Growth of Constitutions—Canada.
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Chapter VII.
The Growth of Colonial Constitutions—Canada.
By the mission of Lord Durham, Canada had won a great deal, and the advocates of Colonial reform had secured the main strongholds of constitutional freedom. Much, however, was still to be done. In England herself the idea of these Colonial liberties was new, in spite of all the teachings and warnings of past times. The Whigs were not very enthusiastic; and with regard to the Tories, their attitude at the time might be summed up in the words of the Duke of Wellington, “A constitution for Malta! I should as soon think of elections in an army, or a parliament on board ship.” No doubt this idea of the incapacity of the Colonies for self- government arose from their unfortunate association so long with the War Office. But the Tory pamphleteers of the day had no sympathy with representative assemblies, if we may judge from the pages of the “Tory three-decker”, the Quarterly Review. In April, 1829, the Quarterly had put the case strongly against the idea of Colonial representative government, and its remarks gather additional force and significance when it is remembered what a political force the Review was in the days of William Gifford and John Lockhart, and how the great organ was associated with the name of Canning. Not that the Tory party has ever been out of sympathy with Colonial expansion and the doctrine of widening the Empire, as the Quarterly itself teems with suggestions for “fresh fields and pastures new” for our trade and emigrants, as a panacea of ills at home ; but representative government, to say nothing of responsible government, in the Colonies themselves was a new and abhorrent idea. In 1829 New South Wales was
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