Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin Part 11

Only one absurdity can be greater, pardon me for saying so, than the absurdity of supposing that the British Parliament will pay 200,000 for Canadian fortifications; it is the absurdity of supposing that Canadians will pay it themselves.

200,000 for defences! and against whom? against the Americans. And who are the Americans? Your own kindred, a flouris.h.i.+ng swaggering people, who are ready to make room for you at their own table, to give you a share of all they possess, of all their prosperity, and to guarantee you in all time to come against the risk of invasion, or the need of defences, if you will but speak the word!

[Sidenote: Recommends gradual reduction of forces.]

On the whole he was of opinion that the Government should quietly, and _sans phrase_, remove their troops altogether from some points, reduce them in others, and 'aim at the eventual subst.i.tution of a Major-General's command for that of a Lieutenant-General in Canada; but that nothing should be done hastily or _per saltum_, so as to alarm the Colonists with the idea that some new and strange principle was going to be applied to them.'

You may if you please (he wrote) largely reduce the staff, and more moderately the men, leaving the remainder in the best barracks. I think you may do this without, in any material degree, increasing the tendency towards annexation; provided always that you make no noise about it.... But, I repeat it, you must not, unless you wish to drive the Colony away from you, impose new burdens upon the Colonists at this time.[7]

The course thus sketched out he himself steadily pursued; and his last letters on the subject, written early in 1853 to the Duke of Newcastle, who had recently become Secretary for the Colonies, were occupied in recommending a continuance of the same quietly progressive policy:

When I came here we had a Commander-in-Chief and two Major-Generals.

We have now only one General on the Station, and the staff has undergone proportional diminution. If further reductions are to be made, let them be effected in the same quiet way without parade or the ostentatious adoption of new principles as applicable to the defence of colonies which are exposed, as Canada is by reason of their connection with Great Britain, to the hazard of a.s.saults from organised powers.

Continue then, if you will pardon me for so freely tendering advice, to apply in the administration of our local affairs the principles of Const.i.tutional Government frankly and fairly. Do not ask England to make unreasonable sacrifices for the Colonists, but such sacrifices as are reasonable, on the hypothesis that the Colony is an exposed part of the empire. Induce her if you can to make them generously and without appearing to grudge them. Let it be inferred from your language that there is in your opinion nothing in the nature of things to prevent the tie which connects the Mother-country and the Colony from being as enduring as that which unites the different States of the Union, and nothing in the nature of our very elastic inst.i.tutions to prevent them from expanding so as to permit the free and healthy development of social, political, and national life in these young communities. By administering colonial affaire in this spirit you will find, I believe, even when you least profess to seek it, the true secret of the cheap defence of nations. If these communities are only truly attached to the connection and satisfied of its permanence (and, as respects the latter point, opinions here will be much influenced by the tone of statesmen at home), elements of self-defence, not moral elements only but material elements likewise, will spring up within them spontaneously as the product of movements from within, not of pressure from without. Two millions of people, in a northern lat.i.tude, can do a good deal in the way of helping themselves when their hearts are in the right place.

[1] Colonial Policy, i. 232.

[2] 'United Empire Loyalists,' i.e. descendants of the original Loyalists of the American War.

[3] Despatch of the Earl of Elgin, Dec. 18, 1854.

[4] Compare _Junius_:--'Unfortunately for his country, Mr. Grenville was at any rate to be distressed, because he was Minister: and Mr.

Pitt and Lord Camden were to be the patrons of America, because they were in opposition. Their declaration gave spirit and argument to the Colonies; and while, perhaps, they meant no more than the ruin of a Minister, they in effect divided one half of the empire from the other.'

[5] 'Perhaps I may see reason after a little more experience here to modify my opinion on these points. If I were to tell you what I now think of the relative amount of influence which I exercised over the march, of affairs in Canada, where I governed on strictly const.i.tutional principles, and with a free Parliament, as compared with that which the Governor-General wields in India _when at peace_, you would accuse me of paradox.'--_Letter to Sir C. Wood, December 9,1862._

[6] Vide infra, p. 159.

[7] In entire accordance with this view, Be recommended that Great Britain should take upon herself the payment of the Governor's salary, 'with a view to future contingencies, and to calls which at a period more or less remote we may have to make on the loyalty and patriotism of Canadians.'

CHAPTER VI.

CANADA.

THE 'CLERGY RESERVES'--HISTORY OF THE QUESTION--MIXED MOTIVES OF THE MOVEMENT--FEELING IN THE PROVINCE--IN UPPER CANADA--IN LOWER CANADA--AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS--IN THE CHURCH--SECULARIZATION--QUESTIONS OF EMIGRATION, LABOUR, LAND-TENURE, EDUCATION, NATIVE TRIBES--RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES--MUTUAL COURTESIES--FAREWELL TO CANADA--AT HOME.

[Sidenote: The 'Clergy Reserves']

We have had frequent occasion to observe that the guiding principle of Lord Elgin's policy was to let the Colony have its own way in everything which was not contrary either to public morality or to some Imperial interest. It was in this spirit that he pa.s.sed the Rebellion Losses Act; and in this spirit he watched the contest which raged for many years on the memorable question of the 'Clergy Reserves.'

[Sidenote: History of the question.]

By the Canada Act of 1791 one-seventh of the lands then ungranted had been set apart for the support of a 'Protestant Clergy.' At first these reserves were regarded as the exclusive property of the Church of England; but in 1820 an opinion was obtained from the Law Officers of the Crown in England, that the clergy of the Church of Scotland had a right to a share in them, but not Dissenting Ministers. In 1840 an Act was pa.s.sed in which the claims of other denominations also were distinctly recognised. By it the Governor was empowered to sell the reserves; a part of the proceeds was to be applied in payment of the salaries of the existing clergy, to whom the faith of the Crown had been pledged; one-half of the remainder was to go to the Churches of England and Scotland, in proportion to their respective numbers, and the other half was to be at the disposal of the Governor- General for the benefit of the clergy of any Protestant denomination willing to receive public aid.

But the old inveterate jealousy of Anglican ascendency, aggravated, it is said, by the political conduct of Bishop Strachan, who had identified his Church with the obnoxious rule of the Family Compact, was not content with these concessions. Allying itself with the voluntary spirit, caught from the Scottish Free Church movement in 1843, it took the shape of a fanatical opposition to everything in the nature of a public provision for the support of religion; and the cry was raised for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves.' Eagerly taken up, as was natural, by the Ultra-radicals, or 'Clear-grits,' the cry was echoed by a considerable section of the old Tory party, from motives which it is less easy to a.n.a.lyse; and so violent was the feeling that it threatened to sweep away at one stroke all the endowments in question, without regard to vested interests, and without even waiting for the repeal of the Imperial Act by which these endowments were guaranteed. More loyal and moderate counsels however prevailed, owing chiefly to the support which they received from the Roman Catholics of Lower Canada, at one time so violently disaffected. In 1850 the a.s.sembly voted an Address to the Queen, praying that the Act referred to might be repealed, and that the Local Legislature might be empowered to dispose of the reserved lands, subject to the condition of securing to the existing holders for their lives the stipends to which they were then ent.i.tled. To this Address a favourable answer was returned by Lord Grey; who, while avowing the preference of Her Majesty's Government for the existing arrangement, by which a certain portion of the public lands of Canada were applied to religious uses, admitted at the same time that the question of maintaining it was one so exclusively affecting the people of Canada, that its decision ought not to be withdrawn from the Provincial Legislature.

A Bill for granting to the Colony the desired powers was intended to be introduced into Parliament during the session of 1851, but owing to the pressure of other business it was deferred to the next year. It was to have been brought forward in a few days, when the break-up of Lord John Russell's Ministry caused it to be again postponed; and it was not till May 9, 1853, that the long looked-for Act received the Queen's a.s.sent.

No action could be taken in the matter by the Colonial Parliament for that year, as its session closed on June 14; and when it met again next year a ministerial crisis, followed by a dissolution and a change of Ministers, caused a postponement of all legislation. Finally, on October 17, 1854, a Bill for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves' was introduced into the a.s.sembly. The more moderate and thoughtful men of every party are said to have been at heart opposed to it; but it was impossible for them to stand against the current of popular feeling. The Bill speedily became law; the Clergy Reserves were handed over to the various munic.i.p.al corporations for secular uses; and though by this means 'a n.o.ble provision made for the sustentation of religion was frittered away so as to produce but few beneficial results,'[1] a question which had long been the occasion of much heart-burning was at least settled, and settled for ever.

A slender provision for the future was saved out of the wreck by the commutation of the reserved life-interests of inc.u.mbents, which laid the foundation of a small permanent endowment; but, with this exception, the equality of dest.i.tution among all Protestant communities was complete.[2]

The various stages through which this question pa.s.sed may be traced in the following letters, of which the first was written to Lord Grey on July 5, 1850:

Two addresses to the Queen were voted by the a.s.sembly a few days ago and brought up by the House to me for transmission. The one is an address, very loyal in its tone, deprecating all revolutionary changes.

[Sidenote: Address to the Queen.]

The other address is not so satisfactory. It prays Her Majesty to obtain the repeal of the Imperial Act on the Clergy Reserves pa.s.sed in 1840, and to hand them over to the Canadian Parliament to deal with them as it may see fit--guaranteeing, however, the life interests of inc.u.mbents. The resolutions on which this address was founded were introduced by a member of the Government, which has treated the question as an _open_ one.

You are sufficiently acquainted with Canadian history to be aware of the fact, that these unfortunate Clergy Reserves have been a bone of contention ever since they were set apart. I know how very inconvenient it is to repeal the Imperial Act which was intended to be a final settlement of the question; but I must candidly say I very much doubt whether you will be able to preserve the Colony if you retain it on the Statute Book. Even Lafontaine and others who recognise certain vested rights of the Protestant churches under the Const.i.tutional Act, advocate the repeal of the Imperial Act of 1840: partly because Lower Canada was not consulted at all when it was pa.s.sed; and, secondly, because the distribution made under that Act is an unfair one, and inconsistent with the views of the Upper Canadian Legislature, as expressed at the time but set aside in deference, as it is alleged, to the remonstrances of the English bishops. Some among the Anglo-Saxon Liberals, and some of the Orange Tories, I suspect, share these views.

A considerable section is for appropriating the proceeds of the reserves at once, and applying them to education, without any regard to the rights either of individuals or of churches. These persons are furious with the supporters of the address for proposing to preserve the life interests of inc.u.mbents. The sentiments of the remainder are pretty accurately conveyed by the terms of the address.

_To the Earl Grey._

Toronto, July 19, 1850.

[Sidenote: Reasons for agreeing.]

The 'Clear Grit' organs, which have absorbed a large portion of the 'Annexationists,' talk very big about what they will do if England steps in to preserve the 'Clergy Reserves.' That party would be only too glad to get up a quarrel with England on such a point. It is, of course, impossible for you to do anything with the Imperial Act till next session. A little delay may perhaps enable us to see our way more clearly with respect to this most perplexing subject.

Lord Sydenham's despatch of January 22,1840, is a curious and instructive one. It accompanies the Act on the 'Clergy Reserve'

question, which he induced the Parliament of Upper Canada to pa.s.s, but which was not adopted at home; for the House of Lords concocted one more favourable to the Established Churches. He clearly admits that the Act is against the sense of the country, and that nothing but his own great personal influence got it through, and yet he looks upon it as a settlement of the question. I confess I see few of the conditions of finality in measures which are pa.s.sed under such circ.u.mstances.

_To the Earl Grey._

Toronto, March 18,1851.

I am far from thinking that the 'Clergy Reserves' will necessarily be diverted from religious purposes if the Local Parliament has the disposal of them. I should feel very confident that this would not be the case, were it not that the tone adopted by the Church of England here has almost always the effect of driving from her even those who would be most disposed to cooperate with her if she would allow them.

_To the Earl Grey._

Toronto, June 14,1851.

On the whole the best chance for the Church interest as regards the question, in my judgment, is that you should carry your empowering bill through the Imperial Parliament this session, and that we should get through our session and the general election, which is about to follow, with as little excitement as possible. The province is prosperous and the people contented; and at such a time, if no disturbing cause arise, moderate and reasonable men are likely to be returned. At the same time the 'Clergy Reserve' question is sufficiently before the public to insure our getting from the returns to Parliament a pretty fair indication of what are the real sentiments of the people upon it. I need not say that there can be no security for the permanence of any arrangement which is not in tolerable conformity with those sentiments.