1838
from Lord Durham's Report
with Charles Buller's Commentary
- from Charles Buller's account:
In one respect we did most certainly merit success: for never I believe,
did men embark in any public undertaking with more singleness and honesty
of purpose. During the long period of our voyage out we read over all the
public documents connected with the subject of our mission, and the dispatches,
instructions, and other papers with which the Colonial Office had supplied
us; and very fully did we discuss all the various and difficult questions
which it appeared to us that we should have to solve. We had, I must again
say, very little thought of ourselves, and a very absorbing desire so to
perform our task as to promote the best interests of both Canada and of
Great Britain. And I think I may also say that we had very few prejudices
to mislead us. I used indeed then to think that Lord Durham had too strong
a feeling against the French Canadians on account of their recent insurrection.
I looked on that insurrection as having been provoked by the long injustice,
and invited by the deplorable imbecility of our colonial policy; and I thought
that our real sympathies ought to be with a people whose ultimate purposes
were aright, though by the misconduct of others they had been drawn into
rebellion. But Lord Durham from the first took a far sounder view of the
matter: he saw what narrow and mischievous spirit lurked at the bottom of
all the acts of the French Canadians; and while he was prepared to do the
individuals full justice, and justice with mercy, he had made up his mind
that no quarter should be shown to the absurd pretensions of the race, and
that he must throw himself on the support of the British feelings, and aim
at making Canada thoroughly British.
... There was, however, one necessary consequence of great hurry in which
Lord Durham was compelled to take his departure when once determined on,
that I much regretted. He had originally purposed embarking at New York,
after previously visiting Washington. The knowledge of this intention had
created the greatest satisfaction in the United States, and tin people had
made preparations for giving him an enthusiastic welcome. Shortly after,
in my passage through the States, I heard that the corporations of the various
great cities on his line of way had arrangements for meeting him at different
points, and conveying him from one to the other. In fact he was everywhere
to be received by the local authorities as a public visitor. On our return
to England he was informed by Mr. Stevenson, the American that at Washington
he was to have remained with the President at the White House as a national
guest - an honour never before conferred on any one but Lafayette....
***
Passages from the Report the Lord Durham and his staff prepared
Your Majesty, in entrusting me with the Government of the province of Lower
Canada, during the critical period of the suspension of the constitution,
was pleased, at the same time, to impose on me a task of equal difficulty,
and of far more permanent importance, by appointing me "High Commissioner
for the adjustment of certain important questions depending on the provinces
of Lower and Upper Canada, respecting the form and future government of
the said provinces. ." To enable me to discharge this duty with the
greater efficiency, I was invested, not only with the title, but with the
actual functions of Governor General of all Your Majesty's North American
Provinces....
...From the peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, I was enabled
to make such effectual observations as convinced me, that there had existed
in the constitution of the province, in the balance of political powers,
in the spirit and practice of administration in every department of the
government, defects that were quite sufficient to account for a great degree
of mismanagement and dissatisfaction.
The same observation had also impressed on me the conviction, that, for
the peculiar and disastrous dissensions of this province, there existed
a far deeper and far more efficient cause- a cause which penetrated beneath
its political institutions into its social state, - a cause which no reform
of constitution or laws, that should leave the elements of society unaltered,
could remove: but which must be removed, ere any success could be expected
in any attempt to remedy the many evils of this unhappy province. I expected
to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations
warring in the bosom of a single state: I found a struggle, not of principles,
but of races; and I perceived that it would be idle to attempt any amelioration
of laws or institutions, until we could first succeed in terminating the
deadly animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower Canada into
the hostile divisions of French and English.
... They [the English in Lower Canada] complain loudly and bitterly of the
whole course pursued by the Imperial government, with respect to the quarrel
of the two races, as having been founded on an utter ignorance or disregard
of the real question at issue, as having fostered the mischievous pretensions
of French nationality, and as having by the vacillation and inconsistency
which marked it, discouraged loyalty and fomented rebellion. Every measure
of clemency or even justice towards their opponents they regard with jealousy,
as indicating a disposition towards that conciliatory policy which is the
subject of their angry recollection; for they feel that being a minority,
any return to the due course of constitutional government would again subject
them to a French majority; and to this I am persuaded they would never peaceably
submit. They do not hesitate to say that they will not tolerate much longer
the being made the sport of parties at home; and that if the mother country
forgets what is due to the loyal and enterprising men of her own race, they
must protect themselves. In the significant language of one of their ablest
advocates, they assert that "Lower Canada must be English, at the expense,
if necessary, of not being British."
I have, in despatches of a later date than that to which I have had occasion
so frequently to refer, called the attention of the home government to the
growth of this alarming state of feeling among the English population. The
course of the late troubles, and the assistance which the French insurgents
derived from some citizens of the United States, have caused a most intense
exasperation among Canadian loyalists against the American government and
people. Their papers have teemed with the most unmeasured denunciations
of the good faith of the authorities, of the character and morality of the
people, and of the political institutions of the United States. Yet, under
this surface of hostility, it is easy to detect a strong under current of
an exactly contrary feeling. As the general opinion of the American people
became more apparent during the course of the last year, the English of
Lower Canada were surprised to find how strong, in spite of the first burst
of sympathy with a people supposed to be struggling for independence, was
the real sympathy of their republican neighbours with the great objects
of the minority. Without abandoning their attachment to their mother country,
they have begun, as men in a state of uncertainty are apt to do, to calculate
the probable consequences of a separation, if it should unfortunately occur,
and be followed by an incorporation with the United States. In spite of
the shock which it would occasion their feelings, they undoubtedly think
that they should find some compensation in the promotion of their interests;
they believe that the influx of American emigration would speedily place
the English race in a majority; they talk frequently and loudly of what
has occurred in Louisiana, where, by means which they utterly misrepresent,
the end nevertheless of securing an English predominance over a French population,
has undoubtedly been attained; they assert very confidently that the Americans
would make a very speedy and decisive settlement of the pretensions of the
French; and they believe, that after the first shock of an entirely new
political state had been got over, they and their posterity would share
in that amazing progress, and that great material prosperity, which every
day's experience shows them is the lot of the people of the United States,
I do not believe that such a feeling has yet sapped their strong allegiance
to the British Empire; but their allegiance is founded on their deep rooted
attachment to British as distinguished from French institutions. And if
they find that that authority which they have maintained against its recent
assailants, is to be exerted in such a manner as to subject them again to
what they call a French dominion, I feel perfectly confident that they would
attempt to avert the result, by courting, on any terms, an union with an
Anglo-Saxon people.
Such is the lamentable and hazardous state of things produced by the conflict
of races which has so long divided the province of Lower Canada, and which
has assumed the formidable and irreconcilable character which I have depicted....
... It will be acknowledged by every one who has observed the progress of
Anglo-Saxon colonization in America, that sooner or later the English race
was sure to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as they predominate
already by their superior knowledge, energy, enterprise, and wealth. The
error, therefore, to which the present contest must be attributed, is the
vain endeavour to preserve a French Canadian nationality in the midst of
Anglo-American colonies and states.
... The fatal feud of origin which is the cause of the most extensive mischief,
would be aggravated at the present moment by any change which should give
the majority more power than they have hitherto possessed. A plan by which
it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada, must include
in itself the means of putting an end to the agitation of national disputes
in the legislature, by settling, at once and for ever, the national character
of the province. I entertain no doubts as to the national character which
must be given to Lower Canada; it must be that of the British Empire; that
of the majority of the population of British America; that of the great
race which must, in the lapse of no long period of time, be predominant
over the whole North American continent. Without effecting the change so
rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and 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 to none but a decidedly
English legislature...
The utter want of municipal institutions giving the people any control over
their local affairs, may indeed be considered as one of the main causes
of the failure of representative government, and of the bad administration
of the country. If the wise example of those countries in which a free representative
government has alone worked well, had been in all respects followed in Lower
Canada, care would have been taken that, at the same time that a parliamentary
system based on a very extended suffrage, was introduced into the country,
the people should have been entrusted with a complete control over their
own local affairs, and been trained for taking their part in the management
of that local business which was most interesting and most intelligible
to them. But the inhabitants of Lower Canada were unhappily initiated into
self-government at exactly the wrong end, and those who were not trusted
with the management of a parish, were enabled, by their votes, to influence
the destinies of a State....
A monopoly of power so extensive and lasting could not fall, in process
of time, to excite envy, create dissatisfaction, and ultimately provoke
attack; and an opposition consequently grew up in which assailed the ruling
party, by appealing to popular principles of government, by denouncing the
alleged jobbing and profusion of the official body, and by instituting inquiries
into abuses, for the purpose of promoting reform, and especially economy.
The question of the greatest importance, raised in the course of these disputes,
was that of the disposal of the Clergy reserves; and, though different modes
of applying these lands, or rather the funds derived from them, were suggested,
the reformers, or opposition, were generally very successful in their appeals
to the people against the project of the Tory or official party, which was
that of devoting them exclusively to the maintenance of the English Episcopal
Church. The reformers, by successfully agitating this and various economical
questions, obtained a majority. Like almost all popular colonial parties,
it managed its power with very little discretion and skill, offended a larger
number of the constituencies, and, being baffled by the Legislative Council,
and resolutely opposed by all the personal and official influence of the
official body, a dissolution again placed it in a minority in the Assembly.
This turn of fortune was not confined to a single instance; for neither
party has for some time possessed the majority in two successive Parliaments.
The present is the fifth of these alternating Houses of Assembly.
The reformers, however, at last discovered that success in the elections
ensured them very little practical benefits...
A still stronger objection to the creation of a Church establishment in
this colony is, that not merely are the members of the Church of England
a small minority at present; but, inasmuch as the majority of emigrants
are not members of the Church of England, the disproportion is likely to
increase, instead of disappearing in the course of time. The mass of British
immigrants will be either from the middle classes of Great Britain, or the
poorer classes of Ireland; the latter almost exclusively Catholics, and
the former in a great proportion either Scotch Presbyterians or English
Dissenters.
It is most important that this question should be settled, and so settled
as to give satisfaction to the majority of the people of the two Canadas,
whom it equally concerns. And I know of no mode of doing this but by repealing
all provisions in Imperial Acts that relate to the application of the clergy
reserves, and the funds arising from them, leaving the disposal of the funds
to the local legislature, and acquiescing in whatever decision it may adopt.
The views which I have expressed on this subject sufficiently mark my conviction
that, without the adoption of such a course, the most mischievous practical
cause of dissension will not be removed....
... The disorders of Lower Canada admit of no delay; the existing form of
government is but a temporary and forcible subjugation. The recent constitution
is one of which neither party would tolerate the re- establishment, and
of which the bad working has been such, that no friend to liberty or to
order could desire to see the province again subjected to its mischievous
influence. Whatever may be the difficulty of discovering a remedy, its urgency
is certain and obvious.
Nor do I believe that the necessity for adopting some extensive and decisive
measure for the pacification of Upper Canada, is at all less imperative.
From the account which I have given of the causes of disorder in that province,
it will be seen that I do not consider them by any means of such a nature
as to be irreconcilable, or even to be susceptible of no remedy, that shall
not effect an organic change in the existing constitution. It cannot be
denied indeed that the continuance of the many practical grievances, which
I have described as subjects of complaint, and, above all, the determined
resistance to such a system of responsible government as would give the
people a real control over its own destinies, have, together with the irritation
caused by the late insurrection, induced a large portion of the population
to look with envy at the material prosperity of their neighbours in the
United States, under a perfectly free and eminently responsible government;
and, in despair of obtaining such benefits under their present institutions,
to desire the adoption of a republican constitution, or even an incorporation
with the American Union. But I am inclined to think that such feelings have
made no formidable or irreparable progress; on the contrary, I believe that
all the discontented parties, and especially the reformers of Upper Canada,
look with considerable confidence to the result of my mission The different
parties believe that when the case is once fairly put before the mother
country, the desired changes in the policy of their government will be readily
granted: they are now tranquil, and I believe loyal; determined to abide
the decision of the Home Government, and to defend their property and their
country against rebellion and invasion. But I cannot but express my I belief
that this is the last effort of their almost exhausted patience, and that
the disappointment of their hopes on the present occasion, will destroy
for ever their expectation of good resulting from British connection. I
do not mean to say that they will renew the rebellion, much less do I imagine
that they will array themselves in such force as will be able to tear the
government of their country from the hands of the great military power which
Great Britain can bring against them. If now frustrated in their expectations,
and kept in hopeless subjection to rulers irresponsible to the people, they
will, at best, only await in sullen prudence the contingencies which may
render the preservation of the province dependent on the devoted loyalty
of the great mass of its population.
... I believe that the great mass of discontent in Upper Canada, which is
not directly connected with personal irration, arising out of the incidents
of the late troubles, might be dispelled by an assurance that the government
of the colony should henceforth be carried on in conformity with the views
of the majority in the Assembly....
... I believe that no permanent or efficient remedy can be devised for the
disorders of Lower Canada, except a fusion of the government in that of
one or more of the surrounding provinces; and as I am of opinion that the
full establishment of responsible government can only be permanently secured
by giving these colonies an increased importance in the politics of the
Empire, I find in union the only means of remedying at once and completely
the two prominent causes of their present unsatisfactory condition.
Two kinds of union have been proposed. federal and legislative. By the first,
the separate legislature of each province would be preserved in its present
form, and retain almost all its present attributes of internal legislation;
the federal legislature exercising no power, save in those matters of general
concern, which may have been expressly ceded to it by the constituent provinces.
A legislative union would imply a complete incorporation of the provinces
included in it under one legislature, exercising universal and sole legislative
authority over all of them, in exactly the same manner as the Parliament
legislates alone for the whole of the British Isles.
... I cannot doubt that any French Assembly that should again meet in Lower
Canada will use what ever power, be it more or less limited, it may have,
to obstruct the government, and undo whatever has been done by it. ... I
believe that tranquility can only be restored by subjecting the province
to the vigorous rule of an English majority; and that the only efficacious
government would be that formed by a legislative union.
If the population of Upper Canada is rightly estimated at 400,000, the English
inhabitants of Lower Canada at 150,000, and the French at 450,000, the union
of the two provinces would not only give a clear English majority, but one
which would be increased every year by the influence of English emigration;
and I have little doubt that the French, when once placed, by the legitimate
course of events and the working of natural causes, in a minority, would
abandon their vain hopes of nationality. I do not mean that they would immediately
give up their present animosities, or instantly renounce the hope of attaining
their end by violent means. But the experience of the two unions in the
British Isles may teach us how effectively the strong arm of a popular legislature
would compel the obedience of the refractory population; and the hopelessness
of success would gradually subdue the existing animosities, and incline
the French Canadians population to acquiesce in their new state of political
existence.
***
Source: Lord Durham's Report (3 Vols), edited by C. P. Lucas, Oxford, 1912