Confederation. Even though, unlike the recent act establishing the Australian Commonwealth, the British North America Act made no mention of a ministry, it was thoroughly understood that the future government of Canada would be conducted according to the existing practice. At times, between 1858 and 1864, when George Brown was finding any stick good enough to beat the ministry with, he complained that the executive dominated the helpless assembly, and urged that the only remedy was the removal of ministers from the house and a separation of the legislative and executive functions according to the American plan. Metcalfe had advised this step in the fear that the assembly would tyrannize over the executive; Brown advocated it on the ground that the executive was crushing the assembly. Fortunately every one realized that a return to the old colonial system from which it had taken so much effort to escape would be sheer folly, and that no better guarantee of liberty could be found than the responsibility of the executive to the elected representatives of the people. Even in the provincial governments which were the outcome of Confederation, no departure from the accepted practice was allowed. During the negotiations at Quebec Brown urged that the provincial legislature should be elected for three years, on one day in each third year, that there should be no power of dissolution, and that the departmental officers, i.e. the executive or business board, should be elected during pleasure or for three years, and should be allowed to speak but not to vote.1 His intention was to keep 'political matters' out of the local legislature by setting up virtually an exalted municipal or county council with an extended term of office, and an executive corresponding to municipal or county officers. McCully's reply, 'We must have miniature responsible Governments,' was taken as a sufficient argument against the proposal. Canada may have been prevented thereby from developing the same readiness as that which Lord Elgin noticed of each power in the Republic to go habitually the full length of its tether, Congress, the State Legislature, Presidents, Governors, all legislating and vetoing without 1 Pope, Confederation Documents, p. 75. stint or limit till pulled up short by a judgment of the Supreme Court'-a readiness which tends to create at once a legislative habit and a contempt for law. TH II THE EXTENSION OF CANADA'S POWERS 'HE development of responsible government was accomplished and followed by an enlargement of the field within which the Canadian government exercised its power. Yet the relation between the two movements can scarcely be regarded as one of cause and effect. They were both rather the results of a growing strength and self-assertiveness on the part of the people. Colonial interests were expanding, with the result that matters reserved for the imperial government had to be surrendered to the discretion of the colony. The line between imperial and local concerns was being constantly shifted, and always into the territory formerly set apart for imperial action. Such changes, however, did not take place without alterations in the acts which formed the basis of the Canadian Constitution, and it will be well to examine these alterations before proceeding to review the history of the legislative bodies. No sooner had the legislature found its voice after the Union than it demanded control over that portion of its revenue which was consigned to the civil list. The home government was called upon at once to decide how far the honour of the Empire and the fate of its servants should be entrusted to the colony. When in 1846 the assembly amended the civil list by lowering the salaries of the judges, reducing the salary of the governor's civil secretary, and abolishing the office of private secretary to the governor, General Cathcart pointed out that the civil secretary was the accredited agent of the Crown rather than a provincial officer, for the purpose of taking charge of and conducting the correspondence between the GovernorGeneral and the Home Government, which is always of a confidential and often of a secret nature, and without seriously compromising the interests of both, this correspondence could not be allowed to pass out of the hands of the Governor-General himself or of his Civil Secretary, who must necessarily have no connection with the Legislature or with any office in the Provincial administration. He felt that in attacking this office the advocates of responsible government wished to make the governor's secretary 'a mere appendage to his personal staff, with the ultimate intention that the whole of the correspondence with the Government at home should pass through the department of the Provincial Secretary, leaving the GovernorGeneral without any discretion as respects this responsible branch of his office, and entirely in the hands of his Executive Council.' Still, the civil list had to be surrendered, and when in 1850 Lord Elgin's council asked Her Majesty's government to sanction reductions in pensions and certain salaries, he advised that the request should be complied with, on the ground that it was unwise to leave room for the impression that a higher scale of salaries than public opinion approved was being maintained by the authority of the Crown, or to allow factious persons, by raising the issue of a simulated conflict between Colonial and Imperial jurisdiction, to withdraw attention from the facts that the British Government could have no interest in keeping up the emoluments of offices for which it had ceased to nominate; and that security against aggression from without and the advantage of representation in foreign countries are enjoyed by the inhabitants of Canada under the protection of England, which it would be difficult to parallel in the history of any other people. The difficulty of the situation appeared even clearer when the colony asked for the repeal of the clause in the Act of Union making English the one official language, and when it sought the right to dispose of the clergy reserves. In the first case the imperial authorities deliberately delayed action in the hope that the request would be withdrawn, but they had finally to give way,' when it appeared that the wishes of the Provincial Legislature and the inhabitants of Canada were unaltered and unanimous in favour of the proposed change.' The clergy reserves had been dealt with at the Union by the imperial parliament itself, and in 1852 the colonial secretary decided that the peculiar character of the question made it an exception to the rule that questions which affected exclusively local interests should be decided and dealt with by the local Government and Legislature.'1 Nothing could be done until his successor frankly acknowledged that the principle underlying colonial administration, that the government and parliament of Great Britain should not withhold 'from the Canadian people through their representatives the right of dealing as they might think proper with matters of strictly domestic interest,' applied even to this case. The best evidence, however, as to the growth of colonial autonomy is afforded by the history of the tariff. Though it was a rule of Imperial policy to reserve to Parliament the consideration of any question of differential or protective duty which may arise in the colonies,' the application of the rule proved extremely difficult. Gladstone himself was compelled to draw a characteristically fine distinction between maritime commerce and such commerce as Canada might engage in by inland routes, for example, with the United States in the latter field the colony might reasonably act for itself. Yet the difficulty of distinguishing between local and imperial jurisdiction did not end there. The colonial tariff fell on the supplies required for Her Majesty's troops and on the wines intended for the officers' mess. One branch of the Empire seemed prepared to tax another for defending it. Still, the imperial government did not feel disposed to grant an exemption over the head of the legislature. Gladstone urged that the legislature should give redress, and commanded the governor in case of its refusal to employ any legal power to secure the result. As Lord Elgin pointed out, however, the executive had no authority in the matter, and it was not until he prevailed on his ministers to secure the consent of the legislature that 'the gentlemen 1 Sir John Pakington to Elgin, December 16, 1852. of Her Majesty's Army were able to drink confusion to the Governor-General and his administration, in untaxed liquor.' 1 Though difficulties of this nature might arise in the colony, the control exercised by the imperial government over foreign trade was not yet disputed, and when the home country threw off her tariffs the advocates of free trade expected that their principles would be adopted throughout the Empire. Lord Grey expressed the hope that the colonies would remove their duties favouring British as against foreign imports; instead of enabling the colonial legislature to do this, parliament would have acted itself had it not been for the lateness of the season and the difficulty of finding out how the finances of the colonies would be affected. Four years later Grey had the imperial veto called into force against acts of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island legislatures, imposing differential duties against the United States. The inevitable collision between local and imperial policy as regards Canada came in 1859, when Galt raised a revenue tariff into a protective tariff. There was on record, however, the reply which Sir Edmund Head had given the year before to Lord Stanley's request that he should throw his influence against protection: 'Self-government which is unable to operate when its acts disagree with the opinion of others, is a contradiction in terms.' Hence, after a feeble protest, Canada was allowed to control its trade policy. It did not, during the remaining years of this period, seek or obtain further privileges in this connection, but its recent claims to negotiate its own commercial treaties may be considered a logical outcome of its action in 1859. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the other departments of government in which the colony increased its power. Public services like the Post Office 2 were taken over by the local authorities; currency and banking were made subjects of colonial legislation; as early as 1848 the legislature tried to 1 Elgin to Grey, August 2, October 9, 1850. Elgin to Grey, May 1, 1849. Elgin had promised in three speeches from the throne that it would be given over to Canada, but the necessary legislation could not be put through. Grey to Elgin, April 27, 1848. |