| Copyright | ||
|
Home The Self-governing Colonies and their History Canada and Newfoundland |
Canada and NewfoundlandIt may be remembered that Canada, by an Act passed in 1791, was divided into two provinces, an Upper and a Lower, each possessing a governor who was nominated by The Canadian the British ministry, a legislative council nominated rebellion, 1837. by the British governor, and an elected assembly. Soon after 1815 discontent with this form of government began to develop, for the assembly had no control over the expenditure or the ministry, and, not unnaturally, desired it. The situation was aggravated owing to the fact that in Upper Canada the offices of state were monopolized by a few families, whilst in Lower Canada there was constant friction between the French and the British colonists, who were, it was said, so hostile to one another " that they only met in the jury-box, and then only to the utter obstruction of justice ". The discontent came to a head in 1837, just after Queen Victoria's accession. In that year there were in both provinces small rebel lions, which, however, were put down without difficulty. But the country was full of unrest, and it seemed, in the words of Peel, that "another Ireland might grow up in every colony which Great Britain possessed ".In 1838, however, Lord Durham was sent out with full powers to deal with the situation.1 Lord Durham, it has been said, was the first British statesman since Chatham who recognized the latent possibilities of the empire, and he was long enough to be able to issue a report which marks an epoch in the history of our colonial policy, In that report he advocated, first, the grant to the colonial assembly of full control in nearly all internal affairs; and secondly, the union of the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. His second proposal was adopted first; and in 1841 these two provinces were joined, and a new constitution drawn up. But Canada did not have to wait long for responsible government; for in 1847 Lord Elgin, Lord Durham's son-in-law, was made governor. He adopted the same position for himself as that which the monarch occupied in the mother country; that is to say, he left to a ministry dependent upon a majority in the popular assembly the responsibility for the conduct of affairs, whilst reserving to himself the right to give advice, and in times of crisis to intervene. With Lord Elgin's seven years' governorship of Canada the self-governing colony became an accomplished fact, and before long the other colonies achieved the same measure of independence. Upper and Lower Canada were united; but it still remained for these two provinces to be federated, first with the maritime The Dominion provinces to the east, and then with the great .territories to the west and north, which had yet to be its growth. The former was accomplished on July, 1867, when the Dominion of Canada was created, federating Ontario and Quebec, as the old Upper and Lower Provinces were called, with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The latter came by slow degrees as the north-west was opened up. In 1870 Canada purchased the vast territories of tb.2 Hudson Bay Company, and formed out of part of them the province of Manitoba, whilst a year later British Columbia was added to the Dominion; and in 1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan were created.1 Into the wonderful development of Canada during recent years it is not our province to enter. The resources of Canada, first perhaps realized owing to the building in the eighties of the Canadian Pacific Railway, offer opportunities of almost illimitable expansion; and of late years the expansion has been proceeding at so rapid a pace that the Dominion of Canada seems destined before long to rival, in population and wealth, its great neighbour the United States. The United States had failed to conquer Canada or to detach her from her allegiance to Great Britain both in 1775 and in 1812; but many Canadians are, rightly or wrongly, of opinion that the supineness and weakness of British statesmen enabled this neighbour unduly states, to curtail Canadian boundaries. There were three important frontier disputes. The first, which affected Canada's frontiers in the east, was settled by the Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which recognized the claims of the United States to a wedge of territory between New Brunswick and Quebec. The second concerned the Far West, and was the subject of a compromise in 1846, the United States keeping Oregon, whilst British Columbia and Vancouver were retained for the British Empire. The third concerned the boundary of Alaska, which the United States had purchased from Russia. The matter was in 1903 referred to arbitration, and the decision on the whole favoured the American claims, for the sea boundary flanking the Yukon territories— which belonged to Canada and are now important because of the gold-fields—was awarded to the United States. |
Chronology |
| Garmin | copyright by www.uuo-ununoctium.info |