A letter in the Colonial Gazette of this morning, by
a highly-accre- dited correspondent at the fountain-head of information on Canadian affairs, throws further light on the Ministerial crisis ; giving the secret history of what led to the crisis, and the probable sequel. The letter, which is sufficiently interesting to warrant a very large quotation, is dated " Kingston, 11th December 1843 " ; and it begins thus- ', Accounts will reach you by this mail calculated to make a false impression with respect to the state of affairs here. It will appear to you that Sir Charles Metcalfe has entered upon a violent quarrel with the Assembly ; that he has no chance of gaining the victory in this contest with the Representatives of the People; that we have suddenly reverted to the old system of collision between the Executive and the Popular branch of the Legislature; that the Union wont work ; and that the Mother-country has now to determine whether she will alter the Provincial constitution, and rule the colonists by force, or have done with troublesome Canada for ever. Do not believe a word of it. No- thing more has happened than one of those Ministerial crises, or changes of Ministry, which must be frequent under the British constitution wherever it may he established, and which all experience tells us, instead of proving fatal to the constitution itself, are the main cause of its stability. Montesquieu must have had this in view when he spoke of the English King as ' Un roi toujours chancelant cur nn treine inebranlable.' Nothing more, I say, has happened than one of those political storms which have the effect of clearing the atmosphere and improving the weather under a free constitution. You will agree with me, after having attended to the following narrative of recent events.
" Sir Charles Bagot's determination to admit the French Canadians to a share in the government of their country produced an Administration enjoying the confidence of a very large majority of the people of United Canada; a ma- jority which, at the opening of the session of Parliament just closed, was re- presented by more than 60 of the 84 members composing the Assembly. Lord Grey's Administration, in 1833, was hardly so strong as respects the consti- tuencies ; whilst the cordial adoption of Sir Charles Bagors policy by Sir Charles Metcalfe gave a degree of security to the Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry on the side of the Crown, which Lord Grey never enjoyed after 1832. Most people said of this Provincial Administration, How strong it is ! ' only a few expressed some vague fear of its being in danger, by asking whether it was not a little too strong ? Such was the aspect of our politics when the late session commenced. The Opposition in the Assembly, numbering hardly 20 votes, were manifestly without a policy either for the country or for themselves as a party : their utmost efforts were confined to a muttered repetition of old stories about disaffection and loyalty ; and the Government introduced a mass of le- gislative measures, with every prospect of having its own way with respect to them, and indeed to every thing besides. " Yet even then, there were not wanting careful observers who saw the possibi- lity of the very shock which has occurred. I am speaking now of those who said that perhaps the Ministry was 'a little too strong.' These while they acknowledged that the bulk of the measures promised by the Ministry were likely to be of service to the country and agreeable to the people, perceived, nevertheless, that some of them had been conceived without regard to circum- stances of great importance which no statesman would have overlooked. Be- lieving that the downfall of the Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry has been mainly occasioned by their disregard of these circumstances, I would draw your par- ticular attention to them.
" The Union of the two Canadas has brought under the control of one Legis- lature two nations, so to speak, which widely differ in origin, language, laws, customs, and habits of thought. One law for these two different races would be as unjust and intolerable as two different laws for one and the same people. It follows that, in order to content the whole people of Canada, legislation under the Union most for a long while be carried on in that federal spirit which has marked the proceedings of the Parliament of Great Britain as respects England and Scotland since the Legislative Union of those different countries. Of this all-important principle the late Canadian Ministry appear never to have bad any clear view, or even a glimpse ; for, though what may be termed a practical necessity obliged them to frame some of their measures not for the whole Province but for one or other of its recent divisions exclusively— to propose this law for what was formerly Upper Canada, and that for what was formerly Lower Canada—yet they had the inconceivable folly to depend upon their Lower Canadian majority as a means of carrying through Parliament measures for Upper Canada alone which were repugnant to the Upper Canadian majority. The case is the same as if the Ministry at home, in preparing measures applicable to Scotland alone, should disregard opinion iu that part of the United Kingdom, turn a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the Scottish Members of Parliament against such measures, and carry those measures through by means of English Members no less ignorant than careless of the peculiar wants and wishes of Scotland. This is what the Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry attempted with respect to an Assessment Bill for Upper Canada alone, which that part of the Province greatly disliked, and which was opposed by a majority of the Representatives of Upper Canada in the Assembly. They attempted this, but in vain ; because a good many of the members for Lower Canada, perceiving the extreme impolicy of the Ministers in this respect, threatened to vote with the Upper Canada majority ; and the obnoxious bill was accordingly withdrawn. This was a deep mortification to Mr. Baldwin ; as you will better understand when I shall come to speak of certain peculiarities in his character. It was probable that other measures of like nature would share the same fate. In particular, there was a bill for the establishment of an University in Upper Canada, which interfered with endowments and chartered rights in that part of the Province, and which the French-Canadian Members accordingly, who are strongly disposed to preserve such property and privileges, would probably have declined to support. This measure was Mr. Baldwinit own, and a great favourite : he would probably have been compelled to withdraw it on the Monday after the Sunday on which he resigned. You must now comprehend that there were reasons for his resignation besides those which have been told to the public.
"In fact, it was a common saying, just before the resignation took place, that the Administration might, perhaps, not last through the session. This doubt of their stability was founded on a variety of circumstances besides those to which I have already adverted. In the first place, Mr. Lafontaine had been successfully opposed by a body of his own especial adherents in the Assembly, led by Mr. Viger ; whose experience, patriotism, and political accomplishments, give him great weight with his countrymen. This opposition was directed against one of the most important features of a set of bills for the improvement of the judicature of Lower Canada, on which Mr. Lafontaine had bestowed nocommen pains, and for which he felt the affection of a parent : and its :nie- ce a, by an open vote in the Assembly, could not bat have annoyed him ex- ceedingly. Secondly, it was town-talk down to the day of the Ministers' re- signation. that they had offended their adherents in Parliament by a degree of reserve with respect to contemplated measures, and of arrogance in personal
intercourse, which nothing could excuse, nor any thing explain, save the sup-
position that they wele intoxicated by the novel enjoyment of almost unlimited power. Thirdly, one of the members of the Government, Mr. Minas, had =foraged to render himself so unpopular personally, by a peculiarly offensive method of exercising authority, that the Assembly could hardly listen to him with patience. Fourthly, this Ministry had received 'a severe blow and great
discouragement ' in the defeat of an attempt, which they appeared to view with
favour, to fix upon one of their colleagues, Mr. Daly, a charge of peculation and gross delinquency, which a Select Committee of the Assembly declared to be utterly without foundation. And lastly, the secession of a number of Upper Canadian members of the Legislative Council, (or Upper House,) occa- sioned, as it would be easy to show, by a course of general disrespect towards that House on the part of the Executive, and by particular bungling and in-
temperance towards them displayed by the only member of the Executive having a seat there, had brought matters to such a pass in this branch of the Legislature, that all measures, not excepting those relating exclusively to tipper Canada, were assented to by not more than three members coming from tipper Canada, the remainder being all French-Canadians ; while there was every prospect that legislation would be stopped by the failure of a quorum. if Tau put all these things together, in addition to the Upper Canada difficulties in the Lower House, it will be plain to you that a quarrel with the Governor- General was by no means necessary in order to upset the Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry before the close of the session. If you have any doubt on the subject, be so good as to recur to the Seat of Government question ; the decision of which against Upper Canada, however just and politic as regards the whole Province, had occasioned a state of feeling in this section of it which would have induced a wise administration to exercise the utmost prudence, forbear- ance, and even gentleness, in the treatment of every other matter relating to Upper Canada. " These, however, are not the only grounds on which I imagine that the difference with the Governnr.General, on which the Ex-Ministers resigned, was sought by them as a way of escaping from insurmountable difficulties in Par- liament. The demand made upon the head of the Government was of such a nature—was so thoroughly unconstitutional and absurd in itself, that those who made it must have been sure beforehand of the Governor's positive refusal to comply with it. Nor, accordingly, has any one of them ever pretended that they bad the least hope of his yielding the point to them. They went to him with the certainty that their visit would end in his acceptance of their resigna- tion. The evil consequences for the Province were obvious : a session of Par- liament, unexampled in this country for the amount and importance of the measures in hand, would come to an end at the most critical moment ; nearly the whole of its past labours would be wasted, and the people would be bitterly disappointed. Why did not Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin postpone for a few weeks their quarrel with the Governor-General, so as to let the more important measures of the session pass into law 1 The true answer is obvious : because, whatever had come of the measures, their Ministry was in great danger of a blow from Parliament which would have left those incompetent leaders without $ party in the country : they retired from office in order to save themselves from being turned out : however blinded previously by having been too strong,' they discovered their danger in the nick of time, and averted the mortification of expiring for want of popular support, by forcing upon the Governor-General
quarrel in which they expected all the popular sympathies to be on their side. M i r. Baldwin has often boasted that he s a strong party man, and now he has proved it beyond dispute.
This view of the subject is confirmed by another consideration. Mr. Bald- win's political character is composed almost entirely of self-esteem, so sincere as to be properly termed honest or conscientious, and perfectly inordinate in degree. Everybody believes him when he says that be cares little for power, and nothing at all for office. Now, this gentleman's position in the late Minis- try was by no means an agreeable one for a man of his peculiar temperament. He was brought into power in September 1842. not as the leader of an import. ant party in Upper Canada, (for at that time be led an Opposition in the As- sembly composed of four members, including himself.) but as a gentleman who had conferred obligations on the French Canadians by taking part with them against Lord Sydenharn, and whom their strong sense of political honour led them to repay by refusing Sir Charles Bagot's proposal of office except on con- dition that this Upper Canadian friend were admitted to power along with them. Politically, therefore, Mr. Baldwin was a French-Canadian member of the late Administration ; and he necessarily, in the estimation of the public, played second fiddle to Mr. Lafontaine. To such a man as Mr. Baldwin such a position must have been perpetual wormwood. Even the ascendancy which he acquired over Mr. Lafontaine in the Executive Council, though it gave bins the opportunity of carrying out his own views of policy for Upper Canada by means of French-Canadian votes, was but poor compensation for the want of that prominence, that first and highest place among one's associates and in the public eye, which is always the desire of excessive self-esteem. His position at this moment must be far more agreeable to him. The late Government was formed on the principle of ' justice to the French-Canadians.' Mr. Baldwin has broken it up on that of responsible government,' which is almost his one idea in politics, and of which he now figures as the martyr. This particular subject is now in everybody s mouth: he is now the observed of all observers. The Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry has become the Baldwin Lafontaine Oppo- sition • and Mr. Baldwin's smiling countenance in the Assembly has expressed his satisfaction at the change."
[The writer then retraces some of the ground which our readers have already passed. Re blames the Ministers for managing to get on bad terms with Sir Charles Metcalfe,: though no Colonial Governor had ever carried out the prin. ciple of responsible government so far—they " perpetually whipped and goaded the willing horse." Throughout the whole Ministerial crisis, Sir Charles Metcalfe's personal demeanour had been " singularly calm, patient, and good- humoured."] " Men of all parties, with the exception of the late Ministers and their im- mediate partisans, ask what the quarrel has been about, and talk of the pos- sibility of forming a Government supported by a majority of the present As- sembly. Mr. Tiger, who in the absence of Mr. Papineau may be deemed the leader of the French-Canadians, is understood to have overcome his repug- nance to the troubles and responsibilities of office, and to have accepted the first place in a new Administration. It is expected that tomorrow will not pass over without the acceptance of office by several other leading mem- bers of the Assembly and Legislative Council. In less than a week, probably, a new Administration will be completed, likely to enjoy the confidence of both Houses of Parliament, and qualified to carry into effect a popular system of government without offensive arrogance towards the Governor-General or any- body else, and without falling into any of the other errors of Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine. This is my own expectation. Should it be realized, the public voice will pronounce that the incompetence of its leaders was the true cause of the downfal of the late Mini.try, and that the shock which their re- signation occasioned was but one of those temporary evils out of which good cometh in abundance."
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