Quebec Is The Present Seat Of Canadian Government, Its Turn For
That Honor Having Come Round Some Two Years Ago; But It Is About To
Be Deserted In Favor Of Ottawa, A Town Which Is, In Fact, Still To
Be Built On The River Of That Name.
The public edifices are,
however, in a state of forwardness; and if all goes well, the
Governor, the two Councils, and the House of Representatives will
be there before two years are over, whether there be any town to
receive them or no.
Who can think of Ottawa without bidding his
brothers to row, and reminding them that the stream runs fast, that
the rapids are near and the daylight past? I asked, as a matter of
course, whether Quebec was much disgusted at the proposed change,
and I was told that the feeling was not now very strong. Had it
been determined to make Montreal the permanent seat of government,
Quebec and Toronto would both have been up in arms.
I must confess that, in going from the States into Canada, an
Englishman is struck by the feeling that he is going from a richer
country into one that is poorer, and from a greater country into
one that is less. An Englishman going from a foreign land into a
land which is in one sense his own, of course finds much in the
change to gratify him. He is able to speak as the master, instead
of speaking as the visitor. His tongue becomes more free, and he
is able to fall back to his national habits and national
expressions. He no longer feels that he is admitted on sufferance,
or that he must be careful to respect laws which he does not quite
understand. This feeling was naturally strong in an Englishman in
passing from the States into Canada at the time of my visit.
English policy, at that moment, was violently abused by Americans,
and was upheld as violently in Canada. But nevertheless, with all
this, I could not enter Canada without seeing, and hearing, and
feeling that there was less of enterprise around me there than in
the States, less of general movement, and less of commercial
success. To say why this is so would require a long and very
difficult discussion, and one which I am not prepared to hold. It
may be that a dependent country, let the feeling of dependence be
ever so much modified by powers of self-governance, cannot hold its
own against countries which are in all respects their own masters.
Few, I believe, would now maintain that the Northern States of
America would have risen in commerce as they have risen, had they
still remained attached to England as colonies. If this be so,
that privilege of self-rule which they have acquired has been the
cause of their success. It does not follow as a consequence that
the Canadas, fighting their battle alone in the world, could do as
the States have done. Climate, or size, or geographical position
might stand in their way. But I fear that it does follow, if not
as a logical conclusion, at least as a natural result, that they
never will do so well unless some day they shall so fight their
battle. It may be argued that Canada has in fact the power of
self-governance; that she rules herself and makes her own laws as
England does; that the Sovereign of England has but a veto on those
laws, and stands in regard to Canada exactly as she does in regard
to England. This is so, I believe, by the letter of the
Constitution, but is not so in reality, and cannot in truth be so
in any colony even of Great Britain. In England the political
power of the Crown is nothing. The Crown has no such power, and
now-a-days makes no attempt at having any. But the political power
of the Crown as it is felt in Canada is everything. The Crown has
no such power in England, because it must change its ministers
whenever called upon to do so by the House of Commons. But the
Colonial Minister in Downing Street is the Crown's Prime Minister
as regards the colonies, and he is changed not as any colonial
House of Assembly may wish, but in accordance with the will of the
British Commons. Both the houses in Canada - that, namely, of the
Representatives, or Lower Houses and of the Legislative Council, or
Upper House - are now elective, and are filled without direct
influence from the Crown. The power of self-government is as
thoroughly developed as perhaps may be possible in a colony. But,
after all, it is a dependent form of government, and as such may
perhaps not conduce to so thorough a development of the resources
of the country as might be achieve under a ruling power of its own,
to which the welfare of Canada itself would be the chief if not the
only object.
I beg that it may not be considered from this that I would propose
to Canada to set up for itself at once and declare itself
independent. In the first place I do not wish to throw over
Canada; and in the next place I do not wish to throw over England.
If such a separation shall ever take place, I trust that it may be
caused, not by Canadian violence, but by British generosity. Such
a separation, however, never can be good till Canada herself shall
wish it. That she does not wish it yet, is certain. If Canada
ever should wish it, and should ever press for the accomplishment
of such a wish, she must do so in connection with Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick. If at any future time there be formed such a
separate political power, it must include the whole of British
North America.
In the mean time, I return to my assertion, that in entering Canada
from the States one clearly comes from a richer to a poorer
country.
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