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CHAPTER XIII
CONFEDERATION

The political system which existed in British America before the union of the two provinces was in a high degree inconvenient. There were, in all, six colonies – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and the two Canadas. They were the subjects of the same Monarch, but they possessed no other bond of union. Their interests were often in conflict; their laws and customs differed widely; each had its own currency; each maintained its own custom-house, to tax or to exclude the products of the others. They were without any bond of union, excepting that which the common sovereignty of England supplied; and they were habitually moved by jealousies and antipathies, which were more powerful to divide than this was to unite. Along their frontiers lay the territory of prosperous States, living under a political system which bound them together by community of interest, while it adequately preserved and guaranteed the free individual action of each. The success of confederation, as seen on the vast arena of the United States, silently educated the British settlements for the adoption of that political system which alone met the necessities of their position.

The union of Upper and Lower Canada was the largest progress then possible in the direction of removing the evils which prevailed. This union closed some of the most injurious of existing divisions, and allowed a more rapid development of the national resources than had been previously experienced. But the permanent form of Canadian government had not yet been reached. The difference of race and interest still operated to mar the harmonious action of the united Legislature. The childish jealousy of the imperfectly reconciled sections led, among other evils, to wasteful expenditure; for no grant of money could be voted for necessary public works to either section without an equal grant being made needlessly to the other. At the time of the union, an equality in number of representatives was accepted as just to both provinces. But Upper Canada increased more rapidly than the sister province, and in ten years contained a larger population. 1857 A.D. A demand arose for representation according to population, and without regard to the division of provinces. This proposal was keenly opposed in Lower Canada, as a violation of the terms of union. It was as keenly pressed in the western province; it became the theme of much fervid eloquence, and for a time the rallying cry at elections. The leader of this movement was George Brown – a Scotchman and Presbyterian, a man of great ability and energy, and an earnest reformer of abuses. It was the hope of Mr. Brown and his followers, that by gaining the parliamentary majority, to which Upper Canada was now by her numbers entitled, they would frustrate the demand for sectarian schools, and would equip completely a common-school system for the whole of both provinces. Still further, Upper Canada would control the revenue, and by useful public works would develop the resources of the great North-West.

The controversy was bitter and exasperating, and resulted in nothing more than a deepened feeling that some important modification of existing arrangements had become indispensable. 1860 A.D. Mr. Brown gave expression to the opinion now widely entertained in Upper Canada, in two resolutions, which he invited the Legislature to accept. These asserted that the union, from difference of origin, local interest, and other causes, had proved a failure; and suggested, as the only remedy, the formation of local governments for the care of sectional interests, and the erection of a joint authority for the regulation of concerns which were common to all. In this form the proposal of a confederated government, following as closely as possible the model of the United States, was placed before the country. The idea was not new. 1822 1839 A.D. Once it had been recommended by the Colonial Office; once by Lord Durham, during his rule as Governor-General. Often in seasons of political difficulty it had been the hope of embarrassed statesmen. But the time had not yet come, and Mr. Brown’s resolutions were rejected by large majorities.

The succeeding years were unquiet and even alarming. Political passion rose to an extreme degree of violence. The mutual hatred of parties was vehement and unreasoning. Every question with which the Legislature had to deal was the arena on which a furious battle must needs be waged. The opposing parties met in fiery conflict over the construction of railways, over the tariff, over the defence of the colony against a possible invasion by the Americans, over the proposed confederation, over every detail of the policy of Government. The public interests suffered; the natural progress of the colony was frustrated by these unseemly dissensions. At length the leaders of the contending factions became weary of strife. 1864 A.D. George Brown, on behalf of the reforming party, wisely offered terms of peace to his opponents. A coalition Government was formed, with the express design of carrying out a confederation of the two Canadas, with a provision for the reception of the other provinces and of the North-West Territory. The new Cabinet entered promptly upon the task which it had undertaken. October, 1864 A.D. Within a few weeks there met in Quebec for conference on this momentous question thirty-three men, representing the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. They met in private, and discussed for seventeen days the details of a union which should harmonize and promote the interests of all. The desired reconciliation was not easily attained; for each province estimated with natural exaggeration the advantages which it brought into the confederation, and sought a higher position than the others were willing to concede. But in the end a scheme of union was framed, and the various Governments pledged themselves that they would spare no effort to secure its adoption by the Legislatures. A party of resistance arose, and years of debate ensued. But time fought on the side of union. The evils of the existing political system became increasingly apparent in the light thrown by incessant discussion. The separated provinces were weak for purposes of defence; their commerce was strangled by the restrictive duties which they imposed on one another. United, they would form a great nation, possessing a magnificent territory, inhabited by an intelligent and industrious people; formidable to assailants; commanding a measure of respect to which they had hitherto been strangers; with boundless capabilities of increase opening to all their industrial interests.

1866 A.D. Under the growing influence of views such as these, the confederation of the provinces was at length resolved on by the Legislatures of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; and in the following year a Royal Proclamation announced the union of these provinces into one Dominion, which was styled Canada. A little later, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were received into the union. Newfoundland refused to join her sister States, and still maintains her independent existence.

Under the constitution which the Dominion now received, executive power is vested in the Queen, and administered by her representative, the Governor-General. This officer is aided and advised by a Privy Council, composed of the heads of the various great departments of State. The Senate is composed of seventy-eight members appointed by the Crown, and holding office for life. The House of Commons consists of two hundred and six members. These are chosen by the votes of citizens possessing a property qualification, the amount of which varies in the different provinces. Canada gives the franchise to those persons in towns who pay a yearly rent of £6, and to those not in towns who pay £4; New Brunswick demands the possession of real estate valued at £20, or an annual income of £80; and Nova Scotia is almost identical in her requirements. The duration of Parliament is limited to five years, and its members receive payment. The Parliament of the Dominion regulates the interests which are common to all the provinces; each province has a Lieutenant-Governor and a Legislature for the guidance of its own local affairs. Entire freedom of trade was henceforth to exist between the provinces which composed the Canadian nation.

CHAPTER XIV
THE MARITIME PROVINCES

On the outer margin of the great bay into which the waters of the St. Lawrence discharge themselves, there lie certain British provinces which had till now maintained their colonial existence apart from the sister States of the interior. The oldest and most famous of these was Nova Scotia – the Acadie of the French period – within whose limits the Province of New Brunswick had been included. Northwards, across the entrance to the bay, was the island of Newfoundland. The Gulf Stream, moving northwards its vast currents of heated water, meets here an ice-cold stream descending from the Arctic Sea, and is turned eastward towards the coasts of Europe. The St. Lawrence deposits here the accumulations of silt which its waters have disengaged in their lengthened course, and forms great banks which stretch for many hundreds of miles out into the ocean. These banks are the haunt of icebergs escaping from the frozen North; perpetual fogs clothe them in gloom. But they offer to man wealth such as he cannot elsewhere win from the sea. The fisheries of the Newfoundland Banks were the earliest inducement which led Europeans to frequent those seemingly inhospitable shores. The Maritime Provinces were more easily accessible than Canada, for they abounded in commodious inlets where ships could enter and lie secure. They were placed at the difficult entrance to the St. Lawrence valley, and their value was more immediately apparent. Their possession was keenly contended for, at a time when England had not made up her mind to seek, and France scarcely cared to retain, the interior of the northern continent.

The Cabots were the first Europeans who looked upon the rugged shores of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and England therefore claimed those regions as her own. But France actually took possession of the Acadian peninsula. Small settlements were founded here and there, and a profitable trade in furs was carried on with the Indians, who came from great distances on the mainland to acquire the attractive wares which the white men offered. During its first century Acadie had an unquiet life. England would allow the poor colonists no repose. During those periods – and they constantly recurred – when the two great European powers were at war, the roving ships of England were sure to visit the feeble Acadian settlements, bringing ruin, sudden and deep. The colonists of Massachusetts or of distant Virginia, now grown strong, did not wait for the pretext of war, but freely invaded Acadie even during the intervals of peace. The French incautiously provoked the resentment of their Indian neighbours, and the treacherous savages exacted bloody vengeance for their wrongs. And as if foreign hostility were not sufficient, civil wars raged among the Acadians. At one unhappy time there were rival governors in Acadie, with battles, sieges, massacres of Frenchmen by French hands. But even these miseries did not prevent some measure of growth. Before Acadie finally passed away from France, there were twenty thousand Frenchmen engaged in its fisheries and its fur trade.

1713 A.D. A hundred years after the first French settlement on the Acadian peninsula, there came to a close, in the reign of Queen Anne, the desolating war against Louis XIV., which King William had deemed essential to the welfare of Europe. England, as was her practice at such seasons, had possessed herself of Acadie. Hitherto she had been accustomed to restore Acadie at the close of each war. Now she determined to retain it; and exhausted France submitted, by the treaty of Utrecht, to the loss. Acadie became Nova Scotia; Port Royal became Annapolis, in honour of the English Queen. Cape Breton, an island adjoining Acadie on the north, was suffered to remain a French possession; and here France hastened, at vast expense, to build and fortify Louisburg, for the protection of her American trade. Thirty years later, the English besieged and took Louisburg. France strove hard, but vainly, to regain a fortress the loss of which shook her hold of all her American possessions. A great fleet sailed from France to achieve this conquest. But evil fortune attended it from the outset. The English captured some of the ships; tempest wrecked or scattered the others. Fresh efforts invited new disasters; the attempt to repossess Louisburg was closed by the destruction or capture of an entire French fleet. But France had fought more successfully in India, and when the terms of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle came to be adjusted, she received back Louisburg in exchange for Madras. 1748 A.D. It remained in her possession for ten years more, and then passed finally away from her, along with all the rest of her American territory.

The first care of England, when Nova Scotia became decisively hers, was to provide herself with a fortified harbour and naval station adequate to the wants of her extended dominion. Her ships in large numbers frequented those Western waters, intent upon the protection of her own interests and the overthrow of the interests of France. Some well-defended and easily-accessible position was required, where fleets could rendezvous, where ships could refit, from which the possessions of France in the north and of Spain in the south could be menaced. A site was chosen on the eastern shore of the island, where a magnificent natural harbour opens to the sea. Here, on a lofty slope, arose the town of Halifax, the great centre of British naval influence on the American coast. 1749 A.D. Four thousand adventurers arrived from England, tempted by liberal offers of land. During the months of one brief summer, houses were built, and defences were erected against unfriendly neighbours. The forest trees of that lovely hill-side disappeared, and in their place arose a busy English town.

The Indians of Nova Scotia did not look with approval upon the occupation of their territory by the English. They lurked in the woods around Halifax, or they stole silently along by night in their light canoes, and as they found fitting opportunity they plundered and slew. Once they burst upon the sleeping crews of two vessels lying in the harbour, murdering some, and carrying away others to be sold to the French at Louisburg. England held the Frenchmen of the province responsible for these outrages. The Acadians were a simple, light-hearted people, living contentedly in the rude comfort which the harvest of sea and of land yielded to them. But they did not at once assent to the revolution which handed them over to a foreign power, and they refused to swear allegiance to the English King. The Governor dealt very sternly with these reluctant subjects. 1755 A.D. He gathered up as many as he could find, and having crowded them on board his ships, he scattered them among the southern English colonies. He burned their houses, he confiscated their goods. Nearly one-half of the Acadians were thus sent forcibly away from homes which were rightfully their own. Of the others, some escaped into the woods, and finally into Canada. Many perished under this cruel treatment, and nearly all fell from comparative ease and comfort into extreme wretchedness.

For some years Nova Scotia was without any semblance of representative government, contenting herself with the mild despotism of the Governor. At length, when this arrangement ceased to give satisfaction, an Assembly chosen by the people met in Halifax. Henceforth Nova Scotia enjoyed the privilege of self-government, and her political history runs for the most part parallel with that of Canada. 1758 A.D. She had the same prolonged conflict with the Governor in regard to control of the revenue, the same grievance of a despotic family compact, the same determination that the advisers of the Governor should be responsible to the Assembly. The population was mixed and inharmonious. There were Germans and Dutchmen; there were some remnants of the Acadians who had been permitted to return; there were American loyalists fleeing before triumphant republicanism; there were the English who founded Halifax. Soon, however, the preponderance of the English element was decisive, and Nova Scotia was spared those envenomed dissensions which difference of race originated in the Canadian provinces. At the close of her separate existence Nova Scotia did not embrace with entire cordiality the project of confederation. A strong minority opposed union. But wiser counsels in the end prevailed, and this province, although not without hesitation, cast in her lot with the others.

Nova Scotia has an area equal to rather more than one-half that of Scotland, with a population of four hundred thousand persons; and as nearly all of these are natives of the province, it does not appear that many strangers have recently sought homes upon her soil. The country is beautifully diversified with valley and with hill, and bright with river and with lake. Much of the land is abundantly fertile, and a careful and intelligent system of cultivation is practised. Near the sea-board are vast treasures of coal and iron, of copper and tin. No equal length of coast in any part of the world has been more abundantly supplied with convenient harbours. In a distance of one hundred miles there are no fewer than twelve harbours capable of receiving the largest vessels in the British navy. The salmon rivers of Acadie are second only to those of Scotland. The ocean-fishings are so productive that Nova Scotia exports products of the sea to the annual value of one million sterling.

New Brunswick is the latest born of the American settlements. For many years after the conquest her fertile soil lay almost uncultivated, and her population was nothing more than a few hundred fishermen. It was at the close of the American War of Independence that the era of progress in New Brunswick began. Across the frontier, in the New England States, were many persons who had fought in the British ranks, to perpetuate a system of government which their neighbours had agreed to reject as tyrannical and injurious. These men were now regarded with aversion, as traitors to the great cause. Finding life intolerable amid surroundings so uncongenial, they shook from their feet the dust of the revolted provinces, and moved northwards with their families in quest of lands which were still ruled by monarchy. Five thousand came in one year. They came so hastily, and with so little provision for their own wants, that they must have perished, but for the timely aid of the Government. 1785 A.D. But their presence added largely to the importance of New Brunswick, which was now dissociated from Nova Scotia, and erected into a separate province. At this time, when she attained the dignity of an administration specially her own, her population was only six thousand, scattered over an area nearly equal to that of Scotland. But her soil was fertile; she abounded in coal and in timber; her fisheries were inexhaustibly productive. Her progress was not unworthy of the advantages with which Nature had endowed her. In twenty years her inhabitants had doubled. In half a century the struggling six thousand had increased to one hundred and fifty thousand. To-day the population of New Brunswick exceeds three hundred thousand. This rate of increase, although the numbers dealt with are not large, is greatly higher than that of the United States themselves. In the treaty by which England recognized the independence of her thirteen colonies, the boundary of New Brunswick and of Maine was fixed carelessly and unskilfully. It was defined to be, on the extreme east, a certain river St. Croix. Westward from the source of that river it was a line drawn thence to the highlands, dividing the waters which flow to the Atlantic from those which flow to the St. Lawrence. The records even of diplomacy would be searched in vain for an agreement more fertile in misunderstanding. The negotiators were absolutely ignorant of the country whose limits they were appointed to fix. Especially were they unaware that the devout Frenchmen who first settled there were accustomed to set up numerous crosses along the coast, and that the name La Croix was in consequence given to many rivers. In a few years it was found that the contracting powers differed as to the identity of the river St. Croix. The Americans applied the name to one stream, the British to another. That portion of the controversy was settled in favour of Britain. But a more serious difficulty now rose to view. The powers differed as to the locality of the “highlands” designated by the treaty, and a “disputed territory” of twelve thousand square miles lay between the competing boundary-lines. For sixty years angry debate raged over this territory, and the strife at one period came to the perilous verge of actual war. The people of New Brunswick exercised the privilege of felling timber on the disputed territory. 1839 A.D. The Governor of Maine sent an armed force to expel the intruders, and called out ten thousand militiamen to assert the rights of America. The Governor of New Brunswick replied by sending two regiments, with a competent artillery. Nova Scotia voted money and troops. But the time had passed when it was possible for England and America to fight in so light a quarrel as this. Lord Ashburton was sent out by England; Daniel Webster, on the part of America, was appointed to meet him. 1842 A.D. The dispute was easily settled by assigning seven thousand square miles to America and five thousand to New Brunswick.

Newfoundland was the earliest of the British settlements on the northern shores of America, and it was also, down to a late period, the most imperfectly known. Even from the time of its discovery by Cabot the value of its fisheries was perceived. English fishing-vessels followed their calling on the Newfoundland coast during the reign of Henry VIII., and the trade then begun was never interrupted. England had always asserted proprietary rights over the island; but she did not at first attempt to enforce exclusive possession of its shores, and the ships of all European nations were at liberty to fish without obstruction. But the vast importance of those fisheries became more and more apparent. It was not merely or chiefly the liberal gain which the traffic yielded. Of yet greater account was the circumstance that the fisheries were a nursery in which was trained a race of hardy and enterprising sailors, capable of upholding the honour of the English flag. A century after Cabot’s voyage, the sovereignty of Newfoundland and the exclusive right to fish on its shores were claimed for England; and the claim was enforced by the confiscation of certain foreign ships, which were peacefully returning home, laden with the gains of a successful season.

About the middle of the seventeenth century there were upon the island three hundred and fifty families, scattered in fifteen or sixteen petty settlements. By this time the persons who resorted to the fisheries had become sensitively alive to the preservation of the trade, and looked with disfavour upon the increase of a permanent population. They were able to obtain from the reckless Government of Charles II. an order that the settlers should depart from the island; and the barbarous edict was enforced by burning down the houses and wasting the fields of the inhabitants.

It was not England alone to which the fisheries of Newfoundland were of value. France was equally in earnest in her desire to gain control of the coveted territory. 1696 A.D. She had one or two small settlements, and she had been able by one happy stroke to gain possession of the whole island. The triumph, however, was not enduring, for England speedily reclaimed all that she had lost. 1713 A.D. By the treaty of Utrecht, when Louis XIV. was reduced by the victorious arms of Marlborough to the last extremity of exhaustion, France ceded to England all her claims upon Newfoundland; preserving still, however, her right to participate in the fisheries.

Down almost to the close of last century Newfoundland was without any proper government or administration of justice. England would not recognize the island as a colony, but persisted in regarding it as a mere fishery. The substitute for government was probably the rudest device which has ever been adopted by any civilized country. 1690 A.D. The master of the fishing-vessel which arrived first on the coast was the “Admiral” for the season, charged with the duty of maintaining order among the crews of the other ships, governing the island from the deck of his vessel. The great industry of Newfoundland – her fisheries – was always prosperous, and yielded large gains to the mother-country. But her infant settlements struggled up to strength and importance in the face of many discouragements, which were negligently or wilfully inflicted.

The area of Newfoundland is equal to two-thirds that of England and Wales, and her population is one hundred and fifty thousand. For three hundred and fifty years after Cabot’s discovery the interior of the island had never been explored by Europeans, and was wholly unknown, excepting to a few Indian hunters. Only so recently as 1822 an adventurous traveller accomplished for the first time a journey across the island. The enterprise was attended with much difficulty and some danger. The country was found to be rugged and broken. Innumerable lakes and marshes opposed the traveller’s progress, and imposed tedious deviations from his course. The journey occupied two months, during which the traveller and his Indian companions were obliged to subsist by the chase. No traces of cultivation were discovered, and no inhabitants. The natives of Newfoundland were the only race of American savages who persistently refused to enter into relations with the white men. They maintained to the end a hostile attitude, and were shot down and finally exterminated as opportunity offered.

Newfoundland has on her western coast, and along the valleys through which her rivers flow, some tracts of rich land on which grain might be grown. She has, too, much good pasturage; and although her winters are long and severe, her brief summer has heat enough to ripen many varieties of fruit and vegetables. She has coal, iron, and limestone. Her savage inhabitants fed on the flesh of deer, which wandered in vast herds in the woods; and they clothed themselves in the rich furs of bears, wolves, beavers, and other wild creatures. The first settlers found the noble Newfoundland dog living in a very debased condition – hunting in packs, and manifesting tendencies not superior to those of the wolf. But his higher nature made him amenable to civilizing influences, and he quickly rose to be the trusted companion and friend of man.