174 



CANADA. 



the pastor of that church till his death. He 

 was also for more than twenty years one of the 

 Regents of the University of the State of New- 

 York, a position of honor, and one involving 

 much severe labor, hut without emolument. 

 Dr. Campbell was a man of remarkably quick 

 perception, tenacious memory, great decision 

 of character, and of courteous and dignified 

 manners. He possessed great executive ability, 

 methodical habits, and admirable taste; and 

 though possessed of extraordinary eloquence 

 and the other graces which adapted him to his 

 profession, it was often remarked that he might 

 have filled with equal ability and success any 

 other station in the State or nation. His 

 last sickness was very brief, lasting but five 

 days. Though a vigorous and able writer, Dr. 

 Campbell had published very little; a few ser- 

 mons, some of the reports of the Board of 

 Regents, and occasional addresses are, we be- 

 lieve, all his avowed publications. 



CANADA. His Excellency, the Right Hon. 

 Charles Stanley, Viscount Monck, Baron Monck 

 of Ballytrammon, in the County of Wexford, 

 Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and 

 over the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, 

 New Brunswick, and the Island of Prince Ed- 

 ward, and Vice- Admiral of the same, &c., &c. 



The Cabinet: President of the Council, 

 George Brown, Receiver-General and Minister 

 of Militia Affairs; Colonel Sir E. P. Tach6, 

 Premier ; Attorney-General for Upper Canada, 

 John A. Macdonald ; Attorney-General for 

 Lower Canada, G. E. Cartier; Minister of 

 Finance, A. T. Gait; Provincial Secretary, 

 William McDougall ; Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands, A. Campbell; Minister of Agriculture 

 and Statistics, T. D. McGee ; Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral, TV. P. Howland ; Commissioner of Public 

 Works, J. C. Chapais ; Solicitor-General for Up- 

 per Canada, James Cockburn; Solicitor-Gen- 

 eral for Lower Canada, H. L. Langwin. 



In the latter part of May, 1862, the Coalition 

 Administration of Messrs. Cartier and Mac- 

 donald (John A.), after governing Canada with 

 little or no intermission for a period of eight 

 years, was defeated upon the third stage in the 

 passage of the Volunteer Militia Bill an elabo- 

 rate measure calculated to place the citizen 

 soldiery of the Province on a more efficient 

 footing, and to do much else toward the de- 

 fence of the country in the event of sudden 

 aggression. Although a majority in the As- 

 sembly decided against the enactment of this 

 very necessary piece of legislation, it is not to 

 be supposed that the members who composed 

 it were actuated by a spirit of disloyalty, or 

 that they had a disregard to the wants of the 

 country on defence. The measure was looked 

 upon as an expensive one, and this appeared to 

 be the main objection to it. The formation of 

 a new Ministry was entrusted to Mr. Sandfield 

 Macdonald, a gentleman who had previously 

 held a sort of middle course in politics, with a 

 leaning toward the Reform party. He, with 

 the cooperation of Mr. Sicotte, the leader of 



the Rouge party from Lower Canada, called to 

 the Council-board prominent members of the 

 Reform party, and with a policy which con- 

 sisted of what is known in Canada as "Double 

 majority" or governing each section of the 

 Province by its own preponderance of repre- 

 sentatives in the House; with retrenchment in 

 the civil expenses of the Government; exten- 

 sion of the Northwest Territory, and the con- 

 struction of the Inter-Colonial Railway (L e. 

 between Canada and the Lower or maritime 

 Provinces), as to its salient points, endeavored 

 to administer the affairs of the country, al- 

 though standing in a minority in both Houses 

 of Parliament. The new Government, although 

 composed of many gentlemen of integrity and 

 ability, and allowed the fullest opportunity by 

 the Opposition (led by the Hon. John A. Mac- 

 donald, a British- American statesman of great 

 acknowledged ability), to propound and carry 

 out their policy, after a year's tenure failed to 

 satisfy the Assembly of their ability further to 

 hold the seals of office. By an adverse vote* 

 in May, 1863, Parliament declared its want of 

 confidence in the occupants of the Treasury 

 benches. A change in the personnel in the 

 Lower Canada portion of the Government (the 

 substitution of M. Dorion for M. Sicotte in 

 the leadership) took place, and with this and 

 other changes, not the least of which was the 

 abandonment of the " Double Majority " prin- 

 ciple, an appeal to the people was made. The 

 general election took place in the middle of 

 the summer season, a very inappropriate time, 

 and the Government, as remodelled, gained a 

 large majority in Upper Canada. But if they 

 were successful in one section of the country 

 they lost heavily in the other. The Oppo- 

 sition, strengthened by the accession to its 

 ranks of the expelled portion of the cabinet, 

 carried every thing before them in Lower 

 Canada. Three ministers of the Crown were 

 defeated in their several constituencies one of 

 whom courting his ill-fate in two places. 



The session of Parliament which followed in 

 the fall of the year, was one of the fiercest 

 in point of antagonism and strife between the 

 two parties ever held in Canada. The curi- 

 ous anomaly was presented of Government 

 and Opposition standing on a footing of equality 

 in party strength, or nearly so. The former 

 possessed a majority of three, and upon several 

 divisions not even that. All useful legislation 

 was stopped ; the whole time of the House 

 was taken up in party disputes. Yet notwith- 

 standing the efforts of a powerful, united, and 

 persistent Opposition, ministers maintained a 

 precarious existence against the repeated at- 

 tacks of their Parliamentary assailants. 



Previous to the general election, Mr. Georgo 

 Brown, the former leader of the Reform party 

 in Upper Canada, who, upon his defeat for To- 

 ronto in 1861, had temporarily retired from 



* The Resolution was moved by the leader of the Oppo- 

 sition in a powerful and logical speech, which will be unip 

 remembered in the Canadian Parliament. 



