It May Be Well Here To Place In Contrast The Condition Of The Provinces
In 1861 And Of The Confederation In 1886.
In 1861 each of the five
Provinces had its separate Governor, Parliament, Executive, and system
of taxation.
To all intents and purposes, and notwithstanding the
functions of the Governor-General and the unity flowing from the
control of the British Crown - these Provinces, isolated for want of the
means of rapid transit, were countries as separate in every relation of
business, or of the associations of life, as Belgium and Holland, or
Switzerland and Italy. The associations of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia were far more intimate with the United States than with Canada;
and the whole Maritime Provinces regulated their tariffs, as Canada did
in return, from no consideration of developing a trade with each other,
or with the Canadas, between whose territory and the ocean these
Provinces barred the way. Thus, isolated and divided, it could be no
matter of wonder if their separate political discussions narrowed
themselves into local, sectional, and selfish controversies; and if,
while each possessing in their Legislature men in abundance who
deserved the title of sagacious and able statesmen, brilliant orators,
far-sighted men of business, their debates often reminded the stranger
who listened to them of the squabbles of local town councils. Again,
the Great Republic across their borders, with its obvious future,
offered with open arms, and especially to the young and ambitious, a
noble field, not shut in by winter or divided by separate governments.
Thus the gravitation towards aggregation - which seems to be a condition
of the progress of modern states - a condition to be intensified as
space is diminished by modern discoveries in rapid transit - was, in the
case of the Provinces, rather towards the United States than towards
each other or the British Empire. Thus there were, in 1860, many causes
at work to discourage the idea of Confederation. And it is by no means
improbable that the occurrence of the great Civil War destroyed this
tendency.
I remember an incident which occurred at a little dinner party which I
gave in Montreal, in September, 1861, to the delegates who assembled
there, after my visits, in response to the appeal just made to the
Governments of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on the subject
of the Intercolonial Railway. It illustrates the personal isolation
alluded to above. The Honorable Joseph Howe, then Premier of Nova
Scotia, said, "We have been more like foreigners than fellow-subjects;
you do not know us, and we do not know you. There are men in this room,
who hold the destinies of this half of the Continent in their hands;
and yet we never meet, unless by some chance or other, like the visit
of the Prince of Wales, we are obliged to meet. I say," he added, "we
have done more good by a free talk over this table, to-night, than all
the Governors, general and local, could do in a year, if they did
nothing' but write despatches.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 14 of 259
Words from 6819 to 7330
of 136421
