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[[Image:Parlement-marche-sainte-anne.jpg|thumb|Parliament of United Canada located in the Marché Sainte-Anne in Montréal. It was burned down criminally in 1849.]]It would be a singular mistake on the nature of the discussion which must emerge from primary and amendment [[motion]]s submitted to our consideration, to limit it to re-sifted and repeated declarations that we do not want to | [[Image:Parlement-marche-sainte-anne.jpg|thumb|Parliament of United Canada located in the Marché Sainte-Anne in Montréal. It was burned down criminally in 1849.]]It would be a singular mistake on the nature of the discussion which must emerge from primary and amendment [[motion]]s submitted to our consideration, to limit it to re-sifted and repeated declarations that we do not want to overthrow today the [[ministry]] that we installed yesterday. That goes without saying, that is understood without any sentence. But this by no means implies that the plenitude of attributions of this [[House]] be devolved on the ministries and that it no longer has anything to do but to silently record if it disaproves and applaud loudly if it approves the determinations, whatever they are. As long as it remains in [[session]], each proposal spontaneously offered by one of the representatives, on either side of the House he belongs to, must have its solution, given either in the presence of the ministers, according to the thoughtful consideration of its merit, its results as likely to promote or to delay the public good. It is because the ministers informed us that they will put an end to the session that they impose us the duty to publicly say here in the House, to the country and to them, today as representatives, and not tomorrow as ordinary citizens in private conversations, what we think of the current state of the province; it is deplorable to say that what is best to delay the progress of evil: is to remain in session. | ||
We have on the table two propositions, one for the granting of the sums requested to discharge claimable debts, incurred by and long due to the contractors who gave their work, materials, wages to a multitude of day labourers; to the schoolmasters who gave to the children of the country the bread of intelligence and who cannot give their children material bread, because the orders signed to have them payed | We have on the table two propositions, one for the granting of the sums requested to discharge claimable debts, incurred by and long due to the contractors who gave their work, materials, wages to a multitude of day labourers; to the schoolmasters who gave to the children of the country the bread of intelligence and who cannot give their children material bread, because the orders signed to have them payed lag in some offices without being honoured and discharged; for the granting of an inevitable loan if one wants to provide for essential daily expenditures: this one must be voted, and the other, a proposition for an amendment which deserves to be discussed, which contains a suggestion judicious and important, but which would make the first disappear and, for this reason, must be rejected or withdrawn, as it will undoubtedly be at the end of the debates. | ||
I concur to the majority of the opinions expressed by the honourable [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38433 member for Norfolk]. I think as he does that the cabinet is too numerous, a comparatively small evil; that the House is too small, constituted upon a principle of injustice, with an aim of iniquity; immense evil, for which, without wasting any time, we must endeavour to remedy, otherwise the alleged [[responsible government]] will only be a lure, and its operation will hardly be better in the purest hands than in the most corrupting hands. As for the ministerial personnel, it offers a combination of talents and principles as good as the composition of the House. It would not be by changing some of its members against some others that it would be improved, it would be by decreasing their number, so that the responsibility of the [[cabinet]] be more direct, more personal, so that the civil servants who, according to the nature of their employment, should not be politicians governing in secret deliberation in the council, but active administrators acting under the eyes of the public, be easily accountable for what they will have done publicly. | I concur to the majority of the opinions expressed by the honourable [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38433 member for Norfolk]. I think as he does that the cabinet is too numerous, a comparatively small evil; that the House is too small, constituted upon a principle of injustice, with an aim of iniquity; immense evil, for which, without wasting any time, we must endeavour to remedy, otherwise the alleged [[responsible government]] will only be a lure, and its operation will hardly be better in the purest hands than in the most corrupting hands. As for the ministerial personnel, it offers a combination of talents and principles as good as the composition of the House. It would not be by changing some of its members against some others that it would be improved, it would be by decreasing their number, so that the responsibility of the [[cabinet]] be more direct, more personal, so that the civil servants who, according to the nature of their employment, should not be politicians governing in secret deliberation in the council, but active administrators acting under the eyes of the public, be easily accountable for what they will have done publicly. | ||
The principal objection to a ministry disproportionately numerous results from the exiguity of the number of representatives and the exaggeration of public expenditure. With time, those who are granted an office and those who would like to be granted one would come to form such a strong proportion of men personally interested in making it so that the decisions they would have taken in secrecy, among men brought together by a community of opinions and interests, prevail, that consequently the remainder of the House would not have on them the free and wholesome control that it must keep on all the authorities. That the House at every moment feels its dependence on [[public opinion]], enlightened by the freest discussion possible; and that the men in power at every moment feel their dependence of a [[representative body]] very independent of them: here is the responsible government in its essence, not such as it was done until now for the Canadas. This House is the grand council of the people after the [[sovereign]], and must give the impulse to, not receive it from those who advise the sovereign in the interval between sessions, this House is positioned too high for it to ever be brought down to | The principal objection to a ministry disproportionately numerous results from the exiguity of the number of representatives and the exaggeration of public expenditure. With time, those who are granted an office and those who would like to be granted one would come to form such a strong proportion of men personally interested in making it so that the decisions they would have taken in secrecy, among men brought together by a community of opinions and interests, prevail, that consequently the remainder of the House would not have on them the free and wholesome control that it must keep on all the authorities. That the House at every moment feels its dependence on [[public opinion]], enlightened by the freest discussion possible; and that the men in power at every moment feel their dependence of a [[representative body]] very independent of them: here is the responsible government in its essence, not such as it was done until now for the Canadas. This House is the grand council of the people after the [[sovereign]], and must give the impulse to, not receive it from those who advise the sovereign in the interval between sessions, this House is positioned too high for it to ever be brought down to the subordinate role of a body of partisans. To decrease the expenditure and to greatly increase the representation in proportion to the populations will make it possible to believe in responsible government; will give to sincere reformists the power to carry out effective reforms which they will not have otherwise. The possession of too great a power and [[patronage]] would end up corrupting those who accepted this government, as were false and corrupted those who gave it. | ||
The current system has been granted by men whose whole political life has been a permanent conspiracy against the principles of responsible government. They have enjoyed and practised mystery, deceit, monopoly of power for and by the minorities. | The current system has been granted by men whose whole political life has been a permanent conspiracy against the principles of responsible government. They have enjoyed and practised mystery, deceit, monopoly of power for and by the minorities. | ||
[[Image:Sydenham.jpg|thumb|left|Charles Poulett Thomson, baron Sydenham, first governor of United Canada]]The plan of Lord [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=37815 Sydenham] has been to call all the heads of departments into cabinet, and to turn all other civil servants into servile slaves, complacent flatterers; to put the country in two enemy camps which, in their impassioned fight to seize power, would forget the interests of 999 citizens out of a thousand, of those who do not aspire to an office, but who | [[Image:Sydenham.jpg|thumb|left|Charles Poulett Thomson, baron Sydenham, first governor of United Canada]]The plan of Lord [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=37815 Sydenham] has been to call all the heads of departments into cabinet, and to turn all other civil servants into servile slaves, complacent flatterers; to put the country in two enemy camps which, in their impassioned fight to seize power, would forget the interests of 999 citizens out of a thousand, of those who do not aspire to an office, but who pay for the expenses. The system such as he conceived and formulated it was, with more confidence than his author deserved, welcomed by all parties. The Parliaments which followed his, as the one which he had formed by the introduction of so many men either unknown or unpopular, who could only be proclaimed by preventing voters from approaching the [[hustings]]; who had rendered justice to themselves and the country, by never presenting their candidature to any subsequent election, as they had never presented them to any former election, enslaved themselves by following the unconstitutional path which he had traced. The ministers governed too much, the House recorded too much. | ||
In England, the number of measures considered ministerial is wisely restricted and circumscribed to a small number of the most important proposals. There is an agreement between the parties, that the thorough discussion, the most energetic one will only roll on a small number of measures which have a great interest in the time being so that, from the point of view under which they are considered, attacked and defended, public opinion clears up, progresses, and decides by the majority of the votes in the House of the fall or the conservation of | In England, the number of measures considered ministerial is wisely restricted and circumscribed to a small number of the most important proposals. There is an agreement between the parties, that the thorough discussion, the most energetic one will only roll on a small number of measures which have a great interest in the time being so that, from the point of view under which they are considered, attacked and defended, public opinion clears up, progresses, and decides by the majority of the votes in the House of the fall or the conservation of ministries. The greatest proportion of much of the [[bills]], proposed during each session, is introduced by members who are independent from any direct ministerial connection. Not that the ministerial influence, which is that of the majority, is nullified, but it is not personal; but they keep for themselves, and leave to others the freedom to vote on the greatest part of the questions which are discussed during each session, each member according to their individual opinion. The majority of parliamentary work is conducted and decided in [[special committees]]. Whether they are chosen by the Speaker or the House, a scrupulous attention to distribute, in the same proportions which the parties have in the House, the members of all these parties, give them the conviction that they are treated with justice, and that the decision of the House would be the same one as that of the committee. The general rule is thus not to appeal its decision. If it were not that way, it would be above the forces of any ministry, to take care of the obligation to read, in England, the number of laws that are sanctioned each year; and here, to take the responsability to answer to the kindness of all measures of legislation which are each year necessary, to regulate the various and complicated interests of our society, however small that it still is, comparatively to those which constitute great independent States. | ||
I do not understand why one wants to consider a [[vote of non-confidence]] the conscientious and free vote that a colleague will give against a decision of the ministers, when he thinks that | I do not understand why one wants to consider a [[vote of non-confidence]] the conscientious and free vote that a colleague will give against a decision of the ministers, when he thinks that decision is an error. By prematurely putting an end to the session, I fear that they will harm themselves, I am thus surprised; but I fear moreover than they harm the public interests, and therefore I am deeply afflicted by it. One can without a shade contradictions ask for the prolongation of the session, all the while repeating a vote of confidence if it were useful to do so. It is because the House will no longer be able to advise them in a few days that there is a need to do it now. There is a crowd of measures already started which can be improved and be finished with happy results for the country, without ministerial responsibility being involved. | ||
Before entering in the detail of what these measurements are, I must repeat today, tomorrow, until the need for repeating it is ended, that the first step toward a wise, practical and popular legislation, is the parliamentary reform. To not be ready as of this session to have a proper census conducted, is to be ready, as best, only after the coming session, | Before entering in the detail of what these measurements are, I must repeat today, tomorrow, until the need for repeating it is ended, that the first step toward a wise, practical and popular legislation, is the parliamentary reform. To not be ready as of this session to have a proper census conducted, is to be ready, as best, only after the coming session, is of four years to lose two of them; it is to blind oneself on the nature of the obstacles, on the extent of the loathings that there will be to concede this first act of justice in the Legislative Council, in the [[Colonial Office]], everywhere was consented and decreed the political inferiority of one race with respect to the other, of a section of the province with respect to the other. And yet, for as a long as this political equality between all citizens will not be established, the legislation will continue to be as partial, ineffective, unpleasant, unperformed in Lower Canada, as it has been since the ordinances of the [[Special Council]] and the [[Act of Union]]. It would have been an act of high wisdom, a solemn protest against the transitory existence of this irrational, irresponsible power to repeal, by a single act of full justice, all the ordinances filled with injustice that this council of mute men has ratified. Do they have any good in them? It is to a regular, constitutional government to restore it. This expression of hatred against arbitrary power would have been an expression of affection for responsible government, firm, active and well understood. | ||
Since the Union, all the ministries in turn adopted the erroneous practise of requiring that any and all of their members be chained to support the whole and the details of each bill produced by any one of them, though they | Since the Union, all the ministries in turn adopted the erroneous practise of requiring that any and all of their members be chained to support the whole and the details of each bill produced by any one of them, though they may have conscientiously differed on some of its details; to make, of minor questions or simple [[jurisprudence]], ministerial political questions, to want that all bills however important be prepared and presented by them. Whether the ministry be in great or small number, it is taking care of more work than it can handle. When it is numerous, it is to constitute itself too strongly. The influence of twelve members chained to publicly express only the same feeling, if in a secret deliberation it was that of only seven of them, becomes a danger to the free discussion, the full independence, the effective control that the assembly must keep on them. | ||
There is a crowd of measures which can be continued without any disadvantage | There is a crowd of measures which can be continued without any disadvantage to the ministry and for the advantage of the country. | ||
Such are the private bills requested in great number by parties which are prepared to invest their capital in improvements useful to themselves and to the public. All the work which is preparatory for these acts of general or local legislation, such as the enquiries which are conducted in special committees, and which would lead to the introduction of bills, some this year, others in one or two years, if the already started enquiries were not finished in a first session, but were retaken and continued in a second and a third, should not be stopped in the most urgent need. Supposing that the whole ministry could not have retaken its seats in a few days, a proportion sufficient to share the work of the House can so in little time. Be they present, they are too recently installed for them to offer you any important measure of reform, of legislation; of reduction of useless spendings which have increased so badly year by year since the Act of Union. Eh well! be it so; during three long years of formidable opposition, where they had the real majority against the fictitious majority, they would have each day stated to have a better right to the exercise of power than their adversaries, each day they would have hoped to replace them, and never be ready to do better than them in the first session which would follow their success. Since they claim not to be ready to propose any important law this year, not even on the subjects which they discussed during three years, the House will not request any; but there is not in that a sufficient reason to [[prorogate]]. The House must remain for some time in session to be consulted on questions which, if they can be solved in accordance with the wishes and the interests of the people, will in one day more rapidly tend to enrich them, to rapidly develop the resources of the country, than would several years of our legislation. The questions are those which can at any moment give us the [[reciprocity]] of an easy trade with the United States of America; the advantage of a direct trade with all the nations of the world; the free navigation of the [[St. Lawrence]] and of our interior seas; the flags of all the friendly peoples floating on our waters, the consulates of all the friendly peoples established in our cities. These are the vital questions which are being [[Image:Robert-j-walker.jpg|thumb|Robert J. Walker, United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1845 to 1849]]deliberated upon in the American Congress and in the English Parliament. In a matter of days England could request our opinion, the Congress expecting the expression of our wishes; it is thus a happy event that the House is in session, so that the administration be able to receive its opinion if it became useful to have it, to not collect it, if it did not see the utility to offer it. The majority gave its confidence to the ministers, it is the least to expect that there be reciprocity; However enlightened and well disposed they may be, there are more lights in the House and more authority in its vote, with or without them, than there are in a fraction of the House. There is no need to doubt that at the sight of such great results, so immediate, so suitable to raise the value of the properties of each one in all the extent of two Canadas, but more particularly in Upper Canada, as would provide the reciprocity of trade with the United States, many enlightened individuals, in this assembly and outside this assembly, will have written to their friends in the two Houses of the Congress to request that they support the enlightened design of their [[Wikipedia:Robert J. Walker|Secretary of the Treasury]], who entered with such ardour, genius, and success in the path of free trade, and who wishes its extension particularly with this province. | Such are the private bills requested in great number by parties which are prepared to invest their capital in improvements useful to themselves and to the public. All the work which is preparatory for these acts of general or local legislation, such as the enquiries which are conducted in special committees, and which would lead to the introduction of bills, some this year, others in one or two years, if the already started enquiries were not finished in a first session, but were retaken and continued in a second and a third, should not be stopped in the most urgent need. Supposing that the whole ministry could not have retaken its seats in a few days, a proportion sufficient to share the work of the House can so in little time. Be they present, they are too recently installed for them to offer you any important measure of reform, of legislation; of reduction of useless spendings which have increased so badly year by year since the Act of Union. Eh well! be it so; during three long years of formidable opposition, where they had the real majority against the fictitious majority, they would have each day stated to have a better right to the exercise of power than their adversaries, each day they would have hoped to replace them, and never be ready to do better than them in the first session which would follow their success. Since they claim not to be ready to propose any important law this year, not even on the subjects which they discussed during three years, the House will not request any; but there is not in that a sufficient reason to [[prorogate]]. The House must remain for some time in session to be consulted on questions which, if they can be solved in accordance with the wishes and the interests of the people, will in one day more rapidly tend to enrich them, to rapidly develop the resources of the country, than would several years of our legislation. The questions are those which can at any moment give us the [[reciprocity]] of an easy trade with the United States of America; the advantage of a direct trade with all the nations of the world; the free navigation of the [[St. Lawrence]] and of our interior seas; the flags of all the friendly peoples floating on our waters, the consulates of all the friendly peoples established in our cities. These are the vital questions which are being [[Image:Robert-j-walker.jpg|thumb|Robert J. Walker, United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1845 to 1849]]deliberated upon in the American Congress and in the English Parliament. In a matter of days England could request our opinion, the Congress expecting the expression of our wishes; it is thus a happy event that the House is in session, so that the administration be able to receive its opinion if it became useful to have it, to not collect it, if it did not see the utility to offer it. The majority gave its confidence to the ministers, it is the least to expect that there be reciprocity; However enlightened and well disposed they may be, there are more lights in the House and more authority in its vote, with or without them, than there are in a fraction of the House. There is no need to doubt that at the sight of such great results, so immediate, so suitable to raise the value of the properties of each one in all the extent of two Canadas, but more particularly in Upper Canada, as would provide the reciprocity of trade with the United States, many enlightened individuals, in this assembly and outside this assembly, will have written to their friends in the two Houses of the Congress to request that they support the enlightened design of their [[Wikipedia:Robert J. Walker|Secretary of the Treasury]], who entered with such ardour, genius, and success in the path of free trade, and who wishes its extension particularly with this province. | ||
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Because the ministers are not ready to make great things this year, they should do not prevent those who are ready to act and to make great or small things of another kind than those that concern them. | Because the ministers are not ready to make great things this year, they should do not prevent those who are ready to act and to make great or small things of another kind than those that concern them. | ||
That responsible government is not well understood; or if it is such as one conceives it, that it is not entirely good, was revealed in a manner humiliating for the province, in the presence of the public, who will have to find it too small and the ministry too big , on the occasion of what happened concerning the bankruptcy law. One of our colleagues presented a request signed by several importing traders and almost all retailers of Montreal, complaining that this law was an abundant source of fraud, ruin and demoralization; not asking the complicated work of a new law on this subject, but only the abolition of the current law. | |||
With slight amendments needed so that the liquidations started under the operation of this law be continued, and to keep the debtors from imprisonment for debts, this bill, referred to a committee, would give to trade, in little time, a reform of which it pleads the urgent need. | |||
A good number of the members of the two sections of the province are eager to right the wishes of traders. | |||
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TO BE TRANSLATED | |||
L'honorable membre retire son ''bill'' contre le désir des pétitionnaires et contre le sien propre, assure-t-il, parce qu'on lui dit que les ministres désirent qu'il le retire. | L'honorable membre retire son ''bill'' contre le désir des pétitionnaires et contre le sien propre, assure-t-il, parce qu'on lui dit que les ministres désirent qu'il le retire. | ||
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''L'Avenir'' du 8 avril, 1848. | ''L'Avenir'' du 8 avril, 1848. | ||
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[[Category:Speeches]] | [[Category:Speeches]] | ||
[[Category:Translations]] | [[Category:Translations to come]] | ||
[[Category:1848]] | |||
[[Category:2007]] | |||