Don Gutteridge: Unholy Alliance

“I wonder if this present storm has made thetownship roads impassable?” the Receiver-General mused, noddingtowards the windows on the south wall of the large room, upon whichthe snow was beating with pale, padded fists.

“Or even the Kingston Road,” Michaels added,referring to the main overland link between Kingston andToronto.

“It might well delay the arrival of HisExcellency,” James said. Governor Poulett Thomson was expected topay a visit to the capital of Upper Canada sometime in the next fewweeks.

“Possibly,” the Bishop said. “In the least itmay serve to disrupt the impious gathering of Reform leaders thatmy agents tell me is planned for later this month, probably out atSpadina House.”

“Assuming God is still in our camp,” Maxwellsaid.

“Let them meet and chatter like monkeys allthey want,” James said bravely. “We have little to fear from thatrabble once the Union Bill is passed and a new parliament iselected.”

“I’m not sure we should be that confident, Carson,” Maxwell said. “After all, we did oppose theUnion Act last fall for good reason. No-one with a shred of decencywanted Upper Canadians to be yoked with French rebels andseditionists, or the populace that blindly supported their patheticuprising. But I still think we were right in accepting theinevitable — and then making sure the new proposals worked in ourfavour.”

“What do you think, Bishop?” James said. “Canour British values and our way of life prevail?”

Strachan put down his sherry. “I don’t seewhy not. We’ve managed, haven’t we, to get a single legislativeassembly in which we have as many seats as Quebec with a third lesspopulation? And Lower Canada will assume our share of the hugepublic debt.”

“And English will be the language of recordin that Assembly,” Maxwell beamed.

“And I would expect that the twenty membersof the upper body, the Legislative Council, will be appointedjudiciously from our midst by the Crown, as they are now,” saidWinthrop, who had never disguised his desire to be one of thechosen himself. “With that body to check the excesses andshenanigans of the Assembly, and a British governor to select andride herd on his Executive Council, it’s hard to see how we cannotcarry on as we always have.”

“Of course, there will have to be someCouncillors appointed from Quebec,” Maxwell conceded, “and two orthree cabinet posts as well. But surely we’ll elect sufficientEnglish-speaking members from Montreal and elsewhere to supply aquorum of like-minded souls from that province.”

“My contacts in Quebec,” Winthrop said, “haveinformed me that some creative gerrymandering is already proposedfor the Montreal area, and that our man in London, Robert Peel, haseven suggested these ridings each be represented by two members to ensure an English presence from Quebec.”

“What do you hear about the capital?” Jamessaid to Winthrop.

“It will not be Quebec City or Toronto,”Winthrop said. “It’s almost certainly Montreal or Kingston.”

“With Kingston the most likely site,” theBishop added, with a nod that left little doubt about thereliability of his information, “despite the fact that there are noparliamentary facilities and not a single habitable hotel in thatfortress of stone.”

Ivor Winthrop smiled, something he normallydid only when all other responses failed him. “That is so, sir. Ihave spent much time in that grim town in recent months pursuingthe fur business, and been appalled at the condition of some of itsroads and buildings. But from the point of view of any businessmanwith an entrepreneurial spirit, it is a potential lodestone.”

“How so?” Michaels inquired.

“If no facilities now exist there to house alegislature of a hundred and four members and provide them withsuitable living quarters and commercial shops appropriate to theirneeds and station, then such facilities will have to beconstructed, furnished and serviced, will they not?”

The thought of such unbounded mercantilepossibility left the gathering without speech for some moments.

“I hesitate to toss a fly into the ointment,”James said after a while, “but I would be remiss if I did notrelate to you the substance of a rumour making the rounds in ourcircle.”

“About Hincks and some of the French rebels?”Maxwell said.

James’s face fell, then he looked merelyrelieved. “You mean there’s nothing to it?” he said hopefully.

“Oh, there’s something to it all right,”Maxwell said. The others sat forward in their chairs, except forthe Bishop who, it seemed, knew exactly what was coming. “We knowthat Hincks and Louis LaFontaine have been corresponding forseveral months.”

Francis Hincks was a leading Reformer andeditor of the radical newspaper, the Examiner. LouisLaFontaine had been a prominent MLA and a rebel supporter duringthe revolt in Quebec in 1837. Since his release from prison by LordDurham following the failed uprising, he had become the leadingspokesman for the malcontents among the French populace.

“But Hincks and LaFontaine have little incommon,” James pointed out. “They may claim to be reformers, butthe reforms the French want are not those of the English. Arethey?”

The Bishop harrumphed. “Both the French Rouge party and our Reformers will do anything to embarrassand disenfranchise established authority of any kind. That is their raison d’être . On many issues, should they ever agree tocooperate in the new joint parliament, they could form a singleblock and cause some disruption there. But from what we know sofar, they are a long way from any sort of détente .”

Receiver-General Maxwell took up the argumentfrom that point. “Remember, the French still feel victimized andutterly defeated. The Union Bill itself is seen as a travesty bythem. They have no tradition of parliamentary procedure andpolitical negotiation. They have a religion to protect. And soon.”

“So there is little chance that any coalitionof Rouge and Reform could result in their influencing thedirection in which the united provinces must develop?” Winthropsaid.

“Even with the remote possibility of theircontrolling the Assembly at some distant time in the future,”Maxwell said, “the appointed Council and the cabinet, along withthe governor’s prerogative, should act to keep matters inperspective.”

“Still,” James said, “Poulett Thomson hasshown a predilection for choosing his Executive Councillors fromamongst the elected members of the current Assembly.”

“And there’s a possibility he’s coming toToronto to offer Robert Baldwin, the arch-Reformer, a cabinetpost,” Michaels said, alluding to yet another rumour circulating inthe capital.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Maxwell said, “calmdown. You’re beginning to talk as if the Governor favoursresponsible government, but he has assured us over and over againthat he has no intention of having his cabinet answer directly tothe majority party in the Assembly. And that is that.”

Carson James went suddenly pale. “I–I’m notso sure about that,” he said.

The Bishop glared at him, his eyebrowsalarmingly rigid. “Explain yourself, sir.”

Trembling at the Bishop’s response or theimplications of what he had to say to him, James replied: “Mywife’s niece is a maid out at Spadina, where Governor Thomson andthe Baldwins met in secret during the debate over the Union Billlast fall. One day, she told me, she overheard Thomson tell RobertBaldwin that he could not guarantee him responsible government inthe new order, but that he felt certain it would come about — naturally and inevitably.”

“The blackguard!” Michaels cried, spillinghis third sherry.

Maxwell chuckled softly. “But he said thatmerely to get Reform support for his bill, the wily oldbastard.”