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1 :

■M

&1*

PEOVINCIAL POLITICS.

Hon. Oliver Mowat,

TO HIS CONSTITUENTS,

TAVISTOCK, JANUARY 15th, 1890,

AND ALSO

A SUPPLEMENTARY MEMORANDUM.

No. 3.

The New Party in Its Relations to tbe Politieal Parties

of the ProTlnce*

An Extract from the ** Good Templar of Canada."

TORONTO, JANUARY, 1890.

fCoronto t
PRINTED BF HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY.

1890.

itfol

iiki*

THE

NEW PARTY,

The following is a full report of Hon. Mr. Mowat's speech at
Tavistock, on Wednesday, January 15th : —

I am extremely grateful for the support which I have received
from you during the seventeen years, and more, that through the
confidence of the Ontario people .1 have held the ofBce 'of Premier
of the Province. I believe that I have done all for the riding
that any local member could have done. I know that has been
my wish and endeavor. You have been most unexacting and
considerate with respect to my personal presence amongst you, in
order that I should be free to give my time to the general inter-
ests of the Province. This again deserves my grateful acknow-
ledgement. 1 hav?) within the last few weeks spoken in the
riding at five place-s ohosen with the assistance of friends who
thought the meetings at these places would give to all who wished
an opportunity of hearing and seeing me. I have since had
urgent requests for meetings at some other points, of which
Tavistock is one, and I have had much pleasure in finding that 1
could be here to-day. I may, perhaps, be able to visit one or two
other places before the Legislature meets on the SOth of this
month. My speeches elsewhere have been reported and have
been read by many of you. To-day, therefore, I should like to
take up, as far as I may, some subject not discussed in my former
speeches, though it may be impossible wholly to exclude the
topics already discussed. With this view I purpose to-day to take
as uiy subject the

NEW OR THIRD PARTV,

which has for a time got into our Provincial politics.

I believe this party exaggerates very much its own importance ;
but as a politician I am not in favor of despising and ignoring
any hostile movement, and therefore certainly not one wliich has
for its principal leader and its President a minister of the Gospel,

THE NEW PARTY".

and haa among its associates other ministers of the Gospel. The
New Party makes great pretensions and great claims, and no
doubt may at the next general election be a disturbing element in
some constituencies, though not in North Oxford. I have not
heard of any Reformers here joining the New Party, though there
may be some. The fact of a minister of the Gospel being the
leader has naturally attracted some Reformers elsewhere, excellent
men, but men perhaps who have not been strong politicians, or
followed closely the operations of political parties. 1 doubt not
that, in joining the New Party and supporting it, these Reformers
believe that they are doing God service. With much respect for
them all, I do not think that in this they are doing God service.
Their motives are beyond all praise, but *heir action in regard to
this New Party, I venture to think, is a mistake. I have been a
pretty close student of politics and politicians for 35 years and
more, with all the advantages which public life during most of
that time, and official life for more than half of it, have given to
me, and I say, with the greatest respect, but with confidence, that
this New Party is not in the country's interest, and that so far as
it may exert any influence on public affairs, that influence is likely
to be evil and not good. I will tell you how and why.

The motto adopted, " For God and Our Country," sounds well ;
and some of the planlss in the New Party platform are attractive
to both Reformers knd Conservatives. Prohibition is an attrac-
tive plank to many ; " Righteousness and Truth in Public Affairs,"
and " Eqxial Rights for All," are attractions for more. Then the
new ©rgan of the party, The Canadian Nation, announces its
aim to be " to unite the Christian sentiment of the country, to
demand truth and honesty in politics as well as in ordinary busi-
ness, and to make righteousness 'he guardian star of our national
life." These are good things wuich all good men ot every {arty
desire. Whether the formation of this New Party will bring them
about, or is adopting a plan of action that wiil help to bring
them about, is anotlier matter. Jirn, in view of the expressed
aims of the party, I can <[nite understand some

tives becorifiing New Party men.

The

good Coaserva-

MISD. EDS OF THE CONSERVATIVE LEADERS

and representatives have been revolting to some of the best ot
their followers, who, notwithstanding, do not like to become
avowed Reformers after having long been the opponents of Re-
formers. They ha^o'l the Pacific Scandals ; and some of them
helped in 1873 to dctVat the Government which had been guilty

'■■W?> w" | " " !■

mim

THE NEW PARTY. |

of those scandals, though at the election of 1878 they returned
to their party, some of them for the sake of tke so-called National
Policy, and some of them under the hope that, after having been
for five years out of office, their party leaders would have been
improved. There was disappointment in both reeulta. The
National Policy has not accomplished for the country what they
had been led to expect, and they have found deterioration in
other respects where they had hoped for improvement. Since,
they have been indignant at the attempt of the Dominion Oov-
emmcnt and Dominion Parliament to deprive our Province of half
its territory, and at the avowed policy of compelling the Ontario
Qovemment to abandon the territory, law or po law. They have
disapproved of the attacks made on Provincial rights by the dig-
allowance, year after year, of the Streams Act, in the interests of
an influential partisan ; and by other measures of the Dominion
Government or Dominion Parliament in the ^.time direction. They
were aghast at the callous neglect^ delay and mismanagement
which drove the Half breeds and Indians of the North-west into
rebellion ; causing the loss of hundreds of lives, and frightful
suffering by women and children, and by missionaries and minis-
ters of the Gospel of peace and goodwill ; causing also the ex-
penditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money
in the suppression of the outbreak ; and causing the postpone-
mei r for years of the development and settlement of the territory.
They have been

SHOCKED AT THE BRIBERY.

from t'me to time of individuals, the bribery of constituencies,
and the bribery of a Province, at the expense of public property
and the public interests. They have been alarmed at the use for
these bad purposen of blind shares ; of contractors' gifts ; of tim-
ber limits, cattle ranches and coal Lands, belonging to the public ;
of railway grants not in the public interest ; and of a system of
better terms to one Province or another, to the disadvantage al-
ways of the Province of Ontario. They were shocked to learn
that in two years 115 Orders in Council had been granted by the
Dominion Government for timber limits without public competi-
tion, and tor trifling considerations as compared with the magni-
ficent sums whicli the Ontario Government had from 1872 until
the present time obtained for timber limits in this Province by
pursuing a different policy. They disapprove of the extravagant
expenditure of the Dominion Government and the Dominion Par-
liament, and i\\Q enormous increase which has taken place in the
public debt of the Dominion. They disapprove of the expensive,

9 THE NEW PARTY.

unjust, troublesome, indefensiblo, Franchise Act, coating the Do-
minion exchequer some half-a- million of dollars for the prepara-
tion of unnecessary voters' lists, and costing large sums besides
to the Conservatives and Reformers of every constituency. They
were indignant at the infamous gerrymanclering of the Ontario
Constituencies for the undenied and undeniable purpose of weak-
ening opponents, though the existing arrangements were already
unjust to them. They felt resentful at the disallowance of the
Manitoba Railway Acts for building at the expense of the Pro-
vince itself railways needed for the development and prosperity
of that Province. They have been indignant at the commission
of all these and other iniquities by their Dominion leaders, and at
the defence of them by their Provincial leaders, and by. the organs
of their party. They have wholly disapproved of the aid and
countenance given by their Provincial leaders and representatives
to the Dominion authorities in the attacks made from time to
time on the rights and interests of their own Province. They
have greatly disliked, in view of all these things, to see these
Provincial leaders content

TO POSE AS LIEUTENANTS

of the Dominion authorities; content to adopt their policy with-
out reference to Provincial interests ; more than content to get
into power by the stren<:fth of the jmrty of the Dominion. They
have deplored so many acts of wrong-doing by their party until,
in regard to some of these acts, not to speak of all, they have long
been saying to themselves in the words of an eminent divine,
whose personal leanings, like their own, are or were towards the
same party : — " We must choke bribery or be choked. Pacific
scandals, the insolent purchase of a Province with the intent to
purchase the country, local railways to purchase counties in de-
tail, blind shares for the purchase of members ot Parliament, have
all bee« defended. As well defend Sodom."

Still, most of these Conservatives have hitherto stood by their
party, and have done so because it is their party. To some of
them the " New Party" may be a relief. They can join it with-
out surrendering, or seeming to be surrendering, to their old poli-
tical opponents. So far as the new organization draws off from
the Conservative party a few of its disgusted men, clerical or
lay, the organization may, from our point of view, be doing a good
' work ; and this is the only way in which the New Party is going
to do any good as a party. You and I believe that in the coun-
try's interest a man had better belong to this New Party than to

THE NEW PARTY.

the present Conservative party of this Province. But all experi-
ence is against the expectation that any large number of Conser-
vatives will leave their party for any reason.

Reformers are in this position : All that is good and ripe for
action in the platform of the New Party is

ALREADY IN THE PLATFORM

of the Reform party, and always has been. For example, with
respect to " Righteousness and truth in our public affairs," I am
as anxious f^r this to be so as the Rev. President of the New
Party can be ; and the Reform party as a body hold to that prin-
ciple quite as firmly as any of the New Party can. So also, in re-
gard to " Equal Rights for all." There is no good and true sense
in which that plank can be taken that the principle does not find
a home in the Liberal party of this Province. Every intelligent
Reformer knows this.

The Reform party when in power has exemplified these prin-
ciples as thoroughly as any party, however pure it purpose, could
do. The Hon. Alexander Mackenzie was the leader of a Reform
Government in the Dominion from 1873 to 1878; Reformers
point with pride to the purity of his administration all that
time ; and its character in this respect is very generally admitted
now-a-days by intelligent and fair-minded Conservatives also.
In fact, Canadians generally feel a pride in the uprightness of the
Canadian Administration during those five years ; and, unless
where it is politically inexpedient to make the admission, and
where political expediency rules, they are heard speaking in that
spirit. It was the devotion of Mr. Mackenzie and his Govern-
ment to what they believed " righteousness and truth " that
caused their defeat in 1878. The people were in considerable
distress at that time from causes which were beyond Government
control. Whether Protection and a high tariff would relievo the
distress and be a good thing otherwise, was a question as to
which men might honestly differ, and did difter. Neither Con-
servatives nor Reformers had previously been Protectionists, or
advocates of a tarifi* higher than was necessary for revenue pur-
poses. The Conservative leaders were still in bad odor from the
discoveries which had led to their defeat in 1873. As the Gen-
eral elections of 1878 were approaching, they looked around for a
Cry to help them out of the mire, and, fortunately for themselves,
they hit upon

THE CRY OF PROTECTION,

though at the time as a kind of forlorn hope. Mr. Mackenzie
and his colleagues did not believe that Protection was a good

8 THK NEW PARTf.

thing, or that any advances in the tariff would be a good thing ;
they therefore declined to favor any advance ; and the elections
went against them. It has since been commonly thought and
said that, if they had consented to a comparatively small inoreose
in the taritt', the Reformers who left them at the election of 1878
would lijive been content, and would have supported them as be-
fore. But tlie Government preferred defeat to a policy which,
according to their view of truth and righteousness, they could
not honestly adopt.

Then, as for the Reform party in Provincial aflfairs, its record
has been so satisfactory to Reformers and others that, at every
general election during the ei<|hteen years which have elapsed
since Mr. Blake took omce as the first Ontario Reform Premier,
a decided majority of the Government candidates have been re-
turned by the people. When no election is near you hear even
Conservatives, lair-minded and intelligent Conservatives, frankly
admitting that they have nothing to say against the Ontario
Government; and a sprinkling of them almost everywhere have
always voted for our candidates. Outside of Ontario, and in all
the Provinces of the Dominion, it is well known that Ontario has
long been regarded as the model Province in regard both to legis-
lation and to the administration of public affairs. Conservative
iouruals in the other Provinces, not being interested in our defeat,
have repeatedly given expression to the same view. The latest
of these is The Richmond Guardian, a Quebec Conservative jour-
nal. That journal lately said : — " Ontario has always been eco-
nomically and wisely governed, which is more than can be said
for Quebec, past or present ; and we re^gard it as morally and pa-
triotically bad policy to keep hounding ^at Mr. Mowat in the
fashion common with the Federal Government partisans. Let
Mowat alone and attend to your own business."

THE FLATPORM ADOPTED BY THE NEW PARTY

has nine planks, of which I have mentioned three. Of the re-
maining six, three relate to Dominion matters, not to Provincial
— ^an Elective Senate ; Manhood Suffrage (in elections to the
Legislative Assembly we have Manhood Suffrage now) ; and
" Retrenchment and Economy in public expenditure, with a view
to reducing our enormous national debt." The debt certainly is
enormous, and has since Confederation made fearful leaps up-
wards under Conservative Administrations, until in 1888 the net
debt had reached no lees a sum than $234,531,358, according to
Dominion Sessional Paper No. 2, 1889. Three other of the planks

THE NEW PAUTY. 9

may perhaps refer to Provincial as well as Dominion matters :
the Extension of the Franchise to Women ; Civil Service Refoi m
— what specially is meant by this 1 have not observed any delinite
explanation ; and " a national sentiment, a national literature,
and in all matters of public policy our country first" — to which
few of any party are opposed.

For carrying out the platform, the present announced policy,
as set forth by the new organ, is, not to support candidates for
the next Ontario Lcsgislative Assembly nonunated by either Con-
servatives or Reformers, even when the candidates so nominated
announce themselves as favorable to one or more planks of their
platform. The New Party are e/ery where to select can-
didates of their own. They are told that the opinions of a can-
didate of any other party " cannot change either the constitution
or the leadership of his party," and that the tt ly of all friends of
the New Party is to stand by their own platform, and their own
candidate. Whether this policy will be carried out when the ;»
elections come on we shall see.

PBOUIBITION

is made the most prominent at present of all the planks, and a
chief objection made by the organ to the Reform party is, that
that party is not, as a party, for Prohibition. I am not going to
discuss Prohibition here. The Reform party consists both of Re-
formers who believe in Prohibition, and of Reformers who do not.
And there are a multitude of the strongest reasons why, in the
interest of Prohibition and good government, at the coming Pro-
vincial elections Reformers who are Prohibitionists should not
consent to withdraw from the Reform party, or to withhold their
votes from Reform candidates, as the organisers and leaders of
this New Party urge on them to do.

First of all, Prohibition is not a matter with which the Ontario
Assembly has to deal. It belongs to the Doniinion Parliament
It is a Dominion issue, not a Provincial issue. No man who does
not desire the defeat of the Reform Government of Ontario for
other reasons than Prohibition can intelligently desire their de-
feat at the next General Election because of all the party not
being Prohibitionists.

Then, it is perfectly certain that for the term which the -new
Provincial AsFcmbly is to last the question is, not whether the
Provincial Government shall be in the hands of the New Party or
of Prohibitionists, but whether it shall be in the hands of Reform-
erR or Conservatives, of one or the other. Let no Reformer permit

,^f T«,w»«.i^»fwwai^

THE NEW PARTY.

himself to be deceived as to this. It is perfectly certain that Pro-
bibitionists are not yet numerous enough to win a majority of the
Ontario constituencies; and without a majority they cannot
possess themselves of the Government. By running candidates
of their own the New Party may contribute to the victory of one
or other of the two existing parties, but they are not likely to win
a single constituency for a candidate of their own. The recent
election

IN WEST LAMBTON

is an illustration of this. West Lambton is a strong Temperance
constituency. The county carried the Scott Act by a majority of
over 3,000, though Lambton, like Oxford, has since reversed this
vote. The agitation wriich the Jesuit Estates Act created had
also been taken up in Lambton by many local leaders and pro-
minent citizens of both the Reform and Conservative parties, aud
had great influence with the whole Protestant population of the
riding; and this also helped the New Party. During the recent
contest the public were told by The Bulletin, then the organ of the
New Party, that "West Lambton was one of the first constituencies
organise on the basis of the new platform." The party chose a
candidate whose antecedents as a well known Conservative were
expected to make him acceptable to Orange and other Conserva-
tives ; and Iw was in the field before either the Reformers or
Conservatives had nominated a candidate. The eloquent Presi-
dent, and other influential gentlemen of the party, made speeches
at public meetings during the campaign. The greatest possible
activity was displayed by the local leaders ; and the organ said
that great enthusiam for the party was manifested. But the
result was that their candidate received only 775 votes, while the
Reform candidate received 2,502, and the Conservative 1,842 ;
and many Reformers, while withholding their votes fiom the
Reform candidate for personal or local reasons, did so on the
avowed ground that the loss of one supporter in the Legislative
Assembly was of no consequence to us, and that at the general
election they meant to be as active as ever in favor of the Reform
candidate, whoever he showld be. Some other Reformers voted
for the New Party candidg,te because of pledges inconsiderately
given and regretted.

The New Party journal now announces great satisfaction with
the number of votes which Mr. McRae, their candidate, received.
The New Party now imagine that the vote was all they expected,
or more than all. Their organ says that their candidate led the
forlorn hope of his party, and intimates that his candidature bad

t^^.

THE NEW PAUTY".

other purposes than the expectation of his being elected. As
the Reform candidate, Mr. Charles MacKenzie, having been suc-
oessful, it is now said that " there was nothing surprising about
this. Even with tvso candidates in the field, it (the success of the
New Party candidate) would have been a difficult task, while with
three it was impossible." But the facts as to their expectation of
success, and as to the expected effect of there being three can-
didates, were far otherwise — if the public assurance of the New
Party organ during the contest were conceived in ti-uth and
righteousness. When their candidate was nominated tiie public
were told that " the enthusiasm of the Convention was unbound-
ed " ; that "it will be a stiff, uphill tight, but with thorough
organization and earnest efforts a splendid victory may be gained."
A meeting held the following evening was declared to have
"overflowed with enthusiasm." In subsequent numbers their
candidate's prospects were announced to be so bright as to have
excited " the thorough alarm of the Liberal leaders," and even
their " positive consternation." It was declared that " staunch
Liberals all over the riding refuse to support the Liberal nominee,
and are voluntarily offering to support Mr. McRae"; and that
*' the New Party is growing rapidly every da}' in West Lambton,
and the conviction grows thet it is going to win." In the August
number of The Bulletin it was announced in large type : — " Lamb-
ton bids good-bye to the old parties ; a battle to be fought ; and
we are going to win." A letter was copied from another journal
affirming that " the prospects are that West Lambton will on the
da^ of election roll up a majority for Mr. McRae." The editors
themselves asserted that " the electors of West Lambton will
vindicate the cause of right and truth, and do honour to them-
selves by retur^ng Mr. McRae at the head of the poll." With
respect to the effect of there being

THREE CANDIDATES,

the organ announced to the public when the third, the Conserva-
tive, Mr. Fleck, was nominated, that his nomination would " not
change the situation so far as the New Party is concerned, but
it clears the atmosphere of misapprehensions. . . Lambton is
to have a three-cornered contest, which is all the better for the
New Party." The organ directors never changed their minds as
to this, in October the public were told that '' prospects in West
Lambton are decidedly good. Meetings have been held all over
the Riding, and new adhesions to the i)arty are of frequent «>c-
currcuce." In an editorial there was the following statement :

THE NBW PARTY.

" Don't be misled by timid and chicken-hearted men. They will
say you can't succeed. » • ♦ ♦ The answer is plain. You
can succeed. There are enough Prohibitionists alone to secure a
victory if true to their principles." In another article the Prohi-
bitionists were told : " You can elect him if you will." In th.e
November number the public were again told of the holding ol
meetings in the riding ; and that the " tide of popular feeling for
McRae is rising every day." It had not diminished since previ-
ous numbers announced with confidence an expected victor}-.
On the contrary, in another paragraph of the same number ad-
dressed to the electors of West Lambton a long question is put,
in substance whethtr they will send McKae or one of his oppon-
ents to the Legislative Assembly, and then follows this : " We
trust that you will answer it with a majority for McRae like that
with which you carried the Scott Act in 1884." The Scott Act
was carried by upwards of 3,000 over the two Ridings of Lamb-
ton. The New Party would not be content with mere victory
for their candidate ; they insisted at the very eve of the election
that not only would there be victory, but victory by an enormous
majority.

What are we to think of the New Party, claiming as they do
superiority in truth and righteousness over all others, when in the
face of these statements, we find them after the election intimat-
ing to us that a vote of 775 was all they expected, or more ? And
that, there having been three candidates, " success was impossi-
ble ? " Were all the statements of the organ to the contrary mere
matter of election tactics, and neither true nor righteous ? Does
the special party of truth and righteousness recognize the legiti-
macy of dishonesty of this kind in elections ? I am quite sure
manv of its members do not. But does not the uge of such tactics
show that the whole organization is a mistake ?" That it is not
through this New Party, or any new party, that the cause of
truth and righteousness in public affairs is to be advanced ? That
that object in to be best attained by good men of the two existing
parties taking an active part in public affairs as electors and
candidates, and bringing their love of what is good to bear on the
methods and operations of their party ? Is not the idea Quixotic,
of promoting truth and righteousness by isolating good men from
the two great historic parties, and leaving these parties to be
manipulated without check by the less scrupulous of their mem-
bers ? Is not such a plan plainly unpracticai for real good, and
injurious instead of helpful to the cause of righteousness and
truth ?

THE NEW PAlvTT.

TORONTO MAYORALTY.

The West Lambton election is one illustration of the useless-
ness of tlie New party. The Toronto election to the Mayoralty
is another illustration. One of the candidates for the ToBonto
Mayoralty, Mr. McMillan, had been prominent in the Equal Rights
agitation, and thereby made many new friends, and his candida-
ture had the active support of the New Party. One of the leading
editorials in the first number of their new organ was devoted to
hirt praises, and to obtaining for him the votes of Liberals. It
truly said of him that his " record, both public and private, iss
above reproach." He had likewise the advantage of being an
Orangeman, and of dividing the Orange Conservative vote with
Mr. Clarke, his opponent. He had also been an active Reformer;
and though, irrespective of politics, The Olohe favored the election
of Mr. Clarke for another year, and recommended the postpone-
ment of Mr. McMillan's candidature until next year, yet the
President of the Toronto Reform Association and most of its
active members were in Mr. McMillan's favor and voted for him,
as did a majority of the Reformers generally. These constituted
a large addition to the " New Party " vote. On the other hand,
his opponent, Mr. Clarke, had been twice Mayor already, and
there was a prejudice against any one standing for a third term.
What was still more important, he had estranged from himself
those of his former Orange and other Conservative supporters
who had been excited by the Equal Rights agitation, and many
of them worked energetically against him throughout the contest.
The New Party voted for Mr. McMillan to a man, and worked for
him enthusiastically ; and yet, with all the advantages of the ad-
ditional support he had from other quarters, he was defeated by
a majority of 1,804, at the very centre of the New Party move-
ment.

THE SCHEME.

Though the leadei-s of the New Party hoped to carry West
Lambton, or at all events uheir organ pretended they did, 1 have
not observed that they profess to expect a r :ajority of successful
candidates of their own at the general election. Sometimes, I
understand, they frankly admit that they have no such expecta-
tion. Their very platform shows that they cannot have. It con-
tains so many planks, and some of these of such a nature, that
but a small minority of the electors of the Province can possibly be
expected to adopt them all for many years to come, if they ever do.
The plank " Prohibition " excludes all but Prohibitionists ; and it

THE NEW PARTY.

is unquestionable that Prohibitionists are yet a minority of the
electorate. But even many Prohibitionists are excluded, for a
member of the party must not only be a Prohibitionist, but must
be prepared to insist also on an Elective Senate, Woman Suffrage
at Parliamentary elections, and other measures, on which Prohi-
bitionists are far from being agreed. So also I find in the organs
denunciations of Unrestricted Reciprocity and its advocates, quite
in the line of The Empire and other Conservative newspapers.
Many Conservatives believe in Unrestricted Reciprocity', and re-
gard it of great importance to the country. Opposition to Unre-
stricted Reciprocity has nothing to do with the nine planks, but
it makes the New Party somewhat nearer to the great body of
Conservatives, who as a party are against that measure. Their
hope evidently is that in some constituencies in which Prohibi-
tionists are numerous, and Conservatives are not strong enough
to elect a Conservative, they may refrain from putting a candi-
date into the field, and may prefer voting for a New Party candi-
date (a Conservative otherwise, as Mr. McRae in Lambton was),
in order to defeat the Reform candidate. When elected, such a
candidate will sit and vote every day with other Conservatives,
and may not have occasion to air his New Party views once during
a whole session. In like manner their organs adopt as their own,
without a pretence of examination, the false and refuted charges
made by the Opposition press against the Ontario Government.
They eulogise the Opposition leader as with all his faults even
"too good" a man for his party. Most Prohibitionists who are
earnest Reformers perceive what all this means. I hope that
before it is too late all will do so. I shall be surprised if they
do not.

AGAINST THE BEFORM PARTY.

While it is perfectly certain that the New Party will not and
cannot, as the result of the coming election, take the place of
the Reform party in governing the province, the only possible
eftect of its operations is to weaken one of the old parties more
than the other ; and the hope of those (whoever they are) that
really direct the policy of the party evidently is, that the party
so weakened will be the Reform party. If any of the leaders of
the New Party do not perceive this, I must say that these
are being made use of by those who do perceive it. The harm
which in any constituency the New Party may do to the Reform
party is, by withdrawing from us, where a constituency is close,
the votes of more Reformers than they withdraw of Conserva-
tives from the Conservative candidate. If earnest Reformers are

THE NEW PARTY.

not on their gtiard they may thus be used to defeat their own
party, and to place in office their opponents, the Conservativea,
and without anything: b*»ing gained for Prohibition or any other
good thing. That result, I venture to say, every Prohibitionist
Reformer would regard with the greatest possible aversion. The
President refers to this matter, in another connection and in ex-
aggerated terms, averring that the party leaders whom he opposes
are " convinced that there is a new factor in the political problem
of sufficient value to turn the scale in any constituency, as its
weight may oe thrown to the one side or the other." But its
weight may be thrown to one side or against the other, not merely
by obtaining votes for the candidate of one side, but also by with-
drawing to a candidate of their own, whom they cannot elect,
votes which would otherwise go to the other side, and, in a
close constituency, would give to the other side a majority ;
and that is the evident purpose in view. Any special danger to
the Reform party lies in the fact of there being in most consti-
tuencies more Reformers than Conservatives who favor an Elec-
tive Senate, Woman's Suffrage, and other planks of the New
Party platfonn.

It being quite certain that Prohibitionists cannot hope, and do
not hope, that this New Party will obtain a majority, or take the
place of

EITHER OF THE EXISTING PARTIES,

what is its formation to effect beyond what would be accom-
plished by its members occupying themselves, as individuals and
otherwise, in leavening both parties with their views ? The "forma-
tion of a separate party means for Reformers that they are to
become indiflerent to everj'thing else in legislation or government
which they have heretofore contended for. Because they cannot
iiet Prohibition, thev are asked to do their best, not to make law
and government in other respects better, but to allow all to go as
wrong and as li^d as may be. They are asked to say that until
they get Prohibition some years hence, if ever, they would just as
soon have meanwhile a Government so bad that you could no
more defend it than yon could defend Sodom, as to have in the
meantime a Government of pure-minded, patriotic men. Thej
are asked to say that for thorn, williont Prohibition, there is no
difference between goo<l government and bad government, or be-
tween good laws and bail laws.

There is abundant other evidence that the organisation is be-
ing used by its directors, whoever these are, for the special pur-
pose, of injuring the Reform party. When the Conservative part'

THE NEW PARTY.

is blamed in the Now Party organ, both parties arc said to be
equally bJamoabie ; but when the two parties are compared, the
pretence always is that the Reform larty is the worse, and by
far the worse. I wid {^ive you some of the statements of the New
Party organ in proof of this policy, in order that Reformers may
not, by mistakes and misstatements, bo led into assisting un-
awares the party they have always justly condemned.

In tlie drst oro-an of the Now Party, it was asserted that —
"righteousness and truth had boen ruled out of the politics of
both parlies." Intelligent Reformers know that righteousness
and truth have not been ruled out of the politics of the Reform
party. Intelligent Reformers know that the Reform party is

BASED ON TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS;

and Reformers generally of all Churches have manifested their
knowledge of the fact at every general election during my Pre-
miership. Again, the leaders of the two parties are spoken of as
"leaders who, by putting party above country, have led their fol-
lowers by crooked and dirty wajs into entangled and disgraceful
alliances." Reformers know that this is false as to the Reforn
leaders. They know that we have not put party before country ;
they know that we, like our fellow Reformers generally, are for
our party because in that way we are for the country. They know
that we have not advocated " crooked and dirty ways." Wo have
made no " entangling and disgraceful alliances." Speaking in re-
ference to the coming Provincial elections, the country is falsely
descfibed by the oi'gan as in " a quagmire of political corruption, '
out of which it is the mission of the New Party to lift it. It is
false to assert any such corrftption as respects the Reform party
or leaders. The organ copies from another journal an expressed
expectation that the New Party is about to " make the country a
decent one to live in." I venture to say there is no part of the
world more decent to live in than the Provii.ce of Ontario is now,
notwithstanding the N. P. and the grave faults of the Dominion
Government. Again, speaking expres.sh' of the Liberal party, it is
said that " honest and upright men have been disgusted with the
course of their leaders." On the contrary, it is honest and up-
right men who are and always have been our chief supporters.
The new organ says that " the Liberal party like the Conserva-
tive is dominated by its worse elements." I say that the Liberal
party is dominated by its best elements, in regard both to the elec-
torate and to the repre.-cntatives they have chosen ; and that the
best elements as well as all other elements know and understand
this.

THE KEW PAKTY.

One or other of the organs has said many false and absurd things
as to our relations with the liquor interest. Now, it is well-known
that the liquor interest has alwaj's been Conservative, and in-
cludes very few Reformers. In the interest of the New Party
the false assertion is made that we are dominated by the' liquor
interest ; while our Conservative opponents have always insisted
that the liquor interest is dominated by us, and that we compel
those engaged in the liquor trade to vote for the Reform party
against their own wish and will. The organ deems it expedient
to say that " both parties stand together- Hat- footed and square-
toed upon the one plank — the saloon." " The saloon power is a
ruling element in both parties, threatening defeat in case of re-
fusal to do its bidding." These are very absurd and

WHOLLY FALSE STATEMENTS,

80 far as the Reform party is concerned. Year after year we
have passed acts at the instance of the Temperance organizations
and against the wishes and interests of the liquor dealers. We
have not passed everything Temperance organizations desired, be-
cause the Reform party docs not consist exclusively of the mem-
bers of those organizations ; and the legislation proposed, in order
to be carried, needs to have the support 8f friends of Temperance
who do not belong to those organizations, and do not concur in all
their views. But our legislation has been in the direction desired
by Temperance men, and has assuredly not been in the interest of
liquor men. In fact, we have heard from many quarters of Tory
Temperance men endeavoring to persuade Reform tavern-keepers
(of whom there are some, although they are a small minority)
that they should vote against Reform candidates now, because of
our Temperance legislation. It is false that the Reform party stand
" flat-footed " or footed in any other way, " square-toed " or with
any other kind of toes, " upon the plank of the saloon."

So, the record of the Ontario Government is spoken of as a
record which could not be defended — that the Liberal party or-
ganizer had been sent into Lambton to " whitewash a record he
could not defend." Could not defend ? The notorious facts are
the very contrary. The record of the Reform Party has been so
satisfactory that it has been practically unassailable, instead of
being indefensible. It is on account of our record being^bo satis-
factory to the people of the Province that, but for the religious
agitation which our opponents are endeavoring, as a matter of
political tactics, to turn to their advantage, the case of our op-
ponents would be desperate ; and it continues desperate, notwith-
standing that agitation.

rn^Xi.-'A*£E"ii-t^-.t' JiEaESJe,

THE NEW PARTY.

But the New Party organs do not leave to inference the side
which has the special sympathy of the real directors of the party,
whoever they are. The members and friends of the party are ex-
pressly told that, while " votin<>: the Conservative ticket in Canada"
is " throwing the vote away " ; on the other hand, " a vote for
the Reform party, from a moral standpoint is worse than thrown
away." Wherever there is an acknowledged difference between
the two parties, the Reformers arc always asserted to be decided-
ly the worse party, and the Conservatives the better party. Thus
this language is used : — "" The only rcapect in which they (the
Conservatives) differ from the Liberals is in their opposition to
Commercial Union" ; and elsewhere the same organ says, " Com-
mercial Union means political union — annexation to the United
States, and is an annexation fad." Some no doubt think so, and
some think the reverse. Many Conservatives favor Unrestricted

* Reciprocity, as most Reformers do, and they do not think, as 1
do not, that it involves Annexation, to which all of us are opposea.
As for Unrestricted Reciprocity being the only difference between
the two parties, intelligent Reformers know that there are many

. other grave differences between the Reform party and the Con-
servative party besides Unrestricted Reciprocity.

Time will not permit oi my giving to-day some further illus-
trations which I had noted of the true character and aims of those,
whoever they are, that are directing the policy and proceedings of
this New Party ; but what I have said is surely sufficient with-
out more to demonstrate that the party is under

DECIDEDLY CONSERVATIVE INFLUF.NCES,

however this has come about, and has decidedly Conservative
aims ; that its proceedings are not governed by its professed
principles ; that the party has no chance, and its leading director ;
have no expectation, of success for the part}'^ for many years if ever,
and that unless those Reformers who sympathise more or less with
its platform ov some of its planks, are wide awake, they are going
to be used in the interest of the Conservative party at the coming
elections, and without advancing, but on the contrary prejudicing,
the objects for which Reformers join th6 party. I am glad to
know that the Reformers of North Oxford are already alive to all
this, and are ready to do, each according to his opportunities, what
he can to make others alive to it also.

le siclo
party,
ire ex-
mada"
)te for
ihrown
etween
ecided-
. Thus
ey (the
Ltion to
" Com-
United
so, and
jstricted

ik, as 1
opposed,
between
re many
,he Con-

her illus-

of those,

ledings of

ent with-

s"cr:pi=>XjEDN^En^T

iservative
proiessed
director ;
ars if ever,
r less with
r are going
ihe coming
jrejudicing,
stm glad to
alive to all
[lities, what

Mr. Mowat mentioned at the close of his speech at Tavistock
as to the New Party,(January 15), that he had noted other illus-
trations of his subject besides those mentioned in his speech. A
desire having been intimated that Ho should give to the public
what remains, either in a speech somewhere or otherwise, he has
partly written and partly dictated the following memorandum*
by way of supplement to his speech : —

Besides what I had time to mention in my speech at Tavistock,
there are still other reasons why Reformers will not attach much
importance to the nominal platform of this New Party. Take for
example, the, first plank, " Righteousness and Truth." I do not
doubt that this plank has attracted to the party some God-fearing
men, clergymen and laymen ; but political parties, and even re-
ligious societies, do not consist wholly of men who really appre-
ciate and practically illustrate the principles of the party or
society. The New Party will nol be so absurd as to claim to be
an exception. How have the organs of the New Party illustrated
the principle of " Righteousness and Truth ? " I gave some ex-
amples in my speech. I may select a few more.

PROHIBITION. 9

The organ for September said that " The Ontario Government
has connnitted itself squarely against Prohibition and Equal
Rights." Yet this is absolutely untruo. The Ontario Govern-
ment has not " committed itself squarely," or at all, against either
Prohibition or Equal Rights. As to Prohibition, the Ontario
Legislature, as I have already said, has not even jurisdiction.
Prohibition belongs to the Dominion. The Ontario Government
has had no occasion to "commit itself" on the subject. It is
false also to speak of the Government as *' hostile to Prohibition,"
as has also been done. Several members of the Government are
friends of Prohibition; some of them have so expressed themselves
on various public occasions. All the members of the Government
are alive to the evils of intemperance, and are personally friendly
to Temperance measures ; but some at least are of opinion that

'-0!%;* iit"H '-iL'JttCtrv- .'^!t.j./j l- '"- ! ■^^iliiE^

c >.-'.-...>.-^vi--- *'T3c:;

"TlTlrx.:."r-r.--

THE NEW I'AUTY.

public sentiment in most parts of the Province is not strong
enough in favor of either the Scott Act or Prohibition to make
jiossible the adequate enforcement of either by any Constitutional
Qovernnient, and that, without a stronger public sentiment in
support of either lav.^, its premature ado[)tion may do more harm
than good. The popular vote on the question may be misleading.
In most municipal counties, even wnere the majority for the
adoption of the Scott Act was large, the electors could not after-
wards be got to vote at the municipal elections in sympathy with
the Act. Other local questions, and personal preferences for this
or the other candidate, outweighed from the first the interest
which the people felt in 'enforcing the Act their votes had
brought into force. They elected Municipal Councils that were
adverse to the Act, and would do nothing for its enforcement. I
believe all the members of the Government feel that the advocacy
of the Act and of Temperance measures generally, the statistics
collected, the facts brought to light, the attention aroused to the
enormous evils of intemperance, all these things do good, and pre-
pare public opinion for whatever legislative measures may be in
the interest of morality and religion. I myself as an elector and
ratepayer have voted for the Scott Act (which is the nearest ap-
proach to Prohibition that we have had),and I have never voted
in an opposite way. I have also been for many years a willing
contributor to the funds of Temperance Associations which favor
Prohibition.

EQUAL RIGHTS AND FRENCH SCHOOLS.

As to the Ontario Government having committed itself "square-
ly " against Equal Rights, that also is quite incorrect. Curiously
ewough, the organ professed to found the statement on the report
of the Commissioners recently appointed to investigate the sub-
ject of French Schools. No other ground is pretended. Because
it appears from the Report that, as the organ said, " in some of
these schools French is taught almost to the exclusion of English,
while in others the Catholic Catechism is taught as part of the
daily exercises," it is inferred that the leaders of the Liberal party
have " deliberately adopted the policy of conceding to the Cnurch
of Rome whatever she chooses to demand." The charge is quite
false. As to the teaching of French " almost to the exclusion of
English," or as to the teaching of the Catholic Catechism, the
Report does not contain the slightest ground for saying that these
practices were introduced by us or in our time, or even had been
continued without actior on our part after our attention had been
called to them. Quite the contrary. The report expressly states,

THE NEW PARTT.

/
tl

rong
iiake
ional
»t in
harm
,ding.
r the
Bifter-

witb
r this
torest
9 had
b were
nb. I
vocacy
itistica

to the
nd pre-
y be in
tor and
rest ap-
>r voted

willing
jh favor

"square-
Juriously
le report
the sub-
Because
I some of
■ English,
xvi of the
jral party
le Onurch
[e is quite
elusion of
chism, the
that these
, had been
n had been
•,ssly states,

that for many years the Fiench people had been allowed to con-
duct their schools in their own way, no exception beini,' taken
either by the Education Department or by the public. Speaking
of a period long before our time, it was stated iu the Report that
special provision had been made to secure French teachers for
their schools ; and that French text books had been authorized
ibr them. The Report says, that as far back as 18.51 it was
ordered by the Council of Public Instruction, "in regard to teach-
ers of French, that a knowledge of French grammar be substituted
for a knowledge of English gramiriRr, and that the certificate to
the teacher be expressly limited iccordingly ; " and that by re-
solution of the Council of Public Instruction, dated April ^iOth,
18G8, the French text books herein specified were authorised for
use in French Schools in Ontario. The same ref)ort further
bays :—

There can be no (jMosiion as to the fact that in all the French Schooln in
the several counties visited, notwithstaiiding particular cases of backward-
ness or inefficiency, an effort is being made to impart a knowledge of the
English language ; and not only so, but this work is receiving a larger
amount uf attention at present than in former years. There are some of
those schools in which English has been well taught for many years, no that
they are practically Engliah Schools. There are also some, as will be seen
from the statistical statement forming part of *he report, in which the Eng-
lish language is largely used in the work of the school. This is the case more
particularly in the Counties of Essex and Kent.

There are some schools in which the time given ''o English and the use of
that language in the schools are too limited ; but even in these more atten-
tion is paid to English than formerly, and the use of it in the work of in-
ptruction is greater than it was a few years ago.

In recent speeches to my constituents. I gave further details as
to how the matter really stood. I showed from documentary evi-
dence, that the teaching of French '' almost to the exclusion of
English " had been deliberately permitted by the educational
authorities for more than 20 years before our time, and without
objection ; that the subject had been brought before the Chief
Superintendent of Education, the Rev. Dr. Ryerson, officially,
as early at least as 1851 ; that he did not then or afterwards see
his way to any governmental or departmental interference ; and
that the principle involved was before the Council of Public In-
struction repeatedly between that date and the year 1876, with-
out the Council procuring or recommending a change to be made.
I showed that those present at the meetings of the Council were
all Protestant clergymen of different denominations, and Protestant
laymen. not in political life. I showed that as far back as 185G,
Pr. Ryerson sanctioned the use in these schools of books recom-

Tni NEW PARTY.

mended by the French dignitaries of the Ohuich of Rome, and de
scribed as " exclusively devoted to the teaching of the peculiar
dogmas of that Church." He did not think that any interference
would be useful where all or most of the pupils were Roman
Catholics ; and neither he nor the Council of rublic Instruction
took any different course in regard to such books during Dr.
Ryerson's time.
On the other hand, as far back as 1885 the Qovemment had

BEGUN ACTIVE MfSASURES

for having more English taught in these schools ; and this dis-
tinctly appears from the very report referred to by the New Party
organ. The report sets forth, among other things, a tircular which
the Eklucation Department issued in September, 1885, giving
special instructions with a view '* to secure a better knowledge of
the English language." To further promote that object, the Com-
missioners made certain recommendations, which have been ap-
proved of everywhere, and have been carried out by the Educa-
tion Department ir every particular in which the action of the
Legislature beforehand is not needed.

As to the interval between Dr. Ryerson's incumbency and the
year .1885, all that can be said is, that Mr. Crooks, his successor
did not disturb the practice for so many years sanctioned by Dr.,
Ryerson and the Council of Public Instruction, acquiesced in by
tht public, and being the accepted policy of the Province ; the
matter not havinjj been brought to the attention of the Govern-
ment, and perhaps not to Mr. Crooks himself, from any quarter
whatever. The continuance of this policy was not the result of
any " demand " on the part of the Church of Rome, as falsely
asserted. There had not only been no demand, but there had not
been even any communication on the subject.

It was thus Dr. Ryerson, not the Ontario Government, that
adopted the policy of permitting " almost exclusive " French teach-
ing, and his Council during its existence of 30 years or more did
not interfere with the Roman Catholic teaching. "Would it be a
fair inference from the practices so permitted, that the Rev.
Dr. Ryerson and his Council of distinguished Protestant clergy-
men and laymen " had adopted the policy of conceding to the
Church of Rome whatever she chooses to demand ?" I presume
the New Party organs or leaders will not say so. But as against
the Liberal party that is what is said ; while it is falsely assumed
that the Ontario Government are the authors of the state of things
condemned. This single fact must d^monstri^te tQ every thought-
ful Reformer ti »

^ri

TBI WIW PABTT.

OnOSS POLITICAL PARTISANSHIP

as'WeM as the political unfairness, of those who are directing the
policy of the New Party. They have taken their supposed facts
from the Opposition press without even reading the report they
refer to as their evidence. Or if they did read the report, to
much the worse ; for in that case their partisanship made tnem
wholly blind to every statement in it which tended to disprove
the charges they were determined to make against the Govern-
ment.

The blindness still continues, for their organ refers to Mr.
Ross's speeches in West Lambton in this way : — " Mr. Ross un-
dertook to defend his notorious French school policv." This is
said after it had been demonstrated, that Mr. Ross's policy was to
have more English taught, and to remove what nad been other-
wise objectionable in the French Schools before his time ; that he
initiated a policy which has received the approval of all disinter-
ested and intelligent men who have taken ine trouble to learn the
facts. The same organ continues from number to number bo
refer to the subject as if the facts were quite otherwise. Thus in
the last number there i^ this statement : — " The recent disclosures
of the shameful evasions of the School Law in certain sections of
the Province, and the extent to which, under a winking Govern-
ment, they have been made mere training schools for the acquisi-
tion of a foreign language and in the doctrines of the Roman
Catholic Church, are too fresh in the public mind to need any
reiteration." Was the policy of Dr. Ryerson and che Council of
Public Instruction for 33 years " a shameful evasion of the School
Law ? " It was Dr. Ryerson and the Council of Public Instruc-
tion who were guilty, if any one was. Our part was, taking
steps to change what is complained of, as soon as the facts came
to the knowledge of any of us. There is not the shadow of
ground for the pretence that it was in the time of this Govern-
ment, if ever, that any of the schools referred to had been " made
mere training schools " for the purposes mentioned. The editor
or controller of the Nation, whoever he is, seems to accept as very
gospel whatever he finds in an Opposition journal that may tell
against the Ontario Government with those who can be got to
believe it; and many may be expected to believe, without fur
ther inquiry, what they read in a journal supposed to be under
close clerical direction and supervision, aiid to be the special
representative of a party consisting

THE NEW PARTT.

EXCLUSIVELY OF RIGHTEOUS MEN.

Many other illustrations of the way in which truth and righte-
ousness are practised by the organs of the New Party are to be
found. Take this paragraph : — " The Canada Presbyterian has
enjoyed some fat Government printing, and is always ready to
use his paper in defence of his employers." This also has the
unmistakable ring of the Tory journals in their attacks on us.
May not a public journal have confidence in us, and honestly, in
the country's interest, desire our success ? Does the cause of
truth and righteousness require that an unworthy motive bo as-
cribed to a religious journal because it manifests a leaning to the
Reform party or some of its leaders ? Then as to the facts. The
Ontario Government are not employers of the Canadian, Pres-
byterian. It is not employed by us for Government printing or
for anything else. The proprietor had for one term the contract
for Government printing, because his tender was the lowest of
all the tenders 3ent in after the advertisement for tenders. His
contract came to an end some years ago, and the work went to
others for the next term, the tenders of these others being the
lowest lor the new term. The contract is now with a printing
company wJiose principal partners are not in political sympathy
with us. These facts are well known to all connected with the
tiade here, and probably elsewhere; but there may be many
readers oi the Nation who do not know them. The paragra))h
is for these.

Take another paragraph. The organ gave this' sentence from
the Globe: — " Fancy the figure Mr. Meredith would cut in accept-
ing the leadership of Dr. Sutherland, and committing his
his friends inextricably to pjo. impossible programme of Prohibi-
tion, No-Popery, and Truth and Righteousness ! " This evidently
refers to the impossibility of Mr. Meredith getting into power by
uniting with the New Party. But the comment of the organ is
this : — " Observe ! Prohibition, iruth and righteousness, and re-
sistance to Jesuit aggression, constitute from the Globe's point of
view ' an impossible programme.' This shows what the country
L.vs to expect from the great Libeial party." Here the organ
chooses to interpret the paragraph as showing the Globe to be
against Prohibition, which the Globe has not been ; and as being
against " truth and righteousness and resistance to Jesuit aggres-
sion," while the Globe manager, in his anxiety that what he
tho"ght Jesuit aggression should be resisted, actually took a posi-
tion of emphatic antagonism to the Reform representatives in the

aim

THE NEW PARTY.

Dominion House of Commons who should vote against the dis-
allowance of the Jesuit Estates Act. Then, misrepresenting in this
way the position of the Globe, the organ further assumes that the
Olohe is identical with the Liberal party, and says : — " This shows
what the country has to expect from the great Liberal party."
Is all this honest ? The paragraph was evidently intended for
the edification of Reformers attracted by the New Party platform
and by the clerical element in its management. It meant to tell
them, " Your party has no claim upon you ; it is against not only
Prohibition, but against truth and righteousness also, and any re-
sistance to Jesuit aggression." But intelligent Reformers know
the contrary. Their party is not only for truth and righteous-
ncsc, but is against either Jesuit aggression or any other aggres-
sion on the publfc rights and interests. i

One word here as to the Reformers who are amongst the 188
that voted against the disallowance of the Quebec Act

RSSPECTING THE JESUIT ESTATES.

Wa ought not to overlook the fact, that the Ottawa Government
had committed itself and its party against . the disallowance of
the Act ; that if all the Ontario Reformers had voted for the
motion it would still have been defeated, thouj^h by a smaller
majority. Their votes would have been a protest against the
Act, and would have been in accordance with the feelings of many
Protestants, but would have had no effect on the action of the
government or Parliament. Further, it is quite certain that our
friends voted as thej^ did, not because they favored the Jesuits,
but because, like Hon. Mr. Jol}^ the Protestant ex-Premier of
Quebec, they did not read the Act as implying what others re-
garded it as implying ; and because they had for some years been
contending, in the light of recent experience, that it was in the
general interest of their own Province of Ontario and of the Do-
minion, that Provincial Acts within the jurisdiction of a Provin-
cial I;3gis]ature should not be interfered with. An Act like the
Jesuit Estates Act may be thought by others to have been an
exceptional Act not falling within the principle so contended for,
without impugning the honesty or the motives of the Reform
members who took a different view.

Take another paragraph from the Canadian Nation: "A Lamb-
ton Liberal wrote to a friend, ' wfl have knocked truth and
righteousness into a cocked hat.' " Even this ironical description
of the new party of " truth and righteousness " in a private letter
from we don't know whom, is pressed into service against the

THE NEW PARTY.

whole Reform party, as if it proved that the Liberals were against
truth and righteousness, and were rejoicing at the defeat of those
virtues, instead of rejoicing that, the party which wishes to be the
exclusive depository of truth and righteousness had been "knocked
into a cocked hat."

It is plain from these specimens, which might be multiplied,
that, however pure the purpose of the clerical or other leaders,
the New Party has already fallen into evil ways ; and that when
its organs want to discredit the Reform party or defeat a Reform
candidate, resort is freely had to the very means which earnest
clergymen who have been induced to speak at the New Party
meetings justly condemned, and hoped that the New Party would
drive out of politics.

I am far from ascribing to Dr. Sutherland personally all that I
find in the accredited organs of his party ; though, as these jour-
nals are the official organs of the party, he is in a sense respon-
sible for what they have been permitted to state. But of Dr.
Sutherland personally I "would not say one unkind word. He ia
a distinguished minister of his church, and has, I doubt not, as
such rendered good service to the cause of religion. But some-
how he has allowed personal feeling of some kind to mislead him
in this whole matter. I am sure that, in the midst of his mission-
ary and ministerial labors, he has not had time or inclmation to
investigate for himself the matters to which I have referred, nor
the charges repeated from Opposition journals against the Pro-
vincial Government and Provincial leaders. The Bulletin said of
him : — " Dr. Sutherland was a staunch and consistent Liberal
until the leaders by their course on the Riel question, and the
Prohibition question, drove him (and thousands more) from the
party." This would be curious, if true. The Riel question and
the Prohibition question were Dominion questions, not Provincial ;
and yet they are represented as having turned the good Doctor
against the whole Reform party, in Provincial as well as Do-
minion affairs.

AS TO THE RIEL QUESTION,

the Dominion Government are the parties responsible for Riel's
execution. The Reform members of the House of Commons were
divided. Mr. Mackenzie, Sir Richard Cartwright and others
agreed with the Government that the sentence should have been
carried into execution. Mr. Blake, for reasons which he stated
with great power, was of a difierent opinion. On the vote the
Ontario Reformers were about equally divided. There were like
differences outside. Principal Grant, for example, who belongs

w ;

iwwMMWi i mlW

tHJ i lWHW Il HMPHW

THE NEW PARTT.

to no party, agrees with Mr. Blake. He said : — " I think to hang
Kiel would be criminal on our part; for, although Iftw sanciions
it,* the most enlightened sentiment of the nineteenth century is
against it." Which of the two opposite views disgusted Dr.
Sutherland, the organ did not state. Are we to understand that
he was disgusted because all the Reform leaders did not approve
of the hanging, or was it because all did not disapprove of it ?
The want of unanimity one way or the other in such a matter
would be a strange ground for changing any man's political
leanings.

As for the other of the two grounds — the course of the Liberal
leaders on the Prohibition question — the Reform Government
passed the Scott Act, and that Act at the time of its being passed
gave satisfaction to Temperance advocates. When experience
disclosed defects in it, most of the Reform members of the House
of Commons voted for their removal, and most of the Conserva-
tive members voted the other way. So, on the motions in the
House of Commons respecting Prohibition, most of the Ontario
Reformers voted for Prohibition and most of the Conservatives
the other way. What particular step of the Liberal leaders with
respect to the Prohibition question drove the Doctor from the
Reform party the organ did not say.

The Doctor is strongly opposed to the

TEDERATION OF VICIORIA COLLEGE

with the Provincial University, and is the leader in the opposi-
tion to such federation. Referring to federation, it was said by
the new organ, that "the Ontario government captured the
Methodist General Conference in regard to its University." This
extraordinary statement as to capturing the Methodist Confer-
ence shows the hostility of the writer (whoever he is) to the
majority in the General Conference, whom he describes as being
" captured," as well as to the Ontario government, who did the
capturing. Such a statement indicates a state of mind which
may account for any amount of aberration as to political parties
or otherwise. I do not believe that any government or any ex-
ternal power could capture that great ecclesiastical body. What
has led to such an amazing assertion ? The Ontario government
thought that it would be for the general good that all the Colleges
connected with the Churches should unite with the Provincial
University, so far as relates to as many as may be of the subjects
of learning which are common to all. We thought, rightly or
wrongly, that such a union would be for the advantage of the

THE NEW PARTY.

Colleges and their supporters, as well as of the Provincial Univer-
sity ; that federation would enable the resources of the Colleges
to be utilised to the greatest possible advantage ; that it womd
also be of great advantage to the young men of all Churches to
associate in University education, as well as in our High and
Public Schools, and would bring to bear on the Provincial institu-
tion the Christian influence of the Churches in a larger degree
than is otherwise practicable. Dr. Nelles, the able and greatly
lamented Chancellor of Victoria University, took in the first in-
stance the same view, was a warm advocate of Federation, and
rendered important service in framing a basis of union ; though
he afterwards thought that he had been wrong in all this, and
had the courage to say so. The heads of all the other Colleges
also were favorably disposetl, and in the first instance aided in the
work ; at least all who, as in the case of the Provincial Univer-
sity, carried on their work in Toronto. Coafederation always
seemed to me to stand on stronger ground in their case than (for
local and exceptional reasons) in that of Queen's University at
Kingston. Our. endeavor was with the assistance of representa-
tive men from all the Colleges to get a basis of union settled that
should be reasonably satisfactory to the friends of all the Col-
leges ; and such a basis was at length agreed to provisionally.
The Ontario Legislature thereupon, at the instance of the Gov-
ernment, passed an Act unanimously which enabled Victoria
University and other Universities to unite for certain purposes
with the Provincial University, if they chose to do so. It was
an enabling Act — nothing more. But so far from having captured
the Conference, as absurdly asserted, or from having tried to cap-
ture it, we never thought ot undertaking so Herculean a task.
We did not try to influence a single member of the Conference,
and I do not suppose we could have influenced one if. we had
tried. The question is wholly for the Methodists themselves, and
it would have been as impertinent as useless for us to attempt to
influence them in such a matter. On public grounds I should be
glad if Victoria would unite with the Provincial University. All
Methodists do not share that desire, but these do not on that ac-
count leave the Reform party, of which Methodists have always
constituted an essential portion. Our polfcy in this matter can-
not have had anything to do with Dr. Sutherland's opposition to
the Reform party, as he took that position publicly in 1886, and
our policy was not entered upon, I think, until subsequently.

THE PROVINCIAL LEADEBS.

I referred in my speech at Tavistock to the way the New Party

n ntum

THE NEW PARir.

oi'gan speaks of Mr. Meredith, the Conservative leader. Alluding
to the call of the Hamilton Spectator some time ago for another
leader, the organ gave this as the New Party view : — " No one has
ventured to accuse the present leader of any lack of ability, of
honesty, of industry, or of any of those qualities which go to make
up a succesi^ful statesman." Again : — " The gist of the Spectators
article is that Mr. Meredith is a good man but not a good leader.
Read between the lines, and the cause of this seems to be that he
is too good." Again, it ia intimated that the objection of some of
his party to him is his " overscrupulousness." All this is mani-
festly said in the

INTEREST <jF THE CONSEBVATIVE PARTY AND TO

make Reformers well disposed to its Provincial leader. On the
other hand I observe in the last number of The Nation two refer-
ences to myself. In one paragraph my speech at Sarnia is spoken
of as " fraudulent," and as a "fraud" on "Christian sentiment, and
truth and honesty and righteousness in public affairs " — these last
words being quoted frum another journal, where they did not
refer to me. In aijother paragraph this remark is made : — " We
are not anxious to have Mr. Mowat go. If he would only sur-
round himself with honest advisers, and heartily adopt a platform
of Prohibition and £(|ual Rights, we would rather keep Mr. Mowat

than any other man in Ontario. But " the organ does not

finish the sentence. The adopting cf the platform suggested
means joining the New Party. As for surrounding myself with
honest advisers, I am surrounded with honest advisers now; and
as for joining the New Party, I cannot do so conscientiously or in
the public interest. This proclaimed readiness to " keep " a
a member of the Gk)vemment a public man who is at the same
time denounced as having just made a fraudulent speech, is a
little remarkable. The new organ contains in its first number

AN ADDPJSS Br THE PKESIDENT

" to the members and friends of Canada's New Party ;" and in thia
address the Rev. Doctor does not disguise his special hostility to
the Ontari© government. The address is specially to Reformers,
and to Reformere who are Prohibitionists; and one of its statements
this : " That the Ottawa government is hostile to Prohibition we
all know. That the Ontario government is equally so is now
beyond dispute. By a policy of non-enforcement it killed the
Scott Act, and made itk attitude unmistakable by choosing a

THE NEW PARTY.

pronounced Anti-Prohibitio»»iat as its standard-beare. in West
Lambton. And if further evidence were needed, the trend of
policy is shown by the fact that the Central Reform Association
has recently elected a retired liquor-dealer as its President." This
is the sort of observation with which we are familiar in some
Tory journals, from which, I fear, the Rev. Doctor now takes his
opinions, except in so far as he is a Prohibitionist and they are
not. In order to prove to Reformers the hostility of the Ontario
government to Prohibition, the Rev. Doctor assumes that the
government selected Mr. Charles Mackenzie as the Reform candi-
date for West Lambton. I suppose I may infer from the assump-
tion in this case that it was not the

NEW PARTY IN WEST LAMBTON,

but the leaders elsewhere, that really chose Mr. McRae to be their
candidate in West Lambton, and that the action of the West
Lambton Convention in apparently choosing him was mere mat-
ter of form. However that may have been in the case of Mr. Mc-
Rae, it was not so in the case of Mr. Mackenzie. I do not know
that the Ontario government has ever had to do with the selection
of one candidate rather than another at any Convention during
my Premiership, except in one instance, that of my late esteemed
colleague, Mr. Crooks. At the last election before his death, I
found that there was a desire in South Oxford for another repre-
sentative, and in the general interest I did endeavor, and success-
fully, to have Mr. Crook again chosen as the Reform candidate^
for the riding. With regard to West Lambton, we had nothing
whatever directly or indirectly to do with Mr. Charles Mackenzie
being chosen. He was the independent choice of a Convention
of the representative Reformers of the riding, without one word
of advice or other interference on our part. There were several
names before the Convention, all, so far as I know, good men and
true; all had their friends; and with any one of them I should have
been well satisfied. Mr. Mackenzie, whom the Convention select-
ed, was and is well worthy of public confidence, unless faith in
Prohibition is an essential qualification. He has lived in the
riding, carrying on a large and successful business, for many
years, a" d bears the highest character over the whole county,
-< ' n'/iitical opponents. Many of those who voted for the

■ - 'i\.' candidates will probably vote for Mr. Mackenzie if he
.• *■ . ( ,\ *;."i-j,te at the general election. Was it quite right to
as^ assert, that he was chosen by the Ontario govern-

ment as us standard-bearer ? Or does it not much matter in

MOi

THE NEW PARTY.

politics what is assumed and asserted to make a point against
opponents? Too many Conservative journals think it does not;
but surely the Rev. Doctor is not of that opinion.

ENFORCEMENT OF DOMINION LAWS.

In the same address the reverend President says, that ** enforce-
ment belongs to Provincial authorities, and a prohibitory law
from Ottawa would be of no avail so long as a hostile govern-
ment reigned in Toronto ; " and that " by a policy of non-enforce-
ment it [tue Ontario Governmen'i] killed tne Scott Act." . Now,
it is not the fact that we had a " policy of non-enforcement," or
that as a government we are " hostile " to Prohibition. On the
contrary, our policy was the enforcement of the Act wherever it
was adopted. If any think that in some localities more could
have been done than was done, whatever the cause of this may
have been, it certainly was nol, a policy of non-enforcement on
our part. A policy of non-enforcement was the confessed policy
of the Dominion government.

Again, it is not correct, as the President assumes, that, as a
matter of constitutional law, the enforcement of all the Domi-
nion laws belongs to the Provincial and not to the Dominion
authorities, or that the enforcement of a Prohibitory law would
belong to us, and that, as he says, such a law " wonld be of no
avail so long as a hostile government reigned m Toronto." That
the enforcement of the Scott Act, a Dominion Act, was not th«
business of the Dominion Government, has sometimes been stated
by Tory politicians, because such a view if accepted would re-
lieve the Conservative government from all blame for the non-
enforfiemont of the Act ; and the Rev. Doctor chooses to assume
that they are right in this view. If the constitutional doctrine
were as asserted, which it is not, the fact would form no reason
why Reformers should be influenced by that consideration at the
approaching elections, for there is not the remotest chance ol a
prohibitory law being passed by the Dominion during the exist-
ence of the Assembly which will be elected this year. Is'o in-
telligent Prohibitionist expects it. The number of members in
the House of Commons of both the Liberal and Conservative
parties favoring Prohibition may be increased at the Dominion
election in 1892, unless the action of the New Party should
prevent this ; but Prohibitionists will still be a minority, and
probably a small minority. Then, again, the Senate consists of life
members, and contains a large majority of Conservative anti-
Prohibitionists.

THE NEW PARTY.

As to the theory that the enforcement of all Dominion laws be-
longs to the Province and not to the Dominion, so that a Domi-
nion Act " would be of no avail " unless the Provincial Govern-
ment chose to enforce it, the suggestion is absurd. Such a state
of things would paralyse all Dominion legislation — would put the
iJominion in the power of every Provincial government. The
Constitution contains no such provision; the Dominion authorities
having never contended for such a doctrine; nor nas any Court in
Canada suggested it. The Scott Act itself assumed the contrary,for
it expressly appointed the Collectors of Inland Revenue to en-
force the Act. Acting on the same view, the present Dominion
government, though doing nothing to enforce the Scott Act, and
refusing even to place at our disposal for that purpose the fines
paid for violations of the law, yet are daily attending to the en-
forcement of their Customs and Excise laws, and every other Do-
minion law except, perhaps, what is understood as tha " criminal
laws."

The doctrine that the Dominion has the fullest jurisdiction to
enforce its own laws is essential to the federal system. The like
is the recognized doctrine in the United States. The Provincial
Courts are open to the Dominion, as they are to all who have
claims to enforce which fall within the jurisdiction of those
Courts; and the ordinary officers of justice are at hand to dis-
charge their duties. But when the Dominion Parliament passes
a law which requires the creation of new agencies and special
measures for its enforcement, the office of providing these belongs
to the Dominion itself.

Thus the only practical ground on which Reformers are appeal-
ed to for opposing the Ontario government and the Reform can-
didates at the coming elections absolutely falls to the ground.
The Rev. Doctor will tind that he is never safe in taking his law,
any more than his facts, against the Ontario government from
Tory newspapers.

THE SCOTT ACT.

Though under no constitutional obligation to enforce a Pro-
hibition Act, or such an Act as the Scott Act (except as I have
mentioned), the Provincial Legislatures have certain powers
which enable them to aid to a certain extent in enforcing it.
Free Trade in liquor would be the consequence of either Act if not
enforced ; and as the Dominion government would do nothing
whatever to enforce the Scott Act, it became necessary for all
good citizens to take the matter into their own hands as far as
they could ; and the Ontaiio government was desirous of doing

THE NEW PARTY.

what it could, just as any Temperance Society and any private
citizen may have felt. Halton was one of the counties which
adopted the Scott Act in 1884. The Act

BEING AN EXPEIIIMENT

which we wished to see tried under the most favorable circum-
stances practicable, we appointed there a Police Magistrate and
officers selected by the friends of the Scott Act ; and for some
years we had the whole expense of enforcing the Act in that
county paid out of the Provincial Treasury. The vote for the
Scott Act has recently been reversed in that county as it has
been in some other counties, but most certainly the reversal in
Halton did not arise from any remissness of the Ontario Govern-
ment ; and the friends of the Act in Halton do not say it did.

In ivery other county which adopted the Scott Act the Com-
missioners and inspectors who had been appointed' to enforce the
License Law were retained to enforce the Scott Act, or new Com-
missioners and a new Inspector were appointed who were in
greater sympathy with the Act.

A circular was sent by the Provincial Secretary to the mem-
bers of the Legislative Assembly with respect to the Commission-
ers of Licenses to be recommended, containing this instruction : —
" Should the Scott Act be in operation in your county, or should
it have been passed so as to come in force on the 1st of May next,
it will be necessary that at least the majority of the Board
of Commissioners, and also the Inspector, should be men who are
favorable to the Scott Act and its proper enforcement. I trust
that in making your recommendation you will bear this in mind."

We got from year to year large votes from the Legislature to
pay expenses which either the Dominion or the county adiopting
the Scott Act should have paid. When the friends of the Act repre-
sented that its enforcement by the ordinary magistrates was imprac-
ticable, we made provision for the appointment of Police Magis-
trates wherever County Councils should apply for their appoint-
ment. When County Councils declined to avail themselves of
the privilege, we procured Legislative provision for the appoint-
ments taking place unasked. The Police Magistrates so appoint-
ed were, I believe, in every instance gentlemen in sympath}'^ with
the Act, and otherwise satisfactory to the Temperance people.

The instructions issued from the l)e{>artinent for the enforce-
men of the Act contained, amongst other things, the direction
following: — "It is the duty of the Inspectors to see that the
several provisions of the Canada Temperance Act, 1878, are en-

THE NEW PARTY,

forced in their districts. Thoy shall ho specially vigilant in the
prosecution of offenders for infractions of the Act, not waiting for
others to make complaints Necessary detective service required
to properly discharge their duty they must not hesitate to per-
form." Where the Inspector seemed from the returns or from
other information to be lax, increased diligence was by corres-
pondence and personal communications insisted on, and the
Inspector was warned : — " The future must show much greater
efficiency on your part if you continue to act as inspector." Com-
plaints were sometimes made of the Inspectors. Officers cannot
be dismissed on mere complaint, but when dereliction of duty was
brought home to them after official investigation, we appointed in
their places others, named as a rule by tlie Temperance people
themselves.

In a word, we did our best by both Legislation and i^ecutive
action to meet the difficulty arising from the inaction, or worse
than inaction," of the Dominion government. The Act, where
adopted, was found to involve some business inconveniences
which do not appear to have been appreciated at the time of the
Act being adopted ; popular hostility to the Act was developed
in some quarters ; popular indifference in other quarters to the
enforcement of the Act became common ; and the result was,
that anything like complete enforcement was impossible. To
ascribe the failure to the Ontario government is unjust ; and to
make its failure a reason for supporting the Conservative party,
whose leaders in the Dominion did nothing whatever for the en-
forcement of this Dominion law, is surely most illogical and
absurd.

Early in 1886 a special officer was employed to see to the ex-
ecution of the laws, both in districts in which the Crooks Act was
in force, and in districts where the Scott Act had been adopted.
The gentleman selected for the office, the Rev. J. W. Manning,
had oeen a Baptist minister, and an active and zealous Temper-
ance worker all his life ; had long been in the habit of taking a
leading part in Temperance Conventions ; was well known
throughout the Province for his interest in Temperance work ;
and stood high in the confidence of Temperance people.

THE MCCULLY LETTER.

Having mentioned Mr. Manning's name, I may take the oppor-
tunity of referring to a letter of his which is habitually misinter-
preted by the Opposition press, and, so misinterpreted, is frequently
mentioned in their attacks on the Ontario government, a sub-

THE NEW PARTY.

sequent letter of his explaining; the facts being habitually ij^nored.
The facts are these : Dr. McCully, a Refonner (as was .supposed)
wrot3 complaining of the lax enforcement of the Scott Act in
Ridgotown, in the County of Kent. Mr. Manning imniediately
wrote to the Inspector there, calling his attention to the coniplaint.
The Inspector replied that he was unaware that li(pior was being
openly sold in Ridgetown, that no complaints had been made to
him, and that he had received no assistance froni the 'J'emperance
people in the prosecutions which he had instituted. Before the
letter was answered, a gentleman from Ridgetown called on Mr.
Manning and expressed to him the opinion tliat a more vigorous
enforcement of the Act in that locality would injure the govern-
ment. To this suggestion Mr. Manning paid no attention, know-
ing that it was our wish, as it was his own, that the Act should
be enforced, whatever eflect the enforcement might have upon our
political interests, and^ in his reply to the Inspector, he said
amongst other things : — " Whilst it is very desirable you should
have the assistance of the friends of the law, there is no obligation
on them (that can be enforced) to render such assistance, but there
is an obligation on you to take such energetic aption as will put
a stop to proceedings that are described as a ' disgrace to the
government.' "

Dr. McCully sent to the newspaper his correspondence with Mr.
Manning, and the Opposition press pretended to understand it as
showing that the policy of the Government was to postpone the
enforcement of the Act to political considerations. Mr. Maiming
therefore wrote a letter, which was published, giving the facts,
and this letter is systematically ignored by our opponents vvlicn
they refer to the matter. This was the letter : —

To TUB Editor : — An effort has been made to torture the meaninf^ of an
unofficial letter written by me to Dr. McCully on the 14th inst., m reply to
a communication sent by him to me, into a reflection upon the Goyernment.
The letter in question was, from force of habit, inadvertently signed by me
AS chi^f officer, though on its face it purports to be (what it was) a private
communication. In the letter in question I called attention to the fact that
the Ontario government is the only Provincial government that has made
any effort to enforce the Scott Act. In Dr. McCully's letter, doubt as to the
gOTemment's sympathy ' with the enforcement of the Act and tho gravest
suspicion as to its administration were expressed. I declined to go into any
controversy with him as to these matters, and concluded my letter by refer-
ring to the well-known fact that while on the one hand the government are
found fault with by some for not more strictly enforcing the provisions of the
Canadian Temperance Act, others complain of its too vigorous enforcement
The instructions given to me as chief officer of the Canada Temperance Act
Division are to require a strict enforcement of the Act, and those instructions
I endeavor to have carried out by the local officers, as far as in my power. I

86 THE NKW PARTY.

b»vo never boon influenced or controlled to any other courae bv the govorn-
ment or any member theruof, or any ono else in authority, nor has any effort
been made to so iuflaence or control mo, and any inaiuuation to that oft'eot ia
quite unwarranted by the facts.

Tho facts therefore are, that when the coiny)laint with respect
to Ri<l^'etown reached the Department, the Inspector was com-
municated with; that notwithstanding the opinion of the friend
from llidgotown that a vigorous enforcement of the hiw would
hurt the government politically, the more vigorous enforcement
of the Act was insisted on and carried out — the very contrary of
what political opponents pretended to infer.

The organ of the 16th contains an elaborate communication of
three columns with reference to a license granted at Mount Elgin
by the License Commissioners of South 'Oxford. I had previously
seen the communication in the Mail. It is full of misrepresenta-
tions and abuse of the Government, and is evidently the produc-
tion of some bitter Tory. The Nation, to give it increased
emphasis, has given to it a new heading of its own : — " The
License Act — How they work it." The document argues that the
license was illegal, and I understand from what it said that it was
the subject of judicial inquiry before the Police Magistrate at
Woodstock, and was decided to be legal. The communication
states that a letter from me was handed into court by the License
Inspector advising the Commissioners that it was not necossaiy
to advertise the names of applicants for licenses last year. 1 wrote ■
no such letter, and no such letter could have been handed into
court. In fact I am not aware that I ever heard of the ease be-
fore the communication appeared, and I had nothing whatever to
do with the correspondence which took place. I have since ex-
amined the official correspondence, and find a letter from the
Provincial Secretary's Department to the Inspector, intimating,
amongst other things, that as the Scott Act would be in force
until after 1st May, 1889, the provision of law requiring tke
advertising of applications received before tbab day did not ap-
ply, and this statement appears to have beeri (^uite right. I do
not remark further on the false statements and insinuations in
the document. I only refer to it and its adoption by the Nation
as atfording another illustration of the readiness of the organ to
use anything and everything, correct or incorrect, which tho
editor thinks may be made to hurt the Ontario Government;

THE AN TI- JESUIT AGITATION.

This New Party derives part of any little strength which it

THE NEW PAHTY.

has from the agitation which the Jesuit Estates* Act in Quebec
has creai/ed among the Protestants of Ontario. In that agitation,
politicians who are opposed to the Ontario Government, and are
under no real fear of either Irish Catholics or French Catholics,
united with other Protestants, and have been strong enough and
acute enough, with the nvl of conscientieus men of tl,eir own jK)li-
tics, to

PERVERT INTO (!APITAL

against the Ontario Government some of the excitement created
by thu recent Quebec measures and by old Quebec grievances,
though the Ontario Government had nothing whatever to do with
any of those measures. Designing politician.'? joined in anti-
Jesuit meetings and Equal Right meetings with Protestant clergy-
men and Protestant laymen, who in the part they took were
honestly discharging what they believed to be their duty. The
politicians vied with the others in denouncing the Jesuit Estates'
Act, and the 188 who voted against the motion for its disallow-
ance ; and they endeavored from the, first to turn the agitation
ink) hostility to the Ontario Government. They have not hitherto
been strong enough to induce the Equal Rights A.ssociation to
enter on a crusade against that government for the bene-
fit of the Ontario Opposition, and I presume that they will not be
able to do so.

To bring it about, Opposition newspapers have declared that I
myself was the author or adviser of the Jesuit Estates' Act,
though they knew perfectly that I had nothing to do with it any
more than its loudest denouncers had; and I had proof the other
day that even this absurd story, being frequently reiterated, had
gained credence with some people. The politicians referred to
brought up again the old election stories of 1886, which Reform-
ers and other electors had then pronounced against. They insisted
that their refuted and rejected charges against the Ontario gov-
ernment and Legislature were as well founded and of as grave a
character as the objections to the Jesuit Estates' Act, and they
demanded that the resolutions passed at the Equal Rights meet-
ings shouM, by implication or in express language, put on the
same footing the recent Quebec measures to which all were op-
posed, and the old enactments of the Ontario Legislature as to
which parties were divided. They asserted t.^at unless the Equal
Rights resolutions embraced both, the omis.sion would be partisan-
ship. To avoid discord, Tory politicians were generally allowed
to have, to some extent, their own way. At meetings outside of
Toronto they had often more to say against the Ontario govern-

THE NEW PAllTT.

ment, and more about the charges unsuccessfully made against
us in 1 886, than against the Jesuit Estates' Act. In characteristic
speeches it was stated that " in Ontario we have as much to fear
from Jesuitism as they in Quebec," and so on; and all Protestants
were called on " to lay aside party politics and act and vote on
the principal of supporting the Protestant religion." This was
the general tone adopted by Conservative politicians. So, in the
Opposition journals, and in the speeches of Opposition orators, it
was said that the Protestants of Ontario might be able to do
nothing to " check Quebec," but should, at all events, put out the
Ontario government. The extreme partisanship of all this must
be manifest to every one before long, if it is not manifest to
everyone already.

For, compare from a Protestant standpoint the trumped-up
charges against the Ontario government with the complaints
which had tired the Protestant sentiment of the Province. I ain
not going to discuss just now the demerits of the Jesuit Estate.^'
Act ; but all know that the Act was read by Protestants who took
part in Anti- Jesuit meetings and Equal Rights meetings, as en-
dowing Jesuits out of the public exchequer, the common property
of Protestants and Roman Catholics ; as denying the supremac}'
of the Queen in her own possessions ; as asserting the supremacy
of the Pope over the Legislature ; and as endangering the civil
and religious liberties of the whole Dominion. That was the view
of the Act by those Protestants who took part in the agitation with-
out a political object ; and, so reading the Act, their excitement
as Protestants must be admitted to have been natural and inevit-
able. What were the acts of the Ontario government which
were presented to Protestants as in the same category with this
Quebec Act, so read ? Some Ontario statutes passed years before,
and which, at the time of passing, neither any of the men now so
furious, nor anyone else, clerical or lay, in the whole Province,
objected to, or saw any harm in, or anything wrong or dangerous
or objectionable in ; statutes which affected no Protestant rate-
payer in any »preciable degree, and which Reformers generally
had at the general election of 1886, declared after full discussion
to contain nothing calling for a withdrawal of their confidence in
their party or their representatives.

In the absence of political party purpose, it would have been a
matter of course for all who took the popular Protestant view of
the Jesuit Estates' Act, to drop all nmttors on which the Conserva-
tives and Reformers among them did not agree. The contrary course
was the extreme of partisanship on the pa»t of Conservative politi-
cians. In the excitement of the period, their tactics have not been

THE NEW PARTY.

without some temporary effect in the case of even some most excel-
lent men with Reform leanings who, in their interest m the more
important issues believed to be involved, did not perceive or
appreciate the political game which our opponents were playmg ;
and were not unnaturally carried away for a time by the boldness
and fury manifested on the subject by their Conservative co-
adjutor and associates'. I believe that when the general election
comes on the aberration will be found to have passed entirely
away from earnest Reformers, and that few, if any, Refonners
will be found playing, through this New Party or otherwise, into
the hands of the Opposition to the Ontario government. Mean-
while, I discharge my duty by calling the attention of Protestant
Reformers to the tactics of our common opponents.

jk-iPiPEisriDi^c

The following article appeared in The Good Templar of Canada,
the Organ of the Good Templars, January 15th, 1890 : —

THE MO WAT GOVERNMENT.

The Good Templar has eschewed politics from its columns
believing that the best interests of our Order are served by aiding
in the formation of Temperance character. Our Order is a great
school for the education of the country to Temperance principles,
and in helping forward that education we are hastening the time
when Prohibition will be one of the fundamental laws on our
statute books. But while we, as an Order, take no part in party
politics, yet when the question of the liquor traffic arises, our duty
is plain to help the government that gives us the best laws both
in restricting the traffic by stringent License Acts and in totally
prohibiting it, by a regular Prohibitory Act. Oui* Order was the
first great Temperance Organization to raise the standard of Pro-
hibition as the goal of its existence, and not until the liquor traffic
is banished out of existence will our objects be attained. In the
near future the country will be called on to elect a new Legisla-
ture for the Province of Ontario, and it becomes the duty of every
Good Tempiai /oter to consider for whom he shall cast his ballot.
There are yet many improvements wanted in our License Laws,
At the last meeting of the Ontario Branch of the Dominion Alli-
ance held in Toronto, a number of proposed amendments were
discussed, among others " a reduction of the maximum number of
licenses to be issued in any municipality" ; "a provision that any
person applying for a license shall have the consent of a majority
of rate-pa} ers in the locality in which he is to operate." '*The
licensin<> of all public houses*" ; " The abolition of steam-boat
licenses," &c., &c.

These are all very important questions, and it becomes our duty
to consider into whose hands we shall place the power of carrying
them out. At election times many will come forward asking for
the suffi-ages of Temj»erance men and promising all sorts of things
if only elected. But we must look to their record. It is very easy
to place a law on the statute books, but another thing to m«ike

THE MOWAT QOVEBNMENT.

the machine to enforce the same, and meet the requirements of
•the times by amendments as actual working shows their necessity.
Witness the Scott Act, the very best local option act ever passed,
and yet our government at Ottawa refused, time and again, to
pass amendments asked for by temperance men to make the Act
workable. Now the time is coming to remind the members, that
they did not represent the sentiments of the Temperance people
but the liquor traffic, and relegate them to stay at home for the
future.

We have headed this article " The Mowat Government," as w©
are under the impression that the Provincial Legislators will V>e
the first to come before the electors. It is not necessary to make
any remarks about the personel of that government, they are
known to most of our readers ; but we may be allowed to mention
the names of two, who we are interested in as members of the
Order, and who hold no mean place in the Cabinet, viz.: the Hon.
G. W. Ross, LL.D., Minister of Education, and the Hon. Mr.
Drury, the Minister of Agriculture, Both of these gentlemen are
no figure-head Temperance men, but were active members of our
Order before entering the ministry and are so still. In trying to
carry out the laws for the restriction of the liquor traffic, we might
also mention that the ministry cannot be accused of putting their
enforcement into the hands of the liquor party, when we re-
member that they intrusted the enforcement to J. W. Manning:.
P.G.W^.P., of the Sons of Temperance, and also for many } eai »
Bro. T. W. Casey, P.O. Secretary of our Order was engaged in the
same duty. Mr. Mowat's government have always shown a
desire to meet the wants and desires of Temperance men in pas-
sing 'legislation favorable to Temperance Reform, and on no occa-
sion, that we are aware of, liave they ever refused to make any
amendements to our laws that were deemed necessary. It there-
fore becomes our duty to do all in our power to strengthen their
hands, and not to be carried away by wordy politicians, who are
full of promises at election timeo. Actions are what we want,
and the following record of the Mowat government speaks for
itseli : —

They passed Acts which, with their amendments,

(1) Removed th» power exercised over Municipal Councils by
the liquor interest that had formerly virtually controlled the
Councils ;

(2) Created Boards of Commissioners and Inspectors free from
local control or interference, with special iustiuctions to enforce
the stringent provisions of the License Act ;

^ ""F

THE MOWAT GOVERNMENT.

(3) Reduced the number of licenses to be issued, and limited
tljkeir issue to a population basis ;

(4) Gave power to Municipal Councils by by-law, or to the
Board of Commissioners by regulation, to still further reduce the
number ;

(5) Gave authority to any ten electors of any polling sub-divi-
sion by petition to object to any licenses being issued within the
sub division and to be heard in its support, and power to Board
to grant the petition ;

((5) Q-ave the majority of electors in polling sub-divisions the
power by petition to prohibit altogether the granting of any
license in any sub-division ;

(7) Prohibited the issue of licenses or the sale of liquors in
agricultural or fair grounds ;

(8) Prohibited the sale of liquors on Saturday nights and Sun-
days ;

(9) Prohibited sales on election days, Parliamentary and mun-
icipal ;

(10) Prohibited sales on ferry boats and vessels in port ;

(11) Improved the accommodation of all taverns and imposed
penalties for drunkenness and disorderly conduct therein ;

(12) Separated the sale of liquors in shops from the sale of
groceries and other goods ;

(13) Prohibited, under penalties, loitering in bar-rooms on
Saturday nights and Sundays ;

(14) Prohibited the organization of clubs with the object or
purpose of selling liquors, and thereby defeating the provisions of
the License Act restricting sales ;

(15) Provided for the punishment of the purchasers of liquors
as well as the sellers on Sundays, or from unlicensed persons ;

(16) Increased the facilities by civil remedy against tavern-
keepers for selling liquors to those who drink to excess ;

(17) Provided for restriction and prohibition of sales to such
persons ;

(18) Provided for the appointment of Commissioners and In-
spectors to enforce the provisions of the Canada Temperance Act
and the Temperance Act of 1864. The Dominion Act makes
special provision for its enforcement by Dominion officers, who,
notwithstanding, refused to enforce the Act.* No other Govern-
ment except Ontario passed lav/s or appointed officers to enforce
the Act in any sense ;

(19) Provided, by statute, for the appointment of Police Magis-
trates for the enforcement of tlie Scott Act, upon request of the
County Councils.

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THE MOW AT/ GOVERNMENT.

Mr. Mowat's government also recommended to the Legislature
a compulsory measure by which these Magistrates could be ap-
pointed, and the Councils be compelled to pay their salaries, either
out of the fines collected or out of general funds.

The power of the Provincial Legislature to control the liquor
traffic was saved by the determined action of Mr. Mowat in con-
testing two great constitutional questions as to : —

(1) The power of the Local Legislatures to appoint Commis-
sioners, and their power to pass restrictive regulations respecting
licensed taverns. (Queen v. Hodge.)

(2) The authority of the Dominion government and Legislature
to override Provincial law and to interfere in the local queption
of granting licenses.

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