A PARTY FUSION later by Thomas White, an able journalist and politician, "was this: shall we hand over the government of this country to the men who, calling themselves Liberals, have broken up the Liberal party by the declaration of extravagant views, by the enunciation of principles far more radical and reckless than any we are prepared to accept, and by a restless ambition which we cannot approve? Or shall we not rather unite with the Conservatives who have gone to the country declaring, in reference to the great questions which then agitated it, that if the decision at the polls was against them, they would no longer offer resistance to their settlement, but would, on the contrary, assist in such solution of them as would forever remove them from the sphere of public or political agitation." With both Liberals and Conservatives holding such views, it was easy enough for John A. Macdonald to convince even Sir Allan MacNab that the time had come for forgetting the past as much as possible, and constituting a strong government from the moderate elements of the old parties which had served their turn and now required to be remodelled on a wider basis of common interests. Sir Allan MacNab recognized the necessity of bringing his own views 1 See "The Last Forty Years, or Canada Since the Union of 1841," by John Charles Dent, Toronto, 1881, vol. II., p. 309. Mr. White became Minister of the Interior in Sir John Macdonald's government (1885-88) but died suddenly in the midst of a most active and useful administrative career. into harmony with those of the younger men of his party who were determined not to allow such an opportunity for forming a powerful ministry to pass by. The political situation, indeed, was one calculated to appeal to both the vanity and selfinterest of the veteran statesman, and he accordingly assumed the responsibility of forming an administration. He communicated immediately with Morin and his colleagues in Lower Canada, and when he received a favourable reply from them, his next step was to make arrangements, if possible, with the Liberals of Upper Canada. Hincks was only too happy to have an opportunity of resenting the opposition he had met with from Brown and the extreme Reformers of the western province, and opened negotiations with his old supporters on the conditions that the new ministry would take immediate steps for the secularization of the clergy reserves, and the settlement of the seigniorial tenure, and that two members of the administration would be taken from his own followers. The negotiations were successfully closed on this basis of agreement, and on September 11th the following ministers were duly sworn into office: Upper Canada. Hon. Sir Allan MacNab, president of the executive council and minister of agriculture; Hon. John A. Macdonald, attorneygeneral of Upper Canada; Hon. W. Cayley, inspector-general; Hon. R. Spence, postmaster THE NEW PARTY general; Hon. John Ross, president of the legislative council. Lower Canada.-Hon. A. N. Morin, commissioner of crown lands; Hon. L. P. Drummond, attorney-general for Lower Canada; Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau, provincial secretary; Hon. E. P. Taché, receiver-general; Hon. J. Chabot, commissioner of public works. The new cabinet contained four Conservatives, and six members of the old ministry. Henry Smith, a Conservative, became solicitor-general for Upper Canada, and Dunbar Ross continued in the same office for Lower Canada, but neither of them had seats in the cabinet. The Liberal-Conservative party, organized under such circumstances, was attacked with great bitterness by the leaders of the discordant factions, who were greatly disappointed at the success of the combination formed through the skilful management of Messrs. J. A. Macdonald, Hincks and Morin. The coalition was described as "an unholy alliance" of men who had entirely abandoned their principles. But an impartial historian must record the opinion that the coalition was perfectly justified by existing political conditions, that had it not taken place, a stable government would in all probability have been for some time impossible, and that the time had come for the reconstruction of parties with a broad generous policy which would ignore issues at last dead, and be more in harmony with modern requirements. It might with some reason be called a coalition when the reconstruction of parties was going on, but it was really a successful movement for the annihilation of old parties and issues, and for the formation on their ruins of a new party which could gather to itself the best materials available for the effective conduct of public affairs on the patriotic platform of the union of the two races, of equal rights to all classes and creeds, and of the avoidance of purely sectional questions calculated to disturb the union of 1841. The new government at once obtained the support of a large majority of the representatives from each section of the province, and was sustained by the public opinion of the country at large. During the session of 1854 measures were passed for the secularization of the reserves, the removal of the seigniorial tenure, and for the ratification of the reciprocity treaty with the United States. As I have only been able so far in this historical narrative to refer in a very cursory manner to these very important questions, I propose now to give in the following chapter a succinct review of their history from the time they first came into prominence down to their settlement at the close of Lord Elgin's administration in Canada. CHAPTER VII THE HISTORY OF THE CLERGY RESERVES, (1791-1854) OR a long period in the history of Canada the FOR development of several provinces was more or less seriously retarded, and the politics of the country constantly complicated by the existence of troublesome questions arising out of the lavish grants of public lands by the French and English governments. The territorial domain of French Canada was distributed by the king of France, under the inspiration of Richelieu, with great generosity, on a system of a modified feudal tenure, which, it was hoped, would strengthen the connection between the Crown and the dependency by the creation of a colonial aristocracy, and at the same time stimulate the colonization and settlement of the valley of the St. Lawrence; but, as we shall see in the course of the following chapter, despite the wise intentions of its promoters, the seigniorial tenure gradually became, after the conquest, more or less burdensome to the habitants, and an impediment rather than an incentive to the agricultural development and peopling of the province. Even little Prince Edward Island was troubled with a land question as early as 1767, when it was still |