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A Canadian Patriot James W.J. Bowden looks at D’Arcy McGee’s surprising ideas for the Vice-Royalty of

homas D’Arcy McGee holds the well- then fled back to the to evade Tknown distinction of being the first a warrant for his arrest.3 Over the next nine Canadian politician to have died by an years, he lived variously in New York City, Buf- assassin’s bullet. On Apr. 7, 1868, Patrick falo, and Boston; while he remained a faithful James Whelan, a Fenian angered that McGee Roman Catholic throughout his life, he also had abandoned the Irish revolutionary shifted during these years from mild clerical movement in favour of constitutional scepticism to ultramontanism.4 But by the under the Union Flag, shot McGee 1850s, McGee had repudiated his own pre- in the back of the head at point-blank range, vious foray into revolutionary politics, and killing him instantly a few weeks shy of his he became disillusioned with 43rd birthday.1 and the United States itself, which he increas- McGee’s assassination has since come to ingly saw as morally corrosive and chaotic. overshadow his life and accomplishments. His early visits to the of Canada in He remains perhaps best-known in the 1850s convinced him that Responsible today for the pub which bears his name and Government and the legal protections of the stands near the site of his assassination on rights of linguistic and religious minorities Sparks Street. But we should remember him provided a better country in which to bring for far more. McGee’s speeches and essays up his children.5 demonstrate a sophisticated understand- ing of political history and philosophy and a remarkable foresight expressed in a rare Finally, in 1857, he emigrated to eloquence which distinguished him from his and founded another newspaper called the contemporaries. He also possessed an un- New Era; by 1858, he had already taken his daunted audacity. He emigrated to the Unit- seat as an elected MPP in the Province of ed States at the age of 17 in 1842 and quickly Canada’s Legislative Assembly for Montreal established himself as a leading proponent of West.6 In Canada, McGee extolled the virtues Irish independence, becoming co-editor of of and Responsible the Boston Pilot, a prominent Catholic news- Government and — more presciently and paper. He had absorbed the prevailing senti- presumptuously still — immediately began ment of American and tri- promoting the idea of uniting all the British umphantly proclaimed in 1845 that “One vast North American from Atlantic to federal union will stretch from to Pacific. Like George Brown, who also spent ” and further insisted that “Either by time in the Antebellum United States, McGee purchase, conquest, or stipulation, Canada knew that only a Counter-Manifest Destiny must be yielded to this great republic.”2 Mc- under a uniting all of British North Gee returned to in 1847, fought in the America, linked together by transcontinental failed Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, and railways, would save it from by

VICTORIAN WEB: HATHI TRUST DIGITAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Autumn/Winter 2020 The Dorchester Review 43 A Canadian Patriot King

the United States. Ironically, McGee contrib- Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in uted to Canadian culture and politics by ap- 1854; it expired in 1866. By the 1860s, London plying American ideas here to different ends. wanted to divest some responsibility for the In this general endeavour, McGee ultimately defence of the British North American colo- succeeded; he joined cabinet as the Minister nies as well.11 of Agriculture in the of 1864 McGee believed that the grant of Responsi- which made possible.7 But in ble Government in the 1840s had moved the one particular detail McGee failed. He had colonies closer to an “American standard of proposed that British federate government,” which left British North Ameri- under the vice-royalty of one of Queen Victo- ca more vulnerable to annexation. He hoped ria sons, who would have replaced the Gover- that the constitution of the new federal union nor General and given rise to a separate and would strengthen the authority of independent Canadian monarchy. He also, as another bulwark for independence: like Sir John A. Macdonald, wanted to call the new federation of “The The power and patronage of the crown has Kingdom of Canada.” been reduced to its lowest point; the Upper House has been made elective; the franchise has been extended; the period required by law for the naturalization of aliens had been McGee understood that Confederation reduced to three years; the public lands have meant “some form of federative union or no ceased to be crown lands; the public depart- union at all,” both for practical purposes and ments have been all transferred from imperial theoretical concerns.8 By the 1860s, these to provincial control. Many of these reforms, or colonies had grown accustomed to self-gov- all of them, are or may be real improvements; ernment over the preceding twenty years they are only here referred to in evidence of the and would not relinquish that authority to assertion that year by year, and step by step, we one central government and unitary legis- are advancing towards an unrecognized Amer- lature. Federation would facilitate the com- icanism, which must have its perils and risks as mon defence and forge a common market well as its attractions.12 while also preserving the self-government of the colonies in local matters and protecting Under , the colo- the rights of religious and linguistic minori- nies, especially the , had ties throughout. The economic and political gained more autonomy and local self-gov- evolution of the British over the pre- ernment throughout the 1850s to the point ceding twenty years also necessitated a fed- where only foreign affairs and defence re- eral union of British North America. By 1847, mained areas of unambiguous Imperial ju- Colonial Secretary Lord Grey had properly risdiction and provided the last tenuous link granted full Responsible Government, with tying the together. McGee also individual and collective ministerial respon- understood that Britons in the United King- sibility, through his letters and instructions dom itself would not consent to pay for the to the Governors of British North America.9 defence of British North America indefinitely And by 1849, the Imperial had now that London had abandoned mercantil- repealed the Navigation Acts and the Corn ism. Above all, McGee saw federal union as a Laws, thus replacing mercantilism with free necessary signal to London that British North trade.10 Abolishing protectionism and the Americans would readily take responsibility preferential tariff within the Empire forced for their own defence and contribute to the the British North American colonies to seek overall security and integrity of the Empire markets outside of the Imperial metropo- instead of perpetuating their own dependen- le. This meant more trade with the United cy on the and and States. The Province of Canada, under the continuing to burden the taxpayers in the tutelage of the , negotiated a British Isles:

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achieving representation by population and We have passed out of the age of pupilage, and a federal union.19 By the mid-1860s, the Prov- we have emerged into the stage of partnership. ince of Canada increasingly looked like an We are retained in the Empire under a tem- untenable, provisional polity and a failed ex- porary engagement, terminable at a month’s periment on the verge of collapse. This made notice, because we have not shown ourselves it vulnerable to American invasion and an- truly desirous of understanding or acting upon nexation. the duties of another more intimate and more responsible relationship.13 bove all, McGee understood that Brit- In the 20th century, political scientists Aish North Americans could not simply would apply this idea to Canadian-American put forward economic and practical argu- relations as the “defence against help”14 ments, “founded on material considerations,” The carnage of the had against annexation; indeed, a purely material made British North American union, which argument might well end up supporting an- seemed quixotic and fanciful in the 1850s, a nexation. Instead, British North Americans practical necessity in the 1860s. In 1863, Mc- would need to federate into one polity and Gee believed that “the first shot fired at Fort develop a new nationality and resist annexa- Sumter had a message for us”15 and warned tion on patriotic, non-material grounds. He that the United States would attempt to an- concluded: “if we descend to combat mate- nex the Province of Canada, Rupert’s Land, rial inducements with material objections, and . Most insidiously, the we shall run the risk of not arousing a united, Americans would promote an annexation- cordial, and high-spirited public resistance to ist movement in Canada through ostensibly such insidious propositions.”20 Events in 1866 peaceful means, “not in a hostile but a busi- proved McGee right. On 2 July 1866, Nathan- ness-like spirit,” by identifying “partisans for iel Banks, a Republican Congressman from their projects among every class of our own Massachusetts who had served as a general people.”16 But the Union could annex a di- in the Union Army during the Civil War, in- vided British North America by force of arms troduced a bill, H.R. 754 “for the admission if necessary and demonstrate that “it is in of the States of , , vain for these smaller and poorer , and Canada West, and for the to resist their ‘manifest destiny.’”17 organization of the Territories of Selkirk, Sas- (within the Province of Canada) would not katchewan, and Columbia” into the United rouse themselves to fight off another Ameri- States of America.21 The bill died in commit- can invasion as they did in the tee. But Banks had actually taken a remark- because they lacked a “hearty attachment ably sophisticated approach in his proposed to [their] present constitution, that strong legislation by cleverly countering some of the sentiment of pride in its excellencies, that material guarantees contained in the undoubting belief in its perpetuity, which Resolutions, especially those relating to pub- can inspire the spirit of self-sacrifice, into our lic works, with some material inducements taxpayers and our armed men.”18 TheAct of that McGee had predicted three years earlier. Union, 1840 amalgamated and Under the terms of annexation in Banks’s bill, into a legislative union but the United States would have assumed debts, also deliberately preserved and guaranteed constructed new canals and expanded exist- their separate legal systems on the one hand, ing ones, and built a transcontinental railway. and mandated a “sectional equality” between The U.S.A. had already demonstrated an Upper Canada and Lower Canada which as- insatiable appetite for gobbling up the con- signed the same number of elected members tinent in the 19th century, from Jefferson’s in the Legislative Assembly to each irrespec- Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to Polk’s annexa- tive of differences in their populations. Mc- tion of the Republic of Texas in 1845 and con- Gee strongly supported George Brown in quest of New Mexico and Upper California

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in 1848. McGee himself once advocated the warned on 24 June 1854 that “wily statesmen” program to annex the entire New World to in London were plotting to impose a “North- the United States, so he well understood that ern Monarchy” under a vice-royalty of one of British North America must band together ’s sons in British North Amer- and impose a political barrier against Ameri- ica.25 McGee’s plan for a vice-royalty comple- can expansion in place of the natural, geo- mented his moderate Irish in graphic barrier that the northern half of the the early to mid-1840s. Before the desolation continent lacked. “What risks do we run if we of the Famine and the continental European reject this measure?” he asked. “We run the had radicalised him into risk of being swallowed up by the spirit of uni- a violent Irish revolutionary, McGee had ad- versal that prevails in the United vocated around 1846 for a moderate reform States.”22 McGee understood what animated which retained what he called “The Golden Manifest Destiny: namely, hegemonic “uni- Link to the Crown”: Irish under versal democracy” that rejects authority, dis- Canadian- Responsible Government and solves communal bonds, and devolves into a a repeal of the Act of Union, 1801. These mea- hyper-individualist chaos, making the British sures would have restored Ireland as a king- tradition of ordered liberty untenable. McGee dom in a or argued that British North America already with and given it self-govern- possessed liberty in abundance but could ment over its internal affairs while deferring well benefit from “a large infusion of author- to London on Imperial matters of war and ity” to counteract “the downward tendency diplomacy.26 which characterizes this democratic age.”23 On 19 January 1858, in a column entitled Self-government flows from “liberty and per- “Canadian — Nationality,” Mc- manency.” Without authority and restraint Gee argued that Canada could experiment to temper it, liberty collapses into , with monarchical conceptions of sovereignty. and then, in turn, gives way to tyranny. In the 1860s, the United States looked on the brink If Canada — that is, British North America of collapse. McGee saw the tri-partite Crown- — is to attain to political sovereignty in our in-Parliament of the Queen, an upper house time, it is most natural she should look for the appointed by the Queen, and a lower house founder of her in the of elected by the people as the ideal balance . Beside the Prince of Wales there are between monarchy, , and democ- two princes, children of Her — the one racy, where the latter could not overwhelm in his thirteenth, the other in his tenth year. It the other two. is not a very violent hypothesis to suppose that, within ten years from this date, either of these young princes might be found capable of ful- Monarchy filling all royal offices in a new kingdom upon McGee had advocated for a federal union the St. Lawrence. Our century has already seen of British North America as soon as he was a French soldier found a dynasty in — first elected as an MPP in 1858. He chose to a Corsican hero create an empire in — mark the occasion in his newspaper, New a Portuguese prince an empire in Brazil — a Era, by advocating that this new federation of Turkish official plant a dynasty in Egypt — a Canada — he predicted correctly even then Bavarian crowned King of Greece — and a Co- that the Province of Canada would lend its bourgh King of the Belgians. It would not be name to the new federal polity — become a an event so astonishing as the least of these to vice-royalty headed by either Queen Victo- find, before the century had reached its third ria’s second- or third-born son.24 This view , a British prince established in inde- marked the final shift in his career. Ironically, pendent states on the throne of Canada.27 only four years earlier, at the peak of his ultra- republican phase, McGee took to The Ameri- He also presciently guessed the timing of can Celt, his newspaper in New York City, and Confederation, which happened nine and

46 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020 A Canadian Patriot King half years after he stated that it would occur the form of a vice-royalty as a means of pro- in ten years. In these columns from 1858, Mc- moting its political, cultural, and intellectual Gee invoked the example of the House of Bra- independence. Back in the Province of Can- ganza of the Empire of Brazil and envisioned ada, he contributed two essays to the British that Prince Alfred or Prince Arthur would be- American Magazine (’s answer to The come the head of a new branch of the House Atlantic of Boston), one in August 1863 enti- of Saxe-Cobourgh-Gotha and that their de- tled “A Plea for British American Nationality” scendents would, in turn, become and and a follow up in October 1863 called “A Fur- Queens of Canada. McGee followed up with ther Plea for British American Nationality.”32 another column on “Union, Strength, and Above all, McGee wanted to devise a system Sovereignty” on 16 February 1858. of government which would properly balance the liberty of citizens and the authority of the Neither feigning nor feeling any distrust of . He believed that the settler societies of constitutional monarchy, it is yet solely for the New World naturally possessed a greater Canadian reasons we advocate the making of degree of liberty and equality than their an- Canada a secundo-geniture in the family of its tecedent societies in Europe and that they present popular . We expect neither therefore needed a strong counter-balancing heros [sic] nor sages from the royal nursery; source of authority on which ordered liberty but we do expect that such a choice would ren- and the rule of law, as well as the long-term der the transition of these Provinces from de- stability of the State and society, depend. pendence to independence easy and amicable. Only constitutional monarchy could achieve [...] we would look in such a Prince for a just that delicate balance and prevent these soci- and constitutional temper, respectable politi- eties of the New World from falling into anar- cal acquirements, and interest in the wants and chy and, ultimately, the throes of demands of a new and progressive society. [...] and . we have regarded the future with the anxious gaze of a Canadian patriot, and by that light, Hitherto, the whole experience of mankind has from this point, we have seen a constitutional known but one system of government which crown among the not undesirable possibilities combines, in fair and harmonious proportions, of the future.28 authority with liberty, and that is, the limited monarchy of which England furnishes the old- McGee largely remained silent on this is- est example .... sue until 1863. That July, he embarked on a lecture tour of to drum up Constitutional monarchy has its defects ... yet ... support for the federal union of British North we shall find no reason to doubt that both the America;29 newspapers in Saint John and Hal- rulers and the ruled have enjoyed much more ifax recorded accounts of his speeches.30 The security than those who existed under a des- Morning Freeman of Saint John recorded the potism, with much more freedom than those following excerpt on 30 July 1863: who lived under any elective form of state sov- ereignty.33 I look forward to the time when these Prov- inces, once united and increasing at an accel- In contrast, the republics of the erated ratio, may become a , worthy tended toward disintegration, despotism, of the acceptance of one of the sons of that sov- and civil war. The 1860s provided two con- ereign, whose reign inaugurated the firm foun- trasting examples: Brazil, a stable constitu- dation of our Colonial liberties. If I am right tional monarchy and the railroad will give us Union, Union will give under the House of Braganza and Emperor us nationality, and nationality [will give us] a Pedro II, and the United States of America, a Prince of the blood of our ancient kings.31 republic then in the throes of civil war.

McGee saw constitutional monarchy in For half a century, Brazil has known no seri-

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ous domestic disturbance, while the imitative and parliamentary government, in order to republics of the South have run into a condi- prosecute the war and preserve the Union. tion of chronic anxiety, relieved occasionally by short-lived accessions of despotism.34 cGee also cited examples of federal McGee concludes that constitutional mon- Mmonarchies which have stood the test archy in the form of a vice-royalty would bal- of time. In this case, McGee uses federalism in ance stability, authority, prestige, and liberty two ways, meaning both the United Kingdom under law in British North America: relative to the of Canada (since the Imperial Parliament would retain the It is, in a word, the policy of the connexion of authority to amend the British North America the Provinces, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Act until 1982) and between the federal and under the vice-royalty of one of the sons of Her provincial orders of government within Majesty, advised by a , of which at Canada. He further believed that establishing least the upper chamber shall be constituted one of the Queen’s sons as Viceroy of the so as to act as a true conservator of our tran- Kingdom of Canada would provide the script or adaptation of the British constitu- stability and prestige to reinforce the twin tion. It is a policy of union which is strength, of principles of royal inviolability and ministerial a new commercial route from England to the responsibility. In another speech in August East, or the elevation of the symbol and real- 1864, just before the Quebec Conference, ity of authority on this soil, a policy attractive, McGee argued for his vice-royalty as means expansive and progressive as the most earnest 35 of preventing constitutional breakdown and advocate of progress can desire. the emergence of an invoking the In his Notes on , Past and Pres- Doctrine of Necessity: ent, McGee argues that federal republics tend to collapse over questions of authority and Why not rather engraft into our system the es- sovereignty and that federal sentially British principle of investing with in- do not. He cited the United States as an ex- violability the executive head of the State, the ample of the former during the throes of its Viceroy, Duke, or Prince, who might be select- Civil War. President Lincoln had to resort to ed to rule over us? It is of the nature of an ex- what modern political scientists call the Doc- ecutive to be self-protective, and in according trine of Necessity, the idea that the executive such a head all necessary powers, we but follow authority under exceptional circumstances Nature, a good guide, when well understood. I must sometimes act outside of the confines account for the failure of the American system of the constitution in order to save the consti- to protect itself from domestic enemies, except tution and the overall order and continuity of by unconstitutional means, by the peculiar dis- the State.36 McGee calls this the “only unwrit- tribution and limitation of powers under that ten law of the Union” and argued that during system,-not from the mere fact of its being a the Civil War, “the law inherent in all govern- confederated rather than a consolidated Gov- ments — the law of self-preservation — has ernment.38 overruled all other laws.” Consequently, Mc- Gee continued: “The executive authority to A resident viceroy would have provided save itself, and to save the Union, has been the Kingdom of Canada a certain prestige compelled to usurp those powers which the and elevated it amongst the other countries Constitution withheld, and to plead an invio- of the New World and counter the United lability from censure, pending the civil war, as States. McGee instinctively grasped that by extensive as most monarchs by ‘right divine’ separating the from the head ever pretended to.”37 In other words, Lin- of government, constitutional monarchy and coln had, by necessity, claimed a republican parliamentary Responsible Government pro- equivalent of royal infallibility, but without vide the strongest bulwark against tyranny. the corresponding ministerial responsibility Responsible Government reconciles medi-

48 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020 A Canadian Patriot King eval royal inviolability with modern liberal- had in mind when he argued that a viceroy and democratic self-government: the Sovereign resident would “elevate the still can do no wrong because Ministers of symbol and reality of authority on this soil.” the Crown take responsibility for all acts of the Crown, and the Sovereign acts on minis- McGee concluded that British North terial advice. The Sovereign therefore comes Americans should federate and “ask from Her to embody both official authority as both Majesty’s wisdom and goodness the means to head of state and personal authority as head perpetuate constitutional monarchy, at least of the nation, while the Prime Minister serves in this region of the New World.” He even as head of government; Min- proposed a template for isters of the Crown hold the the humble address to Her Queen’s commission to gov- Manifest Destiny Majesty Queen Victoria that ern, and they must maintain the legislative assemblies the confidence of the House meant a hegemonic and councils of the colonies of Commons. By separating ‘universal could send: the head of state and the head of government, con- democracy’ that We therefore humbly beseech stitutional monarchy and would devolve into Your Majesty, that you will be parliamentarism legitimise graciously pleased to dedicate political dissent in the form hyper-individualist to this noble service of per- of responsible loyal oppo- chaos, making fecting the liberties of those sition, which opposes and colonies, one of the sons of your criticises Ministers and their ordered liberty House, so that your Majesty’s policies but remains loyal to untenable descendents, and those of your the Crown (and therefore to people beyond the Atlantic, the country) and acts as the may conjointly perpetuate to alternative government. all their posterity, that combi- nation of liberty and law, of which we recognize The Sovereign remains disinterested with re- the antetype in the British Constitution.40 spect to political parties and the government and opposition, and this neutrality only rein- In his earlier pieces from 1858, McGee envi- forces the Sovereign’s official authority as head sioned that either Prince Alfred or Prince Ar- of state and personal authority as head of the thur should establish in Canada a new line of nation. As head of state, the Sovereign under- succession and offshoot branch of the House takes official duties like summoning, prorogu- of Saxe--Gotha. But by 1863, he had ing, or dissolving parliament, granting royal deliberately made his appeals to a vice-royal- assent to bills, signing orders-in-council, and ty and how it would affect the constitutional receiving letters of credence from foreign am- relationship between Canada and the United bassadors. These official and necessary author- Kingdom within the British Empire more am- ities always exist in any State, whether done by biguous, perhaps to make a vice-royalty less monarchs, presidents, or automatically in ac- controversial. He couched his original goal cordance with law. But the Sovereign cultivates in his proposed loyal address, where British and builds up an informal personal author- North American delegates would ask Queen ity in the country writ large by demonstrating Victoria “to dedicate one of the sons of her good conduct, or by maintaining a goodwill House [and] Her Majesty’s descendants” — in inherited from his or her predecessors, in mat- the plural — to the Kingdom of Canada. ters such as awarding honours and dedicating public works.39 The Sovereign thereby becomes the head of the nation with respect to civil so- cGee believed that the British Empire ciety and the public quite apart from official Mcould develop into a “federal empire” authority as head of state. This is what McGee rather than into a personal union, and into a

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political structure similar to that of the Ger- peared in the Montreal Gazette (and McGee man Empire between 1648 and 1806. lived and represented a riding in Montreal) before being compiled into the pamphlet The idea of a Federal monarchy, embracing along with a third new letter. He also wrote a number of perfect states, dependent on the from the fictional place of Mapleton, which same Imperial head, is, indeed less familiar to seems to serve as a metonym for the Province this age than to former times. But it is an idea of Canada. McGee, as “A Backwoodsman,” re- neither chimeial [sic] nor novel. The German iterates the same themes from his “Plea for Empire from the peace of Westphalia (1648) British American Nationality,” and argues to [...] 1806 was a Federal empire. At one time that making the Confederation a Vice-Roy- it contained not less than three hundred and alty would shore up the new polity’s capacity fifty-five sovereign states or cities, royal, ducal, for self-defence: hereditary, electoral, ecclesiastical, and repub- lican.41 If we are to interest the crown and govern- ment of Great Britain in our defence — that is n other words, the British Empire could in perpetuating the connexion — I see but two Iconsist of a diverse array of different types chief expedients to that end: To place the pro- of polities which would all still ultimately posed Union under the sway of a Crown Prince, remain subject and swear fealty to the sov- and to reduce, as much as possible, the tariff ereignty of Queen Victoria and her heirs and of the Confederation. As against the appoint- successors in the United Kingdom. These ment of a Prince to the Vice-royalty of British would include Crown colonies, with varying America, much, no doubt, may be said. Such an degrees of Representative Government and appointment would, in some of its concomi- by the Governor and/or appointed tants, be more difficult to deal with than that council, self-governing colonies with Gover- of a subject, however distinguished. Per con- nors and Responsible Government, potential tra, it is to be considered that such a selection self-governing Vice-Royalties acting as in- would identify the Confederacy and the Empire dependent monarchies with their own lines more intimately than any other possible selec- of succession and Responsible Government, tion ; that he would surround the monarchical and the British Home Islands themselves. principle in the new Constitution, with a direct A few years later, the structure of the Ger- rather than a borrowed lustre ; that it would man Empire from 1871 to 1918 could have place over us one who had nothing to gain or provided an analogy as well; it consisted of lose by the rise or fall of Whigs or ; one four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duch- who, as one of your colleagues has said, “would ies, seven , three free cities, and not make the Province a steppingstone” to the one imperial territory. The King of favor or patronage of any Imperial party. Both doubled as the Emperor of Germany, and views will have their adherents; I only speak the other three kingdoms, the grand duch- here of the general opinion in and about Ma- ies, duchies, and principalities were also all pleton, which is, I think, decidedly favorable to headed by lesser hereditary monarchs owing the experiment of a Prince of the blood. fealty to the Emperor. In September and October 1864, McGee ... the Prince of whom we have often spoken in returned to the subject of “A Crown Prince this connexion (H.R.H. Prince Alfred), has been for the Confederation” and wrote three open [named] as successor to the of letters to John A. Macdonald on “The Crown Saxe-Cobourg and Gotha. With all respect for and the Confederation.” But he did so under the Grand Duchy, with its population of 150,000 the pseudonym “A Backwoodsman,” probably souls, and its of 18,000, — a State because he was serving as Minister of Agri- scarcely equal to the Island of Montreal, and a culture in the Great Coalition at the time. Ac- Metropolis not so large as our New London, — I cording to the front matter of the pamphlet, do not think Her Majesty’s advisers would, for the first and second letters originally ap- one moment, put such a paltry possession in

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comparison with British America, as a settle- servations here still contain this implication. ment for the second Prince of the blood!42 For instance, if McGee did not believe that the vice-royalty of Canada would likewise be- McGee again stresses that making a mem- come a trial run for the vice-royalty of , ber of the Royal Family Viceroy of British this suggests that he saw the vice-royalty of North America would anchor the monarchi- Canada as a lifetime appointment. It should cal element in the constitution of this new be noted that the “Viceroy of India” did not kingdom and give the Crown immense pres- mean what McGee had in mind for Canada. tige — “a direct rather than borrowed lustre” After the Imperial Parliament transferred — and guarantee partisan neutrality from a the territories and assets of the East Indian disinterested royal personage, both with re- Company to the Crown in 1858, the Viceroy spect to the parties in the United Kingdom and Governor-General of India — usually and those in Canada. Upon Confederation in shortened to the “Viceroy of India” to reflect 1867, His Royal Prince Alfred, the the prestige of the posting — represented the second son of Queen Victoria, was 21; her Sovereign in the . The Queen or third son, His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, King of the United Kingdom appointed the a mere 17. Alfred did not become the Duke of Viceroy of India on ministerial advice, and Saxe-Cobourg and Gotha until 1893, but he the Viceroy reported to the Secretary of State became the Duke of (in the sec- for India. The Sovereign also appointed the ond iteration of that ) in 1866. Both princ- Governors-General and Governors of colo- es married and produced legitimate royal is- nies and self-governing on the sue who would, in either case, have secured a advice of British ministers, and these Gover- line of succession to a Canadian vice-royalty. nors reported to the Secretary of State for the But even the appointment of Prince Arthur Colonies.43 The plum post of Viceroy of India as Governor General in 1911 — the first and capped off the careers of the most successful only member of the Royal Family styled “His aristocrats, but it did not form a separate and Royal Highness” to have served as the Sov- independent line of succession. ereign’s representative — failed to revive the Vice-Royalty of Canada, and the Dominion evolved toward a personal union after the Quebec and London First World War. On 25 October 1858, George-Etienne Cart- ier, John Jones Ross, and wrote a letter to the Colonial Secretary cGee also alludes to the hierarchy Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, requesting that Mamongst the governors general and Her Majesty’s Government call together and governors of the British Empire, from Crown convene a conference on “the subject of a colonies like those in the West Indies, to Federate Union of the Provinces of British the self-governing colonies of British North North America.”44 They proposed that the America and Australasia with Responsible federal Crown-in-Parliament should consist Government, culminating in India. At this of a “Governor-General, or Viceroy, to be ap- time, only Lord Elgin had successfully levered pointed by the Queen; of an Upper House, his tenure as Governor General of Canada or Senate, elected upon a territorial basis of toward becoming Viceroy of India, but later representation; and of a House of Assembly, Governors General Lord Dufferin (1872- elected on the basis of population.”45 This idea 1878), Lord Lansdowne (1883-1888), and Lord of creating a vice-royalty existed in the gen- Minto (1898-1904) would all use Canada as a eral milieu of the political elite in 1858, with stepping stone to India. In 1863-1864, McGee McGee having published his newspaper col- refused to state unambiguously, as he had in umns advocating a vice-royalty earlier that 1858, that the vice-royalty of the Kingdom year. (The new experiment of electing the of Canada would give rise to a separate off- Legislative Council evidently still held sway shoot line of succession of its own, but his ob- in 1858 as well). But British North Ameri-

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can politicians would have to wait another McGee did not participate in this exchange six years until 1864 before the ravages of the nor promote a vice-royalty more generally, American Civil War had spurred them to take but he would have agreed with Tupper federal union seriously. The delegates from in the above. According to the Canadian Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Parliamentary Historical Resources, no one Edward Island, and did brief- ever mentioned a “viceroy” or “vice-royalty” ly discuss the possibility of a viceroy for the in the 1st between 1867 British North American federation. During and 1872, in which McGee served until his the Quebec Conference on 20 October 1864, murder. Macdonald put the motion for what would become the main statement of the executive few years later, Governor General Lord authority of the new polity; it became item 4 ADufferin referred to himself as “Her Maj- in the and went toward esty’s Viceroy” in his last prorogation speech the first recital of the preamble and section in the Senate on 10 May 1878.48 By the investi- 9 of what would become the British North ture of the 9th Duke of Argyll and Marquess of America Act, 1867. It said: Lorne as Governor General of Canada in No- vember 1878, some members of parliament That the Executive authority or Government had taken to referring to the Governor Gen- shall be vested in the Sovereign of the United eral as “Viceroy,”49 — but this is not the mean- and Ireland, and be ing of the word that McGee had in mind. They administered according to the well understood merely used “viceroy” as a more stately syn- principles of the British Constitution by the onym for “governor general.” These instances Sovereign personally or by the representative 46 reflected a broader imperialist shift in the of the Sovereign duly authorized. meaning and use of the word “Viceroy” in “Representative of the Sovereign” seems Canada; it had definitively evolved away from unnecessarily vague if the delegates want- McGee’s definition in the 1860s of a vice-roy- ed to continue with the Governor General alty, where a subordinate monarchy with its and Governors who already represented the own line of succession branches off the main Queen in British North America. Perhaps line, and owes fealty to the greater-sovereign, sensing that ambiguity, of and toward a grandiose synonym for Gover- Nova Scotia interjected immediately follow- nor General, a placeholder for a non-resident ing the tabling of that motion: monarch. McGee wanted a kingdom for his viceroy. Mr. Tupper — Is it meant to leave it to the TheQuebec Resolutions of October 1864 asked Queen or to make any suggestion as to the ap- “71. That Her Majesty the Queen be solicited pointment of a Viceroy? to determine the rank and name of the Feder- ated Provinces.”50 TheLondon Resolutions of Mr. John A. Macdonald — I think it advisable December 1866 reiterated this request: “68. not to make any suggestion. At least it should That Her Majesty the Queen be solicited to de- not be a constitutional suggestion. Hereafter termine the name and rank of the Confedera- the Parliament of the Federation may represent ti o n .” 51 In practice, this meant that the British a desire for one of the Royal Family as Viceroy.47 cabinet would decide and then provide the operative constitutional advice to the Queen, By “constitutional suggestion,” Macdonald given that colonial ministers never advised meant binding ministerial advice, which, the Sovereign directly in this era. McGee de- ultimately, the Colonial Secretary would livered his main speech in the Legislative As- tender to Her Majesty the Queen. He probably sembly of the Province of Canada in support knew at this early stage that such a proposal of the Quebec Resolutions on 9 February 1865, would provoke too much opposition both a few days after Macdonald and Brown. Here within British North America and London. he spoke of British North American union as Oddly enough, the minutes suggest that a “kingdom.”

52 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020 A Canadian Patriot King

What really keeps nations intact and ican federation to call itself “The Kingdom of apart? — a principle. When I can hear our Canada,” it is perhaps less well known is how young men say as proudly, “our Federation,” late in the process of legislative drafting Lord or “our Country” or “our Kingdom,” as the Carnarvon’s veto came. The third draft of the young men of other countries do, speaking of British North America Bill from 27 February their own, then I shall have less apprehension 1867, in its erstwhile section 4, would have of- for the result of whatever trials the future ficially named the federation “The Kingdom may have in store for us.52 of Canada”: It shall be lawful for the Queen with the advice of her Privy Council to declare by proclamation either the Foreign Secretary nor the Co- that the said Provinces of Canada, Nova Sco- lonial Secretary would consent to elevat- N tia and New Brunswick [...] shall form and be ing a to a kingdom. Governor General one united dominion, under the name of the Lord Monck had informed the Colonial Of- Kingdom of Canada, and thenceforth the said fice in September 1866 of the Provinces shall constitute and be “very strong desire that Her One Kingdom under the Name Majesty would be graciously aforesaid ...55 pleased to designate the union The Bill proposed a ‘Kingdom’ and so give to calling the new The Westminster Parliament her representative the title of passed the British North Amer- ‘ Vi c e ro y.’ ” 53 Even Monck’s de- country the ica Act only one month later, scription makes the proposed on 29 March, and Her Majesty viceroy sound more like the ‘Kingdom of the Queen issued the proc- Viceroy of India than McGee’s Canada’ as late lamation of union on 22 May idea of creating a new branch 1867, declaring that it would of the Royal Family and sepa- as Feb. 27, 1867 enter into force at the start of rate line of succession for the the new fiscal year on 1 July.56 Kingdom of Canada. Interestingly, even this earlier But Washington took notice. Such an overt version also referred to this new federal polity monarchical expression raised the hackles as a “dominion,” but in a generic way and not of manifest destinarians and over-zealous as Canada’s official name. The final version enforcers of the Monroe Doctrine. As Don- of that draft became section 3 of the British ald Creighton tells it, Congressman H.J. Ray- North America Act but struck out the words mond from New York in February 1866 asked “the Kingdom of ”: “the President to inform the House of Rep- resentatives ‘whether any remonstrance has It shall be lawful for the Queen by and with been made by this Government against the the Advice of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable proposed consolidation of all British North Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation American Provinces into a single confed- that ... the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, eration under the imperial rule of an English and New Brunswick shall form and be One prince.’” The British ambassador in Wash- Dominion under the ; and on ington then forwarded an account of this and after that Day those Three Provinces shall inquiry to Foreign Secretary Lord Derby, who form and be One Dominion under that Name later warned that the proposed name of “The accordingly. Kingdom of Canada” had caused controversy Lord Carnarvon described the “Dominion and raised the suspicions of the Americans.54 of Canada” approvingly to Lord Derby and Colonial Secretary Lord Carnarvon also op- Queen Victoria as “a tribute on their part to posed “The Kingdom of Canada.” the monarchical principle [...] in opposition, While it is generally known in Canadian though not offensive opposition, to the in- historical circles that the Colonial Office stitutions of the U.S.” Her Majesty accepted would not allow the new British North Amer- their constitutional advice around 6 Febru-

Autumn/Winter 2020 The Dorchester Review 53 A Canadian Patriot King

ary 1867, noting that she had “no objection house appointed by the Governor General, on [...] if you think ‘Dominion of Canada’ a better the Prime Minister’s advice, essentially a Sen- title for the new Confederation than Canada ate of life peers rather than hereditary peers, plain and simple.”57 What can a monarchist which restored the appointive Legislative do when he supports an overtly monarchical Council of the Province of Canada as it existed name more enthusiastically than Her Majes- from 1841 to 1856. ty? McGee consoled himself that the Quebec McGee added that not only should the con- Resolutions at least recognised that the prin- stitution protect the role and prerogatives of ciples of the British constitution included the Crown but that the manner in which Brit- “Royal authority, Ministerial responsibility, ish North American union entered into force a nominative Upper House, the full and free should also recognise the prerogatives of Her representation of the Commons, and the in- Majesty Queen Victoria first and foremost. He dependence of the Judges”58 and noted that noted that previous constitutional reforms in under Responsible Government, the Crown English history (especially the radical ones), acts “upon the advice of the Constitutional including in 1215 and the Bill of Councillors of the Queen in this country, who Rights, 1689, had duly recognised the Crown are in turn responsible to Parliament and the as the first estate of the .62 In this case, people for their advice and appointments.”59 the Province of Canada took McGee’s advice. The Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council each passed motions, on 1 March Monarchical Consolations 1865 and 20 February 1865, respectively, that In addition to establishing a vice-royalty the Governor General transmit a humble ad- within the Kingdom of Canada, McGee want- dress “to Her Majesty praying that She may be ed to seize the opportunity that Confederation graciously pleased to cause a measure to be presented to reverse the Province of Canada’s submitted to the Imperial Parliament for the radical reforms of the 1850s and to further en- purpose of uniting the Colonies of Canada, trench and protect the prerogatives and rights Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland of the Crown. First and foremost, McGee want- and , in one Govern- ed to terminate the Province’s experiment in ment, with provisions based on certain Reso- an elective Legislative Council (begun in 1856) lutions which were adopted at a Conference and argued that the new federal parliament of Delegates from the said Colonies, held should not merely revert to an appointed up- at the City of Quebec, on the 10th October, per house but replace it with a hereditary 1864.”63 The two chambers had passed these body like the and replicate the motions in 1865 even though Governor Gen- Crown-in-Parliament of the United Kingdom. eral Lord Monck had already sent copies of He sought from Confederation “a free gov- the Quebec Resolutions to Colonial Secretary ernment, moulded on the British model, em- Edward Cardwell on 7 November 1864.64 bracing a fair, well-balanced representation of the three long tried estates, — the Crown, the Peerage, and the Commons.”60 The Crown Federative Empire would bind the new British North American Under McGee’s model, the British Em- union together as a symbol of authority within pire could have developed into a worldwide, the State and civil society. The new constitu- multi-continental equivalent of the German tion must therefore recognise “the rights, pre- Empire of 1648 to 1806: a highly varied con- eminency, and prerogatives of the Crown.” He federal or federal political structure based on concluded his first letter as “A Backwoods- different types of monarchies ranging from man”: “if [...] we are to acclimatize and culti- Crown colonies with direct rule, self-govern- vate the essentials of monarchy among us, ing Crown colonies, , and king- surely that estate [the Crown] is the first, and doms. Polities headed by separate monarchs, not the last, thing to be thought of, in all your like a Vice-royalty of British North America, Conferences.”61 He had to settle for an upper would have remained in some respects sub-

54 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020 A Canadian Patriot King ordinate to the United Kingdom within the as Governor-General.” The Spectator argued British Empire but still have possessed great- that appointing a member of the Royal Fam- er autonomy than the self-governing colonies ily even for a standard term of five years as with Governors appointed by the Sovereign Governor General would jeopardise the lines on the advice of the British cabinet. Canadi- of constitutional authority between metro- an monarchs would still have owed fealty to pole and colony, given that the Governors Queen Victoria and the main Imperial line of across the Empire all report to the Colonial succession in the United Kingdom as a great- Secretary. “A Viceroy” — in this case used as er-Sovereign of the whole British Empire. synonym for Governor General and not as a The Statute of Westminster repealed the Co- permanent vice-royalty and separate line of lonial Laws Validity Act, 1865 and recognised succession — “must be subject to the Sover- that the United Kingdom, Canada, , eign’s advisors. [...] There is a chance that if , , the Irish Free the Governor General of Canada were a Royal State, and Newfoundland formed a personal personage, the relations between him and the union, each acknowledging the same person Home Government might become strained.”67 as their King. A Vice-Royalty or Kingdom of The Spectator would surely have argued that a Canada would have gained full independence permanent vice-royalty (if it had considered and sovereignty in a different way: simply by the proposition in the first place) would irre- recognising its own king or queen as the sov- vocably sunder the British Empire and lead to ereign and severing the fealty to the greater de facto if not de jure independence of Can- sovereign in England. ada. On 2 June 1883, two months before the appointment of the Marquess of Lansdowne he idea did not die with McGee in 1868, as Governor General of Canada, The Spectator Tthough it also never gained serious mo- again opined on rumours that the Macdon- mentum after Confederation either. A decade ald government had sought Prince Leopold, later rumours persisted that Queen Victoria’s Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Vic- second son, Prince Alfred (by then the Duke toria, for the role instead. “The appointment of Edinburgh), would someday become a per- would establish a precedent which could do manent Viceroy of Canada. This speculation nothing but mischief. No son of the Queen, reached a fever pitch because his sister, Her however able, could, in the nature of things, Royal Highness Princess Louise, and her hus- make a good British Viceroy,” the weekly band Lord Lorne, had just arrived in Canada. declared.68 Condescendingly, The Spectator Canadian journalist Charles R. Tuttle hoped mocked “the man who thinks that the Do- that Lord Lorne and Princess Louise would minion of Canada will some day become a “be succeeded by the Duke of Edinburgh, and kingdom, and the greater landowners Prairie that he will be made a permanent viceroy.”65 Peers.” Leopold died of complications of he- Tuttle concluded that replacing the Governor mophilia only a year later. General with a member of the Royal Family In 1908, John S. Ewart, a lawyer from Toron- as a permanent Viceroy would promote the to, contemplated the possibility that Canada interests of the British Empire as well as the would establish a separate and independent Macdonald government’s .66 monarchy. He wrote: But the Spectator, published in London, disagreed. Upon Lorne’s appointment in Canada’s future will most probably be one of 1878, this British weekly opposed the idea the five following: of appointing any of the Queen’s children as • Union with the United States; Governor General, let alone converting the • An independent republic; Office of Governor General into a perma- • Union with the United Kingdom; nent Vice-Royalty of Canada: “It is in some • An independent monarchy with a Canadian respects a better thing that the Marquis of King; Lorne should succeed Lord Dufferin, than a • An independent monarchy with the same Prince of the Blood should have been sent out Sovereign as the United Kingdom.69

Autumn/Winter 2020 The Dorchester Review 55 Ewart later concludes that the prospect McGee: Volume 2: The Extreme Moderate, 1857- of emulating the Empire of Brazil seems un- 1868 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Uni- likely and that it would mark a significant de- versity Press, 2011), 368-384. parture from the trajectory of Canada’s con- 2. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “The New World,” Bos- stitutional evolution up to 1908.70 In the end, ton Pilot volume 8, no. 19, Saturday, 10 May Ewart correctly predicted that Canada would 1845, page 149; Richard Demeter, Irish America: become an independent and sovereign state United States (Northern Atlantic States, District as “the Kingdom of Canada under the Brit- of Columbia, Region) and Canada ish Sovereign,” by which he meant a personal (Cranford Press, 1997), 535. union of Crowns.71 Even the appointment of 3. David A. Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume Prince Arthur as Governor General in 1911 1: Passion, Reason, and Politics, 1825-1857 (Mon- failed to revive the Vice-Royalty of Canada, treal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University and the Dominion evolved toward a personal Press, 2008), 227-251. union after the First World War. 4. Wilson, Vol. 1. 5. Ibid., 313-332. McGee’s quixotic idea proved at once 6. Library and Archives Canada, “Canadian Con- too reactionary and too radical. In the first federation: Thomas D’Arcy McGee,” 22 April case, such a bold assertion of the monar- 2016. chical principle as the Kingdom of Canada 7. J.O. Côté, editor, Political Appointments and Elec- under the vice-royalty of a prince of the tions in the Province of Canada, 1841-1865, 2nd blood would have offended the emerging Edition (Ottawa: G. E. Desbarats, 1866): 46. democratic ethos of the era. McGee indeed 8. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “Speech at Cookshire, recognised the emergence of this ethos and County of Compton, December 22, 1864,” in sought deliberately to counteract it, as well Speeches and Addresses Chiefly on the Subject as American ideological over the of British-American Union, 122-140 (London: Western Hemisphere. On the second count, Chapman and Hall, 1865), 125. it would also have moved Canada too close 9. Alpheus Todd, Parliamentary Government in the to full independence, even if McGee had not British Colonies (London: Longmans, Green, and intended that outcome, by reducing Lon- Co., 1894), 78-84; Earl Grey, The Colonial Policy don’s span of control over the British Em- of Lord John Russell’s Administration, Volume I pire. In the 1860s, the Foreign Office and -Co (London: Richard Bentley, 1853), 208-214. lonial Office no doubt also kept the Brazilian 10. Paula Hastings, “Territorial Spoils, Transna- precedent in mind and understood that tional Black Resistance, and Canada’s Autono- Prince Pedro had ascended from a Viceroy my during the First World War,” Social History, of Brazil representing his father, King John volume XLVII, no. 94 (June 2014): 452. VI of Portugal and Brazil, to Emperor Pedro 11. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “Speech in the Con- I of an independent and sovereign Brazil federation Debates, 8 February 1865” in the forty years earlier. There was no precedent Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Confederation in the English-speaking world for McGee’s Series, February 2017, page 7. vision to create a federal Empire of king- 12. McGee, “A Plea for British American National- doms. In short, for both the Americans and ity,” The British American Magazine Devoted to the British (though for different reasons) the Literature, Science, and Art, volume 1 (Toronto: Kingdom of Canada and the dream of a vice- Rollo and Adam, Publishers, 1863): 340. -royalty proved too monarchical by half. • 13. McGee, “A Further Plea for British American Na- tionality,” The British American Magazine Devot- ed to Literature, Science, and Art, volume 1 (To- Notes ronto: Rollo and Adam, Publishers, 1863), 567. 1. Canadian historian David Wilson has argued 14. Nils Orvik, “Canadian Security and ‘Defence that Patrick Whelan acted as part of a broader Against Help’,” International Perspectives 26, no. Fenian conspiracy and that his co-conspirators 1 (1984): 26-31; Donald Barry & Duane Bratt, escaped justice. David A. Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy “Defence Against Help: Explaining Canada-

56 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020 U.S. Security Relations,” American Review of Ca- chy Today (London: Crown , 1992), nadian Studies 38, no. 1 (2008): 63-69. 17, 111, 115-123. 15. McGee, “A Plea,” 338. 40. McGee “A Plea for British American National- 16. Ibid., 339. ity,”, 345. 17. Ibid. 41. McGee “A Further Plea for British American 18. McGee, “A Further Plea,” p. 562. Nationality,”, 566. 19. Ibid. 42. Thomas D’Arcy McGee (“A Backwoodsman”), 20. McGee, “A Plea,” 339. “Letter II” in The Crown and the Confedera- 21. Nathaniel Banks, “H.R. 754, A Bill for the Ad- tion: Three Letters to the Hon. John Alexander mission of the States of Nova Scotia, New McDonald, Attorney General for Upper Canada Brunswick, Canada East, Canada West, and for (Montreal: John Lovell, 1864), 23. The title of the Organization of the Territories of Selkirk, pamphlet and the text throughout misspells , and Columbia,” 39th Congress, Macdonald’s surname. The University of To- 1st Session, 2 July 1866. ronto, the University of , and Canadi- 22. McGee “Speech in the Confederation Debates, ana.org confirm that McGee authored these 8 February 1865,” 22. letters. 23. Ibid., 26. 43. United Kingdom, the Colonial Office, Regula- 24. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “Canadian National- tions for His Majesty’s Colonial Service (London: ity — Sovereignty,” New Era, vol. 1, no. 103 (19 printed for His Majesty’s Stationary Office, January 1858), 2. 1908), 5. 25. Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume 1: Pas- 44. G.P. Browne, ed., Documents on the Confedera- sion, Reason, and Politics, 1825-1857 , 328. tion of British North America (McGill-Queen’s 26. Wilson, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Volume 1: Pas- University Press, 2009), 15. sion, Reason, and Politics, 1825-1857, 164-180. 45. Browne, Documents, 18. 27. McGee, “Canadian Nationality — Sovereignty,” 2. 46. Ibid., 154. 28. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “Union, Strength, and 47. Ibid., 113. Sovereignty,” New Era vol. I , no.115 (16 Feb. 48. Parliament of Canada, House of Commons De- 1858), 2. bates, 3rd Parliament, 5th Session, Volume 2, 10 29. David A. Wilson, Vol. 2, 167-171. May 1878, page 2563. (The House of Commons 30. Ibid., 171. re-printed the Prorogation Speech from the 31. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “Mr. McGee’s Lecture,” Other Place in its Debates). The Morning Freemanvolume 13, no. 75 (30 Jul. 49. House of Commons Debates, 4th Parliament, 1st 1863), 2. Session : Vol. 1, 17 February 1879, page 6. 32. McGee, “A Plea,” 337-345; “A Further Plea,” 561- 50. Browne, Documents, 165. 567. 51. Ibid., 228. 33. McGee, “A Plea,” 343. 52. McGee, “Speech in the Confederation Debates, 34. Ibid., 342. 8 February 1865,” 25. 35. Ibid., 341. 53. Ben Gilding, “The Silent Framers of British 36. Anne Twomey, The Veiled Sceptre: Reserve Pow- North American Union: The Colonial Office ers of Heads of State in Westminster Systems and , 1851-67,” The Ca- (Cambridge University Press, 2018), 13-15. nadian Historical Review 99, no. 3 (September 37. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Notes on Federal Gov- 2018), 388. ernments, Past and Present (Montreal: Dawson 54. Donald Grant Creighton, John A. Macdonald: Brothers, 1865), 52. The Young Politician, the Old Chieftain(Toron - 38. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “Some Objections of to: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 458-459. a Confederation of the Provinces Considered: 55. Browne, Documents on the Confederation of Address Delivered at the Temperance Hall, British North America, 265. Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 16, 1864” Speeches 56. British North America Act, 1867 (UK) 30 Victo- and Addresses, 100-108 (London: Chapman ria, chapter 3, page 9. and Hall, 1865), 103. 57. Gilding 2018, 389. 39. Antony Jay, Elizabeth R: The Role of the Monar- 58. McGee, “Speech at Cookshire, County of

Autumn/Winter 2020 The Dorchester Review 57 & the State

Compton, Dec. 22, 1864,” 131. General of Canada), Her Royal Highness The 59. McGee, “Speech at Cookshire, County of Princess Louise and the Members of the New Compton, Dec. 22, 1864,” 134. Government (Montreal: Tuttle and Simpson, 60. McGee, “A Backwoodsman”, 14. 1878), 21-22. 61. Ibid., 15. 66. Tuttle 1878, 151. 62. Ibid., 24. 67. The Spectator, “The Marquis of Lorne’s Ap- 63. Journals of the Legislative Council of the Prov- pointment,” vol. 51, no. 2614 (3 August 1878), ince of Canada, 28 Victoria, 8th Parliament, 3rd 978. Session (Quebec: 20 February 1865), 130-131; 68. The Spectator,“The Queen’s Sons,” vol. 56, no. Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Prov- 2866 (2 Jun. 1883), 700. ince of Canada, 28 Victoria, 8th Parliament, 3rd 69. John S. Ewart, The Kingdom of Canada, Imperial Session (Quebec: 1 March 1865), 163-165. Federation, the Colonial Conferences, the Alaska 64. Browne, ed., Documents, 166. Boundary Dispute, and Other Essays (Toronto: 65. Charles R. Tuttle, Royalty in Canada: Embrac- Morang & Co. Ltd., 1908), 350. ing Sketches of the House of Argyll, the Right 70. Ibid., 356-357. Honourable The Marquis of Lorne, (Governor- 71. Ibid., 364.

Canadian Conservatism and the State Graeme Garrard

or many today “the state” means above all On the contrary, the Loyalists fled to Canada Fthe “Deep State,” an unaccountable cabal out of loyalty to the Crown, the British form of entrenched and shadowy figures who se- of the state. The prime mover behind the cretly control the government. It is no coinci- creation of a unified Canadian state in 1867 dence that this phrase originates in the Unit- was the Conservative leader Sir John A. Mac- ed States, whose founding act was a violent donald who, as Prime Minister, enacted laws revolution against the British imperial state. to protect and promote Canadian industry It has long been a characteristic of the Ameri- from foreign (mainly American) competition can right in particular to see the state as the as part of his “National Policy.” He also led principal enemy of freedom and the market the way in building an all-Canadian railway as the natural sphere of liberty, even if things in an expensive and ambitious private-pub- have never been that simple in practice, in- lic partnership (as we would call it today). cluding for Republican . In 1911 the Conservative leader Sir Robert has not histori- Borden defended the same protectionism as cally shared such scepticism about the state. Macdonald against the Liberal policy of free trade with the U.S., a stance that won him the Graeme Garrard is a graduate of Trinity election that year. The government of Con- College, Toronto and Balliol College, Oxford. servative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett gave He is the author of three books, the most recent Canada the CBC, the , the Ca- of which is How to Think Politically (2019). He nadian Wheat Board, progressive income tax, is currently writing a book on The State and a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, Its Enemies for Yale University Press. He is health insurance, and expanded pension pro- Reader in Politics at Cardiff University and grammes. By contrast, as in Britain, Canadian was, for 12 years (until 2018), instructor in liberalism was for most of its history the main Government at the Harvard Summer School. political ideology of limited government, free He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. markets, individual liberties, and continental free trade, and the Liberal Party was its main

58 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020