to sustain a cabinet drawn entirely from the opposition or to allow the old gang back. At the least, he expected such disclosures now from the investigation of the public accounts as would ruin the prestige of the former lot forever. Furthermore, he held that “no govt. to carry R. by P. could just now be formed”.144 Rep by pop would not die, he said; he and other Grits had explicitly informed the new ministers that they would press it unyieldingly. All in all, this was the only possible choice in a choice of evils: to accept a régime of the moderates for the present.
Correspondents other than Mowat argued more positively in favour of the Macdonald-Sicotte ministry. From the Upper House, Fergusson Blair (who had changed his name from simpler days when he was A. J. Fergusson, and George Brown’s first follower in parliament) expressed his confidence that on everything but the representation question the government would prove excellent – “and the reign of corruption be brought to a close”.145 But probably Brown paid more attention to his old Lambton agent, Alexander Mackenzie, who, while still “a full private of recent standing” in parliament, had zealously identified himself as “an out-and-outer”.146 Mackenzie would accept the new Reform cabinet, bad as it was, because he believed that Sandfield Macdonald’s original aim had been to bring Conservatives into a coalition with him. “I am tolerably well satisfied,” he asserted, “that the only part of the plan which failed was the introduction of the intended Tory constituent.”147 Hence it was necessary to stand by the present set in office, and watch Sandfield like a hawk.
With this Brown had to rest for the moment. He did not question the integrity of those who approved the new ministry, though he continued to doubt their judgment. The Globe still condemned the abandoning of rep by pop, refusing to believe that better arrangements could not have been made if Upper Canadians had held to their principles.148 Particularly it attacked “the monstrous doctrine” of the double majority set forth in the new cabinet’s official statement of policy.149 This viewed the union as a sort of bastard federation, wherein the particular affairs of each section would be managed in parliament by its own sectional majority, and no local legislation would be forced on either Canada against the majority vote of its own representatives. Perhaps the end was right; but the method was wrong. It offered the worst of two worlds: neither a true federation nor yet a real legislative union. Apart from that, the principle was clumsy and impractical, for it could well require a government to base itself on two antagonistic sectional majorities: Grits and Bleus, for instance – a position of paralysis, to say the least.
In any event, Brown had not yet made peace with his four Upper Canada associates who had jumped so readily into office alongside Sandfield Macdonald. On May 29, Foley and Wilson came to see him in Toronto and spent five hours explaining, until nearly one in the morning.150 They must have looked and felt like schoolboys caught cheating, as they sat in the great man’s study, a mixture of apology, penitence, and badgered defiance, enduring the lashing scorn of his tongue and the piercing thrust of his indignant questions. Yet they had to endure it, if for no other reason than that they faced by-elections as new members of the government and could hardly hope to be returned by western Reformers without the backing, or at least the tacit acceptance, of George Brown and the Globe.
As soon as they had gone, Brown poured out his feelings to one friend who had not been at all involved in the doings at Quebec: to Luther Holton, like himself still out of parliament although often urged to return. “The conclusion I have come to from all that they have told me,” he wrote disgustedly, “is that a greater set of jackasses … was never got by accident into the government of any country.”151 They had told him that the cabinet’s own so-called constitutional policy would be placed in formal resolutions before the next session of parliament, and (“Would you believe it?”) vowed that “they themselves will do their utmost to have representation by population made part of the scheme, and if necessary will resign or take any other course the party will desire! ”152
He would have given anything to have Holton there with him: “It is so hard to tell how to act. There is no doubt that if I go into it and stump the four counties three of them at any rate can be beaten! But it will split the party, and bring on once more a most disagreeable personal warfare, which I wish to avoid of all things. I am keenly desirous of sticking to my business for a couple of years, and especially of getting off to England for a few months. To go into such a fight would knock everything on the head. But then – if we don’t kill them, won’t their conduct kill us as a party? ”153
He remained in his unsettled state a day or two longer, while Holton wrote to say that he could not manage to come up, and McDougall arrived in Toronto to make his explanations in turn.154 McDougall (who “felt his oats”, Brown thought) admitted that he looked on the present ministry as a makeshift, and was willing like the others to agree that when resolutions on the constitution did come before the next session they would follow the course the party then might ask of them, even at the risk of losing office.155 But while Foley and Wilson were ready to put such a declaration in their election addresses, McDougall, far more sure of himself and less awed by Brown, positively refused to have it included in his own or any other.156
Thus Brown was still left to his decision – and, as he told Holton, with only his brother Gordon to consult.157 The two of them deliberated long hours at the Globe office on what was best to do: “Start candidates against all four and run out as many of them as possible, or permit them to go in unopposed, and hold them up to the mark under the stimulus of bit and spur?”158 Finally, they determined on the latter course. “We shall quickly fall into the attitude of independent but hearty support on all but the one question,” Brown asserted. “I will ask no favours from them for myself or others, and will stand ready heartily to aid them to the best of my ability, with the one reservation that on the constitutional question they are to be coerced on every occasion.”159 By early June the Globe was again fixed on course, as it declared succinctly of the Macdonald-Sicotte cabinet: “They will earn no popularity by their constitutional doctrines; they must rest for success on their administrative virtues.”160
Two things especially had decided Brown: the first, that to oppose the ministers would split the party, not merely in a few constituencies, but all over the province, which was assuredly a grave responsibility to face.161 As for the second, even if he did divide the party, it would be to little purpose unless he himself ran to provide new leadership – and this he was determined not to do.162 He still intended to stay out of parliament until his health was fully restored. He meant to take the trip to Britain that he had been planning for months past, and for which he had booked passage in the Montreal Steamship Company’s Anglo-Saxon, sailing from Quebec on July 12.163
He was free for his first return in twenty-five years. His business interests had recovered; the Globe’s circulation, at over 31,000, was three times larger than that of any other paper in Canada.164 He had successfully launched an evening edition in the winter, and Bothwell was on the rising curve of a land boom.165 No, politics would positively not be allowed to interfere with his personal plans. Let the Macdonald-Sicotte venture have its day. There would be occasion enough to deal with it on his return.
Accordingly, the next few weeks were chiefly spent preparing for departure: a week at Both well, final arrangements at the Church Street house and at the Globe office, where Gordon would keep things running for the coming four or five months. His parents would stay behind in Toronto, where his sister Isabella, Gordon, and their families would look after them. They were too old and infirm now to face the strain of an Atlantic crossing, which could still be thoroughly arduous, even in the new age of steam. Early in July, he said his good-byes and set out alone for Quebec. Yet, even as he left, politics pursued him. There was an odd little incident in Kingston on July 11, as he was en route from Toronto to take ship.
There he was approached by a certain David Shaw, who desired some conversation with him on the subject of constitutional reform. Shaw purported to be an emissary from – John A. Macdonald! At any rate, he gave Brown the surprising information that the defeated Conservative leader was now prepared to advocate representation by population, and to co-operate