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The local events of the
years up to the period of Confederation need not be detailed at length,
since they possess but little general interest, and would not now excite
more than a languid curiosity in the Province itself. Some of the more
salient occurrences will be more conveniently brought out in the
biographical sketches which are to follow. New Brunswick, unlike Nova
Scotia and the other Provinces of the Dominion, was not largely of
Scottish origin, and, therefore, with a short account of Confederation
from a Provincial point of view, and a few sketches of prominent men
whose nationality is our immediate topic of interest, the scene will
change to Prince Edward Island.
The attitude of New
Brunswick at the outset seriously imperilled the success of the Union
scheme. The Quebec Conference had come to an agreement as to the
federative constitution on the 27th of October, 1864. Not a cloud was
then visible above the horizon, and it appeared certain that all the
Provinces would acquiesce in the terms without delay or demur. But in
March of the following year, a general election took place in New
Brunswick, and it was soon ascertained that a majority opposed to the
Quebec plan had been returned to the Assembly. Not one of the delegates
who attended the Conference was returned, and an avowedly
anti-confederate Government was formed under the Hons. Albert J. Smith
and George Hatheway. The effect of this obstacle, so unexpectedly
interposed, was mediate and striking. In Nova Scotia, Dr. Tupper, an
ardent friend of the Union scheme, at once proposed to substitute for it
the more limited measure originally contemplated at Charlottetown. Had
no trouble arisen in the sister Province, it is likely that the
after-clap of agitation would never have been heard at Halifax. In like
manner Prince Edward Island held aloof and refused to enter the Dominion
until 1873, whilst Newfoundland definitively set itself against the
scheme.
Yet, although the New
Brunswick House started out with strong anti-Union opinions, it did not
long continue of the same mind. The Upper House being warmly in favour
of Confederation, there resulted, of course, a legislative block. In
England, the efforts of the Canadian Government and of the Unionists in
the Maritime Provinces set the machinery of Downing Street to work, and
the usual pressure was brought to bear upon New Brunswick by Colonial
despatches. At the opening of the Session in 1866, Lieut. Governor
Gordon strongly represented the urgent feeling of the Home Government in
favour of the movement. Singularly enough, his Ministers, who were
constitutionally responsible for the Speech from the Throne, gave way
apparently without making a show of resistance. Elected to oppose the
Union, and appointed to office in order to resist its consummation, Mr.
Smith and his colleagues at once surrendered, stipulating, of course,
that justice should be done to New Brunswick. [Campbell observes (History
of Nova Scotia, p. 444): - "The Government of New Brunswick,
which had been formed for the purpose of opposing Confederation, having,
by one of those wonderful processes of political alchemy of which the
modern history of these Provinces presents not a few remarkable
instances, became warm advocates of union, committed themselves to the
policy of Union in the speech with which the Legislature was opened in
1866," etc.] The Government, however, were not allowed to carry out
their new opinions in person. On general grounds, a vote of
non-confidence was carried, and Ministers went out of office. The
mischief elsewhere, however, had been done. The recalcitrancy of New
Brunswick had fired the Opposition in Nova Scotia with energy, and, just
when the one set of anti-confederates were announcing their conversion
in the one Province, another set of converts, or perverts, were raising
the standard of secession in the other.
In spite of all
obstacles, however, the Dominion was constituted on the 1st of July,
1867, and the last effective notes of dissent gradually faded on the
ear. Perhaps there still lingers in the Eastern Provinces some feelings
of dissatisfaction at the methods used to secure so great an end; but
the issue may be safely left to the reason of Provincial leaders, and
the honest fulfilment of Dominion pledges at Ottawa. Our list of eminent
Scots in New Brunswick, during this period, will not be a long one.
Unlike Nova Scotia, the population of this Province was never, to any
great extent, of Caledonian origin. On the boundary and throughout the
bulk of the Province of New Brunswick, the U. E. Loyalist element
predominated, and up in the north-west, on the Quebec line, there is a
large settlement of French Canadians. At the same time, some Scots,
worthy of record, must not be passed over, and, therefore, will be given
in so far as the necessary materials have been accessible.
The Hon William Johnston
Ritchie, Chief Justice of the Dominion Supreme Court, is a son of the
late Judge Ritchie, of Nova Scotia, and of his wife, a daughter
of the late Hon. James W. Johnston, already noticed as the leader of the
Conservative party in that Province. Born at Annapolis, in
October, 1813, and educated at the Pictou Academy, Mr. Ritchie studied
law with his brother, to whom reference has already been made in
connection with Nova Scotia. In 1838, he resolved to enter the bar of
New Brunswick, having already practised as an attorney at St. John, for
some time. So far back as 1842 he contested St. John at the general
election, but was defeated. Four years afterwards he succeeded, and, for
the first time, entered public life. It would appear, however, that Mr.
Ritchie’s devotion to his profession was superior to any political
aspirations, for after four years he retired from the legislative arena.
In 1853, what would now appear a somewhat anomalus position was assumed
by him. He had been offered the dignity of Queen’s counsel, but
refused to accept it unless it left him untrammelled politically. His
fear was that if the appointment were made, it might be construed as a
bribe for desertion to the party in power. The matter was referred to
the Colonial Secretary, and apparently the condition stipulated for was
yielded, since in the beginning of 1854 the appointment was made. It
seems strange, now-a-days, that Mr. Ritchie’s scruples should have
been raised; since, whatever political motives may influence
appointments to the silk, they are always made ostensibly on
professional grounds. During the same year, and perhaps partially in
consequence of what had occurred, Mr. Ritchie again entered the
Assembly, and in the October following, the Executive Council. In
August, 1855, he was elevated to the Bench as a puisne judge of the
Provincial Supreme Court. After serving in that capacity for a little
over ten years, he succeeded Chief Justice Parker as head of the Court.
Then after another decade, he was transferred to the Supreme Court of
the Dominion when it was constituted in 1875. Removing in consequence to
the capital, he has since resided at New Edinburgh in the county of
Russell, Ontario. The indisposition of Chief Justice Richards
necessitating the absence of that distinguished judge in Europe, it fell
to the lot of Mr. Justice Ritchie to administer the oath of office to
his Excellency the Marquis of Lorne, on his landing in the Dominion. On
the superannuation of the Chief Justice, the presidency naturally fell
to him, and he was sworn in by the Governor-General early in 1879. Chief
Justice Ritchie’s whole career exemplifies the abiding power of steady
application. Of all the professions, the law requires entire devotion
from those who would succeed. Charlatanism and pretence are sure to be
unveiled in the long run. It is true that, by adroit political strategy,
a badly-grounded lawyer may reach the bench; but his seat there can only
be a protracted misery to himself and to all concerned in the
administration of justice. Chief Justice Ritchie, however, had the solid
foundation on which alone judicial honours may rest, and he has approved
himself no less a sound lawyer than a scholarly gentleman.
The Hon. Peter Mitchell,
unlike many, if not most, of our successful public men, is not properly
"a limb of the law," yet he has done much as a toiler in the
path of material progress. His parents came out from Scotland nearly
sixty-five years ago and settled on the Miramichi in New Brunswick.
There at Newcastle, Peter Mitchell was born in 1824. After a sound
grammar school education, he first turned his attention to the legal
profession; and was actually admitted to the bar in 1848; but his
successes in life have been in a different direction, since he is
chiefly known as an extensive shipbuilder. In 1856, Mr. Mitchell was
returned to the New Brunswick Assembly, and in 1858 became a member of
the Government. After seven years’ service as Minister, his party
succumbed before the anti-confederation blast of 1865, but Mr. Mitchell
was practically independent of popular caprice, since he had, in 1860,
been called to the Legislative Council. The anti-confederate Cabinet, as
we have seen, was ousted by a vote of non-confidence in the following
year, and Mr. Mitchell aided Mr. Wilmot in forming a new Administration,
in which the former held office as President of the Council up to the
time of the Union, when he was called to the Senate. During the previous
years his public services had been many. In 1861, and in the following
year, he was a delegate to Quebec in the Intercolonial Railway
negotiations. In 1864, he was a representative of New Brunswick at the
Conference, and subsequently in London where the terms of the Union were
finally arranged and crystallized in the form of an Imperial Act. On the
1st of July, 1867, Mr. Mitchell was naturally and properly appointed
Minister of Marine and Fisheries. He was President of the Mitchell
Steamship Company, whose vessels plied between Montreal and Quebec and
the sea-board, and between St. John and Portland, and his interest in
the fishery question, which was of vital moment to New Brunswick, had
more than once been exemplified. In 1872, the atmosphere of the Senate
appears to have become oppressive to the Minister, and he resigned once
more to enter the lists for Northumberland. He was returned by
acclamation, and re-elected in 1874 by a majority of nearly five
hundred. In 1878, however, he was less fortunate, being defeated by his
former opponent, Mr. Snowball, a merchant of Chatham, who received
fifteen hundred and eighty-five votes to his thirteen hundred and
eighty-four. For the present, therefore, Mr. Mitchell is out of public
life. A man of great energy and enterprise he is well liked by both
parties, and the amicable feelings which are cherished towards him by
his Provincial rival, Sir Albert J. Smith, are highly creditable to that
honourable gentleman. His defeat in 1878 was certainly not regarded with
unalloyed satisfaction even by those who differ politically from him.
A younger political
aspirant is the Hon. John James Fraser, Q.C., one of the most successful
lawyers in the Province. His father, who came from Inverness, settled in
Northumberland county, after a temporary sojourn at Halifax. Like Mr.
Mitchell, the senior Mr. Fraser was a shipbuilder, and likewise resided
on the Miramichi. The son turned his attention to law, and became an
attorney in 1850. From 1851, he resided at Fredericton, the capital of
the Province, was called to the bar in 1852, and made Queen’s Counsel
in 1873. Mr. Fraser did not, at first, take any public interest in
politics, but the Confederation question appears to have excited him and
he was returned on the anti-Union wave of 1865 from York county. In the
following year, however, he suffered defeat, and after another
unsuccessful effort a twelvemonth after, Mr. Fraser, for the time,
remained out of public life. In June, 1871, the party passions having
been largely extinguished he was nominated to the Legislative Council,
and joined the Hatheway Cabinet as President of the Council. In the
following year, the Premier died, and a colleague, Mr. King, called upon
to form a Government, Mr. Fraser was offered the Provincial
Secretaryship, which he accepted, resigning his seat in the Upper House
to appeal once more to the electors of York. On Mr. King’s retirement
in 1878, he became Attorney-General and Premier—positions he still
occupies. More than once Mr. Fraser’s attachment to his native
Province and its interests has caused an effort on his part for better
terms at Ottawa.
The Hon. William Muirhead
belongs, so far as public life is concerned, to a later period. Yet as a
merchant and shipbuilder he deserves special mention. His father, who
emigrated from Dumfriesshire in 1817, settled in Nova Scotia, and there
at Pictou, his son William was born in April, 1819. His education at
Miramichi probably led him to make New Brunswick his future home.
Residing at Chatham, he has engaged in various branches of business,
including mill-owning, in addition to mercantile and shipping
enterprises. In politics, Mr. Muirhead is a Liberal. He was appointed to
the Legislative Council in 1867, and called to the Senate, of which he
is still a member, early in 1873. Another Senator who has disappeared
from the list was Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. John Robertson, a merchant,
banker and capitalist. Of the facts of his life nothing is on record,
but he was well known at St. John in many useful and honourable
positions. He sat in the Legislative Council from 1837 to the Union, and
was called to the Senate in 1867. He also was a Liberal in politics.
Lieut.-Colonel John Ferguson is still a member of the Senate, and was by
birth a Scot, having seen the light first in Ayrshire, about 1813, and
was educated in his native land. In 1836, he settled at Bathurst, N.B.,
where he has ever since resided. The mercantile firm of which he is a
member, has its headquarters at Glasgow, in Scotland. As an officer of
the volunteers, he always took a prominent part in militia affairs, and
has served on the Council of the Dominion Rifle Association. Mr.
Ferguson sat in the Provincial Legislative Council for several years
before the Union, and was called to the Senate at Confederation. In
party views, he is a Conservative.
Another native Scot is
the Hon. John McAdam, who has long been in public life, although fortune
has been against him. He is an extensive lumber merchant, residing at
Milltown, N.B. In 1854 he was elected a member of the Assembly for the
county of Charlotte, and continued to represent it until the
anti-confederation reaction of 1865, when he was defeated. In the next
year, however, he returned to his post, and remained in the house until
1872 when he resigned in order to sit for the county in the Commons. He
was returned by a majority of over two hundred, over an opponent who was
afterwards more successful. During three years Mr. McAdam had served as
a Provincial Minister, at first as Commissioner of Public Works, and
then as President of the Council. In 1874, he was defeated by Mr.
Gillmour, of St. George, by nearly three hundred majority, and again, in
1878, by about two hundred and forty. He has always been a Liberal, and
during his short term at Ottawa, supported Mr. Mackenzie’s
administration. Mr. Gillmour, it may be added, is of Irish parentage and
is a Liberal.
The Hon. Robert Marshall,
now a member of the Executive Council and M.P.P. for the city of St.
John, is a member of a Dumfries-shire family originally settled in 1773
in the county of Pictou, Nova Scotia. In 1837, our present subject
removed to Chatham, New Brunswick, where he was educated, and served
under the lumbering and shipbuilding firm of Johnson and Mackie at
Miramichi. In 1859, he settled down at St. John, where he became
accountant of the Intercolonial Railway. On the subject of life, fire
and marine insurance, Mr. Marshall has long been a great authority, and
represented a number of companies, English and American. He is the
author of a series of pamphlets on shipping and insurance, and has lived
an active business life from youth upwards. Although not a native Scot,
he has served as President of the St. Andrew’s Society, and also as
Director of the Highland Society; and besides as trustee of St. Andrew’s
Church, and Managing Director of a number of charities. Although Mr.
Marshall is fifty years of age, he is comparatively a novice in
parliamentary life. In 1874, he contested St. John as an independent
candidate, taking his stand on the unsectarian School Law of the
Province, but was defeated by a large majority. Two years after he was
more successful, although his seat was gained on the narrow margin of
fifty-three. Two other public men of the later time may be mentioned
here. The Hon. Benjamin R. Stevenson, Speaker of the Assembly, whose
grandfather came from Renfrewshire and settled at St. Andrews, N.B.,
where Mr. Stevenson was born in 1835. He is a member of the bar,
and was Registrar of Probate in Charlotte County. At Confederation,
however, he resigned, and became a member of the Assembly, and, in 1871,
Surveyor-General, and consequently one of the Executive Council. In
1879, he was elected Speaker of the House. The Hon. William Wedderburn,
Q.C., the senior member for St. John city, is the son of a native
Aberdonian, who occupied the position of Immigration Agent for some
years in New Brunswick. He was born in the city in the autumn of 1834
and educated with a view to the legal profession. Called to the bar in
1858, he has varied the tedium of the law by journalistic labours, as
editor and contributor to the press. In his own profession, Mr.
Wedderburn performed essential service as a Commissioner for
consolidating the Provincial Statutes. He has always been, like his
colleague, Mr. Stevenson, a Liberal, and also a strong advocate of the
temperance cause. In 1876, he was elected Speaker of the House, but
resigned in 1878 to accept the office of Provincial Secretary. Mr.
Wedderburn has long been a staunch supporter of Confederation, having
lectured in its favour so far back as 1857. Still, in the interests of
his Province, the "better terms" movement met with his cordial
support, and he served as member of several delegations to Ottawa on the
subject. He is yet in the prime of life and may possibly enter the
Dominion arena within a few years. As a Provincial politician, he is an
uncompromising champion of the non-sectarian school system.
The position of affairs
in Prince Edward Island at the beginning of our present period was
materially different from that of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. With the
Islanders the salient grievance which pressed upon them may be summed up
in three words—the land system. Into the details of the question it is
not necessary to enter fully, here, but few extracts from a
despatch written by Lord Durham from Quebec will explain, in general
terms, the cause and nature of the trouble: "Nearly the whole
island was alienated in one day by the Crown, in very large grants,
chiefly to absentees, and upon conditions of settlement which have been
wholly disregarded. The extreme improvidence—I might say the reckless
profusion—that dictated these grants is obvious; the total neglect of
the government as to enforcing the conditions of the grants is not less
so. The great bulk of the island is still held by absentees who hold it
as a sort of reversionary interest which requires no present attention,
but may become valuable some day or other, through the growing wants of
the inhabitants. But in the meantime, the inhabitants of the island are
subjected to the greatest inconvenience—nay, the most serious injury—from
the state of property in the land. The absent proprietors neither
improve the land themselves, nor let others improve it. They retain the
land and keep it in a state of wilderness." [This dispatch, dated
from Quebec, October 8th, 1836, will be found complete in
Campbell’s History of Prince Edward Island, p. 89.] His
Lordship affirmed that the Home Government had done grievous injustice
by vetoing the Colonial Acts on this subject, and hinted that even these
were inadequate as drastic remedies for a chronic evil. He clearly
indicated a similar opinion of the proprietors scheme, framed by Mr. G.B.
Young, their solicitor.
The immediate consequence
of Lord Durham’s despatch was the confirmation of a Provincial Act
passed in 1837 "for levying an assessment on all lands in the
Island"; but this was not done till the close of 1838, and the fact
was not even then communicated to the Assembly by the
Lieutenant-Governor. The reason for withholding it is obvious. Had it
been promulgated then, the agitation on the subject of land tenure would
have been raised to fever-heat by the concession, and, apparently, the
Queen’s representative had come to regard himself as, in some sense,
the agent of the proprietors. In 1839, the vexed question cropped up
again, and the Speaker of the Assembly was sent home to press the views
of the colony. The proposals submitted were clear and explicit enough:
"The establishment of a court of escheat, the resumption by the
Crown of the rights of proprietors, and a heavy penal tax upon
wilderness lands." [Campbell, p.93.] Lord John Russell was, at that
time, Colonial Secretary, and to his aggravating vacillation where
colonial autonomy was in question, reference has already been made. The
first demand—that as to escheat—was summarily rejected; and it was
thought at Downing street that the two hundred thousand pounds necessary
to carry out the second was too heavy a penalty for the mischief wrought
by the reckless grants of which Lord Durham complained. The penal tax
was waived off for the moment by the remark that one had already been
imposed, and it would be better to wait until its effects were proved.
Procrastination no less than "finality" was already a
characteristic of Lord John Russell. He would not even discuss the
matter with the Colonial Speaker but in September, 1839, sent a despatch
to the Governor, approving of the proprietors’ terms submitted by Mr.
Young, and condemned, in advance, by Lord Durham, as the basis of any
settlement.
In this unsatisfactory
position the land question remained for some years. But in March, 1843,
an agrarian disturbance occurred which seemed to promise a state of
affairs not unfamiliar to people in our day, nearer England than her
island Province on the west Atlantic coast. A farmer named Haney,
presumably an Irishman, had been ejected from a farm by due process of
law. The crowd reinstated the evicted tenant, and burnt a
dwelling-house, but were eventually overpowered by the strong arm of
authority. This occurrence is noteworthy, since it shows the bitter
dissatisfaction of the people with the existing system of land tenure.
The squabbles between Lieutenant-Governor Huntley and his opponents need
not detain us; but there were sometimes national conflicts in those
days. On the first of March, 1847, an election was held for the district
of Belfast, which unfortunately became a struggle between the Scottish
and Irish voters. Messrs. Douse and McLean were the champions of the
thistle, and Messrs. Little and Macdougall of the shamrock. A riot
ensued around the polling-booth, in which one man, Malcolm Macrae, lost
his life. And yet the standard-bearers of the Scotch party, strange to
say, were returned ultimately without opposition. From eighty to a
hundred persons, however, were more or less injured in the fray. Happily
as Mr. Campbell observes, the evil spirit of national jealousy has been
exorcised, and "there is not now a more peaceable locality in the
island."
During the Session of
this year, the question of Responsible Government began to assume
importance. An address was adopted to the Queen praying for the adoption
of a settled system of constitutional rule, but for the present without
effect. Meanwhile, Sir Donald Campbell, a true blue Highlander,
[Unfortunately he did not long enjoy the high office, for he died in
October, 1850, at the age of fifty. "In Sir Donald Campbell were
united some of the best qualities of a good Governor. He was firm and
faithful in the discharge of duty; at the same time of a conciliatory
and kindly disposition." – Campbell’s History, p. 108.]
became viceroy, and was received with great enthusiasm. The subject of
responsible government which had been temporarily shelved by Mr.
Gladstone, was again pressed; and, in 1848, Earl Grey still declined to
yield to the popular wishes. The chief reason assigned was the small
extent and population of Prince Edward Island, and its poverty in
commercial resources. Yet the Colonial Secretary was not backward in
urging that the Assembly should provide for the civil list; and hinted
that responsible government would be conceded in time. His Lordship
seems to have lacked prescience in placing so potent a lever in the
hands of the Assembly. By demanding a civil list, Earl Grey at once gave
the advocates of free government the opening they required. The House
resolved forthwith to accede to the request, provided the permanent
revenues were granted in perpetuity, all claims to quit-rents and crown
lands abandoned, and a system of responsible government granted. The
first two conditions were at once conceded in substance, the last was
again refused. The Assembly was dissolved, but its successor proved
quite as refractory The first act of the new House was to pass a vote of
want of non-confidence in the Executive Council, and to resolve that no
supplies should be granted until the Ministry was placed in harmony with
the majority. The members of the Council all resigned, and the
Legislature was prorogued to meet again within a month During the second
Sessions, some supplies were doled out for immediate needs, but the
House distinctly refused to proceed with any legislation whatever, until
the constitutional reforms they insisted upon were finally brought
about.
In 1851 a new Governor,
Sir Alexander Bannerman, arrived, and the Legislature was again called
together. He announced that responsible government would be conceded, if
provision were made for certain retiring officers. The Assembly agreed
to this proposition, and the Ministry was moulded in harmony with the
majority. Legislation thereafter proceeded rapidly, and in 1853 the
franchise was practically made universal. The result, however, was much
the same as in England after the Reform Bill of 1867, for the Government
fell after an adverse vote at the polls. In 1854 one of those strange
freaks which seem to have regularly taken possession of one Governor in
each British North American Province; entered the head of Sir Alexander
Bannerman. A new Ministry had been formed which possessed the confidence
of the Assembly, but there was a majority against it in the Upper House,
and matters did not proceed with the necessary smoothness. The
Legislature was prorogued until May; but in the interim the
Lieutenant-Governor, in distinct opposition to the advice of his
Council, suddenly dissolved the House. The alleged cause was that the
Reform Act of 1853 had not been fully applied and that, therefore, it
was necessary to secure the verdict of the entire electorate at once.
Still nothing could have been more contrary to the first principles of
constitutional rules than a dissolution by His Excellency without advice
and contrary to the wish of sworn advisers whom he still kept in office.
There can be little doubt that however in theory the act may be excused
or extenuated, such a high-handed use of the prerogative was
substantially a violation of the constitution.
Nevertheless the purpose
in view was attained as elsewhere in the Provinces. The Government was
overthrown and Sir Alexander Bannerman left Prince Edward Island for the
Bahamas with the satisfaction natural to a ruler who has discomfited his
political foes. Mr. Dominick Daly reigned in his stead, arriving in
June, 1854. A new Cabinet was formed and matters once more ran on
placidly. [In 1855, amongst other business of the session, the Bank of
Prince Edward Island was incorporated, an institution which has recently
suffered shipwreck in a lamentable way.] Once more the land question
began to loom up, as might have been expected after so broad an
extension of the franchise. Mr. Daly openly disapproved of any further
agitation regarding escheat; but approved of the Lands Purchase Act,
invoking the co-operation of the tenants. Almost up to the present
moment this unhappy land system has continued to vex Governors and
Legislatures as we shall see in brief presently. In 1855, Acts were
passed to impose a tax on the rent-rolls of certain absentee
proprietors, and to provide for compensation to tenants. Both these
measures were vetoed by the Home Government, but the House promptly
informed His Excellency of their dissatisfaction and stated their belief
that the disallowance had been brought about by the back-stairs
influence of non-resident proprietors. Certainly the language used by Mr
Labouchere, the Colonial Secretary, in vetoing the legislation referred
to, breathed rather the spirit of counsel with a brief in hand from the
proprietors than of a mediator between landlords and tenants. In 1856, a
petition was sent to the Queen soliciting the guarantee of a loan to the
amount of one hundred thousand pounds in order to facilitate the
conversion of leasehold into freehold tenures. The Colonial Secretary
approved of the security provided for interest and sinking fund, and
authorized the loan to be employed, on certain conditions, for the
purpose suggested; and yet in 1858, the Governor stated that the
Imperial authorities had finally decided not to guarantee the loan.
There had been a change
of government meanwhile owing, in part at least, to a bitter controversy
regarding the compulsory use of the Bible in the schools. The perplexing
land question was taken up anew. One of the new Ministers, Colonel Gray,
proposed a series of resolutions, praying for the appointment of a
Commission or Board of Arbitration, and propounding a basis for its
action. Meanwhile, Sir Dominick Daly had retired, and been succeeded by
a Scot, Mr. George Dundas, at the time of his appointment, M. P. for
Linlithgowshire. The first work before him was to harmonize the two
Houses, and this was effected, under Home instructions, by the addition
of five new members to the Legislative Council. The next topic for
consideration was necessarily the proposed Land Commission. Sir Samuel
Cunard and other large proprietors had resolved to meet the colonists
half way; but they proposed that the Assembly should have one
Commissioner for the tenants, the proprietors a second, and the Crown a
third. The Duke of Newcastle, now Colonial Secretary, proposed the
adoption of this plan, on condition that the House should pledge the
tenants to abide by the decision. This was done, and Mr. Howe, of Nova
Scotia, received the Assembly’s nomination. The other Commissioners
were Mr. John Hamilton Gray, for the Crown, and Mr. John William
Ritchie, for the proprietors.
The report of the
Commission, dated the 18th of July, 1861, was a document of great value
and importance; but could hardly be given even in abridged form here. It
must suffice to say that the inquiries made were thorough and
exhaustive. The Commissioners touched upon the long and tedious history
of the subject; censured the improvidence by which an entire colony was
granted away in a single day in large blocks of twenty thousand acres
each; believed that all the grants might have been properly escheated
for non-fulfilment of settlement conditions, and effectually annulled by
an enforcement of the quit-rents. At the same time they admitted that as
the Crown had repeatedly confirmed the grants, no such step could be
equitably taken now. The only feasible proposal was to turn the tenants
into freeholders by a compulsory compromise. Into details it is not
necessary to enter, inasmuch as even a concise statement of them would
occupy a considerable space. [A tolerably full account, with critical
remarks, will be found in Campbell’s History of P.E. Island, pp.131-146.]
But the trouble was not yet over. Once more, notwithstanding two
distinct offers from the Colonial office to guarantee the loan of one
hundred thousand pounds, that measure of assistance was curtly and
peremptorily refused. The Legislature at once passed Bills to accept and
facilitate the award, although, in some respects, it was far from
satisfactory; and yet in 1862, the Colonial Secretary transmitted a
draft Act drawn up by the proprietors, in which an equitable proposal of
the Commission for the appointment of arbitrators in disputed cases, was
cut out on the plea that it would stimulate litigation. The Island
Government curiously enough, anticipated the line of argument urged on
behalf of the Irish Land Act, twenty years later. They did not believe
that there would be many arbitrations "In their opinion two or
three cases in a township would have the effect of establishing a scale
of prices which would become a standard of value." The Duke of
Newcastle, however, was not to be moved, and disallowed the two Acts, on
the avowed plea that the award did not meet the wishes of the
proprietors.
It was announced at the
opening of the Legislature that the measure to make the Legislative
Council elective had been sanctioned, and the House was at once
dissolved. The elections resulted in a large majority in favour of the
award of the Land Commission. The first step, on the meeting of the
House, was an address to the Queen touching the award. Her Majesty was
requested to notify the proprietors that unless they could show cause
before some judicial tribunal to the contrary, the Royal Assent would be
given to the two Acts of the Legislature. The Colonial Secretary was
inexorable, and fortified by the opinion of the law officers of the
Crown, positively declined to recommend compliance with the prayer of
the Address. Delegates were sent to England; but, after a long parley
with the Duke, who was in communication with Sir Samuel Cunard, the
result was eminently unsatisfactory. Some partial relief was given by an
Act of 1864—suggested by the proprietors—which enabled tenants in
some townships to purchase at fifteen years’ rent.
Thus the matter stood
until after Confederation, when the Land Purchase Act of 1875 was
assented to by the Governor-General of the Dominion. It provided for
Commissioners to determine the value of the estates whose sale was under
this statute to be compulsory. In this law, the old plan adopted in the
selection of the old Land Commission was again employed with the
necessary variations. One member was to be appointed by the
Lieutenant-Governor, one by the Governor-General, and a third by the
proprietors whose land was to be appraised. This Commission was duly
named and entered upon its labours; but other Provincial Acts have been
passed since then, some of which have been amended at the instance of
the Dominion Government, and one at least disallowed. It can hardly be
said that this complicated question has even yet been thoroughly
adjusted. Still it is in a fair way of settlement, and the long and
wearisome conflict at last approaches its end. The folly of the original
land grants is patent on the surface, and it is only to be regretted
that the Imperial Government did not long since aid the Islanders in
throwing off an incubus caused by the reckless and improvident conduct
of Imperial rulers in the past.
The preliminary steps
towards the accomplishment of a federal union between the Provinces have
already been traced. The conference at Charlottetown, P. E. Island, was
originally proposed with a view to a smaller measure, covering the
Maritime Provinces. By general consent, however, the Canadian delegates
were admitted. From the published account of the proceedings, it would
appear that the union of the Eastern Provinces under one legislature,
"was deemed impracticable; but the opinion of the delegates was
unanimous that a union upon a larger basis might be effected." The
members of the Conference visited the chief cities of the other Maritime
Provinces, and there was a round of banquets from Charlottetown to St.
John. The Quebec Conference, in October, virtually settled the terms of
Confederation, after a succession of festivities in Canada, the
delegates separated. The people of Prince Edward Island were not in
favour of the measure, and a series of public meetings resulted in
strong expressions of hostility. The Provincial Secretary, Mr. W. H.
Pope, and his colleague, Mr. Haviland, were the chief supporters of
Confederation; but arrayed against them were Messrs. Laird, Coles,
Kenneth Henderson, Hensley, McNeil and a number of others.
The Assembly met early in
1865, and, on resolutions favourable to the Quebec scheme being
submitted, they were defeated by twenty-three to five. At the next
Session, it was found that the Colonial Secretary had moved in the
matter, and a despatch was read in which he strongly urged the claims of
Confederation upon the Province. In answer thereto a still stronger
motion than before was passed against the proposal by a vote of
twenty-one to seven. It set out that however advantageous such a union
might be to the Provinces generally, nevertheless it could never be
effected "on terms that would prove advantageous to the interests
and well-being of the people of this Island, separated as it is, and
must ever remain, from the neighbouring Provinces by an immovable
barrier of ice for many months in the year." The resolution
concluded by declaring that any such union "would be as hostile to
the feelings and wishes, as it would be opposed to the best and most
vital interests of its people." In the autumn of the same year
(1866), the Hon. J. C. Pope, the mover of the above motion, was in
London during the sittings of the delegates from the other Provinces. It
was proposed that the Island should receive eight hundred thousand
dollars "as indemnity for the loss of territorial revenues, and for
the purchase of the proprietors’ estates, on condition of its entering
the Confederation." Public opinion in the Province, however, was
for the present settled against the measure.
In 1868, other terms were
offered through Sir William Young, the Governor-General, and approved of
by the Lieutenant-Governor; but the Executive Council declined to
entertain them because they did not "comprise a full and immediate
settlement of the land tenures, and indemnity from the Imperial
Government for loss of territorial revenues." In a reply dated the
seventh of March, 1870, Earl Granville regretted that the Island
government should neglect their own real interests, "for the sake
of keeping alive a claim against the Imperial Government which, it is
quite certain, will never be acknowledged." The reply of the
Assembly was a distinct affirmation that the people of the Island were
"almost unanimously opposed to any change in the constitution of
the colony."
A long pause followed,
and finally the Provincial Government took the matter up in 1873.
Messrs. Haythorne and Laird proceeded to Ottawa. After considerable
haggling over the terms, a final agreement was come to on pecuniary
conditions highly favourable to the Province. No such difficulty could
arise in future as that which had occurred in Nova Scotia. The terms
were practically submitted to the people in a plebiscite, and the
new Assembly at once acceded to the proposals of the Ottawa Government
by a vote of twenty-seven to two. Prince Edward Island consequently
became a member of the Dominion of Canada on the first of July, 1873.
It only remains to
sketch, in brief, the careers of some of the more prominent Scots who
have figured in public life during the period under consideration,
taking in, as before, a few who are of more recent date. The account
already given of Sir William Young naturally suggests his brother as an
opening subject.
The Honourable Charles
Young, LL.D., Q.C., was born at Glasgow, Scotland, on the last day of
April, 1812. A son of the Hon. John Young ("Agricola") he came
out with his parents at an early age, and settled in Nova Scotia. He
received his education at Dalhousie College, Halifax, and studied law
with his brother, the future Chief Justice. Was called to the bars of
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in the same year (1838). For a long
period he practised his profession in partnership with his brothers, Sir
William, and the Hon. George R. Young. Removing to Charlottetown, he
entered public life in 1840 as member for Queen’s County, P.E.I.; but
before the close of the year he was called to the Legislative Council in
which he sat until 1863, and for the last ten years of the time as its
President. In 1847 Mr. Young was made a Queen’s Counsel—the first
appointed in the Island. For two years from 1851 to 1853, he was
Attorney-General, and again from June, 1858 to 1859, and also served as
Administrator of the Government more than once. It is said that he was
the first public man in the Island to advocate responsible government,
and he certainly largely aided in its establishment. On other subjects
connected with the progress of the colony he was equally active, notably
in favour of free schools, free lands, and savings banks. Mr. Young was
made Judge of Probate in 1852 and Judge in Bankruptcy in 1868. At the
bar, his practice was highly remunerative, and he was an especial
favourite as counsel against the landlords, and on behalf of "the
bleeding tenantry," as he termed them. In 1838, he promoted the
establishment of a Mechanics’ Institute, delivering the inaugural
address; in addition to that he is a prominent member of the Methodist
Church, President of the Bible Society, a Royal Arch Mason, and ex-grand
Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance. He has, like the other
members of his family, lived an honourable and eminently useful career.
The father and his three sons have all been men of vigorous intellect,
sterling integrity and unswerving patriotism.
One of the best known men
of Prince Edward Island, outside of that Province, is the Hon. David
Laird, until very recently Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West
Territories. His father, however, first demands notice. The Hon.
Alexander Laird was a Scottish farmer who left Renfrewshire in the year
1819 to settle in Prince Edward Island. A practical agriculturist of
sterling character and intelligence, he at once went to work upon his
land in Queen’s County, a short distance from Charlottetown. Mr.
Laird, as have been expected, never swerved from the Liberal and was an
unflinching advocate of responsible government. He represented the first
District of the County for sixteen years. In 1847, he promoted a
petition on behalf of constitutional rule, and, in 1851, as a member of
the House, heard the announcement made that the request had been acceded
to. For four years he served as a member of the Reform Government of Mr.
Coles, the recognised leader of the party. The hon. gentleman’s
political services, however, were not his only title to grateful
remembrance. He was a scientific farmer, and an active officer of the
Agricultural Society, and performed much valuable work in elevating the
character of agriculture and in the improvement of stock.
The Hon. David Laird,
though not the eldest son of Alexander, is, as has been said, the best
known throughout the Dominion. Born near New Glasgow, in 1833, he was
educated in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Truro, Nova Scotia.
Whether he ever entertained the purpose of entering the ministry does
not appear. If he did, the idea was abandoned, since immediately after
finishing his academic course, he repaired to Charlottetown and
established the Patriot newspaper. Like his father, Mr. Laird
proved to be an ardent Liberal, but was for some time at variance with
the leaders of his party because of their desire to exclude the Bible
from the schools. When the terms of Confederation had been virtually
settled at Quebec, he at once objected to the scheme as not merely
unfair but disadvantageous in every respect to Prince Edward Island. The
bone of contention, of course, was the interminable land question, as
well as the further grievance that no provision was submitted for the
expenditure of money on provincial public works, especially railways.
Yet notwithstanding Mr. Laird’s prominence as a journalist and public
speaker outside the legislature, it was not until 1871 that he found a
seat in the House for Belfast. The election was a casual one caused by
the sitting member’s acceptance of office. Mr. Laird opposed the Hon.
George Duncan, and defeated him. Dissatisfaction with Mr. Pope’s
railway policy had arisen, and at the next general election the Ministry
suffered defeat. Mr. Haythorne succeeded as Premier, and towards the end
of 1872 Mr. Laird joined the Executive Council. Once more in 1873 the
union question came up for the last time, and Mr. Laird, with Mr.
Haythorne, were despatched to Ottawa to confer with the Dominion
Government, with the result, already noted, of the admission of P. E.
Island into the Confederation. Both parties concurred in the
arrangement, and, therefore, there was no party division. Mr. Laird was
now elected, by acclamation, to the Commons, with the Hon. Peter
Sinclair as his colleague. He entered the larger arena at a fortunate
time, since the Pacific Railway trouble brought about a change of
Ministry during the second year, and when Mr. Mackenzie formed his
Ministry in November, Mr. Laird was gazetted as Minister of the
Interior. On his offering himself before his constituents he was again
elected without opposition. During the following years he served as a
Commissioner to the North-West, and concluded with the Indians the Qu’
Appelle treaty, under which the title of certain tribes in the soil was
extinguished by purchase. The territory thus surrendered covered 75,000
square miles, on the line of the Pacific Railway. In 1876 Mr. Laird
received his appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West
Territories, a position he continued to hold during a full term, until
near the close of 1881. Mr. Laird is a man of great energy and public
spirit, and, as he is still on the sunny side of fifty, has possibly
many years of public usefulness before him.
The Hon. Alexander Laird
is three years older than his brother David, having been born in 1830.
He was elected for the first time in the fourth District of Prince
County, and sat for it from 1867 to 1870. He has been a member of the
Government under three Premiers, and served on the Board of Works for
two years. In 1874 he was elected as representative of the second
District of the same County, in the Legislative Council. A Liberal
colleague of Mr. Laird’s in the Legislative Council was
Lieutenant-Colonel, the Hon. William McGill. The family was originally
Highland, but a couple of centuries since three brothers moved south and
settled on an estate in Kirkmichael, Dumfries-shire. There in November,
1819, Mr. William McGill, the son of James, was born. His education was
conducted at the parish school and the Dumfries Academy; but in 1835, he
left "auld Scotia" for Prince Edward Island, where he carried
on business as a merchant at Charlottetown. In 1853 he was elected for a
District of Queen’s to the Assembly and sat for nine years. In 1858,
and again for two years (1869-70), he was High Sheriff of the County. He
was elected to the Legislative Council in 1873, but did not long sit as
a member of the body. Mr. McGill was an early advocate of confederation,
and is described in the Parliamentary Companion as "an advanced
Liberal both in English and Colonial politics."
The Hon. Peter Sinclair,
already mentioned as Mr. Laird’s colleague in the representation of
Queen’s County at Ottawa, was born and educated in Argyleshire,
Scotland. Of his early career we have no record, except that he was a
farmer and took up his residence at Summerfield, Prince Edward Island.
Mr. Sinclair did not enter public life until 1867, when he was returned
for the First District of Queen’s, and continued to represent that
constituency until September, 1873, when he resigned to become a
candidate for the Commons. In 1868, he was placed upon the Board of
Education, and served on the Executive Council from 1869 to 1871, when
the Government resigned. In the following year he entered the Haythorne
administration, and was its leader in the Assembly. From 1873 to 1878,
he sat for his county in the House of Commons; but in the latter year he
suffered defeat by a majority of over seven hundred. Mr. Sinclair is a
Liberal, in favour of reciprocity with the United States, and of a
prohibitory liquor law.
The Hon. Daniel Gordon
was a native Islander, having been born at Brudenell River, King’s
County, in 1821. His father, Henry, was a farmer from Perthshire, who
had settled and married in the colony. Educated at the grammar school,
he at first engaged in teaching; but, after two years’ experience, he
went into business. For over forty years, Mr. Gordon has conducted a
store in Georgetown, adding to it, however, ship-building and
ship-owning. He has been a magistrate ever since 1851, but did not enter
public life until 1866, when he was elected to the Legislative Council
for a district of King’s. In 1872, he resigned his seat; but, in 1876,
was elected as M.P.P. for Georgetown and Royalty, and entered the
Government formed by Mr. Davies. Reelected in 1879, he is recognised as
a legislator of great value, not merely from his business capacity, but
also for the great interest he takes in agriculture and the material
interests of the Island. In religion, Mr. Gordon is a Presbyterian, and
in politics a Liberal-Conservative.
The number of Scots who
have figured, or who still take part, in public affairs in Prince Edward
Island is very large. In addition to those already mentioned, a brief
reference may be made to a few of these. Hon. Herbert Bell, who was
Speaker of the Legislative Council for a time, sprang of a Dumfries
family, and was born at Middlebie in that shire, in 1818. He came to the
Island when twenty-three years of age, and devoted himself, like Mr.
Gordon and others, to mercantile and shipping business. For some time he
filled a collectorship of Customs, and served for several years as Grand
Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance. It was only in 1867,
however, that he made his appearance in the Legislature, having been
elected for a district of Prince County. In 1870, he was returned for
the same constituency to the Legislative Council, and was Speaker of
that body in 1874. He dropped out of the lists in 1878. One of the
oldest living legislators in Prince Edward Island is Lieutenant-Colonel,
the Hon. Joseph Wightman, who came from Dumfries-shire in 1823. He also
is a merchant, and shipbuilder, and has been High Sheriff of King’s
County and Lieutenant-Colonel of volunteers. He sat in the Island
Assembly for thirty-two years, from 1838 to 1870, when he was elected to
the Legislative Council. In 1874, he was reelected by acclamation. For
some years, Mr. Wightman was a member of the Government, and filled
also, subsequently, the Speaker’s chair. In respect of party, he has
always been a Liberal. The Hon. Archibald J. Macdonald is comparatively
a young member, not having entered the Assembly until 1872. But his
father, Hugh, was for a long time an M.P.P., and served in various
public capacities. The son has risen to the honours of the Executive
Council, and was, from the first, an advocate of Confederation. He is a
Liberal-Conservative.
Mr. William S. McNeill
belonged to an Argyleshire family which came to this country so far back
as 1773. His father, the Hon. William McNeill, sat in the Assembly for
twenty-five years, and was Speaker of the House for some time. The son
was born at Cavendish, in March, 1814, but did not enter the House until
1866. He was subsequently re-elected six times. Dr. Peter A. McIntyre,
who sat in the last House of Commons as a Liberal, sprang from an
Inverness-shire family. In 1788, his grandfather arrived thence, and
settled at Cable Head, in King’s County; and his maternal grandfather
had fought under Wolfe at the capture of Quebec. His uncle is the Roman
Catholic Bishop of Charlottetown. He himself was born in 1840, and is a
graduate of both Laval and McGill Universities. In 1873, Dr. McIntyre
succeeded in defeating the Hon. Augustus C. Macdonald for the Commons,
but only by a majority of thirty-four. At the last general election the
tables were turned, however, and he lost his seat by a majority against
him of seventy-eight.
The Hon. Donald
Montgomery, Senator, is one of the "old stagers." His father,
Daniel, hailed from Argyleshire, and settled in P. E. Island more than a
hundred years ago. He represented Prince County for thirty-five years
and upwards. Donald was his sixth son, and was born at Princetown early
in 1808. He also had a long term in the Assembly, sitting there from
1838 to 1862. In the latter year the Legislative Council was made
elective, and he was not only returned but became Speaker. He remained
in the chair until 1874, so that he was continuously a member of one or
other branch of the Island Legislature during the whole of thirty-six
years. In 1873, when the Province entered the Dominion, Mr. Macfarlane
became a member of the Senate, and sits there now in 1882. He has thus
been in public life, without a break, for the almost unprecedently long
period of forty-four years. Another Islander who, though he has never
figured in the Legislature, has nevertheless been a public man, is Mr.
Archibald McNeill, at present Chief Clerk of the Provincial Assembly.
His father, Charles, was an Argyleshire farmer—one of the pioneer
settlers—who died in 1879, at the age of eighty-nine. Archibald was
born at West River in 1824. After receiving his education, he engaged
for fifteen years or so in teaching, and also wrote for the Examiner,
then controlled by the Hon. Mr. Whalen. In 1854, he entered the
public service, and filled successively a number of important offices.
He was an ardent advocate of responsible government, free schools, the
lands purchase scheme, and confederation. He was present at the
Charlottetown Conference, and reported some of the principal speeches.
As we have seen he also took part in public meetings held upon that
exciting subject. Mr. McNeill’s interest in agricultural and
industrial subjects has given him a prominent position in connection
with the Island expositions. For thirteen years he has filled the post
of secretary of the Provincial Exhibition Commission. In 1876 he acted
as Secretary of the advisory board in connection with the Centennial at
Philadelphia, and of the Dominion exhibitions held at Montreal in 1880,
and at Halifax in 1881. Since 1873, Mr. McNeill has been Chief Clerk of
the House of Assembly at Charlottetown.
In bringing this chapter
to a close, it is impossible to avoid an expression of regret that the
sketches of public men in the Maritime Provinces have necessarily been
incomplete. The writer, notwithstanding all the efforts made to secure
information, has been forced to rely almost wholly upon a few books of
reference. The difficulty of ascertaining the national origin of some
public men, and the scattered hints gathered about others cannot fail to
be as unsatisfactory to the reader, as they are to himself. In addition
to that, there is the grave apprehension, practically amounting to a
certainty, that important names have been omitted. In some cases, at all
events, this is owing to the fact that there is no mention of the men
who bore them, save the references occurring here and there in the pages
of Provincial histories. It may be well to add that other classes of
distinguished men, such as the clergy, professors, teachers and editors,
or those connected with material interests will be placed under
appropriate headings in future chapters.
The slight accounts given
here of public affairs in the three Provinces may not, at first sight,
appear germane to the purpose of this work. But a bare catalogue of
eminent Scots, even with tolerably full biographies, must necessarily
have been disjointed and jejune. It seemed more useful, as well as more
interesting, to sketch lightly the progress of events in each of the
Maritime Colonies marking the similarities and diversities in the
political struggles of those three important decades. Throughout the
course of constitutional development in the Canadas and in the East,
there runs a common thread, or rather a series of threads running
parallel. Even the varying, and often tortuous course of the different
streams of tendency has the same issue at the last. The water-shed
whence they took their origin was in the snow-clad clefts of stiff and
gelid oligarchy. Yet in every case, sometimes as mountain torrents, anon
gliding peacefully across the sloping plains, each branch of the great
river of public life was destined at last to roll majestically along,
every ripple brightly gleaming in the generous sunlight of perfect
freedom.
Having thus followed each
of the Provinces until it had been united with the rest, it will be
necessary now to complete the political part of the work by bringing
down the general record to the present year.
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