Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

2 HISTORY OF THE BANKbrought about by the equal representation of the two; andof the ensuing controversies were born not merely the racialjealousies which time has not yet wholly allayed, but Confederationitself. As the late Goldwin Smith 1 truly said: "Deadlockwas the father of Confederation."By 1850, Upper Canada or Canada West, which we nowcall Ontario, 2 was beginning to reap the fruits of the laboursof the pioneers who established British institutions in theregion bordering on the Great Lakes. First had come theUnited Empire Loyalists, resolute, ambitious and far-seeing,refusing to bend their necks to oppression that was notthe less onerous because it was exercised in the name ofdemocracy. The quality of the settlers who came fromGreat Britain and Ireland in the half century that followedthe advent of the Loyalists could hardly have been bettered.Many of them had capital, a considerable number were wellversed in agriculture, all of them were filled with the emigrant'szeal for change and improvement. Settling at first along thewaterfronts, they eagerly pressed on to the rich arable landsof the interior, so that by 1850 Upper Canada was dottedwith towns and villages that were intensely alive, real centresof production and wealth, and filledwith hope and promise.'Goldwin Smith (1823-1910). was bora at Reading, England. He was ReginaProfessor of Modem History at Oxford from 1858 to 1866, and Professor of English andContinental History at Cornell from 1868 to 1871. From the latter date until his deathbe was a resident of Toronto, where he edited the Bystander, and wrote extensivelyupon the historical and current aspects of the relationship of Canada to Great Britainand to the United States. He believed that the geographical position and commercialbltBTBiU of Canada would eventually cause her to break away from the British Empiread to form with the United States one great Anglo-Saxon nation.Prior to 1791 the territory which has since become the provinces of Ontario andQotbec was known as the province of Quebec. By Imperial order-in-council datedAugust 4, 1791. Quebec was divided into two provinces to be known as Upper andLower Canada (corresponding with the present provinces of Ontario and Quebec)and this order-in-council took effect by proclamation on December 26, 1791. WilliamHouston. M.A.. Document* Illustrative of the Canadian Constitution, 1891, p. 146,The rWfnatinni Canada West and Canada East seem never to have had anylegal sanction, but came into common use after the Act of Union of 1841. Finally.when Confederation took place in 1867. the British North America Act conferred theOntario and Quebec.