported the
motion bodily and were joined by seventeen French-Canadian
Conservatives. Mr. Blake who, in an earlier discussion, had
constructed the famous climax—"Had there been no neglect there would
have been no rebellion. If no rebellion, then no arrest. If no
arrest, no trial. If no trial, no condemnation. If no condemnation,
no execution. They therefore who are responsible for the first are
responsible for every link in that fatal chain,"—had later persuaded
himself that the death sentence should have been commuted. He
accordingly gave his vote for Mr. Landry's motion, and by so doing
placed himself in opposition—no doubt most conscientiously—to a
number of the weightiest men of his own party, including Alexander
Mackenzie, Sir Richard Cartwright, William Paterson and John
Charlton.
But beyond parliament
there was still the appeal to the country to be faced, and none knew
better than Sir John that there the Riel difficulty might meet him
again under less controllable conditions. Upon that matter, however,
he had taken his stand and could only abide the result. On the other
great question of the day, that of protection to home industries, he
felt that the country was with him. That was probably his chief
dependence, for the forces arrayed against him at this moment, both
east and west, were certainly not to be despised.
In Quebec, Mercier
was triumphant. Nova Scotia was still restless, and in local
politics strongly Liberal. In 1886, Sir Oliver Mowat had suddenly
dissolved the Ontario legislature, had won a striking victory, and
had thrown all the influence of his rejuvenated government on the
side of the federal opposition, whose hopes were now running high.
With very many, indeed, hope had matured into absolute certainty,
and the most confident predictions of the overthrow of the
Conservative government were uttered on the platform, in the press
and at the street corners. The Toronto Globe took the most serious
view of the situation. "The paramount issue," it said (January 18th,
1887), "is not whether Liberals or Conservatives shall administer
Canada's affairs for the next five years, but whether the Dominion
shall continue in existence. . . . That the break up of the
Confederation would ensue from their [the government's] success is
as certain as the break up of the winter." The stateznent indicates
the intensity of party feeling rather than true prophetic vision.
Though Macdonald won, the Confederation showed no sign of rift. It
is noticeable that, in formulating the policy of the Liberal party a
short time after the elections, the Toronto organ did not take by
any means the same strong ground against the National Policy as it
had done in 1882. On the subject of the tariff it said, "It is
clearer than ever that a very high scale of taxation must be
retained, and that the manufacturers have nothing to fear."
The elections took
place on February 22nd. The result may be inferred from the Globe's
comment, "God help poor Canada!" This time, however, there was a
serious diminution in the government's majority, mainly owing to
losses in the province of Quebec consequent on the Riel affair.
Members of the House had been more amenable to Sir John's influence
than their constituents proved to be, and not a few of them paid the
penalty of party allegiance by defeat. The first division list
showed that the government could count on a majority of twenty-two.
A month or two later the Globe so far accepted the accomplished fact
as to say, "Of course, as self-governing Canadians, we have a
constitutional right to make fools of ourselves if we see fit." Mr.
Goldwin Smith was quoted about this time as expressing his belief
that annexation to the United States was written in the stars.
An interesting
incident of the session of 1887, was the adoption, on June 7th, of a
jubilee address to the queen. The sentiments which it breathed were
those of the most devoted loyalty to the person of the sovereign, of
admiration for her character, and of satisfaction with the status of
Canada as a self-governing country in vital connection with the
British Empire. It was an occasion for oratory on the part of those
who had it to give, and Mr. Laurier, who had just succeeded Mr.
Blake in the leadership of the Liberal party, was easily the hero of
the occasion. If Lord Durham, in the world of shades, could have
caught some words of the eulogy pronounced by a French-Canadian upon
British institutions and British liberty as enjoyed in Canada fifty
years save one after the apparent failure of his mission, it would
have amply compensated him for much that he had suffered. Sir John
Macdonald, whom nature never designed for efforts of this kind,
spoke briefly and not very happily. He said, however, that the
"armed resistance of 1837 was due, not to disloyalty to the queen,
but to grievances of which the people complained," a declaration
which was seized upon by the Liberal journal as a kind of belated
confession by a Conservative leader that the Reformers of the past
had been in the right and those who opposed them in the wrong. Sir
John possibly said a little more than he meant; he had never been a
"family compact" man; on the other hand he had stoutly denied that
there was any justification for rebellion.
In 1888 a sharp
conflict arose between the provincial government of Manitoba and the
federal government of the Dominion in reference to the monopoly of
transportation enjoyed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. An
important part of the original agreement with that company, and one
of the principal inducements which it had to undertake the work, was
that no other corporation should have the right to build lines
southwards so as to connect with the railway systems of the United
States. This was considered a necessary protection against the old
and powerful lines within the limits of the States. During the years
of agricultural depression, when the low price of wheat coupled with
a series of bad harvests left the Western farmer in a very
impoverished condition, the people of Manitoba became very restless
under the Canadian Pacific monopoly, and attributed a part of their
difficulties to the lack of railway competition. The feeling grew so
strong throughout the province that the determination was taken to
break up this monopoly in defiance of the law. Macdonald's
government was placed in an awkward position. On the one side their
honour was pledged to the company ; on the other the popular feeling
was placing a heavy strain upon federal relations. In conformity
with his usual practice, Macdonald found his way out of the
difficulty by means of compromise. A considerable loan was made to
the Canadian Pacific in return for the abandonment of their legal
rights.
We have seen that
Macdonald was obliged to face a storm of racial and religious
feeling in the province of Quebec when his sense of duty to the
Dominion forced upon him the conviction that the law should take its
course with regard to Riel. In this case it was Roman Catholic
feeling that was aroused and threatened to shatter political
alliances and combinations. So, too, it was when the New Brunswick
School Billi.xaa'believed to take away from Roman Catholic Act an
acquired right in the matter of separating schools, and followers of
Macdonald of the faith from all the provinces joined hands in
supporting the claims of their New Brunswick co-religionists. But
storms as violent he had also to face from a precisely opposite
quarter. One of the most noteworthy of these arose in connection
with the Jesuits' Estates Act, passed by the provincial legislature
of Quebec in 1888, under the inspiration of the Hon. Honore Mercier,
then premier of that province.
So far back as 1773
the Jesuit order, which held considerable estates in Canada, had
been suppressed by the Pope. The property of the order thereupon
fell to the Crown, and was applied to purposes of public education
in the province. Under the Act of Confederation special provision
was made for vesting this property in the provincial government of
Quebec, and it thus became subject to the control of the local
legislature.
But the Roman
Catholic Church had always claimed that the confiscated possessions
rightly belonged to it exclusively, and that they should have
reverted to the bishops of the various dioceses. When Mr. Mercier,
whose political power in Quebec depended largely upon his relations
with the Church, incorporated in 1887 the Society of Jesus, that
body naturally laid claim to the estates under dispute. To settle
the duly to the content of all claimants, Mr. Mercier took a bold
step. He introduced into the Quebec legislature and passed an Act
authorizing the payment of a hundred thousand dollars as
compensation for the lands which the Jesuit body had held before the
conquest. The voting of a large sum of public money to a religious
organization was a step peculiarly calculated to offend the
susceptibilities of large sections of the Canadian electorate. The
British and Protestant portion of the population of Quebec regarded
it as a dangerous encroachment on the resources of the province,
evidently designed to strengthen a Church already excessively strong
in its great possessions and in the exemption of its property from
taxation. The watchful eyes of Protestant Ontario detected in the
measure a threat of French and ecclesiastical domination in Canadian
politics, while the Orange body was especially indignant at the
provision—made an essential part of the Act—that the Pope, as head
of the Roman Catholic Church, should determine the method of
distributing the money, and that, until His Holiness had done this,
the sum granted should be held as a special deposit.
In this remarkable
measure there was, manifestly, abundant material for kindling and
feeding the fires of religious animosity, and a violent agitation
arose, in which press, pulpit and platform each took a vigorous
part. The controversy was shifted at once to the political arena by
the fact that the only way in which the Act in question could be
prevented from becoming law was by its disallowance by the federal
government. A small but influential group of Macdonald's followers
in parliament, headed by Dalton McCarthy, up to this time one of his
most trusted advisers on constitutional measures, combined with a
few Ontario Liberals to press on the federal government the policy
of disallowance. Great efforts were made to arouse feeling on the
question in the provinces outside Quebec, and especially in Ontario,
where the passions stirred up by the murder of Scott, at Fort Garry,
in the first rebellion, and later by the agitation to save Riel
after the second rebellion, were not yet entirely laid to rest.
The motion favouring
disallowance brought forward in parliament by Colonel W. E. O'Brien,
illustrates well the kind of task laid upon Macdonald in mediating
between conflicting interests and passions. In that motion
disallowance of the Jesuits' Estates Act is urged: "Firstly, because
it endows from public funds a religious organization, thereby
violating the undoubted constitutional principle of the complete
separation of Church and State, and of the absolute equality of all
denominations before the law. Secondly, because it recognizes the
usurpation of a right by a foreign authority, namely, His Holiness
the Pope of Rome, to claim that his consent was necessary to empower
the provincial legislature to dispose of a portion of the public
domain, and also because the Act is made to depend upon the will,
and the appropriation of the grant thereby made, as subject to the
control of the same authority. And, thirdly, because the endowment
of the Society of Jesus, an alien, secret and politico-religious
body, the expulsion of which from every Christian community wherein
it has had a footing has been rendered necessary by its intolerant
and mischievous inter-meddling with the functions of civil
government, is fraught with danger to the civil and religious
liberties of the people of Canada."
Macdonald took his
stand upon the strictly constitutional aspect of the question. The
control of the Jesuits' Estates, no one could deny, had been handed
over to the provincial government ; the province had a right to do
what it pleased with its own. However injudicious the method adopted
for distributing the public funds of a province ; however irritating
to the people of other provinces the conditions attached to such
distribution, the exercise of the federal veto would nevertheless be
an unwarranted invasion of provincial rights. Even if the people of
Quebec should decide to throw any part of the public money into the
sea, they had the constitutional right to pursue their course of
folly.
These arguments
prevailed in parliament, and Colonel O'Brien's motion was defeated
by a vote of one hundred and eighty-eight to thirteen. The agitation
was continued, however, in the country, and ended, after taking the
form of mass meetings at various centres and a convention at
Toronto, in the formation of an Equal Rights Association, and later
of the Protestant Protective Association, which for some time
carried on an anti-Catholic campaign, even more opposed to the
growth of a broad Canadian sentiment than was the original action of
Mr. Mercier. During all this time Macdonald's influence was steadily
employed to allay an inflamed condition of feeling which he no doubt
regarded as springing chiefly from bigotry and religious animosity,
and as operating against that political consolidation of the
Dominion which was the constant object of his efforts.
Meanwhile, other
difficulties were accumulating and new dangers had to be faced. Only
slowly and painfully did Canada feel its way forwards to a clear
understanding of its true place in the world. Conditions were
becoming more complicated, new combinations were being formed, new
ambitions were stirring, all destined to make themselves felt in the
political conflict with which the public career of Macdonald closed,
and which must be dealt with in a separate chapter. |