The struggle for self-government seemed to have ended in deadlock and chaos.Yet under the wreckage new lines of constructive effort were forming.The rebellion had at least proved that the old order was doomed.For half a century the attempt had been made to govern the Canadas as separate provinces and with the half measure of freedom involved in representative government.
For the next quarter of a century the experiment of responsible government together with union of the two provinces was to be given its trial.
The union of the two provinces was the phase of Durham's policy which met fullest acceptance in England.It was not possible, in the view of the British Ministry, to take away permanently from the people of Lower Canada the measure of self-government involved in permitting them to choose their representatives in a House of Assembly.It was equally impossible, they considered, to permit a French-Canadian majority ever again to bring all government to a standstill.The only solution of the problem was to unite the two provinces and thus swamp the French Canadians by an English majority.Lower Canada, Durham had insisted, must be made "an English province." Sooner or later the French Canadians must lose their separate nationality; and it was, he contended, the part of statesmanship to make it sooner.Union, moreover, would make possible a common financial policy and an energetic development of the resources of both provinces.
This was the first task set Durham's successor, Charles Poulett Thomson, better known as Lord Sydenham.Like Durham he was a man of outstanding capacity.The British Government had learned at last to send men of the caliber the emergency demanded.Like Durham he was a wealthy Radical politician, but there the resemblance ended.Where Durham played the dictator, Sydenham preferred to intrigue and to manage men, to win them by his adroitness and to convince them by his energy and his business knowledge.He was well fitted for the transition tasks before him, though too masterful to fill the role of ornamental monarch which the advocates of responsible government had cast for the Governor.
Sydenham reached Canada in October, 1839.With the assistance of James Stuart, now a baronet and Chief Justice of Lower Canada, he drafted a union measure.In Lower Canada the Assembly had been suspended, and the Special Council appointed in its stead accepted the bill without serious demur.More difficulty was found in Upper Canada, where the Family Compact, still entrenched in the Legislative Council, feared the risk to their own position that union would bring and shrank from the task of assimilating half a million disaffected French Canadians.But with the support of the Reformers and of the more moderate among the Family Compact party, Sydenham forced his measure through.A confirming bill passed the British Parliament; and on February 10, 1841, the Union of Canada was proclaimed.
The Act provided for the union of the two provinces, under a Governor, an appointed Legislative Council, and an elective Assembly.In the Assembly each section of the new province was to receive equal representation, though the population of Lower Canada still greatly exceeded that of Upper Canada.The Assembly was to have full control of all revenues, and in return a permanent civil list was granted.Either English or French could be used in debate, but all parliamentary journals and papers were to be printed in English only.** From 1841 to 1867 the whole province was legally known as the "Province of Canada." Yet a measure of administrative separation between the old sections remained, and the terms "Canada East"and "Canada West" received official sanction.The older terms, "Lower Canada" and "Upper Canada," lingered on in popular usage.
In June, 1841, the first Parliament of united Canada met at Kingston, which as the most central point had been chosen as the new capital.Under Sydenham's shrewd and energetic leadership a business programme of long-delayed reforms was put through.Alarge loan, guaranteed by the British Government, made possible extensive provision for building roads, bridges, and canals around the rapids in the St.Lawrence.Municipal institutions were set up, and reforms were effected in the provincial administration.
Lord John Russell in England and Sydenham in Canada were anxious to keep the question of responsible government in the background.
For the first busy months they succeeded, but the new Parliament contained men quite as strong willed as either and of quite other views.Before the first session had begun, Baldwin and the new French-Canadian leader, La Fontaine, had raised the issue and begun a new struggle in which their single-minded devotion and unflinching courage were to attain a complete success.
Responsible government was in 1841 only a phrase, a watchword.
