For a long time--from
1840 to 1887--Canada made the experiment of governing these two
provinces under one Parliament and from one centre. That experiment
never succeeded. As long as they were under one government, the
minority in each of these provinces insisted on appealing for help to
the majority in the other. There arose the evil of "Ascendancy "--the
government of a majority by a minority. At last the Canadians faced the
problem. In 1867 they divided the provinces, and gave them each a Home
Rule government of their own, subject to the Dominion Parliament. Since
then there has been no more trouble about Ascendancy. Quebec and
Ontario now settle their own affairs, including Education and all other
local matters, and no one ever hears anything about the ill-treatment
of minorities.
So much, then, for the permanent factors--Sea, Race, and Religion.
There is no insuperable obstacle there. Rather it is here--in these
great dominating facts--that the strongest argument for Home Rule must
ever be found. For it is those things that constitute nationality.
The real difficulties in the way of Home Rule were found, both in 1886
and 1893, not in these permanent things, but in the changing facets of
human laws.
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