Durham Report

The Report on the Affairs of British North America,[1] (1839) commonly known as the Durham Report or Lord Durham's Report, is an important document in the history of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the British Empire.

The notable British Whig politician John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, was sent to the Canadas in 1838 to investigate and report on the causes of the rebellions of 1837–38. Durham arrived in Quebec City on 29 May.[2] He had just been appointed Governor General and given special powers as high commissioner of British North America.

On the first page of his report he stated that "While the present state of things is allowed to last, the actual inhabitants of these Provinces have no security for person or property—no enjoyment of what they possess—no stimulus to industry."[1] He would return to that theme repeatedly throughout his report.

The Report was highly controversial. In Upper Canada it was rejected by the dominant Tory elite, while out-of-power reformers welcomed the ideal of responsible government. In Lower Canada, anglophone Tories were supportive because it would enable them to remain in power and promote economic growth. French Canadians were opposed to a union that threatened their nationality. The "Report" led to major reforms and democratic advances. The two Canadas were merged into a single colony, the Province of Canada, in 1841. (See also: Act of Union.) It moved Canada slowly on the path to "responsible government" (that is, self-government), which took a decade. In the long run, it advanced democracy and played a central role in the evolution of Canada’s political independence from Britain. [3]

Inquiry

In Upper and Lower Canada, he formed numerous committees consisting of essentially all the opponents of the Patriotes and made many personal observations of life in the colonies. Durham knew how to organize support in upper Canada. His team drew upon a long tradition of petitioning, plus the example of political activism in Britain. there was extensive Advance publicity, public processions to attract audiences for meetings. The goal was to convince London there was widespread popular support in Canada for the report proposals. they represented the meetings as non-partisan, respectable, loyal, and orderly and deserving of Parliamentary support. Durham also visited the United States. Durham wrote that he had assumed he would find that the rebellions were based on liberalism and economics, but he eventually concluded that the real problem was the conflict between the traditionalistic French and the modernizing English elements. According to Durham, the French culture in Canada had changed little in 200 years and showed no sign of the progress British culture had made. His report contains the famous assessment that Lower Canada consisted of "two nations warring within the bosom of a single state".[4]

The Report

Durham had previously been the Governor-General in Lower Canada in 1837, but soon afterward submitted his resignation due to conflict with British Parliament. These conflicts were vastly due to Lord Durham's progressive nature, believing the British Parliament should give the colonies more power in their government, namely, a responsible government. Lord Durham was sent back to Canada in 1838 by British Parliament and the Crown to investigate the cause behind the rebellions of both Upper and Lower Canada and propose suggestions to fix any remaining problems and lessen the chance of future rebellions.

Lord Durham found that although the rebellions of Upper and Lower Canada were over, peace and unity were yet to be found in Canada. The people living in both colonies in Canada were struggling as the economic situation in both areas all but collapsed. Poor farming conditions that year led to reduced harvests and increased poverty for farmers. As well as increased political tension and bitterness between parties and races of people, in particular in lower Canada. Upper and Lower Canada were in a state of distress.

Lord Durham's report entitled, "Report on the Affairs of British North America." The report at the time was considered controversial as it suggested radical ideas for the time, such as the British Parliament granting Upper and Lower Canada a responsible government.

The two most well-known suggestions from Lord Durham's report were the fusion of Upper and Lower Canada, to become a single, unified colony, entitled The Province of Canada, ruled under a single legislature. The second was to introduce a responsible government into place. A government Durham already believed to be inevitable due to the progressive nature of the colony's neighbour, The United States of America. He believed as these ideas were already available to the people and understood, nothing less would be accepted or tolerated, and so must be embraced to satisfy the people and maintain the peace. We see this in a quote from his report, "... establishing a representative government in the North American Colonies. That has been irrevocably done and the experiment of depriving the people of their present constitutional power is not to be thought of."[5]

Durham also recommended the creation of a municipal government and a supreme court in British North America. He was interested in not only unifying Upper and Lower Canada but including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well. He also wanted to resolve the issue of land over Prince Edward Island. However, these suggestions never came to fruition as the maritime provinces were uninterested in the proposition at the time.[6] These suggestions would not be put into place until decades later, due to the Confederation of Canada.

Important Passages

"The French complained of the arrogance and injustice of the English; the English accused the French of the vices of a weak and conquered people, and charged them with meanness and perfidy. The entire mistrust which the two races have thus learned to conceive of each other's intentions induces them to put the worst construction on the most innocent conduct; to judge every word, every act, and every intention unfairly; to attribute the most odious designs, and reject every overture of kindness or fairness, as covering secret designs of treachery and malignity."[7]

"At first sight is appears must more difficult to form an accurate idea of the state of Upper than of Lower Canada. The visible and broad line of demarcation which separates the parties by the distinctive character of the race, happily has no existence in the Upper Province. The quarrel is one of entirely English, if not the British population. Like all such quarrels, it has, in fact, created, not two but several parties; each of which has some objects in common with someone of those to which it is opposed. They differ on one point and agree on another; the sections, which unite together one day, are strongly opposed the next; and the very party, which acts as one, against a common opponent, is in truth composed of divisions seeking utterly different or incompatible objects. It is very difficult to make out from the avowals o the parties the real objects of their struggles, and still less easy is it to discover any cause of such importance as would account for its uniting any large mass of the people in an attempt to other throw, by forcible means, the existing form of Government."[8]

"We are not now to consider the policy of establishing a representative government in the North American Colonies. That has been irrevocably done; and the experiment of depriving the people of their present constitutional power is not to be thought of. To conduct their Government harmoniously, in accordance with its established principles, is now the business of its rulers; and I know not how it is possible to secure that harmony in any other way, then by administering the Government on those principles which have been found perfectly efficacious in Great Britain. I would not impair a single prerogative of the Crown; on the contrary, I believe that the interests of the people of these Colonies require the protection of the prerogatives, which have not hitherto been exercised But the Crown must, on the other hand, submit to the necessary consequences of representative institutions and if it has to carry on the Government in unison with a representative body, it must consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that representative body has confidence."[5]

"A plan by which it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada must include in itself the means of putting an end to the agitation of national disputes in the legislature, by settling, at once and forever, the national character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the national character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the national character which must be given to Lower Canada; it must be that of the British Empire; that of the majority of the population of British America; that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no long period of time, be predominant over the whole North American Continent. Without affecting the change so rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and trample on the welfare of the existing generation, it must henceforth be the first and steady purpose of the British Government to establish an English population, with English laws and language, in this Province, and to trust its government to none but a decidedly English legislature."[9]

Recommendations

Durham made two main recommendations:

That Upper and Lower Canada be united into one province, and
The introduction of responsible government for all colonies in British North America

The British Parliament implemented the first point immediately but not the second. Responsible government was granted to these colonies after 1848.[10]

Implementation of recommendations

The proposed merger benefit Upper Canada as the construction of canals led to a considerable debt load; while access to the former Lower Canada fiscal surplus would allow that debt to be erased.

The newly created Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was required to have equal representation from Canada East and Canada West,[11] even though the population of Canada East was considerably larger. In 1840, the population of Canada East was estimated at 670,000, while the population of Canada West was estimated to be 480,000.[12] Lord Durham had not recommended this approach and had instead proposed that the representation should be based on the respective populations of the two regions.[13] The British government rejected that recommendation and instead implemented equal representation, apparently to give the English-speaking population of the new province a dominant voice in the provincial government, furthering the goal of assimilating the French-speaking population.

Reactions

In exile in France, Louis-Joseph Papineau published the Histoire de la résistance du Canada au gouvernement anglais (History of the resistance of Canada to the English government) in the French La Revue du Progrès in May 1839. In June, it appeared in Canada in Ludger Duvernay's La Revue canadienne as Histoire de l'insurrection du Canada en réfutation du Rapport de Lord Durham (History of the insurrection of Canada in refutation of the Report of Lord Durham). Lord Durham believed to eliminate the possibility of rebellions, they must overwhelm the French Canadians with British culture.

The assertion that the so-called "French" Canadians had no history and no culture and that the conflict was primarily that of two ethnic groups evidently outraged Papineau. It was pointed out that many of the Patriote leaders were of British or British Canadian origin, including among others Wolfred Nelson, the hero of the Battle of Saint-Denis; Robert Nelson, author of the Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada, who would have become President of Lower Canada had the second insurrection succeeded; journalist Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan; and Thomas Storrow Brown, general during the Battle of St-Charles. It was also pointed out that an uprising had occurred in Upper Canada where there was only one "race". According to Papineau and other Patriotes, the analysis of the economic situation of French Canadians was biased. Indeed, from 1791 to the rebellions, the elected representatives of Lower Canada had been demanding control over the budget of the colony.

Impact outside Canada

The general conclusions of the report regarding self-governance eventually spread to various other white settler colonies, including Australia and New Zealand in the 1850s (with Western Australia receiving self-government in 1890). The parallel nature of government organization in Australia and Canada to this day is an ongoing proof of the long-enduring effects of the report's recommendations.

The report did not see any of its recommendations come into force in the African and Asian colonies, but some limited democratic reforms in India became possible that otherwise would not have been.

Conclusion

Durham resigned on 9 October 1838 amid controversy excited in London by his decision of the penal questions[14] and was soon replaced by Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, who was responsible for implementing the Union of the Canadas. The report of Durham was laid before Parliament in London on 11 February 1839.[14]

Notes

Durham, 1839: "Report on the Affairs of British North America", bound with several appendices that do not appear on this particular link
Canadian Encyclopedia article on Durham
David Mills, Richard Foot, and Andrew McIntosh, "Durham Report" The Canadian Encyclopedia (2019)
Carol Wilton, "‘A Firebrand amongst the People’: The Durham Meetings and Popular Politics in Upper Canada." Canadian Historical Review 75.3 (1994): 346-375.
Craig, Gerald M., ed. (1963). Lord Durham's Report. Toronto: The Canadian Publishers. p. 139.
"Durham Report | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
Craig, Gerald M., ed. (1963). Lord Durham's Report. Toronto: The Canadian Publishers. p. 33.
Craig, Gerald M., ed. (1963). Lord Durham's Report. Toronto: The Canadian Publishers. pp. 77–78.
Craig, Gerald M., ed. (1963). Lord Durham's Report. Toronto: The Canadian Publishers. p. 146.
David Mills. "Durham Report". Historica Foundation of Canada. Archived from the original on 30 March 2006. Retrieved 18 May 2006.
Union Act, 1840, s. 12.
"Province of Canada (1841-67)", Canadian Encyclopedia.
Lord Durham's Report, pp. 323-324.
Lambton, John George, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto, Université Laval, 2000