Constitutional Statesmanship: Lord Durham and the Creation of a New Colonial Paradigm, 1839–1841

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Constitutional Statesmanship: Lord Durham and the Creation of a New Colonial Paradigm, 1839–1841
Abstract
The author notes that no one is fully prescient, Lord Durham included. Sent to British North America in 1838 as Governor General to determine the cause of the Rebellions of 1838, Durham's 1839 Report to the Imperian Government did not anticipate the degree to which the French Canadians would be unwilling to submerge themselves into a British whole and the role which religion would play in maintaining the distinctive society in Quebec. But the author also points out that Durham did not anticipate the willingness and ability of the French and English communities to work together, notwithstanding that the underlying racial resentment between the two communities remained largely intact. Despite eruptions, occasionally violent, fuelled by that resentment, the growth of the country which Lord Durham envisioned has taken place and the outcome has been beyond what he could have imagined. The full assimilation which Lord Durham anticipated has not occurred, although French Canada gradually moved in the direction of urbanization and adoption of commerce at the expense of the traditional farming orientation. The author points out that the diminution of the Catholic Church's influence and the increasing adoption of English as the lingua franca of the world may yet have an impact which cannot be fully estimated. However, the author argues that the existence of Quebec within Canada has provided much greater ability and political leverage to maintain the French language than would ever have been possible were Quebec to have existed separately, completely surrounded by the predominantly English-speaking United States and English Canada.
Publication
London Journal of Canadian Studies
Volume
Vol. 35
Issue
no. 1
Pages
119-137
Date
2020
Language
en
Citation
Pound, Richard W. “Constitutional Statesmanship: Lord Durham and the Creation of a New Colonial Paradigm, 1839–1841.” London Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 35, no. 1 (2020): 119–137.
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