Lord Elgin | Page 7

necessarily took the side of the men whom they had themselves
appointed, and with whom they were acting. In the maritime provinces
in the course of time, the governors made an attempt now and then to
conciliate the popular element by bringing in men who had influence in
the assembly, but this was a matter entirely within their own discretion.
The system of government as a whole was worked in direct
contravention of the principle of responsibility to the majority in the
popular house. Political agitators had abundant opportunities for
exciting popular passion. In Lower Canada, Papineau, an eloquent but
impulsive man, having rather the qualities of an agitator than those of a
statesman, led the majority of his compatriots.
For years he contended for a legislative council elected by the people:
and it is curious to note that none of the men who were at the head of
the popular party in Lower Canada ever recognized the fact, as did their
contemporaries in Upper Canada, that the difficulty would be best
solved, not by electing an upper house, but by obtaining an executive
which would only hold office while supported by a majority of the
representatives in the people's house. In Upper Canada the radical
section of the Liberal party was led by Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie,
who fought vigorously against what was generally known as the
"Family Compact," which occupied all the public offices and controlled
the government.
In the two provinces these two men at last precipitated a rebellion, in
which blood was shed and much property destroyed, but which never
reached any very extensive proportions. In the maritime provinces,
however, where the public grievances were of less magnitude, the
people showed no sympathy whatever with the rebellious elements of

the upper provinces.
Amid the gloom that overhung Canada in those times there was one
gleam of sunshine for England. Although discontent and dissatisfaction
prevailed among the people on account of the manner in which the
government was administered, and of the attempts of the minority to
engross all power and influence, there was still a sentiment in favour of
British connection, and the annexationists were relatively few in
number. Even Sir Francis Bond Head--in no respect a man of
sagacity--understood this well when he depended on the militia to crush
the outbreak in the upper province; and Joseph Howe, the eminent
leader of the popular party, uniformly asserted that the people of Nova
Scotia were determined to preserve the integrity of the empire at all
hazards. As a matter of fact, the majority of leading men, outside of the
minority led by Papineau, Nelson and Mackenzie, had a conviction that
England was animated by a desire to act considerately with the
provinces and that little good would come from precipitating a conflict
which could only add to the public misfortunes, and that the true
remedy was to be found in constitutional methods of redress for the
political grievances which undoubtedly existed throughout British
North America.
The most important clauses of the Union Act, which was passed by the
imperial parliament in 1840 but did not come into effect until February
of the following year, made provision for a legislative assembly in
which each section of the united provinces was represented by an equal
number of members--forty-two for each and eighty-four for both; for
the use of the English language alone in the written or printed
proceedings of the legislature; for the placing of the public
indebtedness of the two provinces at the union as a first charge on the
revenues of the united provinces; for a two-thirds vote of the members
of each House before any change could be made in the representation.
These enactments, excepting the last which proved eventually to be in
their interest, were resented by the French Canadians as clearly
intended to place them in a position of inferiority to the English
Canadians. Indeed it was with natural indignation they read that portion
of Lord Durham's report which expressed the opinion that it was
necessary to unite the two races on terms which would give the
domination to the English. "Without effecting the change so rapidly or

so roughly," he wrote, "as to shock the feelings or to trample on the
welfare of the existing generation, it must henceforth be the first and
steady purpose of the British government to establish an English
population, with English laws and language, in this province, and to
trust its government to none but a decidedly English legislature."
French Canadians dwelt with emphasis on the feet that their province
had a population of 630,000 souls, or 160,000 more than Upper Canada,
and nevertheless received only the same number of representatives.
French Canada had been quite free from the financial embarrassment
which had brought Upper Canada to the verge