The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People | Page 8

higher attributes of our nature. But whatever may have been the
injurious effects of extreme partisanship, the people as a rule have

found in the discussion of public matters an excitement which has
prevented them from falling into that mental torpor so likely to arise
amid the isolation and rude conditions of early times. If the New
England States have always been foremost in intellectual movement, it
may be attributed in a great measure to the fact that from the first days
of their settlement they thought and acted for themselves in all matters
of local interest. It was only late in the day when Canadians had an
opportunity given them of stimulating their mental faculties by public
discussion, but when they were enabled to act for themselves they
rapidly improved in mental strength. It is very interesting to Canadians
of the present generation to go back to those years when the first
Legislatures were opened in the old Bishop's Palace, on the heights of
Quebec, and in the more humble structure on the banks of the Niagara
River, and study the record of their initiation into parliamentary
procedure. It is a noteworthy fact that the French Canadian Legislatures
showed from the first an earnest desire to follow, as closely as their
circumstances would permit, those admirable rules and principles of
procedure which the experience of centuries in England has shown to
be necessary to the preservation of decorum, to freedom of speech, and
to the protection of the minority. The speeches of the leading men in
the two Houses were characterized by evidences of large constitutional
knowledge, remarkable for men who had no practical training in
parliamentary life. Of course there were in these small Assemblies
many men rough in speech and manner, with hardly any education
whatever but the writers who refer to them in no very complimentary
terms [Footnote: For instance, Talbot, I, chap. 23. He acknowledges, at
the same time, the great ability of the leading men, 'who would do
credit to the British Parliament.'] always ignore the hardships of their
pioneer life, and forget to do justice to their possession, at all events, of
good common-sense and much natural acuteness, which enabled them
to be of use in their humble way, under the guidance of the few who
were in those days the leaders of public opinion. These leaders were
generally men drawn from the Bar, who naturally turned to the
legislative arena to satisfy their ambition and to cultivate on a larger
scale those powers of persuasion and argument in which their
professional training naturally made them adepts. With many of these
men legislative success was only considered a means of more rapidly

attaining the highest honours of their profession, and consequently they
were not always the most disinterested guides in the political
controversies of the day; but, nevertheless, it must be admitted that, on
the whole, the Bar of Canada, then as now, gave the country not a few
men who forgot mere selfish considerations, and brought to the
discussion of public affairs a wide knowledge and disinterested zeal
which showed how men of fine intellect can rise above the narrower
range of thought peculiar to continuous practice in the Courts. As
public questions became of larger import, the minds of politicians
expanded, and enabled them to bring to their discussion a breadth of
knowledge and argumentative force which attracted the attention of
English statesmen, who were so constantly referred to in those times of
our political pupilage, and were by no means too ready to place a high
estimate on colonial statesmanship. In the earlier days of our political
history some men played so important a part in educating the people to
a full comprehension of their political rights that their names must be
always gratefully remembered in Canada. Papineau, Bedard,
DeValliere, Stuart, Neilson, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Howe, Wilmot,
Johnstone, Uniacke, were men of fine intellects--natural-born teachers
of the people. Their successors in later times have ably continued the
work of perfecting the political structure. All party prejudice aside,
every allowance made for political errors in times of violent
controversy, the result of their efforts has been not only eminently
favourable to the material development of the country but also to the
mental vigour of the people. The statesmen who met in council in the
ancient city of Quebec during the October of 1864 gave a memorable
illustration of their constitutional knowledge and their practical acumen
in the famous Resolutions which form the basis of the present
Constitution of Canada.
But it is not within the limits of this review to dwell on the political
progress of Canada, except so far as it may influence the intellectual
development of the people. It will be seen, as we proceed, that the
extension of political rights had