British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government, 1839-1854 Part 12

A considerable portion of authoritative British opinion has now been traversed; and beneath all its contradictions and varieties a deep general tendency has been discovered. That tendency made for the separation of Canada from England and the Empire. It is strange to see how resolutely writers have evaded the conclusion, and yet, if the views discussed above have been fairly stated, only four men of note and authority, Durham, Buller, Elgin, and Grey remained unaffected by the growing pessimism of the time, and of these, the last seemed at the end to find it difficult to maintain the confidence of 1853 under the trials of 1862. Britain was, in fact, undergoing a great secular change of policy. She had been driven, step by step, from the old position of supremacy and authority. As in commerce the security of protection had been abandoned for the still doubtful advantages of free trade, so, in the colonies, the former cast-iron system of imperial control had been abandoned for one of _laissez-faire_ and self-government. It would have been impossible for British statesmen to follow any other course than that which they actually chose.

Self-government, and self-government to the last detail and corollary of the argument they must perforce concede. But {292} in the stress of their imperial necessities, it was not strange that they should discern all the signs of disruption, rather than the gleams of hope; and men like Disraeli who claimed at a later date that they had never despaired of the Empire, did so at the expense of their sincerity, and could do so only because the false remedies they prescribed were happily incapable of application. Little Englandism, if that unfortunate term may be used to describe an essential and inevitable phase of imperial expansion, was the creed of all but one or two of the most capable and daring statesmen of the mid-Victorian age.

Strangely enough, while they had exhausted the materials for their argument so far as these lay in Britain, they had all failed to regard the one really important factor in the situation--the inclinations of the Canadian people. For the connection of Britain with Canada depended less on what the ministers of the Crown thought of Canada than on what the Canadians thought of their mother country.

[1] In Fenwick (Scotland), the Improvement of Knowledge Society discussed Canadian affairs on 1 January, 1839, when James Taylor proposed the sentiment, "The speedy success of the Canadian struggle for emanc.i.p.ation from British thraldom." The toast, according to the minute book, was enthusiastically honoured.

[2] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 1 November, 1851.

[3] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 11 May, 1849.

[4] Allin and Jones, _Annexation, Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity_, Chap. IX.

[5] _Responsible Government for the Colonies, London_, 1840. See the extract made by Wakefield in his _View of the Art of Colonization_, p.

279.

[6] _The Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor, pa.s.sim._

[7] _Ibid._ ii. pp. 302-3.

[8] Leslie Stephen, _Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen_, p. 49. "On the appointment of a Governor-general of Canada, shortly before his resignation of office, he observes in a diary, that it is not unlikely to be the last that will ever be made."

[9] Wakefield, _Art of Colonization_, p. 317.

[10] _Ibid._ pp. 312-3.

[11] Froude, _Early Life of Carlyle_, ii. p. 446.

[12] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 65.

[13] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 37.

[14] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 98.

[15] I am inclined to accept John Stuart Mill's account of the authors.h.i.+p--"written by Charles Buller, partly under the influence of Wakefield."

[16] Quoted by Hincks in _A Lecture on the Political History of Canada_, p. 9.

[17] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, pp. 414-15.

[18] _Lord Durham's Report_ (Lucas), ii. p. 280.

[19] See an admirable discussion of the point in Lucas's edition of the _Report_, i. p. 146 and ii. p. 281.

[20] _Ibid._ ii. p. 282.

[21] A speech by Charles Buller in _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.

[22] Arthur to Normanby, 21 August, 1839.

[23] _Ibid._ 15 October, 1839.

[24] Protest of the Duke of Wellington against the Third Reading of a bill, etc., 13 July, 1840.

[25] Parker, _Life of Sir Robert Peel_, iii. pp. 382-3.

[26] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 June, 1845.

[27] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.

[28] Gladstone's speech in Hansard, 14 June, 1849.

[29] Parker, _Life of Sir Robert Peel_, iii. p. 389.

[30] _Hansard_, 4 March, 1853.

[31] _Memoirs of an Ex-Minister_, i. p. 344: Disraeli to Malmesbury, 13 August, 1852.

[32] _The Speeches of the Earl of Beaconsfield_, ii. p. 530.

[33] _Hansard_, 9 March, 1876. The whole speech is an admirable example of Disraeli's gift of irresponsible paradox.

[34] _Hansard_, 3 June, 1839.

[35] _Ibid._ 30 May, 1844.

[36] _Hansard_, 16 January, 1838.

[37] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, pp. 339-40.

[38] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, pp. 339-40.

[39] The reference is to the Rebellion Losses Act riots.

[40] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 8 August, 1849.

[41] _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.

[42] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 18 May, 1849.

[43] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 6 April, 1849.

[44] Earl Grey to Sir John Harvey, 3 November, 1846.

[45] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.

[46] Grey, _Colonial Policy_, i. p. 25.