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Responsible government.

Political situation in New Brunswick.

once expressed his readiness to admit the Liberal leaders to the Executive Council. Howe, however, preferred to wait till the elections of 1847 had decided what was to be the character of the new Assembly. They resulted in a Liberal victory; and accordingly the Liberals took office in a homogeneous Ministry. Even the Provincial Secretary, who had appeared to be a permanent official, was at last superseded, and Howe, who had avoided the position of First Minister, reigned in his stead.

The full triumph of responsible government thus dates from 1848, the very same time when Lord Elgin was for the first time giving it full expression in Canada. Sir John Harvey wrote that responsible government had been introduced into Nova Scotia upon fair and just principles, and without the necessity of having recourse to any measure of a stringent character, except in the case of the Provincial Secretary. A great step had been taken toward the political tranquillization of this long-distracted country, inasmuch as there was little fear of factious opposition to any measure of acknowledged utility from the party which had been turned out of office; their leader, Mr. J. W. Johnston, being both a man and statesman of sterling worth.

Meanwhile, in New Brunswick, where, on the receipt of Lord John Russell's dispatch, the Governor, Sir John Harvey, had shown himself ready and willing to move with the times, public opinion lagged behind. In the general election of 1842 the opponents of responsible government obtained a majority; but men, who were in the abstract in strong sympathy with Lord Metcalfe, were of a very different opinion when their own interests were in question. Sir William Colebrooke had succeeded Harvey in 1841, and, on the death of the Provincial Secretary, at the end of 1844, he proceeded to appoint his own son-in-law to the post. Members of the Government, who had before opposed responsible government, now resigned on the ground that 'the elevation

to the highest offices of trust and emolument of individuals whose character, services, and claims to preferment, however appreciated elsewhere, were entirely unknown to the country generally', was prejudicial to the best interests of the province. Mr. Lemuel Wilmot, who had accepted office although strongly in favour of responsible government, informed the Governor of the necessity under which he stood of opposing the appointment. He held that the Provincial Secretary should be brought into the Executive Government and should hold a seat in one of the Houses of the Legislature—his tenure of office being contingent upon the successful administration of the Government. The appointment was cancelled by the home Government, as the House of Assembly had not only abstained from complicating the subject with any abstract question of government, but had rejected every proposal for laying down formal principles upon such questions.

dispatch.

It is an unexpected fact, but none the less true, that in Lord Grey's a British colony the pressure of the British Government was needed before the people themselves would accept responsible government. In 1847 Lord Grey expressed his views on the subject in a dispatch, which was addressed to the LieutenantGovernors of both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He wrote: The most serious defect in the Government is the utter absence of power in the Executive, and its total want of energy to attempt to occupy the attention of the country upon real improvements, or to lead the Legislature in the preparation and adoption of measures for the benefit of the colony. It does not appear to have occurred to any one that it is one of the first duties of the Government to suggest improvements when they are wanted; that the Constitution having placed the power of legislation in the hands of an Assembly and a Council, it is only by acting through these bodies that the duties can be performed; and that, if these proper and legitimate functions of the Government are neglected, the necessary result must be not only that the

Responsible government

improvements which the people have a right to expect will be neglected, and the prosperity of the country checked, but that each branch of the Legislature will misuse its power, and the popular mind be easily led into excitement upon mere abstract theories of government to which their attention is directed as the remedy for the uneasiness they feel.'

The majority of the Assembly yielded to the reasoning of the Secretary of S.ate; and from this time New Brunswick entered upon the road of responsible government.

adopted.

AUTHORITIES

Same as for last chapter of Book I.

CHAPTER III

LORD ELGIN'S ADMINISTRATION

ON Metcalfe's departure from Canada, Lord Cathcart, who was in command of the forces, became Acting-Governor, and, owing to fear of war with the United States regarding the Oregon boundary question, dealt with in a subsequent chapter, received the appointment of Governor-General. It was not thought possible to continue the taboo of individuals, established by Metcalfe, and Lord Cathcart gave Mr. Draper full authority to fill up vacancies on the Executive Council from any quarter he might deem advisable. Cathcart's period of office was very short; because, when the war-scare subsided, the Secretary of State, Lord Grey, considered that the affairs of Canada would be better administered by an experienced civil servant than by a soldier. Lord Elgin

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attitude.

had been already proposed by Queen Victoria to Lord Stanley as Governor-General, and he was now selected for the post, although at the time of opposite politics to the Whig Ministry. He had governed Jamaica with Elgin's success, and, as Lord Durham's son-in-law, was admirably political fitted to put the coping-stone upon the policy the foundations of which had been laid by Durham's report. Governor-General arrived in Canada in January, 1847, and, from the first, made clear his own position. He was in friendly relations with the Conservative Ministry, which he found in existence; but he made it apparent to all that he intended to do nothing which would prevent him from

Letters of Queen Victoria, vol. ii, p. 55.

The new

working cordially with their opponents. The duty of the Governor-General was to show confidence in the loyalty of all those with whom he had to deal, and not to allow personal antipathies to prevent him from acting with those whom the majority of the Legislature preferred. His own private conclusion was that the problem of governing Canada could only be solved by the French Canadians in the Assembly dividing themselves into a Liberal and Conservative party, each of which should coalesce with the corresponding party from Upper Canada. The great difficulty hitherto had been that a Conservative Government meant a Government of Upper Canadians, which was intolerable to the French, and a Radical Government one of French, which was no less hateful to the British; though, in thus writing, Elgin was hardly fair to Baldwin and the Upper Canadian reformers. Like Lord Durham before him, Elgin found that these party names were most misleading, the Radicals comprising some of those most opposed to progress of any in the country. The example of Lord Durham was indeed always before him. The real and effectual vindication,' he wrote in a private letter, of Lord Durham's memory and proceedings will be the success of a Governor-General of Canada who works out his views of government fairly.' The position of a colonial governor, as now understood, was at the time open to great question, and Elgin recognized that, until the middle term was discovered and agreed upon, which should reconcile the faithful discharge of responsibility to the Imperial Government and the province with the maintenance of the quasi-monarchical relation of the Governor to the provincial community, his path must be slippery and narrow; and no little dexterity, besides incessant watchfulness, would be necessary to prevent him from falling on the one side into the néant of mock sovereignty, or, on the other, into the dirt and confusion of local factions.

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It cannot, assuredly, be denied that the time of Lord

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