Brown, George, 1818-1880; Canada -- Politics and government -- 1841-1867
In June, 1854, the Hincks-Morin government was defeated in the
legislature on a vote of censure for delay in dealing with the
question of the clergy reserves. A combination of Tories and Radicals
deprived Hincks of all but five of his Upper Canadian supporters.
Parliament was immediately dissolved, and the ensuing election was a
_melee_ in which Hincks Reformers, Brown Reformers, Tories and Clear
Grits were mingled in confusion. Brown was returned for Lambton, where
he defeated the Hon. Malcolm Cameron, postmaster-general under Hincks.
The Reform party was in a large majority in the new legislature, and
if united could have controlled it with ease. But the internal quarrel
was irreconcilable. Hincks was defeated by a combination of Tories and
dissatisfied Reformers, and a general reconstruction of parties
followed. Sir Allan MacNab, as leader of the Conservative opposition,
formed an alliance with the French-Canadian members of the Hincks
government and with some of its Upper Canadian supporters. Hincks
retired, but gave his support to the new combination, "being of
opinion that the combination of parties by which the new government
was supported presented the only solution of the difficulties caused
by a coalition of parties holding no sentiments in common, a coalition
which rarely takes place in England. I deemed it my duty to give my
support to that government during the short period that I continued in
public life."[9]
Whether the MacNab-Morin government was a true coalition or a Tory
combination under that name was a question fiercely debated at that
time. It certainly did not stand for the Toryism that had resisted
responsible government, the secularization of the clergy reserves, and
the participation of French-Canadians in the government of the
country. It had at first some of the elements of a coalition, but it
gradually came to represent Conservatism and the personal ascendency
of John A. Macdonald. Robert Baldwin, from his retirement, gave his
approval to the combination, and hence arose the "Baldwin Reformer,"
blessed as a convert by one party, and cursed as a renegade by the
other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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