Читать книгу Canada and its Provinces - Various - Страница 15

Table of Contents

Thomson’s attention was now directed to removing the minor obstructions to union. The virtual suspension of the legislative function in each of the provinces for several years had produced administrative problems which demanded solution. It was most urgent that these issues should be settled before the consummation of the union, in order that the new government might be rendered as free as possible. Foremost among these questions was the clergy reserves. Amidst the rapid changes and transitions in Upper Canada the clergy reserves persisted in creating dissension and bitterness. Almost since the founding of the province the clergy reserves had continued to exert their baneful influence on the public life of Upper Canada, and in 1840 their power was undiminished. A provincial act of 1839 for the disposal of the reserves and the appropriation of their proceeds for religious purposes had been disallowed. Thomson was therefore compelled to consider the question from a very practical point of view. The influence of the Established Church in the House of Lords set definite limits to the possible solutions. Thomson proposed that the reserves should be sold and that the annual proceeds of the revenue thus secured should be distributed for the purposes of religious instruction among the Church of England, the Church of Scotland and the other denominations having legal recognition in Upper Canada. Again Thomson was compelled to create his own party; for a measure which satisfied the reform element as little as it did the clerical faction was in danger of being left completely destitute of support. He undertook the task, however, and from the moderate groups secured sufficient support to carry the bill through the two houses. The bill had still to run the gauntlet of the imperial parliament, and Bishop Strachan, the militant leader of the church, appealed to the clerical influence in the House of Lords. On constitutional grounds the bill was disallowed, but the situation was saved by the enactment of an imperial statute giving effect to the provisions of Thomson’s settlement.

ROBERT BALDWIN

From a contemporary photograph

For Lower Canada also Thomson had a programme of reform necessary before the completion of the union. The system of judicature, which had remained practically unchanged since 1794,^[1] had all but broken down. With the assistance of James Stuart, whom Durham shortly before his departure had made chief justice, a new judicial organization was completed and embodied in an ordinance of the Special Council.

The rôle which the clergy reserves played in Upper Canada was played by the registration question in the lower province. The English minority for many years had been advocating the establishment of a system by which titles to lands could be registered. The system of secret mortgages had rendered it almost impossible to secure a clear title to lands. Satisfactory measures of relief had been opposed by the anti-commercial and conservative majority in the assembly. The necessity of reform was now, however, admitted by the leaders of the French Canadians, and accordingly an ordinance prepared under Thomson’s direction was passed by the Special Council.

Of much greater importance, however, was Thomson’s organization of a system of local government for Lower Canada. He was heartily in accord with Lord Durham in the opinion that the establishment of municipal government was most essential to the reform of the provincial government.^[2] ‘Without a breakwater of this kind between the Central Government and the people, Government with an Assembly is impossible in Lower Canada, and most difficult in Upper Canada.’ For this reason he insisted on including the organization of local government in his scheme of union. ‘The establishment of Municipal Government by Act of Parliament is as much a part of the intended scheme of Government for the Canadas as the union of the two Legislatures, and the more important of the two. All chance of good Government, in Lower Canada especially, depends on its immediate adoption.’ Thomson insisted on the imperial government undertaking the responsibility of passing the necessary legislation, because he saw no hope of securing an adequate measure from a provincial legislature. However, the municipal clauses of the Union Bill met with most strenuous opposition, and in order to save the main principles of the scheme Lord John Russell was compelled to surrender on the question of local government.

The compromise was keenly disappointing to Thomson, but other resources remained. The docile Special Council was employed to secure that necessary prelude to responsible government which the imperial parliament denied. An ordinance was passed giving the province of Lower Canada its first definite municipal organization.

[1]	See p. 455.

[2]	See p. 402.