Ibourinot] CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 9 



thought advisable to establish two jjrovinces in which the French and 

 English elements would be kept separate and distinct.' 



With the light that experience has given iis in these later times, it 

 was a great mistake, in the opinion of many statesmen, to have isolated 

 the races, and by hedging in the French at the very commencement of 

 their history, to have prevented the gradual absorption of all nationalities 

 into one great English-s])eaking people. Parliament formed a legis- 

 lature for each pi-ovince, and wished the people of Canada " God speed " 

 in the new experiment of government on which they were entering. No 

 doubt can exist as to the sincerit}' and good wishes of the English states- 

 men of those days, but it cannot be said that they always built with 

 wisdom. In the first place they erected a structure of provincial govern- 

 ment which was defective at its vejy foundation. There was an entire 

 absence of institutions of local government in French Canada— of that 

 system which from the earliest period in the history of the old English 

 colonies, enabled them to manage their local ailairs. May it not be said 

 with truth that England herself has received no more valuable heritage 

 than that system of local self-government which, cumbrous and defective 

 as it may have become in the course of centuries, can be traced back to 

 those free institutions in which laj' the germs of English libei'ty and 

 parliamentar}' government ? 



But in Canada there was no semblance of township or parish gov- 

 ernment as in New England or even in Virginia. The people of Canada 

 were called upon to manage the affairs of a State before they had 

 learned those elements of government which necessarily exist in the 

 local affairs of every community, whether it be town, township or 

 village. It was, indeed, surprising that a people like the French Cana- 

 dians, unaccustomed to parliamentary institutions or local self-govern- 

 ment in its most elementary form, should in the early stages of their 

 legislative history have shown so much discretion. As a matter of fact 

 they discharged their functions for a while with prudence and set to 

 work to understand the ]H'inciples on which their system of government 

 rested. For some years the machiner}^ of government worked fairly 

 enough, and the public men of both provinces passed much useful legis- 

 lation. The war of 1812-15, in which Canada performed her part with 

 credit, in a measure j^revented an)' outbreak of political conflict, since all 

 classes of people recognized the necessity of uniting, at such a crisis, to 

 defend their homes and country. But when peace was proclaimed and 

 the legislatures were relieved from the pressure that the war had brought 

 upon them, the politicians again got the upper hand. The machinery of 

 government became clogged, and political strife convulsed the country 

 from one end to the other. An "irrepressible conflict" arose between 



1 Constitutional Act, 1791, or 31 Geo. III., c. 31. 



