29), revealing the ethical basis on
which his philosophy rested, he declared that even if the political
freedom of the Colony were to lead in the distant future to her
separation from the Empire, she nevertheless had an indefeasible moral
right to the blessings of freedom; but he prophesied correctly that the
connection with the Empire "would only become more durable and
advantageous by having more of equality, of freedom, and of local
administration."

If only Irish and British Unionists would realize that these words came
from a profound knowledge of human nature in the mass, and are
applicable to Irishmen in Ireland just as much as to Irish, British,
French, and Dutch in the Colonies!

The tenacity of the old superstition is extraordinary, and we can see it
in the case of Canada. It remains a wonder to this day how responsible
government was ever introduced. There can be no question that the Act of
1840 only secured a smooth passage because, in providing for the Union
of the French and British Provinces, it represented a superficial
analogy to that Union of Britain and Ireland which had paralyzed Irish
aspirations. Durham himself had actually quoted both the Irish and
Scotch Unions as successful expedients for "compelling the obedience of
a refractory population," and thus arrived at the outstanding and
solitary defect of his otherwise noble scheme. And O'Connell, in a
debate upon the Report on June 3, 1839, opposed the Canadian Union for
Irish reasons, and in language which after-experience proved to be
perfectly correct. Happily, as we have seen, the defect was small and
curable, because the analogy with Ireland, where there was no
responsible, but, on the contrary, a separate and wholly irresponsible
Executive Government, and whose interests were upheld by only 100
Members in a House of 670, was exceedingly remote. On responsible
government itself the Canadian Act of 1840 was entirely silent. We may
thank Providence for the fact. Durham's cardinal proposals had received
unbridled vituperation as sentimental rubbish where they were not
treasonable poison, the whole controversy taking precisely the same form
as in 1886 and 1893 over Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bills for Ireland.
The _Quarterly Review_ spoke of "this rank and infectious Report,"
though it is fair to say that Peel and Wellington did not join in such
wild language. Five months after the issue of Lord Durham's Report, Lord
John Russell, in the debate of