LORD DUIIERIK ON CANADA.
IT is a pleasure to any true politician to read a speech like
that in which Lord Dufferin on Wednesday responded to the congratulations of the Canada Club. That it has in it the ring of the old oratory, of the days when men cared to be eloquent and audiences therefore cared for eloquence, is nothing, is perhaps, in the present congealed condition of public taste, even a disadvantage. It is the tone of the speech which is so refreshing, the pleasant feeling it leaves as of a bracing yet pleasant breeze, the impression it produces of a political life in which there are vigour and health, fullness, and even joy. Eng- lish politics have become so languid, and in some ways so melancholy, men hope for so very little from politics, and have become so content if only there is no misfortune, that a Viceroy who tells them that his dominion is occupied by a peo- ple who are "one of the most intelligent and happiest of the offsets of the English race;" a people rapidly developing "into a proud and great nation ;" a people with a social " atmo- sphere which seems impregnated with the exhilarating spirit of enterprise, contentment, and hope;" a people which feels that its destinies are as great as its possessions, and that it is equal to deal with both, makes society raise its head with a glance of mimed but half-incredulous surprise. Is there a politician left with spirits like that ? Is there a nation in existence that is really young, young in energy and heart and hope, believing in its own future, and content with its own present ? It can never be true, least of all true when told us by a man who is not elate with success, not "off his head" with victory, not drunk with the champagne of power, but almost coldly constitutional, pleased that his Ministry should be the true governors, rejoicing in the strength and vigilance of Opposition, full of sincere confidence in the capacity and honesty of a Parliament of talkative representa- tives. Lord Dufferin talks like a king, but like a king who thoroughly believes in the limitations on his own power, who has a cordial delight in his own fetters, who could sing because his people are showing the determi- nation and the capacity to cut out their own way. He is glad, like any other king, over his "realm," the "extraordinary mag- nificence and extent of mountain and plain, valley and river, lake and forest, prairie and plateau," which make Canadians exult in the possession of "our own dear Canada," but he is
jubilant, unlike most Kings, over Ministries, exultant over the possession of opponents, gay because there is a mighty neigh- bour on his borders, happy because within his sway there is a land of Celtic Catholics more parliamentary than the English themselves. No such figure has appeared before Englishmen for years, and society, while invohintarily cheering, hardly be- lieves that its own satisfaction can be wise or enduring.
And yet it, is most of it visibly true. Lord Dufferin, no doubt, owes something to his Sheridan blood and to his Irish training, and to that fine gift bestowed upon so few, which enables its possessor to rise to his best when appreciativeness is most required, which makes him most eloquent when his theme is praise, most lively when he has to thank, most lucid when he is depicting gladsome things, but he has not invented his tale. There has been no rise in our recent day like the recent rise of Canada. The dull, ill-populated, discontented colonies which seemed always on the point of revolt, and were constantly on the verge of failure, which looked enviously at the rise of the bordering Republic, and half distrusted, half despised the mother-country, have been welded into a people which feels itself a nation, which has overcome its first difficulties, sees its way to future greatness, and is at liberty to enjoy the favoims God has bestowed on it,—endless territory, broad streams, an industrious people, a climate which exhilarates like the climate of the Union without the drawback of wearing out men's nerves, and the strange luxury of a political pro- tection which enlarges every career, multiplies every success, and ensures security without exacting in return dependence. Were the Dominion independent, the highest post in Canada would be open, but the highest posts in an Empire would be shut. Were she only an ally, her security would be purchased by something of humiliation, or worse, by a spirit of reliance fatal to honourable independence ; but being what she is, an ally within the Empire, a protected State whose protector is but herself again, an actual portion of the whole body, yet with separate vitality, she enjoys a condition absolutely unique in history. She can grow in the middle of the world as the States grew in their isolation. Her people are accus- tomed to say that they will play in relation to North America the part which Scotland has played in Britain, but if Canada fills up as she is doing, if English emigrants learn as they are learning that life there is happy, if her political class can develop, as Lord Dufferin says they are developing, statesmen equal to their needs, her place may be a larger one than this, and North American historians may hereafter trace with anxiety and pleasure the rise of a freer Prussia in the political system of their continent. The social system of Canada, if not English, differs widely from that of the United States. Her political organisation is based on another, and, as we believe, more vital principle, the sovereignty not of a parchment, but of the representatives of the people. Her geographical position is entirely detached, and though not fortunate as to bound- aries, is at least as fortunate as that of Prussia, where an assail- able boundary has helped as much as any other cause to pro- duce an unassailable people. The thing she most needs now is a succession of men who can preside over her destinies, and control her foreign policy, and interpret her constitution in an adequate spirit ; and Lord Dufferin has not only shown that he can perform those great functions, but by the spirit in which he speaks of them has made it far easier to discover his suc- cessor. If he can be so gleesome, the Viceroyalty of the Dominion must be tempting, and many a politician of mark in the world, conscious of powers for which there is no scope at home, and of energies for which there is no outlet, must as he reads Lord Dufferin's speech sigh for Lord Duf- ferin's position. Statesmen in England have avoided these great governorships, because they regarded them as stepping- stones, and knew that success would not lift them to English power. But if the stepping-stone is high enough to be of it- self the end, if this Northern Viceroyalty be really, as Lord Dufferin evidently thinks, and as by unanimous Canadian testimony he has made it, a constitutional kingship, what better prize except the Premiership has the Empire to offer ? To preside over a nation with a life and a social system and a destiny, to smooth the way of constitutional government, to correct the aberrations of Liberalism, to help to choose out the fittest rulers, to have the right of advice and the certainty of grave attention, and to do these things on an adequate arena, in circumstances which compel a world to watch, and amid a people with capacity of appreciation, is a career which may well tempt alike the loftiest and the most able. In showing to the political class that such a career is possible, that in the greatest of British Colonies a man may be a Constitutional King, and yet
be appreciated, Lord Dufferin has done a service to Canada respectful as that which the leader of the Radicals has assumed possibly more enduring than any of the many for which she as of late years towards the small proprietors and the shop- yet appreciates him. Call no man happy till he dies, and no keepers. And this is, we hope, precisely what M. Buffet has Governor successful till he has retired ; but Lord Dufferin, what- just done in the speech in which he replied to the reproaches
ever his fortune or his fate, has at least enabled us to perceive of the ultra-Radical, M. Marcou. M. Buffet's line was the ideal which a Constitutional Governor-General should at- this :—The object of the new Constitution is to make tarn. The attainment of that ideal will be all the easier if it Parliament really popular in France. No Assembly which is well understood that for those who attain it time has offi- tried to concentrate all the nation's power in itself, and to sit daily very little meaning. Lord Dufferin already speaks of his in permanence as the depositary of that power, ever would 46 term," but why, unless he desires it, should he have a term ? be popular. Permanent Assemblies are not and cannot be —and he has no right to desire it. He cannot come back and good Executives. They have in them too much need of rule us, and short of that, what can fate do for his happiness, sensation, too much necessity for oratory, too little or his fame, or his usefulness to mankind, better than keep him passiveness and tranquillity, for taking upon themselves
where he is ? It is our loss, no doubt, and some day, when the the functions of Executive Governments. Assemblies bad hour arrives, Englishmen may feel that their circle of choice are wanted for counsel and discussion on doubtful points, for power need not be limited to the middle-aged magnates not for administering order, which is best done in the old. who are choking the benches of St. Stephen's, and who among settled ways. If you are so jealous of the Executive as to them have not as yet produced one ruler—for both Sir R. insist on always asserting the power of the Assembly over it, Peel and Mr. Gladstone began as boys—that Britain has among you only pit the Assembly against the Executive in the imagina- her Viceroys, and Ambassadors, and Governors, and Generals, tion of France ; and the effect of that is, as was shown in 1849- and Admirals another reservoir of capacities nearly as large as 1851, to make the Assembly odious to a great part of France, the Parliamentary one, and full of larger men ; but at present, and to glorify the Executive at the expense of the Assembly. and until misfortune shakes us out of our groove, what better As for the fears of a coup d'e'tat, nothing can guarantee France place for a man like Lord Dufferin than the constitutional against a coup d'etat except the popularity of the Assemblies, and
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