3. That in order to preserve between the different branches of the Provincial Parliament that harmony which is essential to the peace, welfare and good Government of the Province the chief advisers of the representative of the Sovereign, constituting a Provincial administration under him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence of the representatives of the people, thus affording a guarantee that the well understood wishes and interests of the people, which our Gracious Sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the Provincial Government, will, on all occasions, be faithfully represented and advocated.

4. That the people of this Province have, moreover, a right to expect from such Provincial Administration, the exertion of their best endeavours that the Imperial authority, within its constitutional limits shall be exercised in the manner most consistent with their well understood wishes and interests.

CLX

METCALFE TO STANLEY1

[Trans.: J. W. Kaye, Selections from the Papers of Lord Metcalfe, pp. 411

ff., London 1855.]

August 5, 1843.

My Lord,-Regarding Lord Sydenham as the fabricator of the frame of government now existing in this province, I have read his despatches to her Majesty's Secretary of State with attention, in search of some explanation of the precise view with which he gave to the local executive administration its present form; or of any clear understanding which he authorized the colony to entertain on the mooted question of Responsible Government. I find that in the early portion of his despatches, whenever the notion of Responsible Government is alluded to, in the sense in which it is here understood, he scouts it. There are some remarkable passages in his letters from Halifax, or about the time of his mission to Nova Scotia, which indicate decisively his view of that question. In speaking of a vote of want of confidence passed in the Legislative Assembly of that province, with regard to a member or members of the Executive Council, he reprobates such a vote as unconstitutional. He does not entertain the same opinion of a petition from the House to her Majesty for the removal of the Governor. This proceeding he regards as the constitutional mode by which a colony may express its disapprobation of the administration of the government, and seek redress against the measures of the Governor. Nothing could more clearly define his view of the responsibility of a colonial Government, which evidently was, that the Governor is the responsible Government; that his subordinate executive officers are responsible to him, not to the Legislative Assembly; and that he is responsible to the Ministers of the Crown, and liable to appeals from the colony against his proceedings; it being, at the same time, incumbent on him to consult local feelings, and not to persist in employing individuals justly obnoxious to the community.

Regarding this as the view taken of the question by Lord Sydenham, it is beyond measure surprising that he adopted the very form of administration that was most assuredly calculated to defeat that purpose, and to produce or confirm the notion of Responsible Government which he had before reprobated; that is, the responsibility of the executive officers of the Government to the popular Legislative Assembly. In composing his Council of the principal executive officers under his authority, in requiring that they should all be members of the Legislature, and chiefly of the popular branch, and in making their tenure of office dependent on their commanding a majority in the body representing the people, he seems to me to have

1 Metcalfe's despatch illustrates the breaking down of Sydenham's system of "responsible government.' Kaye's note is reprinted at the end of the despatch. For Metcalfe's government, see J. C. Dent, Canada Since the Union of 1841 (Toronto, n. d.); and E. Gibbon Wakefield, (?) View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada (1844).

ensured, with the certainty of cause and effect, that the Council of the Governor should regard themselves as responsible, not so much to the Governor as to the House of Assembly. In adopting the very form and practice of the Home Government, by which the principal Ministers of the Crown form a Cabinet, acknowledged by the nation as the executive administration, and themselves acknowledging responsibility to Parliament, he rendered it inevitable that the Council here should obtain and ascribe to themselves, in at least some degree, the character of a Cabinet of Ministers. If Lord Sydenham did not intend this, he was more mistaken than from his known ability one would suppose to be possible; and if he did intend it, he, with his eyes open, carried into practice that very theory of Responsible Colonial Government which he had pronounced his opinion decidedly against.

I cannot presume to account for this apparent inconsistency otherwise than by supposing either that he had altered his opinion when he formed his Council after the union of the two provinces, or that he yielded against his own conviction to some necessity which he felt himself unable to resist. His despatches do not furnish any explanation as to which of these influences he acted under; at least, I have not discovered in his latter despatches any opinion on the subject on which he had previously declared his decision against the theory, which he practically carried into effect, by avowedly making the tenure of office dependent on the support of a majority in the popular branch of the Legislature.

It is understood that he was little accustomed to consult his Council, and that he conducted his administration according to his own judgment. His reputation for ability stands very high in this country; but it is believed that he could not have carried on his Government much longer without being forced to yield to the pressure of the Legislative Assembly on his Executive Council. Before the commencement of the first session of the Parliament of Canada, the only session of the united province that he lived, or ever intended, to go through, he was threatened with a vote of want of confidence against a part of his Council-the very vote which he had pronounced to be unconstitutional. This was averted during that session by a division in the Reform party, but the session, I am informed, was scrambled through with difficulty, the majorities reckoned on in support of the Government on some questions not exceeding one voice, and there not being in every instance even that. The first week of the session was occupied in extorting from the members of the Council an avowal of their responsibility to the majority, according to the popular construction of Responsible Government. The vote of want of confidence was averted in that session only to be brought forward in the next, when, as is known, the dread of it operated with decisive effect.

I dwell on Lord Sydenham's administration because it has had most important influence, which is likely to be permanent, on the subsequent government of this province. He established, among the last acts of his administration, what is here called Responsible Government, and left the problem of the success of that system in Colonial Government to be solved by futurity. It may have been that to carry the measures which he had immediately at heart he could not avoid what he adopted.

The term Responsible Government, now in general use in this colony', was derived, I am told, from the marginal notes of Lord Durham's report. Previously to the publication of that document, the Democratic party in Upper Canada had been struggling for a greater share than they possessed in the administration of the Government of the country; but they had no precise name for the object of their desires, and could not exactly define their views. Lord Durham's report gave them the definition, and the words Irresponsible Government, Responsibility of the Government, Responsibility of the Officers of the Government, occurring repeatedly in the marginal notes, it is said furnished the name. From that time "Responsible Govern

1 On May 14, 1829, however, a petition signed by over two thousand inhabitants of Upper Canada was presented to the House of Commons asking for "a local responsible ministry.”

ment" became the war-cry of the party. Lord Sydenham, on his arrival in Upper Canada, had to encounter or submit to this demand. One of his objects was to win the Reform party, the name assumed by the party in question, and they could only be won by the belief on their part that Responsible Government was to be conceded. In fact, Lord Sydenham, whether intending it or not, did concede it practically by the arrangements which he adopted, although the full extent of the concession was not so glaringly manifested during his administration as in that of his successor.'

There appears to me to have been a great difference between the sort of Responsible Government intended by Lord Durham and that carried into effect by Lord Sydenham. On examining Lord Durham's report in search of what may be supposed to have been his plan, I find that he proposes that all officers of the Government except the Governor and his secretary should be responsible to the United Legislature; and that the Governor should carry on his government by heads of departments, in whom the United Legislature repose confidence. All this might be done without impairing the powers of usefulness of the Governor. If the secretary who issued the Governor's orders were not responsible to the Legislature, there would be a great difference from the present arrangement under which the provincial administration generally is carried on through secretaries professedly so responsible. The general responsibility of heads of departments, acting under the orders of the Governor, each distinctly in his own department, might exist without the destruction of the former authority of her Majesty's Government. In this scheme there is no mention of the combination of these officers in a Council, to act bodily with the character of a Cabinet, so as manifestly to impair the powers of the responsible head of the Government. Lord Durham's general conception does not seem to have been, formed into a distinct plan, and when he says that the responsibility to the Legislature of "all officers of the Government except the Governor and his secretary should be secured by every means known to the British constitution," he does not explain by what means this should be done; and it is by the means of doing it that the plan must be most materially affected.

Lord Sydenham realised the conception in the way most calculated to weaken the authority of the Governor, and render the responsibility of the officers of the Government to the popular branch of the Legislature complete, by transacting the business of the province through the provincial secretaries, and making them and all the heads of departments a Council responsible to the Legislature, and holding their seats by the voice of the majority. As far as Lord Sydenham's despatches show, this was an optional and spontaneous arrangement on his part, although clearly opposed in its natural consequences to the sentiments which he had previously expressed.

Lord Sydenham's policy in Upper Canada was to win the party calling themselves Reformers, to crush the party called the Family Compact, and to form a Council of the moderate men of the Reform and Conservative parties. In the two former of these objects he succeeded. In the latter he must be said to have failed, for, although the Council so formed struggled through one short session of the Legislature, it could not meet, or was afraid to meet, the threatened storm in the next, and was broken up, the Conservative portion retiring to make way for the French party, and what was considered the extreme Democratic, or Reform party.

Lord Sydenham's policy in Lower Canada had been to subdue the French party. In this he failed. They remained compact and exceedingly embittered against Lord Sydenham. They united themselves with the extreme Democratic party; these were strangely joined by the extreme Conservative party; and this combination overthrew Lord Sydenham's Council, which had been previously recruited by Sir Charles Bagot, with accessions from both the Conservative and the Reform parties.

By these manoevres the French and Reform parties became united, the Conservatives were thrown into a minority, and the ultra-Conservatives, 1 Sir Charles Bagot.

who had aided in bringing about this change, were dropped by their recent allies, in accordance with the terms of their alliance, which was only for offensive war against the Council.

The result of this struggle naturally increased the conviction that Responsible Government was effectually established. New councillors were forced on the Governor-General, to at least one of whom he had a decided antipathy. The Council was no longer selected by the Governor. It was thrust on him by the Assembly of the people. Some of the new members of the Council had entered it with extreme notions of the supremacy of the Council over the Governor-that is, of the necessity of his conforming to their advice on all matters, great or small; and the illness of Sir Charles Bagot after this change threw the current business of administration almost entirely into their hands, which tended to confirm these notions. Subsequent experience has, I hope, modified these impressions, and produced a more correct estimate of the relative position of the Governor and the Council; but it is obvious that the existence of a Council, in reality appointed and maintained by a majority in the popular branch of the Legislature, must tend to impair the power and influence of the Governor. Whether this, in the end, will operate advantageously for the colony and the mother country, time alone can positively show. I am disposed to think that its immediate effects are injurious, presuming, as I do, that whatever good it may seem to effect might have been produced in another way.

One evil of this kind of Responsible Government is, that it tends to produce the government of a party. The Governor may oppose himself to this, but will hardly be able to do so effectually. The Council will be apt to think more of securing their own position than of cordially co-operating in the accomplishment of his wishes. Their recommendations in matters of patronage, which in the relations existing between them and the Governor are likely to be often attended to, even without admitting their claim to a monopoly, will be almost always in favour of partisans. Their supporters look to them for the exclusive bestowal of places of emoluments, and threaten openly to withdraw their support from them if they do not favour their views. To maintain the majority by which they hold office will be with them a primary concern; such, at least, is the tendency of the circumstances of their position, without supposing the total absence of higher and better motives.

Without a Council so circumstanced, a Governor, acknowledging the propriety and necessity of conducting his government according to the interests and wishes of the people, and of conciliating and winning the Legislature—and this might have been made a rule for the guidance of Governors never to be departed from-might render his administration of the government satisfactory to all parties, and obtain an influence conducive to the preservation of affectionate relations between the mother country and the colony, and to the welfare and interests of both. Under the existing system, the Governor, it appears to me, is not likely to obtain influence. If he and his Council are cordially united, he becomes, either in reality or to appearance, a partisan, without any reason for his being so. The credit of all the good that he may do will be assumed by them, or ascribed to them, by their party. All that may be considered evil by the other party he will have the discredit of allowing. If he evinces any disposition to conciliate the other party, he becomes an object of distrust to his Council and their party. Their interests and his, and with his those of her Majesty's Government, are always distinct; for they have their interests as a party to guard, which must be distinct from those of her Majesty's Government, as well as from any which the Governor may personally feel with respect to the credit of his administration.

I will endeavour to describe my own position. I am not perfectly satisfied with my Council, chiefly because they are under the influence of party views, and would, if they could, drag me on with them in the same course. The only effectual remedy would be to dismiss them, or such of them as are most in the extreme on this point, and form another Council.

But the consequence to be expected would be, that a cry would be raised accusing me of hostility to Responsible Government. The new Council would not be able to stand against a majority in the popular branch of the Legislature, and I should either be obliged to take back those whom I had dismissed, with a sort of disgrace to myself injurious to the efficiency of my government, or be in a continual warfare with a majority in the House of Assembly that would render my presence here of no benefit to her Majesty's service. Such a contest I would neither shrink from nor yield to, if it became my duty to encounter it; but it is so desirable to avoid it, that it would require strong grounds to justify its being wilfully incurred.

My objects are to govern the country for its own welfare, and to engage its attachment to the parent State. For these purposes it is my wish to conciliate all parties; and although this might be difficult, I do not perceive that it would be impracticable, if the Governor were free to act thoroughly in that spirit; but the accomplishment of that wish seems almost impossible when the Governor is trammelled with a Council deeming it necessary for their existence that their own party alone should be considered. Sooner than abandon myself as a partisan to such a course, I would dismiss the Council and take the consequences; but it is scarcely possible to avoid the influence of party spirit in an administration in which every adviser and every executive officer is guided by it; and the chief difficulty of my position, I conceive, is to act according to my own sense of what is right, and in opposition to this party spirit, without thereby breaking with the Council and the majority that at present support them. The form of administration adopted by Lord Sydenham appears to me to have put heavy shackles on any Governor who means to act with prudence, and would not recklessly incur the consequences of a rupture with the majority in the popular Assembly. The meeting of the Legislature will probably enable me to see my position more clearly. It is at present far from certain that a change of councillors would produce any beneficial alteration in respect to the difficulty noticed, for any Council appointed on the principle of Canada Responsible Government would most probably have similar party views, and the same pressure on them from their partisans.

It becomes a question whether Party Government can be avoided The experiment of Responsible Government in this colony hitherto would indicate that it cannot. It seems to be inevitable in free and independent States where Responsible Government exists; and the same causes are likely to produce similar effects everywhere; but there is a wide difference between an independent State and a colony. In an independent State all parties must generally desire the welfare of the State. In a colony subordinate to an Imperial Government, it may happen that the predominant party is hostile in its feelings to the mother country, or has ulterior views inconsistent with her interests. In such a case, to be obliged to co-operate with that party, and to permit party government to crush those who are best affected, would be a strange position for the mother country to be placed in, and a strange part for her to act. This ought to have been well considered before the particular system which has obtained the name of Responsible Government was established. It is now, perhaps, too late to remedy the evil. I have supposed an extreme and possible case without intending to apply the description to the state of parties in this colony. I trust that it is in a great degree inapplicable. It is nevertheless so far applicable, that the party always known as the British Party in this province is now in the minority. It will be my study to make all parties contented and happy; but that part of my task, I fear, is hopeless. It will also be my study to promote loyalty to our gracious Sovereign, and attachment to the British Empire. These feelings will be most successfully confirmed by an administration of the government satisfactory to the people, and by a conviction on their minds that their interests are promoted by British connexion. The acts of her Majesty's Government in guaranteeing the loan for public works, and in facilitating the importation of Canada wheat and flour into the United Kingdom, ought to have in this respect a