January 3, 1868

CAUCHON IN THE NEWS AGAIN

Hon. Joseph Cauchon, the Speaker of the Senate, the recently defeated Mayor of Québec City, the MPP for Montmorency, and the never-sworn-in premier of Québec and member of parliament for Montmorency, is once again in the news following his recent speech in the Legislative Assembly of Québec in which he described his failure to form a ministry in that province.

Mr. Cauchon laid the blame for the collapse of his nascent premiership at the feet of Hon. Christopher Dunkin (Treasurer) and the previously reported disagreement between the two gentlemen on the schools question Protestant schools questions. Mr. Cauchon told the House the two men also clashed over what, if any, safe guards would be provided for the preservation of the rights of the British minority in the province. Finally, he said, misunderstandings between the two men made it impossible that they should work work together in any way, resulting in Mr. Cauchon’s being forced to abandon the premiership.

Mr. Dunkin disputed Mr. Cauchon’s version of events and the exchange took on a bitter tone, according to the Montreal Herald, that “elicited much suppressed laughter in the House.”

Not wanting to let the embarrassing exchange end prematurely, Henry-Gustave Joly (Liberal, Lotbinière), asked whether or not the disagreement between Mr. Cauchon and Mr. Dunkin stemmed from the fact that Mr. Cauchon intended to refuse his salary and therefore creating the expectation that his cabinet ministers would do the same.

Mr. Cauchon said his decision to refuse a salary was for private reasons only and was neither a public question nor a question of principle. The discussion came to its end with Mr. Cauchon saying he would leave it to lie for now but warning that he may have more to say at a later date.

OTTAWA GENERAL HOSPITAL IN DIRE STRAITS

Just a few months after the closure of the Toronto General Hospital, the Ottawa Citizen reports that the Ottawa General Hospital is in danger of closing its doors owing to a lack of funds.

An investigation by the paper found that more than half of the patients at the hospital this past year have come from the beyond the city limits, including the counties of Pontiac, Renfrew, Russell, Ottawa, Carleton, Prescott, Lanark, Leeds, Grenville, Dundas, and even some from Québec. Despite this, the paper says, only the County of Carleton has contributed any funds to the hospital’s accounts. The Citizen is calling on Ottawa’s neighbours “to prove not only that they love mercy, but that they are willing to do justice” and to canvass their citizens for subscriptions to support the hospital.

The loss of the hospital be to the great discredit to the Dominion capital.

REMEMBERING THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA

Amidst the many parliamentary firsts occasioned in Canada over the last two months, the Quebec Gazette calls our attention back to the very first Parliament of Lower Canada that met in the Castle of St. Louis on December 19, 1792, under a proclamation from Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester.

That first parliament, consisted of 15 members of the Legislative Council and 50 members of the Legislative Assembly, and the Hon. William Smith was chosen as speaker of the latter House.

That first Parliament sat from December through May 1793 and passed just eight pieces of legislation. The Gazette writes:

The old dryasdust members must have presented a curious spectacle. Knee breeches, full bottomed coats and…wigs, were then the height of fashion, but we question if all the members were endured with them. A good old-fashioned tuque radiant with blue or scarlet, surely must have peeped up here and there…and more than one sound, honest, homespun coat of that familiar blue or gray which still forms such a striking feature in the costume of the French Canadian habitant.

No matter what they wore, the Gazette says, “the solemn old fogies could never have displayed the energy, nor acquiesced in the despatch, which recently led the present Parliament to accomplish the virtual purchase of about one-eighth of the visible surface of the globe in less than a week.”