Читать книгу Canada and its Provinces - Various - Страница 16

Table of Contents

Both parties, then, had defined their positions with remarkable frankness. The practical question was how to carry on government. In the assembly there was an absolute deadlock, for the ex-councillors could count on a majority of over twenty. This, in Metcalfe’s words, consisted of ‘the French party, who, with only two exceptions, followed their leaders; of the extreme party, which supports Mr Baldwin; and generally of the party called reformers, who, the cry of Responsible Government having been set up, ... gave their voices in support of the ex-councillors.’ Here there appeared no gleam of hope. No doubt the legislative council gave him a majority, but complications grew when the executive council had to be faced. Faithful among the faithless, and faithful because his lack of strong political feeling co-operated with the need of a salary, Dominick Daly remained, ‘The Perpetual Secretary,’ for a month the sole member of the administration. Even after a provisional council had been constructed, consisting of Viger, Daly, Draper and Harrison, important offices remained unfilled, and when, on September 2, 1844, a complete administration was reported, it was anything but representative of strong Canadian feeling.

The real issue, however, lay in the country, for a dissolution was inevitable, and no one could say how matters would go there. In December 1843 Metcalfe had held that popular feeling lay with him, and certainly his supporters indulged their taste for wordy and pretentious addresses; but, a little later, Egerton Ryerson’s brother spoke in very different fashion: ‘At the present, more than nine-tenths of our people, in these Western parts, are the supporters of the late Executive Council’; and Lower Canada might be regarded as beyond hope. Moreover, the opposition had many things in their favour: the cry of responsible government, the desire for undenominational education, the French national feeling, the Roman Catholic sympathy for any politicians who opposed Orangeism, and the extreme difficulty of the governor-general in escaping from the crisis without offending innumerable individual susceptibilities.

In the late spring, at an election at Montreal wherein violence, the former substitute for modern corruption, played its part, the ex-councillors won a victory, utilizing the Irish vote and the desire for repeal of the Union. The elections came on in autumn, and, since the cry of loyalty to the connection never fails to secure the waverers and to awaken the indifferent public, Metcalfe’s new ministry found itself with a precarious majority of about six in the legislative assembly. The governor’s admirable persistency, for he never moved from his initial position, may have done something to convert those who admire the appeal of importunity. He could count on the old tories, on the Orangemen, on all who had the sentiment of loyalty strong within them. His council, by excluding tory extremists, had appealed to moderate men, and there can be no doubt that it contained sound statesmen, like W. H. Draper, of proved ability and honesty. But the ominous fact was that the majority was only six, and that it was entirely an Upper Canada majority.

It was clear that ‘tactics’ of some sort or other must be resorted to, and Draper, acting through Caron, the speaker of the legislative council, made approaches to La Fontaine and the French, to see whether any movement were possible there. It was an ill-managed business. Draper could, of course, hardly be sincere in his desire for French partnership; Caron seems to have been injudicious in communicating Draper’s letters; and La Fontaine made an unwarrantable use of the whole correspondence, apparently with the intention of gaining a point for the opposition. The whole affair carried with it a suggestion of imperfect political honour, and led to a discussion, not unlike those in which local councils indulge, except that in this case the personalities were flavoured with a strong dash of pretentiousness. If there is anywhere a gleam, it comes in the sound sense of La Fontaine’s words to Caron: ‘If under the system of accepting office at any price, there are persons who, for a personal or momentary advantage, do not fear to break the only bond which constitutes our strength, viz. union among ourselves, I do not wish to be, and I never will be, of the number.’

Meanwhile, the end of the affair so far as it affected Metcalfe was close at hand. Before he had arrived in Canada he had been afflicted by a cancerous growth on the cheek, and throughout 1845 his ailment complicated and grew worse. On April 4 he wrote to Stanley of the possible necessity for his retirement—he had already lost the sight of one eye.

In October he ‘considered it to be his duty to apprise Stanley of the probable impossibility of performing his official functions’; and by the end of November he took advantage of the permission granted him to transfer the provisional charge of the government to Earl Cathcart. With the pertinacity of purpose and sense of public duty which have always characterized his class, he stood by his government under the most trying circumstances, and apologized, when he retired, for leaving another man to face a situation which he had not yet solved. ‘Nothing but the apparent impossibility of my discharging my duties with the requisite efficiency,’ he wrote, ‘induces me to take this step.’ In his case it is very possible to separate the governor-general from the man in passing judgment on him. He had behaved according to the strictest code of honour from first to last, modifying a stern constitutionalism only by gracious private acts of kindness, and adding another chapter to those already completed of very faithful service to his country, accomplished not for gain—he was the poorer by his Canadian appointment—but from a high sense of imperial duty. He was opposed with a rudeness which no mere newness of culture could excuse, and his opponents were not above using his affliction to point their taunts.

SIR CHARLES METCALFE

From an engraving by William Warner after the painting by A. Bradish