A COALITION OPPOSITION.

585

of the seignorial tenure. Notwithstanding the action of the Imperial Parliament, not a word was uttered respecting the Clergy Reserves.

The Hincks Administration was at that time, and has been frequently since, condemned for these omissions. Putting off meeting Parliament until June has also been commented on adversely. This, however, must be said, that with Lord Elgin and Mr. Hincks out of the country, Parliament could not very well have met. As to the omissions, it might be pleaded that measures of a political character should not be dealt with by an expiring Parliament, and at a time when an addition to the list of the enfranchised, and an extended representation were imminent.*

A Parliamentary Opposition have one thing in common with the wicked-their tender mercies are cruel; and neither Sir Allan MacNab nor John A. Macdonald, nor George Brown, took this view of the case. The two former drew their Conservative allies up in order of battle, while Mr. Brown with his band of Brownites, brought their aid to the Conservatives, and the Government fell just as Lord Russell's Government had fallen in England two years earlier, before the assaults of the Conservatives, aided by discontented Liberals. The division of the Reform ranks in England put Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli in office for some three hundred days; the split in the Reform ranks in Canada put Sir. John A. Macdonald in power for twenty years.

Mr. Cauchon moved an amendment to the address, condemning the Government for not being prepared to legislate on the seignorial tenure. A short debate followed, after which an amendment of Sicotte's regarding the Clergy Reserves was added to Cauchon's. Ministers were beaten on the 21st June by a majority of thirteen, in a house of seventy one. Mr. Hincks did not resign. He got Lord Elgin to come down next day and prorogue Parliament, though at the eleventh hour Sir Allan MacNab on behalf of the Opposition had offered to return a respectful answer to the ad

*

"Mr. Hincks and his colleagues were of opinion that a material change in the Parliamentary Representation as well as an alteration in the franchise, having been already sanctioned by Parliament, it was inexpedient that any measures of a political character should be dealt with by an expiring Parliament." "Our Portrait Gallery "-Dublin University Magazine, Nov., 1876, p., 539.

dress. "But," says MacMullen, "it was evidently part of Mr. Hincks' policy to force an adverse yote with a view to a dissolution," and his vantage ground once secured he refused to recede from it.

In July the country was deep in the excitement of a general election. Mr. Hincks was returned for two ridings. His colleague, Malcolm Cameron, was beaten by Mr. Brown in Lambton. Among the new members was Robert Spence, an Irishman of an enthusiastic turn of mind, who had some years before made a speech in a somewhat exalted strain on the function of newspapers. He was born in Dublin. He came to Canada early in life and fought his way in several vocations: now an auctioneer; now a schoolmaster; now a newspaper editor and proprietor; without extraneous advantages he won for himself honourable distinction. For many years he ran a paper in Dundas in which he advocated effectively the political principles of Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Hincks.

Another new member was Irish, and was destined to win distinction and display brilliant talent, Michael Hamilton Foley. He was the son of Mr. Foley of Port Colborne, and brother of Bernard Foley, Judge of the County of Haldimand. He was a native of Sligo, where he was born in 1820. He was brought by his father to Canada in 1822. Having become a barrister, he turned his attention to newspaper work, and from 1845 to 1853 divided his time between the Simcoe Advocate, the Norfolk Messenger, and the Brantford Herald. He was now returned for the North Riding of Waterloo. As we shall see he was returned for two constituencies at the general election of 1861, namely, Waterloo and Perth, but he elected to sit for his old seat.

Mr. Spence moved George E. Cartier, the Ministerial candidate for the Speakership, to the Chair. The motion was seconded by François Lemieux. The influence of the Opposition newspapers— all the Conservative, and some of the most rigorous of the Reform -had been felt at the polls.* Antoine A. Dorion proposed Louis Victor Sicotte as Speaker, his seconder being Joseph Hartman. Cartier was defeated by a majority of three. The Ministerial

* The Toronto Leader, a new but able journal, supported the Ministry. But the Globe, the North American, the Examiner, Mackenzie's Messenger, and other Reform journals, were against them.

RESIGNATION OF HINCKS.

587

candidate had, from Lower Canada, a majority of nine, but he was in a minority of twelve as regarded the Ontario vote. The hostile character of the House could hardly be more clearly shown. But the Government thought that the liberal measures they were able to promise would carry them triumphantly through the session. On the 6th of September, the Governor-General opened the Legislature with a Speech, in which he informed Parliament that the Home Government had empowered them to make the Upper House elective. It was desirable that the Reserves and Seignorial tenure should be dealt with, and that the tariff should be remodelled in accordance with the provisions of the Reciprocity Treaty.*

But it soon became evident that Mr. Hincks misjudged the unbending temper of Mr. Brown, and the discipline of his followers. This time the whale was not to be diverted from upsetting the boat by a paltry tub. Dr. Rolph began to "squirm," and to think of resigning. On a question of privilege he voted with the Opposition, and the Government was again beaten. The Hincks Administration had now no course left but to step down and out. The Premier at once tendered his resignation to Lord Elgin.

Sir Allan MacNab was sent for. But though Mr. Hincks was beaten, he was a power in the Assembly. His followers were still larger than either those of MacNab or Brown. Against George Brown they felt the resentment, we feel against friends who have deserted us. The first step, therefore, which Sir Allan MacNab took was to open negotiations with Morin, the leader of the Lower Canadian Conservative Party, which had supported Hincks. "Morin and his friends" says MacMullen, "disliked the section of the Reform Party led by Mr. Brown infinitely more than they did the Conservative Party of Upper Canada, and readily entered into the proposed alliance." Hincks' support was secured on the ground that two gentlemen having his confidence and that of his friends should be taken into the new administration. One of those so taken in was Robert Spence, who became Postmaster General. The Premier, Sir Allan MacNab, was President of the Council and Minister of Agriculture; John A.

* It came into active operation in March, 1855,

Macdonald, Attorney-General West; William Cayley, Finance Minister. The Coalition was displeasing to several Hinckites, who joined Mr. Brown. But notwithstanding, the new Reform Opposition stood in a helpless minority. Here we witness the decease of one Reform party and the birth of another. The new Reform party was not a lineal descendant of the old Reform party. Baldwin was the founder of the first Reform party; George Brown of the second; and as the founders were unlike, so were the parties they founded. MacMullen, writing in 1867, says the new party had never won for itself the prestige of the old one. It made great strides after 1867, and, taking advantage of the faults and follies of the Conservatives, who had been longer in power than was good for them, attained a position of overwhelming strength.

When the new Ministers came back to Parliament, after reelection, they found themselves in the presence of a well-organized Opposition. It was composed of the Rouges led by M. Dorion; of the Extreme Reformers, or, as they were termed "Clear Grits,"t under the leadership of Mr. Brown; of several Moderate Reformers, who regarded John Sandfield Macdonald as their Chief, who aiming to be consistent with party traditions, now refused to aid a Coalition Government in passing most important Reform measures. This was clearly a mistake, even from the point of view of tactics. It gave a factious character to their opposition, and prevented them from reaping the benefit in popularity of these Reform measures. How differently the Liberals in England led by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright acted in 1867.

The Government passed a Bill handing over the Clergy Reserves to certain corporations for secular purposes. The life interests of the clergy were commuted with the consent of the clergy,

*"Mr. Brown had been completely outwitted by the coup d'etat of Sir Allan MacNab, and found himself utterly unable to reap any benefit from the important victory he had, after so much exertion achieved, and at the same time the destruction of the Hincks' Cabinet [which had the support of the Lower Canadian Convention], and the consequent union of the Conservative parties of Upper and Lower Canada, may be regarded as the death-knell of the old Reform party of this country, so long cohesive hitherto, and so formidable under the leadership of Robert Baldwin."-MACMULLEN, p. 526.

+ It will have been seen this name did not originally belong to the Brownites.

CLOSE OF THE IRISH PERIOD.

589

and the foundation of a small permanent endowment made in a manner to which nobody could reasonably object, but which, nevertheless, found objectors among the Opposition. The Seignorial Tenure was abolished; the Grand Trunk Railway Act amended; the Canada Ocean Steamship Company incorporated; and a new Customs Tariff adopted in accordance with the Reciprocity Treaty. On the 11th of December, Parliament was adjourned to the 23rd of February, 1855,

Lord Elgin had experienced the difficulty a Governor finds in times of crisis in carrying out the idea of a constitutional ruler, and contrary to his own principles had identified himself too entirely with one party. Notwithstanding the calm he displayed during the unhappy events which destroyed the hopes of Montreal of being the seat of Government, the indignities he had met with, at as he believed the hands of the Conservative Party, had created prejudice and inspired resentment. He was glad to resign, though fickle popular favour was becoming warmer towards him. His career in Japan and China is well known, and how he fell a victim to the climate of India amid the greatness and splendour of a ruler of its dusky millions.

The curtain has fallen on the Irish period. Mr. Hincks soon followed Lord Elgin to the old country, and sought to forget his disappointments and loss of popularity amid the enchanting beauties of his native land. While thus employed, Sir William Molesworth who knew his great abilities, offered him the appointment of Governor-in-Chief in Barbadoes and the Windward Islands. Having accepted the offer, he came back to Canada, whence he proceeded with his family to the scene of his new duties. He remained at Barbadoes for the full term of six years, with the exception of a brief visit to Canada and England in 1859. In 1861, the Duke of Newcastle promoted him to the Government of British Guinea, where he remained until 1869, when he was created a K. C. M. G. He had previously been created a C. B. Early in 1869, he returned to England. He was then sixty-one years of age, and in his two governorships had well earned the Colonial Governor's pension, which he received on retiring from the Impe-rial service. But his career as a statesman was not yet over.