n there had
not been a party vote on representation by population for one or two
sessions." He declared that Macdonald had, in Brown's committee of
1864, voted against confederation, and that he and his colleagues
adopted the scheme simply to enable them to remain in office. Dorion
also criticized adversely the change in the constitution of the Upper
Chamber, from the elective to the nominative system. The Conservative
instincts of Macdonald and Cartier, he said, led them to strengthen
the power of the Crown at the expense of the people, and this
constitution was a specimen of their handiwork. "With a
governor-general appointed by the Crown; with local governors also
appointed by the Crown; with legislative councils in the general
legislature, and in all the provinces, nominated by the Crown, we
shall have the most illiberal constitution ever heard of in any
government where constitutional government prevails."

He objected to the power vested in the governor-general-in-council to
veto the acts of local legislatures. His expectation was that a
minority in the local legislature might appeal to their party friends
at Ottawa to veto laws which they disliked, and that thus there would
be constant interference, agitation and strife between the central and
the local authorities. He suspected that the intention was ultimately
to change the federal union to a legislative union. The scheme of
confederation was being carried without submission to the people. What
would prevent the change from a federal to a legislative union from
being accomplished in a similar way? To this the people of Lower
Canada would not submit. "A million of inhabitants may seem a small
affair to the mind of a philosopher who sits down to write out a
constitution. He may think it would be better that there should be but
one religion, one language and one system of laws; and he goes to work
to frame institutions that will bring all to that desirable state; but
I can tell the honourable gentleman that the history of every country
goes to show that not even by the power of the sword can such changes
be accomplished."

With some exaggeration Mr. Dorion struck at real faults in the scheme
of confederation. The contention that the plan ought to have been
submitted to the people is difficult to meet except upon the plea of
necessity, or the plea that the end justifies the means. There was
assuredly no warrant for depriving the people of the power of electing
t