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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government, by 
+J. L. Morison
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government
+       1839-1854
+
+Author: J. L. Morison
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2010 [EBook #31363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIT. SUPREMACY & CANAD. SELF-GOVT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: Lord Elgin]
+
+
+
+
+
+British Supremacy
+
+&
+
+Canadian Self-Government
+
+1839-1854
+
+
+
+By
+
+J. L. Morison, M.A., D.Litt.
+
+
+Professor of Colonial History in Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
+
+Late Lecturer on English Literature in the University of Glasgow
+
+
+
+
+Toronto
+
+S. B. Gundy
+
+_Publisher in Canada for Humphrey Milford_
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+  GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+    BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+M. T.
+
+
+
+
+{vi}
+
+PREFACE
+
+The essay which follows had been printed, and was on the point of being
+published, when the outbreak of war involved my venture in the general
+devastation from which we are only now emerging.  More than four years
+of military service lie between me and the studies of which this book
+is the summary.  It was written under one dispensation; it is being
+published under another.  My first impulse, therefore, was to ask
+whether the change which has rendered so much of the old world obsolete
+had not invalidated also the conclusions here arrived at.  But
+reflection has simply confirmed me in the desire to complete the
+arrangements for publication.  Self-government is the keynote of the
+essay, and it is unlikely that self-government will cease to be the
+central principle of sane politics either in the British Empire or in
+the world outside.  I watched a Canadian division coming out of the
+last great battle in France, battered and reduced in numbers, but with
+all {viii} its splendid energy and confidence untouched.  The presence
+of the Canadians there, their incomparable spirit and resolution, the
+sacrifices they had just been making, with unflinching generosity, for
+the Empire, seemed only the last consequences of the political struggle
+for autonomy described in the pages which follow.  They would have been
+impossible had the views of all the old imperialists from Wellington to
+Disraeli prevailed.
+
+The material on which this volume is based falls into three groups.
+First in importance are the state papers and general correspondence of
+the period, contained in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa.  In addition
+to the correspondence, ordinary and confidential, between the
+Secretaries of State for the Colonies, and the Governors-General, from
+1839 to 1867, I read two very notable collections, designated in the
+foot-notes the Bagot Correspondence and the Elgin-Grey Correspondence.
+In the former are contained not only Bagot's private correspondence
+with Lord Stanley, but also letters from Bagot's British friends and
+Canadian political advisers.  These constitute the most important
+evidence which exists for Bagot's year of office.  In the same way, the
+private correspondence, carried on between Earl Grey and the Earl of
+Elgin from {ix} 1847 to 1852, takes precedence of all other Canadian
+material of that period; and is, indeed, the most enlightening series
+of documents in existence on mid-Victorian Colonial policy.
+
+The second group is composed of pamphlets and early newspapers, more
+especially the admirable collection of pre-confederation pamphlets in
+the Archives at Ottawa, and the Bell and Morris collections at Queen's
+University.  Kingston.  I cannot pretend to have mastered all the
+material supplied by the newspapers of the period; but I have attempted
+to work through such representative journals as the _Toronto Globe_,
+the _Montreal Witness_, and the Kingston papers published while
+Kingston was capital of the united Provinces.  I consulted certain
+others, French and English, on definite points of political interest,
+such as the reappearance of Papineau in politics in 1847.
+
+The _Canadiana_ of Queen's University Library gave me my third group of
+documents: and the facts from books were confirmed or modified by
+information gathered, chiefly in Kingston, from persons whose memories
+of the period under discussion were still fresh and interesting.
+
+As the work proceeded, certain impressions were {x} very definitely
+created in my mind.  It seemed clear, in the first place, that no
+statesman, whose experience was limited by unbroken residence in
+Europe, quite understood the elements which, between 1839 and 1867,
+constituted the Home Rule problem in Canada.  More especially on
+fundamental points concerning Canadian opinion, and the general temper
+of the populace, even the best men in England seemed singularly
+ignorant.  A second impression was that, while the colony remained
+throughout essentially loyal, and while the political leaders in Canada
+displayed really great qualities of statesmanship at critical moments,
+the general development of Canadian political life was seriously
+delayed by the crudities and rudeness of provincial politicians.
+British ignorance was not the only obstacle in the way.
+
+The last impression was that the relations between Britain and Canada
+depended then, as now, not on constitutional forms, or commercial
+bargains, or armed protection, but on racial solidarity, and community
+in social and moral ideals.  It was this solidarity, far more than
+conscious statesmanship, which held Canada and Britain together.  These
+impressions I have tried to analyse and elucidate in the chapters which
+follow.
+
+{xi}
+
+I have to thank the Dominion Archivist, Dr. A. G. Doughty, for many
+kindnesses, and more especially for permitting me to read the
+Elgin-Grey Correspondence.  To my friends, Mr. K. K. M. Leys, of
+University College, Oxford, Dr. Adam Shortt, Ottawa, and Professor W.
+D. Taylor, of Queen's University, Kingston, I am indebted for advice
+and information.  Mr. James MacLehose and Dr. George Neilson made the
+final stages of printing easy by their generous assistance.  The
+opinions which I express are my own, occasionally in spite of my
+friends' remonstrances.
+
+J. L. MORISON.
+
+INNELLAN, ARGYLLSHIRE,
+  _May_, 1919.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
+
+    I. INTRODUCTORY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1
+   II. THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    8
+  III. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM  . . . . . . . . . .   70
+   IV. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT  . . . . . . . .  126
+    V. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE  . . . . . . . . . .  158
+   VI. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN . . . . . . . . . . . .  187
+  VII. BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY . . . . . . . . . .  230
+ VIII. THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY . . . . . . . . . .  293
+       INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  347
+
+
+
+
+{1}
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+There are antinomies in politics as in philosophy, problems where the
+difficulty lies in reconciling facts indubitably true but mutually
+contradictory.  For growth in the political world is not always
+gradual; accidents, discoveries, sudden developments, call into
+existence new creations, which only the generous logic of events and
+the process of time can reconcile with pre-existing facts and systems.
+It is the object of this essay to examine one of these political
+antinomies--the contradiction between imperial ascendancy and colonial
+autonomy--as it was illustrated by events in early Victorian Canada.
+
+The problem was no new one in 1839.  Indeed it was coeval with the
+existence of the empire, and sprang from the very nature of colonial
+government.  Beneath the actual facts of the great {2} American
+revolution--reaching far beyond quarrels over stamp duties, or the
+differentiation between internal and external taxation, or even the
+rights of man--was the fundamental difficulty of empire, the need to
+reconcile colonial independence with imperial unity.  It was the
+perception of this difficulty which made Burke so much the greatest
+political thinker of his time.  As he wrote in the most illuminating of
+his letters, "I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the
+difficulty of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful
+towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely
+diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the provinces,
+which they must enjoy (in opinion and practice, at least), or they will
+not be provinces at all.  I know, and have long felt, the difficulty of
+reconciling the unwieldy haughtiness of a great ruling nation,
+habituated to command, pampered by enormous wealth, and confident from
+a long course of prosperity and victory, to the high spirit of free
+dependencies, animated with the first glow and activity of juvenile
+heat, and assuming to themselves as their birthright, some part of that
+very pride which oppresses them."[1]
+
+{3}
+
+Dissatisfied as he ever was with merely passive or negative views,
+Burke was led to attempt a solution of the problem.  He had never been
+under any illusion as to the possibility of limiting colonial
+constitutional pretensions.  A free government was what the colonists
+thought free, and only they could fix the limit to their claims.  But
+many considerations made him refuse to despair of the empire.  His
+intensely human view of politics led him to put more trust in the bonds
+of kindred and affection than in constitutional forms.  He hated the
+petty quibbles of political legists and pedants--their dilemmas, and
+metaphysical distinctions, and catastrophes.  In his opinion the bulk
+of mankind was not excessively curious concerning any theories whilst
+they were really happy.  But perhaps his political optimism depended
+most on his belief that institutions, as living things, were
+indefinitely adaptable, and that the logic of life and progress
+naturally overcame all opposing arguments.  In his ideal state there
+was room for many mansions, and he did not speak of disaster when
+American colonists proposed to build according to designs not ratified
+in Westminster.
+
+I have dwelt on the views of Burke because here, as in Indian affairs,
+he was the first of British {4} statesmen to recognize what was implied
+in the empire, and because his views still stand.  But his
+contemporaries failed utterly, either to see the danger as he saw it,
+or to meet it as he bade them meet it.  Save Chatham, they had no
+understanding of provincial opinion; in their political methods they
+were corrupt individualists, and their general equipment in imperial
+politics was contemptibly inadequate.
+
+After the loss of the American colonies, the government in England
+contrived for a time to evade the problems and responsibilities of
+colonial empire.  The colonies which remained to England were limited
+in extent and population; and such difficulties as existed were faced,
+not so much by the government in London, as beyond the seas by
+statesmen with local knowledge, like Dorchester.  At the same time, the
+consequences of the French Revolution and the great wars drew to
+themselves the attention of all active minds.  Under these
+circumstances imperial policy lost much of its prestige, and imperial
+problems either vanished or were evaded.  It was a period of "crown
+colony" administration.[2]  The connexion, as it was called, was
+maintained through oligarchic {5} institutions, strictly controlled
+from Westminster; local officials were selected from little groups of
+semi-aristocrats, more English than the home government itself; and the
+only policy which recommended itself to a nation, which still lacked
+both information and imagination, was to try no rash constitutional
+experiments, and to conciliate colonial opinion by economic favours and
+low taxation.
+
+Yet the old contradiction between British ascendancy and colonial
+autonomy could not for long be ignored; and as in the early nineteenth
+century a new colonial empire arose, greater and more diversified than
+the old, the problem once more recurred, this time in Canada.  It is
+not the purpose of this book to discuss the earlier stages of the
+Canadian struggle.  The rebellions under Mackenzie in the West and
+Papineau in the East were abnormal and pathological episodes, in
+considering which the attention is easily diverted from the essential
+questions to exciting side issues and personal facts.  In any case,
+that chapter in Canadian history has received adequate attention.[3]
+But after Colborne's firmness had repressed the {6} armed risings, and
+Durham's imperious dictatorship had introduced some kind of order,
+there followed in Canada a period of high constitutional importance, in
+which the old issue was frankly faced, both in England and in Canada,
+almost in the very terms that Burke had used.  It is not too much to
+say that the fifteen years of Canadian history which begin with the
+publication, in 1839, of _Durham's Report_, are the most important in
+the history of the modern British empire; and that in them was made the
+experiment on the success of which depended the future of that empire.
+
+These years are the more instructive, because in them there are few
+distracting events drawing the attention from the main constitutional
+question.  There were minor points--whether voluntaryism, or the
+principle of church establishment, was best for Canada; what place
+within the empire might safely be conceded to French-Canadian
+nationalism; how Canadian commerce was to relate itself to that of
+Britain and of the United States.  All of these, however, were included
+in, or dominated by, the essential difficulty of combining, in one
+empire, Canadian self-government and British supremacy.
+
+{7}
+
+The phrase, responsible government, appears everywhere in the writings
+and speeches of those days with a wearisome iteration.  Yet the
+discussion which hinged on that phrase was of primary importance.  The
+British government must either discover the kind of self-government
+required in the greater dependencies, the _modus vivendi_ to be
+established between the local and the central governments, and the seat
+of actual responsibility, or cease to be imperial.  Under four
+governors-general[4] the argument proceeded, and it was not until 1854
+that Elgin, in his departure from Canada, was able to assure the
+British government that the question had been for the time settled.
+
+The essay which follows will describe the character of the political
+community within which the question was raised; the fortunes and policy
+of the governors-general concerned in the discussion; the modifications
+introduced into British political thought by the Canadian agitation;
+and the consequences, in England and Canada, of the firm establishment
+of colonial self-government.
+
+
+
+[1] Burke, _Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol_.
+
+[2] Sir C. P. Lucas, _Introduction to Lord Durham's Report_, p. 266.
+
+[3] Its latest statement may be found in Sir C. P. Lucas's admirable
+edition of _Lord Durham's Report_, Oxford, 1912.
+
+[4] I omit from my reckoning the brief and unimportant tenure of office
+by the Earl Cathcart, who filled a gap between Metcalfe's retirement
+and Elgin's arrival.
+
+
+
+
+{8}
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY.
+
+To understand the political evolution of Canada it is essential to
+begin with a study of the elements of Canadian society.  Canadian
+constitutionalists would have written to better purpose, had they
+followed the example of the Earl of Durham, in whose _Report_ the
+concluding practical suggestions develop naturally from the vivid
+social details which occupy its earlier pages, and raise it to the
+level of literature.  In pioneering communities there is no such thing
+as the constitution, or politics, _per se_; and the relation between
+the facts, sordid and mean as they often are, of the life of the
+people, and the growth of institutions and political theories, is
+fundamental.
+
+Canadian society, in 1839 and long afterwards, was dominated by the
+physical characteristics of the seven hundred miles of country which
+stretched from Quebec to the shores of Lake Huron, with {9} its long
+water-front and timid expansion, north and south; its forests
+stubbornly resisting the axes of the settlers; its severe extremities
+of heat and cold; the innumerable inconveniences inflicted by its
+uncultivated wastes on those who first invaded it; and the imperfect
+lines of land communication which multiplied all distances in Canada at
+least four-fold.  It was perhaps this sense of distance, and difficulty
+of locomotion, which first impressed the settler and the visitor.  To
+begin with, the colony was, for practical purposes, more than a month's
+distance from the centre of government.  Steam was gradually making its
+way, and the record passage by sailing ship, from Quebec to Portsmouth,
+had occupied only eighteen days and a half,[1] but sails were still the
+ordinary means of propulsion, and the average length of voyage of 237
+vessels arriving at Quebec in 1840 was well over forty days.[2]  To the
+immigrant, however, the voyage across the Atlantic was the least of his
+troubles; for the internal communications of Canada left much to be
+desired.  The assistance {10} of railway transportation might be
+entirely ignored,--as late as 1847 only twenty-two miles of railway
+lines had been laid and worked.[3]  There was, of course, during the
+open season, the wonderful passage by river and lake into the heart of
+the continent; although the long winter months broke into the
+regularity of the traffic by water, and the St. Lawrence rapids added
+to the traveller's difficulties and expenses.  Even the magic of a
+governor-general's wand could not dispel the inconveniences of this
+simplest of Canadian routes.  "I arrived here on Thursday week,"
+grumbled Poulett Thomson, writing from Toronto in 1839.  "The journey
+was bad enough; a portage to Lachine; then the steamboat to the
+Cascades, twenty-four miles further; then road again (if road it can be
+called) for sixteen miles; then steam to Cornwall forty miles; then
+road, twelve miles; then, by a change of steamers on to Lake Ontario to
+Kingston, and thence here.  I slept one night on the road, and two on
+board the steamers.  Such, as I have described it, is the boasted
+navigation of the St. Lawrence!"[4]  For military purposes there was
+the alternative route, up the Ottawa to Bytown, {11} and thence by the
+Rideau military canal to Kingston and the Lakes.  On land, progress was
+much more complicated, for even the main road along the river and lake
+front was in shamefully bad condition, more especially when autumn
+passed into winter, or when spring once more loosened up the roads.
+There is a quite unanimous chorus of condemnation from all--British,
+Americans, and Canadians.  One lively traveller in 1840 protested that
+on his way from Montreal, he was compelled to walk at the carriage side
+for hours, ankle-deep in mud, with the reins in his hands, and that,
+with infinite fatigue to both man and beast, he accomplished sixty
+miles in two days--a wonderful performance.[5]  In the very heart of
+the rebellion, W. L. Mackenzie seems to have found the roads fighting
+against him, for he speaks of the march along Yonge Street as over
+"thirty or forty miles of the worst roads in the world"; and attributes
+part of the disheartening of his men to what one may term
+mud-weariness.[6]  Local tradition still remembers with a sense of
+wonder that Sydenham, eager to return to his work in Lower Canada, once
+travelled by sleigh {12} the 360 miles from Toronto to Montreal in
+thirty-six hours.
+
+Off the main routes, roads degenerated into corduroy roads, and these
+into tracks, and even "blazed trails "; while, as for bridges, cases
+were known where the want of them had kept settlers who were living
+within three miles of a principal town, from communicating with it for
+days at a time.[7]  And, as the roads grew rougher, Canadian conditions
+seemed to the stranger to assert themselves more and more offensively,
+animate and inanimate nature thrusting man back on the bare elements of
+things.  The early descriptions of the colony are crowded with pictures
+of wretched immigrants, mosquito-bitten, or, in winter, half dead with
+cold, struggling through mud and swamp, to find the land whither they
+had come to evade the miseries of civilization, confronting them with
+the squalor and pains of nature.  Far into the Victorian era Canada,
+whether French or British, was a dislocated community, with settlements
+set apart from each other as much by mud, swamp, and wood-land, as by
+distance.  Her population, more particularly in the west, was engaged
+not with political ideals, but in an incessant struggle {13} with the
+forests; and the little jobs, which enabled the infant community to
+build a bridge or repair a road at the public expense, must naturally
+have seemed to the electors more important items of a political
+programme than responsible government or abolition of the clergy
+reserves.  No doubt, in the older towns and cities, the efforts of the
+earlier settlers had gained for their sons leisure and a chance of
+culture; yet even in Toronto, the wild lands were but a few miles
+distant, and, as Richardson saw it, London was "literally a city of
+stumps, many of the houses being still surrounded by them."
+
+Straggling along these 700 miles, although here and there concentrated
+into centres like Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, Kingston, and
+Toronto, was a population numbering well over a million, which from its
+internal divisions, its differences in origin and disposition, and its
+relation to the British government, constituted the central problem at
+the time in British colonial politics.  The French population formed,
+naturally, the chief difficulty.  Thanks to the terms of the surrender
+in 1763, and the policy of Dorchester, a unit which called itself _la
+nation Canadienne_ had been formed, _nationalité_ had become a force in
+Lower {14} Canada, imperfectly appreciated even by the leaders of the
+progressive movement in England and Western Canada.  In the Eastern
+townships, and in Quebec and Montreal, flourishing and highly organized
+British societies existed.  The Rebellion had found sturdy opponents in
+the British militia from the townships, and the constitutional
+societies of Quebec and Montreal expressed, in innumerable resolutions
+and addresses, the British point of view.  But Lower Canada was for
+practical purposes a French unit, Roman Catholic in religion, and, in
+structure, semifeudal.  In the cities, the national self-consciousness
+of the French was most conspicuously present; and leaders like
+Papineau, La Fontaine, and Cartier proved the reality of French culture
+and political skill.  Below the higher classes, Durham and Metcalfe
+noticed that in Lower Canada the facilities given by the church for
+higher education produced a class of smaller professional men, from
+whose number the ordinary politicians and agitators were drawn.  To the
+church they owed their entrance into the world of ideas; but apparently
+they were little more loyal to the clergy than they were to Britain.
+"I am led to believe," wrote Metcalfe in 1845, "that the influence of
+the clergy is not predominant, {15} among the French-Canadian people,
+and that the avocat, the notary, and the doctor, generally disposed to
+be political demagogues, and most of them hostile to the British
+government, are the parties who exercise the greatest influence.
+Whatever power the clergy might have acting along with these
+demagogues, it would, I fear, be slight when exercised in opposition to
+them."[8]
+
+These active, critical, political groups were not, however,
+representative of French Canada.  So long as their racial pride
+remained unhurt, the French community was profoundly conservative.  It
+was noticed that the rebels of 1837 and 1838 had received no support
+from the Catholic priesthood; and in a country where the reverence for
+that ancient form of Christianity was, in spite of Metcalfe's opinion
+to the contrary, profound, it was unlikely that any anti-religious
+political movement could make much permanent headway.  Devoted to their
+religion, and controlled more especially in education by their
+priests,[9] the _habitants_ formed the peculiar people of the American
+continent.  Education flourished not at all among {16} the rank and
+file.  Arthur Buller found the majority of those whom he met either not
+able to write, or able to write little more than their names.[10]  The
+women, he said, were the active, bustling portion of the _habitants_,
+thanks to the admirable and yet inexpensive training to be had in the
+nunneries.  As for the men, they farmed and lived as their fathers had
+done before them.  They cleared their land, or tilled it where it had
+been cleared, and thought little of improvement or change.  M'Taggart,
+whose work on the Rideau Canal, made him an expert in Canadian labour,
+much preferred French Canadians to the Irish as labourers, and thought
+them "kind, tender-hearted, very social, no way very ambitious, nor
+industrious, rarely speculative."[11]  To the Canadian commonwealth,
+the French population furnished a few really admirable statesmen; a
+dominant and loyal church; some groups of professional men,
+disappointed and discontented sons of humble parents, too proud to sink
+to the level of their uninstructed youth, and without the opportunity
+of rising higher; and a great mass of men who hewed wood and drew
+water, not for a master, but for themselves, {17} submissive to the
+church, and well-disposed, but ignorant, and at the mercy of any clever
+demagogue who might raise the cry of nationalism.  Still, when
+nationality remained unchallenged, the French-Canadians were at least
+what, till recently, they remained, the most purely conservative
+element in Canada.
+
+The second element, in point of stability and importance, in the
+Canadian population was that of the United Empire Loyalists, the
+remnants of a former British supremacy in the United States.  They had
+proved their steadfastness and courage by their refusal to accept the
+rules of the new republic; and their arrival in Canada gave that
+country an aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon origin to counterbalance that of
+the seigneurs on the Lower St. Lawrence.  The men had in many cases
+been trained to arms in the revolutionary war, and they served a second
+and perhaps a harder apprenticeship in the Canadian forests.  They had
+formed the centre of resistance to American attacks in the war of 1812.
+Their sons and grandsons had once more exhibited the hereditary loyalty
+of the group, in resisting the rebels of 1837-38; and Metcalfe, who was
+their best friend among the governors of the United Provinces, justly
+{18} looked on them as the most conspicuous examples of devotion to
+connection with the British Empire, and loyal subjection to the
+Crown.[12]  Robinsons, Cartwrights, Ryersons, and a score of other
+well-known families, proved, generation after generation, by their
+sustained public capacity, how considerably the struggle for existence,
+operating on sound human material, may raise the average of talent and
+energy.  The tendency of the Loyalists to conservatism was, under the
+circumstances, only natural.  Their possession, for a time, of all the
+places in Upper Canada which were worth holding, was the consequence of
+their priority in tenure, and of their conspicuous pre-eminence in
+political ingenuity.  Critics of a later date forgot, and still forget,
+in their wholesale indictment of the Family Compact, that the Loyalist
+group called by that name had earned their places by genuine ability.
+If, like other aristocracies, they found it hard to mark the precise
+moment for retirement before the rise of democracy, their excuse must
+be found in their consciousness of high public spirit and their
+hereditary talents for administration.
+
+Politically and socially one may include among the Loyalists the
+half-pay officers, from both {19} navy and army, whom the great peace
+after Waterloo sent to Canada, as to the other colonies; and certain
+men of good family, Talbots or Stricklands, who held fast by English
+conservative tradition, played, where they could, the English gentleman
+abroad, and incidentally exhibited no mean amount of public spirit.
+Conspicuous among these was Colonel Talbot, who had come to Upper
+Canada with Simcoe in 1793, and became there an erratic but energetic
+instrument of empire.  "For sixteen years," says Mrs. Jameson, writing
+with a pardonably feminine thrill after a visit to the great man, "he
+saw scarce a human being, except a few boors and blacks employed in
+clearing and logging his land; he himself assumed the blanket coat and
+axe, slept upon the bare earth, cooked three meals a day for twenty
+woodsmen, cleaned his own boots, washed his own linen, milked his cows,
+churned the butter, and made and baked the bread."[13]  Yet, as
+Strickland confesses, in his _Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West_, there
+were few Talbots.  "Many high-spirited gentlemen," he says, "were
+tempted by the grants of land bestowed on them by the government, which
+made actual settlement one of the conditions of {20} the grant.  It
+followed, as a matter of course, that the majority of these persons
+were physically disqualified for such an undertaking, a fact which many
+deserted farms in the rear townships of the county in which I reside
+painfully indicate."[14]
+
+French Canadians and United Empire Loyalists constituted the stable
+factors in Canadian public life; but the process of immigration, which
+the years of rebellion checked only for a time, had by 1840 prepared
+another element, and that the most incalculable and disturbing both
+socially and politically.  Indeed the real problem of Canadian public
+life lay simply in the influence of the humbler class of immigrants on
+existing administration and opinion.  It was natural for the other
+settlers and the governing class to regard the larger part of the new
+population as beneath the political level.  The very circumstances of
+the emigrating process carried with them a suggestion of degradation.
+Durham had embodied in his _Report_ the more flagrant examples of the
+horrors of emigration;[15] but a later review, written in 1841, proves
+that many of the worst features of the old system still continued.
+There were still the privations, the {21} filth and the diseases of
+this northern "middle passage," the epidemics and disorders inflicted
+on the Canadian community as ship-load after ship-load of poor wretches
+passed ashore at Quebec.  On land their sorrows were renewed, for many
+of them were paupers, and there was still no organized effort to
+introduce the labourer to those who required his labour.  More than one
+half of the 12,000 who, according to the report of 1841, passed in that
+year through Bytown locks, were considered objects of charity.  Many of
+them were common labourers with families, men who had little but their
+physical strength as capital for the new venture; and cholera, typhus,
+or smallpox had in many cases reduced even that to the vanishing point.
+More especially among the Irish settlers, who, in these years and
+later, fled in dismay from the distresses of Ireland, the misery
+continued long after the first struggle.  M'Taggart, who had his
+prejudices, but who had unusually good opportunities for observation,
+thought that a tenth of the poorer Irish settlers died during their
+first two years in the country.  He found them clumsy at their work,
+accustomed to the spade and shovel, not to the axe, and maiming
+themselves most fearfully, or even killing themselves, in their {22}
+experiments in clearing the ground.[16]  Of all who came, the
+immigration agents thought the Lowland Scots and the Ulster Irishmen
+the best, and while the poorer class of settler lagged behind in the
+cities of Lower Canada, these others generally pushed on to find a hard
+earned living among the British settlers in the Upper Province.  Some
+of them found their way to the United States.  Others, faced with the
+intolerable delays of the land administration, took the risk of
+"squatting," that is, settling on wild land without securing a right to
+it--often to find themselves dislodged by a legal owner at the moment
+when their possession _de facto_ seemed established.  The majority
+settled as small farmers in the more frequented districts, or became
+shop-keepers and artisans in the towns.  Politically their position was
+curious.  The Reform Act of 1832 had extended the British franchise,
+but the majority had still no votes; and the immigrants belonged to the
+unenfranchised classes.  The Irish had the additional disability of
+being reckoned disloyal, followers of the great Irish demagogue, and
+disorderly persons until proved otherwise.[17] To government servants
+and {23} the older settlers alike, it seemed perilous to the community
+to share political power with them.  Yet they were British citizens;
+many of them at once became active members of the community through
+their standing as freeholders; the democratic influence of the United
+States told everywhere on their behalf; and even where hard work left
+little time for political discussion, the fact that local needs might
+be assisted by political discussion, and the stout individualism bred
+by the life of struggle in village, town, and country, forced the new
+settlers to interest themselves in politics.  Many of the new arrivals
+had some pretensions to education--more especially those from Scotland.
+Indeed it is worthy of note that from the Scottish stream of
+immigration there came not only the earlier agitators, Gourlay and
+Mackenzie, but, at a later date, George Brown, the first great
+political journalist in Canada, Alexander Mackenzie and Oliver Mowat,
+future leaders of Canadian liberalism, and John A. Macdonald, whose
+imperialism never lacked a tincture of traditional Scottish caution.
+The new immigrants were unlikely to challenge the social supremacy of
+the old aristocracy, but they formed so large an accession to the
+population that they could not {24} long remain without political
+power.  They must either be granted the rights of numerical majority or
+be exasperated into destructive agitation.
+
+It is not altogether easy to describe the community or chain of
+communities created out of these diverse elements.  Distance, climatic
+difficulties, and racial misunderstandings weakened the sense of unity
+in the colony; and the chief centres of population were still too young
+and unformed to present to the visitor the characteristics of a
+finished civilization.
+
+Everywhere, but more especially in the west, the town population showed
+remarkable increases.  Montreal, which had, in 1790, an estimated
+population of 18,000, had almost trebled that number by 1844; in the
+same interval, Quebec increased from 14,000 to nearly 36,000.  In the
+Upper Province, immigration and natural increase produced an even more
+remarkable expansion.  In the twenty-two years between 1824 and 1846,
+Toronto grew from a village of 1,600 inhabitants to be a flourishing
+provincial capital of 21,000.  In the census of 1848, the population of
+Hamilton was returned as 9,889; that of Kingston as 8,416; Bytown, the
+future capital, had 6,275 inhabitants; while a score of villages such
+as London, Belleville, {25} Brockville, and Cobourg had populations
+varying from one to four thousand.[18]
+
+Social graces and conveniences had, however, hardly kept pace with the
+increase in numbers.  The French region was, for better or worse,
+homogeneous, and Quebec formed a social centre of some distinction,
+wherein the critical M'Taggart noted less vanity and conceit than was
+to be met with in the country.[19]  But further west, British observers
+were usually something less than laudatory.  The municipal franchise in
+the cities of Lower Canada, being confined to the possessors of real
+estate, shut out from civic management the more enterprising trading
+classes, with the natural result that mismanagement and inefficiency
+everywhere prevailed.  In Quebec there was no public lighting, the
+community bought unwholesome water from carters who took it from the
+St. Lawrence, and the gaol--a grim but useful test of the civilization
+of the place--not merely afforded direct communication between the
+prisoners and the street, but was so ill ordered that, according to a
+clerical authority, "they who happily are {26} pronounced innocent by
+law may consider it a providential deliverance if they escape in the
+meantime the effects of evil communication and example."[20]  While
+Montreal had a better water supply, it remained practically in darkness
+during the winter nights, through the lapsing in 1836 of its earlier
+municipal organization.[21]  Strangers were said to find the provincial
+self-importance of its inhabitants irritating.  At the other extreme of
+the province, Mrs. Jameson found fault with the citizens of Toronto for
+their social conventionalism.  "I did not expect to find here," she
+wrote, "in the new capital of a new country, with the boundless forests
+within half a mile of us on almost every side, concentrated as it were,
+the worst evils of our old and most artificial social system at home,
+with none of its _agrémens_, and none of its advantages.  Toronto is
+like a fourth or fifth rate provincial town with the pretensions of a
+capital city."[22]
+
+Everywhere, if contemporary prints of the cities may be taken as
+evidence, the military element was very prominent, and the tone was
+distinctly English.  The leaders of society looked {27} to London for
+their fashions, and men like John Beverley Robinson moved naturally, if
+a little stiffly, in the best English circles when they crossed to
+England.  It was, indeed, a straining after a social standard not quite
+within the reach of the ambitious provincial, which produced the
+conventionalism and dullness, noticed by British visitors in Canadian
+towns.
+
+In the smaller towns or villages where pretensions were fewer, and
+society accepted itself for that which it really was, there was much
+rude plenty and happiness.  An Ayrshire settler writing in 1845, after
+an orthodox confession that Canada, like Scotland, "groaned under the
+curse of the Almighty," described his town, Cobourg, as a place where
+wages were higher and prices lower than at home.  "A carpenter," he
+writes, "asks 6s. sterling for a day's work (without board), mason 8s.,
+men working by the day at labourer's work 2s. and board, 4s. a day in
+harvest.  Hired men by the month, 10 and 11 dollars in summer, and 7
+and 8 in winter, and board.  Women, 3 and 4 dollars per month, not much
+higher than at home.  Provisions are cheaper here than at home.  Wheat,
+4s. per bushel; oats 1s. 3d. and 1s. 6d per bushel; potatoes, 1s. 6d.;
+beef and pork, 3d. and 4d. per {28} lb.; butter, 6d. per lb.; cheese,
+6d.; tobacco, 1s. per lb.; whisky, 1s. 6d. per gallon; apples, 1s. 6d.
+per bushel; tea from 2s. 6d. to 4s., and sugar, 6d. per lb....  A man
+by honest industry here may live comfortably and support himself
+decently--I can, I know--and save something too.  We live much better
+here than at home."[23]
+
+More especially in the smaller towns, the externals must have presented
+a steady and dull monotony--the jail and court-house, three or four
+churches, a varying number of mean-looking stores including a liberal
+proportion of taverns, and the irregular rows of private houses.
+
+If lack of efficient public spirit, and social monotony, marked the
+towns, the settlers in the bush were hardly likely to show a vigorous
+communal spirit.  They had their common life, building, clearing,
+harvesting in local "bees," primitive assemblies in which work,
+drinking, and recreation welded the primitive community together, and
+the "grog-boss" became for a time the centre of society.[24]  But the
+average day of the farmer was solitary, and, except where politics
+meant {29} bridges, roads, and material gifts, his outlook was limited
+by the physical strain of his daily life, and work and sleep followed
+too closely on each other's track to leave time for other things.
+M'Taggart has a quaint picture of a squatter, which must have been
+typical of much within the colony in 1839.  He found the settler, Peter
+Armstrong, "in a snug little cabin, with a wife, two children, some
+good sleek grey cats, and a very respectable-looking dog.  He had but
+few wants, his health was aye good; there was spring water plenty just
+aside him, and enough to make a good fire in winter, while with what he
+caught, shot, gathered and grew in the yard, he lived well enough."
+His relation to the state, secular and ecclesiastical, is best gauged
+by his admission that when it came to marriage, he and his
+wife--Scottish like himself--"just took ane anither's word on't."[25]
+Crime, on the whole, considering the elements out of which the
+community had been formed, was surprisingly little in evidence.[26]  In
+certain regions it had a natural fertility.  Wherever the white trader
+met the Indian, or rival {30} fur-traders strove in competition, the
+contact between the vices of the two communities bred disorder, and
+Canadian trading success was too often marked by the indiscriminate
+ruin of the Indians through drink and disease.[27]  At Bytown, where
+the lumberers gathered to vary their labours in the bush with
+dissipation, the community "was under the control of a very dangerous
+class of roughs, who drank, gambled, and fought continually, and were
+the terror of all well-disposed citizens."[28]  Drunkenness seems to
+have been a very prevalent vice, probably because whisky was so cheaply
+produced; and where self-restraint was weak, and vast numbers of the
+poorest classes from Britain formed the basis of society, drunkenness
+was accompanied by bestial violence, or even death, in sudden and
+dreadful forms.[29]  But it was the verdict of a Scottish clergyman,
+who played his part in pioneer work round Perth, that "considering the
+mixture of worthless persons, which our population formerly contained,
+it was astonishing how few crimes had been committed."
+
+{31}
+
+Three powerful influences helped to shape the young Canadian community
+and to give it some appearance of unity--education, religion, and
+politics.  It now becomes necessary to examine these factors in
+Canadian existence in the years prior to, and immediately after, the
+visit of Durham to the colony.  In religion and education, however, our
+analysis must concern Upper and British Canada rather than the French
+region.  In the latter the existence and dominance of the Catholic
+church greatly simplified matters.  Thanks to the eighteenth century
+agreements with the French, Roman Catholicism had been established on
+very favourable terms in Lower Canada, and dominated that region to the
+exclusion of practically all other forms of religious life.  As has
+already been shown, the church controlled not only religion but
+education.  If the women of the Lower Province were better educated
+than the men, it was because the convent schools provided adequately
+for female education.  If higher education was furnished in
+superabundance, again the church was the prime agent, as it was also in
+the comparative neglect of the rank and file; and comment was made by
+Durham's commissioners on the fact that the priesthood resented
+anything which weakened {32} its control over the schools.  This
+Catholic domination had a very notable influence in politics, for,
+after the first outbursts of nationality were over, the Catholic laity
+in politics proved themselves a steadily conservative force.  La
+Fontaine, the first great French leader who knew how to co-operate with
+the British Canadians, was only by accident a progressive, and escaped
+from politics when the growth of Upper Canada radicalism began to draw
+him into dangerous religious questions.[30]  But in the Upper Province,
+education and religion did not show this stationary and consistent
+character, and played no little part in preparing for and accentuating
+the political agitation.
+
+Education had a history rather of good intentions than of brilliant
+achievement.  At different times in the earlier nineteenth century,
+schemes for district grammar schools and general common schools were
+prepared, and sums of money, unhappily not in increasing amounts, were
+voted for educational purposes.  But, apart from the doubtful
+enthusiasm of the legislators, the education {33} of the British
+settlers was hampered by an absence of suitable teachers, and the
+difficulty of letting children, who were often the only farm assistants
+at hand, attend school for any length of time.  According to good
+evidence, half of the true school population never saw the schools, and
+the other half could give only seven months in the year to their
+training.[31]
+
+In most country districts, the settlers had to trust to luck both for
+teachers and for schoolhouses, and beginnings which promised better
+things too often ended in blank failure.  There is both humour and
+romance in these early struggles after education.  In Ekfried, by the
+Thames, in Western Canada, there had been no school, till the arrival
+of an honest Scot, Robert Campbell, and the backwardness of the season
+in 1842, gave the settlement a schoolmaster, and the new settler some
+ready money.  "I get a dollar and a half, a quarter per scholar," he
+wrote to his friends in Scotland, "and seeing that the wheat did
+little, I am glad I did engage, for we got plenty of provisions."[32]
+In Perth, a more ambitious start {34} met with a tragic end.  The
+Scottish clergyman, appointed to the district by government, opened a
+school at the request of the inhabitants.  All went well, and a
+generous government provided fifty pounds by way of annual stipend;
+until a licentiate of the Anglican Church arrived.  By virtue of the
+standing of his church, the newcomer took precedence of the Scottish
+minister and displaced him as educational leader.  But, says the Scot,
+with an irony, unchristian but excusable, "the school under the
+direction of my clerical successor, soon after died of a consumption,
+and the school-house has been for sometime empty."[33]
+
+The main difficulty in education was to provide an adequate supply of
+competent teachers.  Complaints against those who offered their
+services were almost universal.  According to a Niagara witness, not
+more than one out of ten teachers in the district was competent to
+instruct his pupils even in the humblest learning,[34] and the
+commissioners who reported to the government of Upper Canada in 1839
+both confirmed these {35} complaints, and described the root of the
+offence when they said, "In this country, the wages of the working
+classes are so high, that few undertake the office of schoolmaster,
+except those who are unable to do anything else; and hence the
+important duties of education are often entrusted to incompetent and
+improper persons.  The income of the schoolmaster should, at least, be
+equal to that of a common labourer."[35]  In so precarious a position,
+it was unfortunate that sectarian and local feeling should have
+provoked a controversy at the capital of the western district.  Much as
+the education of the province owed to John Strachan, he did infinite
+harm by involving the foundation of a great central school, Upper
+Canada College, and of the provincial university, in a bitter religious
+discussion.  It was not until the public capacity and unsectarian
+enthusiasm of Egerton Ryerson were enlisted in the service of
+provincial education, that Upper Canada emerged from her period of
+failure and struggle.
+
+Apart from provincial and governmental efforts, there were many
+voluntary experiments, of which Strachan's famous school at Cornwall,
+was perhaps the most notable.  After all, the colonists were {36}
+Britons, many of them trained in the Scottish system of national
+democratic education, and wherever the struggle for existence slackened
+down, they turned to plan a Canadian system as like as possible to that
+which they had left.  Kingston was notably enterprising in this
+respect.  Not only were there schools for the more prosperous classes,
+but attempts were made to provide cheap education for the poor, at
+first supported by the voluntary contributions of ladies, and then by a
+committee representative of the best Anglican and Presbyterian
+sentiment.  Three of these schools were successfully conducted at very
+small charges, and, in certain cases, the poorest received education
+free.[36]  In higher education the period of union in Canada exhibited
+great activity.  The generous provision made for a King's College in
+Toronto had been for a long time stultified by the ill-timed sectarian
+spirit of the Bishop of Toronto; but a more reasonable temper prevailed
+after the Rebellion, and the second governor-general of the united
+provinces, Sir Charles Bagot, spent much of his short time of service
+in securing professors and seeing the provincial university
+launched.[37] {37} At the same time, the two other Canadian colleges of
+note, M'Gill University and Queen's College, came into active
+existence.  In October, 1839, after many years of delay, Montreal saw
+the corner-stone of the first English and Protestant College in Lower
+Canada laid,[38] and in the winter of 1841-2, Dr. Liddell sailed from
+Scotland to begin the history of struggle and gallant effort which has
+characterized Queen's College, Kingston, from first to last.  It is
+perhaps the most interesting detail of early university education in
+Canada, that the Presbyterian College started in a frame house, with
+two professors, one representing Arts and one Theology, and with some
+twenty students, very few of whom, however, were "fitted to be
+matriculated."[39]
+
+It is well to remember, in face of beginnings so irregular, and even
+squalid, that deficiencies in Canadian college education had been made
+good by the English and Scottish universities, and that Canadian higher
+education was from the outset assisted by the genuine culture and
+learning of the British colleges; for the main sources of university
+inspiration in British North America {38} were Oxford and Cambridge,
+Glasgow and Edinburgh.[40]
+
+There were, of course, other less formal modes of education.  When once
+political agitation commenced, the press contributed not a little to
+the education of the nation, and must indeed be counted one of the
+chief agencies of information, if not of culture.  Everywhere, from
+Quebec to Hamilton, enterprising politicians made their influence felt
+through newspapers.  The period prior to the Rebellion had seen
+Mackenzie working through his _Colonial Advocate_; and the cause of
+responsible government soon found saner and abler exponents in Francis
+Hincks and George Brown.  At every important centre, one, two, or even
+more news-sheets, not without merit, were maintained; and the secular
+press was reinforced by such educational enterprise as the Dougalls
+attempted in the _Montreal Witness_, or by church papers like the
+Methodist _Christian Guardian_.[41] {39} Nothing, perhaps, is more
+characteristic of this phase of Canadian intellectual growth than the
+earlier volumes of the _Witness_, which played a part in Canada similar
+to that of the Chambers' publications in Scotland.  The note struck was
+deeply sober and moral; the appeal was made to the working and middle
+classes who in Canada as in Scotland were coming into possession of
+their heritage; and if the intellectual level attained was never very
+high, an honest attempt was being made to educate the shop-keepers and
+farmers of Canada into wholesome national ideals.
+
+Little literary activity seems to have existed outside of politics and
+the newspapers.  For a time cheap reprints from America assisted
+Britons in Canada with their forbidden fruits, but government at last
+intervened.  It is a curious fact that this perfectly just and natural
+prohibition had a most unfortunate effect in checking the reading
+habits of the colony.[42]  In the larger towns there {40} were
+circulating libraries, and presumably immigrants occasionally brought
+books with them; but newspaper advertisements suggest that school
+books, and the like, formed almost the only stock-in-trade of the
+book-shop; and the mercurial Major Richardson, after agitating the
+chief book-sellers in Canada on behalf of one of his literary ventures,
+found that his total sales amounted to barely thirty copies, and even
+an auction sale at Kingston discovered only one purchaser, who limited
+his offer to sevenpence halfpenny.  In speaking, then, of the Canadian
+political community in 1839, one cannot say, as Burke did of the
+Americans in 1775, that they were a highly educated or book-reading
+people.  Their politicians, progressive and conservative alike, might
+have shortened, simplified, and civilized certain stages in their
+political agitations, had they been able more fully to draw on the
+authority of British political experience; and their provincialism
+would not have thrust itself so disagreeably on the modern student, had
+Locke, Rousseau, Burke, and the greater leaders in modern political
+science, been household names in early Victorian Canada.
+
+As with other young communities, the church and religion had their part
+to play in the shaping {41} of modern Canada.  And yet it would be
+impossible to attribute to any of the Canadian churches an influence so
+decisive as that which religion exercised through Presbyterianism in
+the creation of the Scottish democracy, or through Independency in
+moulding the New England character.  For while the question of a
+religious establishment proved one of the most exciting issues in
+politics, influences more truly religious suffered a natural
+degradation and diminution through their over-close association with
+secular affairs.
+
+Once again the situation in Lower Canada was simplified by the
+conditions prevailing among the French Canadians.  For Lower Canada was
+whole-heartedly Catholic, and the Canadian branch of the Roman Church
+had its eulogy pronounced in no uncertain fashion by the Earl of
+Durham, who, after praising its tolerant spirit, summed up the services
+of the priesthood in these terms: "The Catholic priesthood of this
+Province have, to a remarkable degree, conciliated the good-will of
+persons of all creeds; and I know of no parochial clergy in the world,
+whose practice of all the Christian virtues, and zealous discharge of
+their clerical duties, is more universally admired, and has been
+productive of more beneficial consequences.  {42} Possessed of incomes
+sufficient, and even large, according to the notions entertained in the
+country, and enjoying the advantage of education, they have lived on
+terms of equality and kindness with the humblest and least instructed
+inhabitants of the rural districts.  Intimately acquainted with the
+wants and characters of their neighbours, they have been the promoters
+and dispensers of charity, and the effectual guardians of the morals of
+the people; and in the general absence of any permanent institutions of
+civil government, the Catholic Church has presented almost the only
+semblance of stability and organization, and furnished the only
+effectual support for civilization and order.  The Catholic clergy of
+Lower Canada are entitled to this expression of my esteem, not only
+because it is founded on truth, but because a grateful recognition of
+their eminent services, in resisting the arts of the disaffected, is
+especially due to them from one who has administered the government of
+the Province in these troubled times."[43]
+
+Upper Canada and the British community presented a somewhat different
+picture.  Certain Roman Catholic elements among the Irish and the
+Scottish Highlanders reinforced the ranks of {43} Catholicism, but for
+the greater part Anglicanism and Presbyterianism were the
+ecclesiastical guides of the settlers.  At first, apart from official
+religion, the Church of England appeared in Canada in missionary form,
+and about 1820 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had
+fifteen missionaries in Lower Canada, and seventeen in Upper Canada.
+But under the fostering care of governors like Colborne, and the
+organizing genius of Dr. Strachan, Rector, Archdeacon, and latterly
+Bishop in Toronto, the Anglican Church in Canada became a
+self-dependent unit.  The Bishop of Toronto was able to boast in 1842
+that in his western visitation, which lasted from June till October, he
+had "consecrated two churches and one burial ground, confirmed 756
+persons at twenty-four different stations, and travelled, including his
+journeys for the formation of District Branches of the Church Society,
+upwards of 2,500 miles."[44]  In cities like Toronto and Kingston it
+was on the whole the church of the governing class, and shared in the
+culture and public qualities of that class.  Nor was it negligent of
+the cure of poorer souls, for Anglicans co-operated with Presbyterians
+in the {44} management of the poor schools in Kingston, and in that and
+the other more prominent towns of the province, the English parish
+church system seems to have been transplanted and worked most
+efficiently.  Equal in importance, if not in numbers, Scottish
+Presbyterianism claimed its section of the community.  Down to 1822,
+there were but six organized congregations in Upper and Lower Canada
+connected with the Church of Scotland,[45] but at the first
+Presbyterian Synod held in Canada, in 1831, fourteen ministers and five
+elders gathered at Kingston to represent the Church;[46] and by 1837
+the number of congregations had grown to 37 in Upper Canada, and 14 in
+Lower Canada.  Nor were these weak and struggling efforts.  The
+Scottish Church at Kingston had in 1841 a membership of 350, and an
+average attendance of 800.  Like its Anglican rival, it was simply a
+parish church, and its minister, trained in Edinburgh, as the Anglican
+cleric came naturally from an English college, visited, preached, and
+disciplined according to the rules of Knox and Melville, and
+maintained, perhaps more genuinely than either school or {45} newspaper
+could, an educational influence on his flock not unworthy of the mother
+country.  Here and there the ties, which still remained strong, between
+Canadian settlements and the districts in Scotland whence the settlers
+were drawn, proved useful aids in church extension.  Lanark, in Upper
+Canada, owed its church to the efforts of friends in Lanarkshire, in
+Scotland, who collected no less a sum than Ł290 for the purpose.[47]
+
+But the religious life of Canada was assisted by another less official
+force, the Methodist Church.  Methodism in its earlier days incurred
+the reproach of being rather American than British, and, in one of his
+most unjustifiable perversions of the truth, Strachan tried to make the
+fact tell against the sect, in his notorious table of ecclesiastical
+statistics.  Undoubtedly there was a stronger American element in the
+Methodist connection than in either of the other churches; and its
+spirit lent itself more readily to American innovations.  Its fervent
+methods drew from the ranks of colder churches the more emotional, and
+being freer and homelier in its ritual, it appealed very directly to a
+rude and half-educated community.  Thus the Methodist preachers made
+{46} rapid headway, more especially in regions untouched by the
+official churches.
+
+In the representative man of early Canadian Methodism, Egerton Ryerson,
+qualities conspicuously British and conservative, appeared.  Through
+him Methodism came forward as the supporter of the British connection
+in the Metcalfe troubles, as through him it may claim some of the glory
+of organizing an adequate system of provincial education.  But, after
+all, the noblest work of the sect was done in informal and irregular
+fashion.  They were the pioneers and _coureurs du bois_ of the British
+province in the religious world.  Perhaps the most genuine tribute paid
+to this earlier phase of Methodism was that of John Beverley Robinson,
+when his fellow Anglicans blamed him in 1842 for granting a plot of
+ground for a Methodist chapel.  "Frequently," he retorted, "in the most
+lonely parts of the wilderness, in townships where a clergyman of the
+Church of England had never been heard, and probably never seen, I have
+found the population assembled in some log building, earnestly engaged
+in acts of devotion, and listening to those doctrines and truths which
+are inculcated in common by most Christian denominations, but which, if
+it had not been for {47} the ministration of dissenting preachers,
+would for thirty years have been but little known, if at all, to the
+greater part of the inhabitants of the interior of Upper Canada."[48]
+Still the Canadian Methodist Church did not occupy so conspicuous a
+place in the official public life of Canada, and in Sydenham's
+Legislative Council of 1841, out of twenty-four members, eight
+represented Anglicanism, eight Presbyterianism, eight Catholicism, and
+Methodism had to find lowlier places for its political leaders.[49]
+
+Hitherto religion has been viewed in its social and spiritual aspects.
+But Canadian history has, with perhaps over-emphasis, selected one
+great controversy as the central point in the religious life of the
+province.  It is not my intention to enter here into the wearisome
+details of the Clergy Reserve question.  But the fight over the
+establishment principle forms an essential factor in the social and
+political life of Canada between 1839 and 1854, the year in which it
+was finally settled.  It is first necessary to discriminate between
+what may be called casual and incidental support to churches in Canada,
+and the main Clergy Reserve {48} fund.  When Dr. Black challenged, in
+the interests of Presbyterianism, certain monies paid to Anglican
+churches in Upper and Lower Canada, he was able to point to direct
+assistance given by the Imperial Parliament to the Anglican Church in
+Canada.  He was told in answer that these grants were temporarily made
+to individuals with whose lives they terminated, and that a pledge had
+been given in 1832 that Britain should be relieved of such
+expenses.[50]  In a similar fashion, when the district of Perth, in
+Upper Canada, was settled by discharged soldiers and emigrants from
+Scotland, "Government offered assistance for the support of a minister,
+_without respect to religious denomination_," and, as a matter of fact,
+the community thus assisted to a clergyman, received, not a minister of
+the Church of Scotland, but one ordained by the Secession Church in
+Scotland--a curious but laudable example of laxity on the part of
+government.[51]
+
+The root and ground of offending lay in the thirty-sixth and following
+clauses of the Constitutional Act of 1791, which proposed to support
+{49} and maintain a Protestant clergy in the provinces by grants of
+land, equal in value to the seventh part of lands granted for other
+purposes.  On the face of it, and interpreted by the clauses which
+follow, the Act seems to bear out the Anglican contention that the
+English Church establishment received an extension to Canada through
+the Act, and that no other church was expected to receive a share.  It
+is true that the legal decision of 1819, and the views of colonial
+secretaries like Glenelg, admitted at least the Scottish Church to a
+portion of the benefits.  But for the purposes of the situation in
+1839, it is merely necessary to say that a British parliament in 1791,
+ignorant of actual colonial conditions, and more especially of the
+curious ecclesiastical developments with which the American colonies
+had modified the British system before 1776, and probably forgetful of
+the claims of the Church of Scotland to parliamentary recognition, had
+given Canada the beginnings of an Anglican Church establishment; and
+that the Anglicans in Canada, and more especially those led by Dr. John
+Strachan, had more than fulfilled the sectarian and monopolist
+intentions of the legislators.
+
+Three schools of opinion formed themselves in {50} the intervening
+years.  First and foremost came the establishment men, mainly Anglican,
+but with a certain Presbyterian following, who claimed to monopolize
+the benefits, such as they were, of the Clergy Reserve funds.  Canada
+as a British colony was bound to support the one or two state churches
+of the mother country; religious inequality was to flourish there as at
+home; dissent was to receive the same stigma and disqualification, and
+the dominant church or churches were to live, not by the efforts of
+their members, but at the expense of all citizens of the state, whether
+Anglican, Presbyterian, or Methodist.  This phase of opinion received
+its most offensive expression from leaders like the Bishop of Toronto.
+To these monopolists, any modification of the Anglican settlement
+seemed a "tyrannical and unjust measure," and they adopted an
+ecclesiastical arrogance towards their fellow-Christians, which did
+much to alienate popular sympathies throughout the province.
+
+At the other extreme was a solid mass of public sentiment which had
+little interest in the ecclesiastical theories of the Bishop of
+Toronto, and which resented alike attempts to convert the provincial
+university into an Anglican college, and the cumbrous and unjust form
+of church establishment, {51} the most obvious evidence of which lay in
+the undeveloped patches of Clergy Reserve land scattered everywhere
+throughout the settlements.  It was the undoubted desire of a majority
+in 1840 that the Clergy Reserve system should be ended, the former
+reserves sold, and the proceeds applied to educational and general
+purposes; a desire which had been registered in the House of Assembly
+on fourteen different occasions since 1826.[52]  The case for the
+voluntary principle in Canada had many exponents, but these words of
+Dr. John Rolph in 1836 express the spirit of the movement in both its
+strength and its weakness: "Instead of making a State provision for any
+one or more churches; instead of apportioning the Clergy Reserves among
+them with a view to promoting Christianity; instead of giving pensions
+and salaries to ministers to make them independent of voluntary
+contributions from the people, I would studiously avoid that policy,
+and leave truth unfettered and unimpeded to make her own conquests....
+The professions of law and physic are well represented in this
+Assembly, and bear ample testimony to the generosity of the people
+towards them.  Will good, pious and evangelical ministers of our holy
+religion be likely to {52} fare worse than the physicians of the body,
+or the agents for our temporal affairs?  Let gospel ministers, as the
+Scriptures say, live by the gospel, and the apostolic maxim that the
+workman is worthy of his hire implies the performance of duty rewarded
+temporarily by those who impose it.  There is no fear that the
+profession will become extinct for want of professors."[53]
+
+Between the extremes, however, there existed a group of moderate
+politicians, represented, in the Upper Province by Baldwin, in the
+Lower by La Fontaine, and among British statesmen apparently by both
+Sydenham and Elgin.  Especially among its Canadian members, this group
+felt keenly the desirability of supporting religion, as it struggled
+through the difficulties inevitably connected with early colonial life.
+But neither Baldwin, who was a devoted Anglican, nor La Fontaine, a
+faithful son of his Church, showed any tinge of Strachan's bitterness
+as they considered the question; and nothing impressed Canadian opinion
+more than did La Fontaine's speech, in a later phase of the Clergy
+Reserve troubles, when he solemnly renounced on behalf of his
+coreligionists any chance of stealing an advantage while the
+Protestants {53} were quarrelling, and when he stated his opinion that
+the endowment belonged to the Protestant clergy, and should be shared
+equally among them.  It was this school of thought---to anticipate
+events by a year or two--which received the sanction of Sydenham's
+statesmanship, and that energetic mind never accomplished anything more
+notable than when, in the face of a strong secularizing feeling, to the
+justification for which he was in no way blind, he repelled the party
+of monopoly, and yet retained the endowment for the Protestant churches
+of Canada.  "The Clergy Reserves," he wrote in a private letter, "have
+been, and are, the great overwhelming grievance--the root of all the
+troubles of the province, the cause of the Rebellion--the never-failing
+watchword at the hustings--the perpetual source of discord, strife, and
+hatred.  Not a man of any party but has told me that the greatest boon
+which could be conferred on the country would be that they should be
+swept into the Atlantic, and that nobody should get them.  My Bill[54]
+has gone through the Assembly by a considerable majority, thirty to
+twenty, and I feel confident that I can get it through the {54} Council
+without the change of a word.  If it is really carried, it is the
+greatest work that ever has been done in this country, and will be of
+more solid advantage to it than all the loans and all the troops you
+can make or send.  It is worth ten unions, and was ten times more
+difficult."[55]
+
+It is a melancholy comment on the ecclesiastical interpretation of
+religion that, ten years later, when the firmly expressed desires of
+all moderate men had given the Bishop of Toronto a good excuse for
+acquiescence in Sydenham's _status quo_, that pugnacious ecclesiastic
+still fought to save as much of the monopoly as could be secured.[56]
+
+With the Clergy Reserve dispute, the region of politics has been
+reached; and, after all, politics furnished the most powerful influence
+in the young Canadian community.  But politics must be taken less in
+the constitutional sense, as has been the custom with Canadian writers,
+and more in the social and human sense.  It is important also to note
+the broad stretches of Canadian existence {55} into which they hardly
+intruded.  Political questions found few exponents among the pioneers
+as they cleared the forests, or gathered lumber for the British market,
+or pushed far to the west and north in pursuit of furs.  Even the
+Rebellion, when news of it reached Strickland and his fellow-settlers
+in the Peterborough country, came to them less as part of a prolonged
+struggle in which they all were taking part, than as an abnormal
+incident, to be ended outright by loyal strength.  They hardly seem to
+have thought that any liberties of theirs were really endangered.  When
+Mackenzie himself complained that instead of entering Toronto with four
+or five thousand men, he found himself at the head of a poor two
+hundred, he does not seem to have realized that, even had his
+fellow-conspirators not mismanaged things, it would still have been
+difficult to keep hard-working settlers keyed up to the pitch of
+revolutionary and abstract doctrines.[57]  There must have been many
+settlers of the temper of the humble Scottish janitor in Queen's
+College, Kingston, who wrote, in the midst of the struggle of parties
+in 1851: "For my part I never trouble my head about one of them.
+Although the polling-house was just across {56} the street, I never
+went near it."[58]  In the cities, however, and along the main lines of
+communication, the interest must have been keen, and the country
+undoubtedly attained its manhood as it struggled towards the solution
+of questions like those of the Clergy Reserves, the financing of the
+colony, the regulation of trade and immigration, and, above all others,
+the definition of responsible government.
+
+Something has already been said of the various political groups in the
+colony, for they corresponded roughly to the different strata of
+settlement--French, Loyalist, and men of the later immigration.  It is
+true, as Sydenham and Elgin pointed out, that the British party names
+hardly corresponded to local divisions--and that these divisions were
+really too petty to deserve the name of parties.  Yet it would be
+foolish to deny the actual existence of the groups, or to refuse to see
+in their turbulence and strife the beginning of national
+self-consciousness, and the first stage in a notable political
+development.
+
+Most conspicuous among the political forces, because the bond of party
+union was for them {57} something deeper than opinion, and must be
+called racial, was the French-Canadian group, with the whole weight of
+_habitant_ support behind it.  From the publication of Lord Durham's
+_Report_, through the Sydenham regime, and down till Sir Charles Bagot
+surrendered to their claims, the French politicians presented an
+unbroken and hostile front to the British community.  Colborne had
+repressed their risings at the point of the bayonet; a Whig government
+had deprived them temporarily of free institutions; Durham--their
+friend after his fashion--had bidden them be absorbed into the greater
+British community; Sydenham came to enforce what Durham had suggested;
+and, with each new check, their pride had grown more stubborn and their
+nationalism more intense.  Bagot, who understood them and whom they
+came to trust, may be allowed to describe their characteristics,
+through the troubled first years of union: "On Lord Sydenham's
+arrival," he wrote to Stanley, "he found the Lower Province deprived of
+a constitution, the legislative functions of the government being
+administered by a special council, consisting of a small number of
+members nominated by the Crown.  A large portion of the people, at
+least those of French origin, prostrate under {58} the effects of the
+Rebellion, overawed by the power of Great Britain, and excluded from
+all share in the government, had resigned themselves to a sullen and
+reluctant submission, or to a perverse but passive resistance to the
+government.  This temper was not improved by the passing of the Act of
+Union.  In this measure, heedless of the generosity of the Imperial
+government, in overlooking their recent disaffection, and giving them a
+free and popular constitution, ... they apprehended a new instrument of
+subjection, and accordingly prepared to resist it.  Lord Sydenham found
+them in this disposition, and despairing, from its early
+manifestations, of the possibility of overcoming or appeasing it,
+before the period at which it would be necessary to put in force the
+Act of Union, he determined upon evincing his indifference to it, and
+upon taking steps to carry out his views, in spite of the opposition of
+the French party....  They have from that time declared and evinced
+their hostility to the Union ... and have maintained a consistent,
+united, and uncompromising opposition to the government which was
+concerned in carrying it into execution."[59]
+
+To describe the French in politics, it has been {59} necessary to
+advance a year or two beyond 1839, for the Rebellion had terminated one
+phase of their political existence, and the characteristics of the next
+phase did not become apparent till the Union Assembly of 1841 and 1842.
+It was indeed an abnormal form of the national and racial question
+which there presented itself.  French Canada found itself represented
+by a party, over twenty in number, the most compact in the House of
+Assembly, and with _la nation Canadienne_ solidly behind them.  In La
+Fontaine, Viger, Morin and others, it had leaders both skilful and
+fully trusted.  Yet the party of the British supremacy quoted Durham
+and others in favour of a plan for the absorption of French Canada in
+the British element; and the same party could recount, with telling
+effect, the past misdeeds, or at least the old suspicions, connected
+with the names of the French leaders.  Misunderstood, and yet half
+excusably misunderstood; self-governing, and yet deprived of many of
+the legitimate consequences and fruits of self-government; without
+places or honours, and yet coherent, passionately French, and
+competently led, the French party stood across the path of Canadian
+peace, menacing, and with a racial rather than a party threat.
+
+{60}
+
+In the Upper Province, the party in possession, the so-called Family
+Compact group, posed as the only friends of Britain.  They had never
+possessed more than an accidental majority in the Lower House, and,
+since Durham's rule, it seemed likely that their old supremacy in the
+Executive and Legislative Councils had come to an end.  Yet as their
+power receded, their language became the more peremptory, and their
+contempt for other groups the more bitter.  One of the most respectable
+of the group, J. S. Cartwright, frankly confessed that he thought his
+fellow-colonists unfit for any extension of self-government "in a
+country where almost universal suffrage prevails, where the great mass
+of the people are uneducated, and where there is but little of that
+salutary influence which hereditary rank and great wealth exercise in
+Great Britain."[60]  Their position had an apparent but unreal
+strength, because they knew that the older type of Colonial official,
+the entire British Conservative party, and the Church of England, at
+home and abroad, supported them.  As late as July, 1839, Arthur, the
+representative of the Crown in Upper Canada, could write thus to his
+government concerning more than half the {61} population under his
+authority: "There is a considerable section of persons who are disloyal
+to the core; reform is on their lips, but separation is in their
+hearts.  These people having for the last two or three years made a
+'responsible government' their watch-word, are now extravagantly elated
+because the Earl of Durham has recommended that measure.  They regard
+it as an unerring means to get rid of all British connection, while the
+Earl of Durham, on the contrary, has recommended it as a measure for
+cementing the existing bond of union with the mother country."[61]
+
+Their programme was precise and consistent.  The influence of a too
+democratic franchise was to be modified by a Conservative upper house,
+and an executive council, chosen not in accordance with popular wishes,
+but from the class--their own--which had so long been dominant in the
+executive.  The British connection depended, in their view, on the
+permanent alliance between their group and whatsoever representative
+the British crown might send to Canada.  French Canadian feeling they
+were prepared to repress as a thing rebellious and un-English, and the
+{62} friends of the French in Upper Canada they regarded very much as a
+South African might the Englishman who should be prepared to strengthen
+his political position by an alliance with the native peoples; although
+events were to prove that, when other elements of self-interest
+dictated a different course, they were not unwilling to co-operate in
+the interests of disorder with the French.  In ecclesiastical affairs,
+they supported the establishment of an Anglican Church in Canada, and
+insulted religion never found more eloquent defenders than did the
+Clergy Reserve establishment at the hands of Sir Allan MacNab, the
+Conservative leader, and his allies.  But events and their own factious
+excesses had broken their power.  They had allowed nothing for the
+possibilities of political education, in a land where the poorest had
+infinite chances of gaining independence.  They scorned democracy at a
+time when nothing else in politics had a stable future; and the country
+naturally distrusted constitutional logicians whose conclusions
+invariably landed them in the sole possession of emoluments and place.
+Sydenham's quick eye foresaw the coming rout, and it was his opinion,
+before the Assembly of 1841 came to make matters certain, that moderate
+men would overturn the {63} sway of old Toryism, and that the wild
+heads under MacNab would stultify themselves by their foolish
+conduct.[62]
+
+In Upper Canada, the Conservative and Family Compact group had to face
+a vigorous Reforming opposition.  It is well, however, after 1838, to
+discriminate between any remnants of the old Mackenzie school, and the
+men under whom Canada was to secure unrestricted self-government.  The
+truth is that the situation up to 1837 had been too abnormal to permit
+the constitutional radicals to show themselves in their true character.
+Mackenzie himself, in the rather abject letter with which he sought
+reinstatement in 1848, admitted the falsity of his old position: "Had I
+seen things in 1837 as I do in 1848, I would have shuddered at the very
+idea of revolt, no matter what our wrongs might have been.  I ought, as
+a Scotsman, to have stood by the government in America to the last;
+exerted any energy I possessed to make it better, more just, more
+perfect; left it for a time, if too oppressive, but never tried, as I
+did, to put it down."[63]  Mackenzie's ideal, discovered {64} by him
+too late to be very useful, was actually that of the Reforming
+Loyalists who refused to indulge in treason in 1837, but who determined
+to secure their ends by peaceful persuasion.  Their leader in public
+affairs was Robert Baldwin, whose career and opinions may be more fitly
+considered at a later point, and Francis Hincks expounded their views
+in his paper _The Examiner_.  They were devoted adherents of the
+Responsible Government school; that is, they desired to have provincial
+cabinets, not simply chosen so that they might not conflict with public
+opinion, but imposed upon the governor by public opinion through its
+representatives in the House of Assembly.  They had for years protested
+against the Clergy Reserves monopoly, and although Baldwin seems always
+to have favoured the retention of some form of assistance to religion,
+the ordinary reformer was vehement for absolute secularization.
+Sydenham when he came, refused to admit that the British party names
+were anything but misnomers in Canada; and yet Hincks was not singular
+among the reformers when he said that he had been in favour of all the
+measures advocated by the British progressives--Catholic Emancipation,
+the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, Abolition of {65} Slavery,
+and Parliamentary Reform.[64]  Their relation to the French was
+curious.  Unlike the French, they were usually strong advocates of a
+union of the two provinces, and they sympathized neither with
+Papineau's doctrinaire republicanism, nor with the sullen negative
+hatred of things British which then possessed so many minds in Lower
+Canada.  But grievances still unredressed created a fellow-feeling with
+the French, and from 1839 until 1842 the gradual formation of an
+Anglo-French reforming _bloc_, under Baldwin and La Fontaine, was one
+of the most notable developments in Canadian political life.
+
+After the Union, as before it, the political life of Canada was
+characterized by a readiness to resort to violence, and a lack of
+political good manners, which contrasted painfully with the eloquent
+phrases and professions of the orators on either side.  The earliest
+impression which the first governor-general of the Union received of
+politics in his province was one of disorder and mismanagement.  "You
+can form no idea of the manner in which a Colonial Parliament transacts
+its business," Poulett Thomson wrote from Toronto, in 1839.  "When they
+came to their own affairs, {66} and, above all, to the money matters,
+there was a scene of confusion and riot of which no one in England can
+have any idea.  Every man proposes a vote for his own job, and bills
+are introduced without notice, and carried through all their stages in
+a quarter of an hour."[65]  The first efforts in the struggle for
+responsible government were rendered needlessly irritating by the
+absence of that spirit of courteous moderation which usually
+characterizes the proceedings of the Imperial Parliament.  The
+relations between the governor and his ministers, at the best
+difficult, were made impossible for a man like Metcalfe by the
+ill-mannered disdain with which, as all the citizens of his capital
+knew, the cabinet spoke of their official head; and in debate the
+personal element played far too prominent a part.  In all the early
+Union assemblies, too, the house betrayed its inexperience by passing
+rapidly from serious constitutional questions to petty jobs and
+quarrels, and as rapidly back again to first principles.  There was a
+general failure to see the risk run by too frequent discussions on
+fundamentals, and much of the bitterness of party strife would have
+been avoided if the rival parties could have prosecuted their {67}
+adverse operations by slower and more scientific approaches.
+
+The warmth of feeling and the disorder exhibited in the councils of
+state and the assembly, met with a ready response in the country.  It
+is only fair to say that many of the gravest disturbances were caused
+by recent immigrants, more especially by the Irish labourers on the
+canals in the neighbourhood of Montreal.[66]  But the whole community
+must share in the discredit.  The days had not yet ceased when
+political bills called on adherents of one or other party to assemble
+"with music and good shillelaghs";[67] and indeed the decade from 1840
+to 1850 was distinctly one of political rioting.  The election of 1841
+was disgraced, more especially in Lower Canada, by very violent strife.
+In 1843 an Act was deemed necessary "to provide for the calling and
+orderly holding of public meetings in this province and for the better
+preservation of the public peace thereat."[68]  In the Montreal
+election of April, 1844, Metcalfe accused both his former
+inspector-general and the reform candidate of using inflammatory and
+reckless language, and {68} certainly both then and in November
+disgraceful riots made the elections no true register of public
+sentiment.  At the very end of the decade, the riots caused by the
+passing of the "Rebellion Losses" Act, organized, it must be
+remembered, by the so-called loyal party, endangered the life of a
+governor-general, and made Montreal no longer possible as the seat of
+government.  One may perhaps over-estimate the importance of these
+details; for, after all, the communal life of Canada was yet in its
+extreme youth, and in England itself there were still remnants of the
+old eighteenth century disorders, with hints of the newer
+revolutionism.  Their importance is rather that they complicated the
+task of adjusting imperial standards to suit Canadian self-government,
+and introduced unnecessary errors into the conduct of affairs by the
+provincial statesmen.
+
+It was obvious then that the United Provinces of Canada had, in 1839,
+still some distance to travel before their social, religious, and
+political organization could be regarded as satisfactory.  Individually
+and collectively poor, the citizens of Canada required direct aid from
+the resources of the mother country.  Material improvements in roads
+and canals, the introduction of steam, {69} the organization of labour,
+were immediately necessary.  Education in all its stages must receive
+encouragement and recognition.  Religion must be freed from the
+encumbrance of a vexatious controversy.  Municipal institutions and
+local government had still to be introduced to teach the people the
+elements of self-government; and a broader system of colonial
+legislation and administration substituted for the discredited rule of
+assemblies and councils at Toronto and Quebec.  There was racial hate
+to be quenched; and petty party jealousies to be transmuted into more
+useful political energy.  A nation was at its birth.  The problem was
+whether in Great Britain there were minds acute and imaginative enough
+to see the actual dangers; generous enough not to be dissuaded from
+trying to avert them by any rudeness on the part of those who were
+being assisted; prophetic enough to recognize that Anglo-Saxon
+communities, whether at home or across the seas, will always claim the
+right to govern themselves, and that to such self-government none but
+the community actually affected may set a limit.
+
+
+
+[1] Robinson, _Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson_, Bart., pp. 75-6.
+
+[2] _Report of the Agent for Emigration_, Toronto, January, 1841.  "The
+passage extended to seven complete weeks," writes a Scottish settler,
+Robert Campbell, in 1840, "and to tell the truth we were weary enough
+of it."  MS. letter, _penes me_.
+
+[3] _Conditions and Prospects of Canada in 1854_, London, 1855.
+
+[4] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, pp. 141-2.
+
+[5] Richardson, _Eight Years in Canada_, p. 117.
+
+[6] See an interesting letter of January, 1838 in Christie, _History of
+Lower Canada_, v. 109.
+
+[7] _Lord Durham's Report_, Appendix B. (ed. by Lucas), iii. p. 84.
+
+[8] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, p. 453.
+Metcalfe undoubtedly overestimates the influence of these men, as
+compared with the church, over the habitant class.
+
+[9] _Lord Durham's Report_ (ed. by Lucas), Appendix D, iii. p. 284.
+
+[10] _Ibid_. p. 267.
+
+[11] M'Taggart, _Three Years in Canada_, i. p. 249.
+
+[12] Kaye, _op. cit._ p. 407.
+
+[13] Mrs. Jameson, _States and Rambles in Canada_, vol. ii. p. 189.
+
+[14] Strickland, _Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West_, vol. i. p. 135.
+
+[15] _Lord Durham's Report_, ii. pp. 242-59.
+
+[16] M'Taggart, ii. pp. 242-5.
+
+[17] See a despatch of Lord Metcalfe on the effect of Irish agitation
+on the tranquillity of Canada, Kaye, _op. cit._ pp. 432-4.
+
+[18] Censuses of Canada (1665-1871), vol. iv.; _Appendix to the First
+Report of the Board of Registration and Statistics_ (1849); _A
+Statement of the Population of Canada_ (1848).
+
+[19] M'Taggart, _op. cit._ i. p. 35.
+
+[20] _Lord Durham's Report_, Appendix A.  Sir Charles Lucas has not
+included this appendix in his edition.
+
+[21] _Ibid._ (ed. Lucas), iii. p. 220.
+
+[22] Mrs. Jameson, _Studies and Rambles in Canada_, i. p. 98.
+
+[23] _A Long-treasured Letter_, from _Matthew Fowlds and Other Fenwick
+Worthies_, Kilmarnock, 1910, pp. 205-11.
+
+[24] Strickland, _Twenty Seven Years in Canada West_, i. p. 35.
+
+[25] M'Taggart, _op. cit._ i. p. 201.
+
+[26] This statement I modify below in dealing with the violence which
+disfigured political life in Canada at this time.
+
+[27] _Passim _in descriptions of the Canadian Indians, and the
+North-West.
+
+[28] _Lord Durham's Report_, ii. p. 125 n.
+
+[29] See local news in the early volumes of _The Montreal Witness_.
+
+
+[30] I have accepted Durham's, rather than Metcalfe's estimate of the
+influence of the Roman Catholic church in Canada.  The latter may be
+found in a despatch to Stanley, entitled by Kaye, "State of Parties in
+1845" (Kaye, _op. cit._ p. 449).
+
+[31] Hodgins, _Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada_, iii.
+p. 298.
+
+[32] MS. letter, 5 December, 1842.
+
+[33] Bell, _Hints to Emigrants_, p. 125.
+
+[34] Hodgins, _Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada_, iii.
+p. 266.
+
+[35] _Ibid._ p. 249.
+
+[36] _Memorials of the Rev. John Machar_, D.D., p. 62.
+
+[37] Bagot Correspondence, in the Canadian Archives, _passim_.
+
+[38] _Montreal Gazette_, 8 October, 1839.
+
+[39] _Memorials of the Rev. John Machar_, p. 77.
+
+[40] A strong, probably exaggerated, opinion exists among the older
+members of the Canadian community that, while information and
+specialization have grown, culture has retreated from the standards set
+for it by the former school of English and Scottish college instructors.
+
+[41] "The amount of postage paid by newspapers would be a fair
+indication of their circulation....  The postage on the _Christian
+Guardian_ was Ł228, which exceeded by Ł6 the aggregate postage on the
+following newspapers: _Colonial Advocate_, Ł57; _The Courier_, Ł45;
+_Watchman_, Ł24; _Brockville Recorder_, Ł16; _Brockville Gazette_, Ł6;
+_Niagara Gleaner_, Ł17; _Hamilton Free Press_, Ł11; _Kingston Herald_,
+Ł11; _Kingston Chronicle_, Ł10; _Perth Examiner_, Ł10; _Patriot_, Ł6;
+_St. Catherine's Journal_, Ł6; _York Observer_, Ł3."--Egerton Ryerson,
+_Story of My Life_, p. 144.
+
+[42] _The Montreal Witness_, December, 1845.  "We do not mean to
+criticize those prohibitory regulations, but, however good their
+motives, the effect has been to girdle the tree of knowledge in Canada,
+by shutting out the people from the only available supplies of books."
+
+[43] _Lord Durham's Report_, ii. p. 138.
+
+[44] Strachan, _A Journal of Visitation to the Western Portion of his
+Diocese_ (1842).  Third edition, London, 1846.
+
+[45] _Memorial of the Rev. E. Black, D.D., to the Secretary of State
+for the Colonies_.
+
+[46] _Memorials of the Rev. J. Machar, D.D._, p. 38.
+
+[47] Bell, _Hints to Emigrants_, p. 86.
+
+[48] Robinson, _Life of Sir J. B. Robinson_, p. 179.
+
+[49] Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, i. p. 109.
+
+[50] Sir G. Grey to the Rev. E. Black, 25 March, 1837, in
+_Correspondence relating to the Churches of England and Scotland in
+Canada_ (15 April, 1840).
+
+[51] Bell, _Hints to Emigrants_, p. 101.
+
+[52] Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell, 22 January, 1840.
+
+[53] Quoted from Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. p. 192.
+
+[54] That is, his bill for dividing the Reserves in certain proportions
+among the churches.
+
+[55] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, pp. 160-1.
+
+[56] See the Elgin-Grey Correspondence (Canadian Archives) for the year
+1850.
+
+[57] Christie, _History of Lower Canada_, v. pp. 113-14.
+
+[58] _Faithful unto Death, a Memorial of John Anderson, late Janitor of
+Queen's College_, p. 26.
+
+[59] Sir Charles Bagot to Lord Stanley, 26 September, 1842.
+
+[60] Bagot Correspondence: Cartwright to Bagot, 16 May, 1842.
+
+[61] Arthur to Normanby, 2 July, 1839.
+
+[62] Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell, 23 February, 1841.
+
+[63] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: W. L. Mackenzie to Major Campbell, 14
+February, 1848.
+
+[64] Hincks, _Reminiscences_, p. 15.
+
+[65] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, p. 165.
+
+[66] See, for example, a despatch--Metcalfe to Stanley, 24 June,
+1843--descriptive of troubles on the Beauharnois Canal.
+
+[67] A bill of 1833, _penes me_.
+
+[68] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 December, 1843.
+
+
+
+
+{70}
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM.
+
+Between 1839 and 1854, four governors-general exercised authority over
+Canada, the Right Honourable Charles Poulett Thomson, later Lord
+Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, Charles, Lord Metcalfe, and the Earl of
+Elgin.[1]  Their statesmanship, their errors, the accidents which
+modified their policies, and the influence of their decisions and
+despatches on British cabinets, constitute on the whole the most
+important factor in the creation of the modern Canadian theory of
+government.  In consequence, their conduct with reference to colonial
+autonomy and all the questions therewith connected, demands the most
+careful and detailed treatment.
+
+When Lord John Russell, then leader of the House of Commons, and
+Secretary of State for the {71} Colonies, selected a new
+governor-general of Canada to complete the work begun by Durham, he
+entrusted to him an elaborate system of government, most of it
+experimental and as yet untried.  He was to superintend the completion
+of that Union between Upper and Lower Canada, which Durham had so
+strenuously advocated; and the Union was to be the centre of a general
+administrative reconstruction.  The programme outlined in Russell's
+instructions proposed "a legislative union of the two provinces, a just
+regard to the claims of either province in adjusting the terms of that
+union, the maintenance of the three Estates of the Provincial
+Legislature, the settlement of a permanent Civil List for securing the
+independence of the judges, and, to the executive government, that
+freedom of action which is necessary for the public good, and the
+establishment of a system of local government by representative bodies,
+freely elected in the various cities and rural districts."[2]  In
+attaining these ends, all of them obviously to the advantage of the
+colony, the Colonial Secretary desired to consult, and, as far as
+possible, to defer to Canadian public opinion.[3]
+
+{72}
+
+Nevertheless, Lord John Russell had no sooner entered upon his
+administrative reforms, than he found himself face to face with a
+fundamental constitutional difficulty.  He proposed to play the part of
+a reformer in Canada; but the majority of reformers in that province
+added to his programme the demand for executive councils, not merely
+sympathetic to popular claims, but responsible to the representatives
+of the people in a Canadian Parliament.  Now according to all the
+traditions of imperial government a demand so far-reaching involved the
+disruption of the empire, and ended the connection between Canada and
+England.  To this general objection the British minister added a
+subtler point in constitutional law.  To yield to colonial reforming
+ideas would be to contradict the existing conventions of the
+constitution.  "The power for which a minister is responsible in
+England," he wrote to his new governor, "is not his own power, but the
+power of the crown, of which he is for the time the organ.  It is
+obvious that the executive councillor of a colony is in a situation
+totally different....  Can the colonial council be the advisers of the
+crown of England?  Evidently not, for the crown has other advisers for
+the same functions, and with {73} superior authority.  It may happen,
+therefore, that the governor receives, at one and the same time,
+instructions from the Queen and advice from his executive council
+totally at variance with each other.  If he is to obey his instructions
+from England, the parallel of constitutional responsibility entirely
+fails; if, on the other hand, he is to follow the advice of his
+council, he is no longer a subordinate officer, but an independent
+sovereign."[4]  The governor-general, then, was in no way to concede to
+the Canadian assembly a responsibility and power which resided only in
+the British ministry.
+
+At the same time large concessions, in spirit if not in letter, helped
+to modify the rigour of this constitutional doctrine.  "I have not
+drawn any specific line," Russell wrote at the end of the despatch
+already quoted, "beyond which the power of the governor on the one
+hand, and the privileges of the assembly on the other, ought not to
+extend....  The governor must only oppose the wishes of the assembly
+when the honour of the crown, or the interests of the empire, are
+deeply concerned; and the assembly must be ready to modify {74} some of
+its measures for the sake of harmony, and from a reverent attachment to
+the authority of Great Britain."
+
+Two days later, an even more important modification than was contained
+in this exhortation to charity and opportunism was proposed.  It had
+been the chief grievance in both provinces that the executive positions
+in Canada had been filled with men who held them as permanencies, and
+in spite of the clamour of public opinion against them.  Popular
+representative rights had been more than counterbalanced by entire
+executive irresponsibility.  A despatch, nominally of general
+application to British colonies, but, under the circumstances, of
+special importance to the United Provinces of Canada, changed the
+status of colonial executive offices: "You will understand, and will
+cause it to be generally known, that hereafter the tenure of colonial
+offices held during her Majesty's pleasure, will not be regarded as
+equivalent to a tenure during good behaviour, but that not only such
+officers will be called upon to retire from the public service as often
+as any sufficient motives of public policy may suggest the expediency
+of that measure, but that a change in the person of the governor will
+be considered as a sufficient reason for any {75} alterations which his
+successor may deem it expedient to make in the list of public
+functionaries, subject of course to the future confirmation of the
+Sovereign.  These remarks do not apply to judicial offices, nor are
+they meant to apply to places which are altogether ministerial and
+which do not devolve upon the holders of them duties in the right
+discharge of which the character and policy of the government are
+directly involved.  They are intended to apply rather to the heads of
+departments, than to persons serving as clerks or in similar capacities
+under them; neither do they extend to officers in the service of the
+Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.  The functionaries who will be
+chiefly, though not exclusively, affected by them are the Colonial
+Secretary, the Treasurer or Receiver-General, the Surveyor-General, the
+Attorney and Solicitor-General, the Sheriff or Provost Marshal, and
+other officers who, under different designations from these, are
+entrusted with the same or similar duties.  To this list must also be
+added the Members of the Council, especially in those colonies in which
+the Executive and Legislative Councils are distinct bodies."[5]
+
+{76}
+
+The importance of this general circular of October 16th is that, at a
+time when the Colonial Secretary was exhorting the new governor-general
+to part with none of his prerogatives, and in a colony where public
+opinion was importuning with some persistence for a more popular
+executive, one of the best excuses for withholding from the people
+their desires was removed.  The representative of the crown in
+consequence found himself with a new and not altogether comfortable
+opportunity for exercising his freedom of choice.
+
+It fell to Charles Poulett Thomson, President of the Board of Trade in
+the Whig ministry, to carry out the Union of the two Canadian
+provinces, and to administer them in accordance with this doctrine of
+modified autonomy.  The choice of the government seemed both wise and
+foolish.  Poulett Thomson had had an admirable training for the work.
+In a colony where trade and commerce were almost everything, he brought
+not Durham's aristocratic detachment but a real knowledge of commerce,
+since his was a great mercantile family.  In Parliament, he had become
+a specialist in the financial and economic issues, which had already
+displaced the diplomatic or purely political questions of the last
+generation.  {77} His speeches on the revision of taxes, the corn laws,
+and British foreign trade, proved that, in a utilitarian age, he knew
+the science of utilities and had freed himself from bureaucratic red
+tape.  His parliamentary career too had taught him the secret of the
+management of assemblies, and Canada would under him be spared the
+friction which the rigid attitude of soldiers, trained in the school of
+Wellington, had been causing throughout the British colonies for many
+years.
+
+There were, however, many who doubted whether the man had a character
+and will powerful enough to dominate the turbulent forces of Canadian
+politics.  Physically he was far from strong, and almost the first
+comment made by Canadians on him was that their new governor-general
+came to them a valetudinarian.  There seemed to be other and more
+serious elements of weakness.  Charles Greville spoke of him with just
+a tinge of good-natured contempt as "very good humoured, pleasing and
+intelligent, but the greatest coxcomb I ever saw, and the vainest dog,
+though his vanity is not offensive or arrogant";[6] and a writer in the
+_Colonial Gazette_, whose words reached Canada {78} almost on the day
+when the new governor arrived, warned Canadians of the imbecility of
+character which the world attributed to him.  "While therefore," the
+article continues, "we repeat our full conviction that Mr. Thomson is
+gone to Canada with the opinions and objects which we have here
+enumerated, let it be distinctly understood that we have little hope of
+seeing them realised, except through the united and steadfast
+determination of the Colonists to make use of him as an instrument for
+accomplishing their own ends."[7]  With such an introduction one of the
+most strongly marked personalities ever concerned with government in
+Canada entered on his work.
+
+Strange as it may seem in face of these disparaging comments, the new
+governor-general had already determined to make the assertion of his
+authority the fundamental thing in his policy, although with him
+authority always wore the velvet glove over the iron hand.  In Lower
+Canada the suspension of the constitution had already placed
+dictatorial powers in his hand; but, even in the Upper Province, he
+seemed to have expected that diplomacy would have to be supported by
+authority to compel it to come into {79} the Union; and he had no
+intention of leaving the supremacy over all British North America,
+which had been conferred on him by his title, to lie unused.  The two
+strenuous years in which he remade Canada fall into natural
+divisions--the brief episode in Lower Canada of the first month after
+his arrival; his negotiations with Upper Canada, from November, 1839,
+to February, 1840; the interregnum of 1840 which preceded the actual
+proclamation of Union, during which he returned to Montreal, visited
+the Maritime Provinces, and toured through the Upper Province; and the
+decisive months, from February till September 19th, 1841, from which in
+some sort modern Canada took its beginnings.
+
+The first month of his governorship, in which he settled the fate of
+French Canada, is of greater importance than appears on the surface.
+The problem of governing Canada was difficult, not simply because
+Britons in Canada demanded self-government, but because self-government
+must be shared with French-Canadians.  That section of the community,
+distinct as it was in traditions and political methods, might bring
+ruin on the Colony either by asserting a supremacy odious to the
+Anglo-Saxon elements of the population, or by {80} resenting the
+efforts of the British to assimilate or dominate them.  When Poulett
+Thomson landed, on October 19th, 1839, at Quebec, he was brought at
+once face to face with the relation between French nationalism and the
+constitutional resettlement of Canada.
+
+Durham had had no doubt about the true solution.  It was to confer free
+institutions on the colony, and to trust to the natural energy and
+increase of the Anglo-Saxon element to swamp French _nationalité_.  "I
+have little doubt," he said, "that the French, when once placed, by the
+legitimate course of events and the working of natural causes, in a
+minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality."[8]  It was in
+this spirit that his successor endeavoured to govern the French section
+in Canada.  Being both rationalist and utilitarian, like others of his
+school he minimized the strength of an irrational fact like racial
+pride, and, almost from the first he discounted the force of French
+opposition, while he let it, consciously or unconsciously, influence
+his behaviour towards his French subjects.  "If it were possible," he
+wrote in November, 1839, "the best thing for Lower Canada would be a
+despotism for ten years {81} more; for, in truth, the people are not
+yet fit for the higher class of self-government, scarcely indeed, at
+present, for any description of it."[9]  A few months later, his
+language had become even stronger:--"I have been back three weeks, and
+have set to work in earnest in this province.  It is a bad prospect,
+however, and presents a lamentable contrast to Upper Canada.  There
+great excitement existed; the people were quarrelling for realities,
+for political opinions and with a view to ulterior measures.  Here
+there is no such thing as a political opinion.  No man looks to a
+practical measure of improvement.  Talk to any one upon education, or
+public works, or better laws, let him be English or French, you might
+as well talk Greek to him.  Not a man cares for a single practical
+measure--the only end, one would suppose, of a better form of
+government.  They have only one feeling--a hatred of race."[10]
+
+But at the outset his task was simple.  His powers in Lower Canada, as
+he confessed on his first arrival, were of an extraordinary nature; and
+indeed it lay with him, and his Special Council, to settle the fate of
+the province.  Pushing on {82} from Quebec to Montreal, he lost no time
+in calling a meeting of the Special Council, whose members, eighteen in
+number, he purposely left unchanged from the regime of his predecessor
+On November 13th and 14th, after discussions in which the minority
+never exceeded three, that body accepted Union with the Upper Province
+in six propositions, affirming the principle of union, agreeing to the
+assimilation of the two provincial debts, and declaring it to be their
+opinion "that the present temporary legislature should, as soon as
+practicable, be succeeded by a permanent legislature, in which the
+people of these two provinces may be adequately represented, and their
+constitutional rights exercised and maintained."[11]  Before he left
+Montreal, he assured the British ministry that the large majority of
+those with whom he had spoken, English and French, in the Lower
+Province were warm advocates of Union.[12]
+
+Yet here lay his first mis judgment, and one of the most serious he
+made.  It was true and obvious that the British inhabitants of Eastern
+Canada earnestly desired a union which would promote {83} their racial
+interests; true also that a group of Frenchmen took the same point of
+view.  But the governor was guilty of a grave political error, when he
+ignored the feeling generally prevalent among the French that Union
+must be fought.  Colborne's judgment in 1839, that French aversion to
+Union was growing less, seems to have been mistaken.[13]  The British
+government, more especially in the person of Durham, had not disguised
+their intention--the destruction of French nationalism as it had
+hitherto existed.  They had taken, and were taking, the risk of
+conducting the experiment in the face of a grant of self-government to
+the doomed community; and the first governor-general of union and
+constitutionalism was now to find that French racial unity, combined
+with self-government, was too strong even for his masterful will,
+although he had all the weight of Imperial authority behind him.  But,
+for the time, Lower Canada had to be left to its council, and the
+centre of interest changed to Toronto and Upper Canada.
+
+There, although no racial troubles awaited him, the governor had to
+persuade a popular assembly before he could have his way; and there for
+the {84} first time he was made aware of the perplexing cross-currents
+and side eddies, and confusion of public opinion, which existed
+everywhere in Canadian politics.  So doubtful was the main issue that
+he debated with himself whether he should venture to meet the Assembly
+without a dissolution and election on the definite issue of the Union;
+but the need for haste, and his natural inclination to take risks, and
+to trust to his powers of management, decided him to face the existing
+local parliament.  By the end of November he had arrived at Toronto,
+and the Assembly met on December 3rd.  Two plain but difficult tasks
+lay before him: to persuade both houses of Parliament to accept his
+scheme of Union, and to arrange, on some moderate basis, the whole
+Clergy Reserve question.  To complicate these practical duties, the
+speculative problem of responsible government, long keenly canvassed in
+Toronto, and the peculiar conditions and methods of local politics, lay
+as dangerous obstacles in his path.  The manners and methods of the
+politicians of Upper Canada drew him even in his despatches into vivid
+criticism.  After a month's observation, he sent Russell a long and
+very able description of the prevailing disorders.  In spite of a
+general loyalty the people {85} had been fretted into vexations and
+petty divisions, and for the most part felt deep-rooted animosity
+towards the executive authorities.  Indeed, apart from the party bias
+of the government, its inefficiency and uncertainty had destroyed all
+public confidence in it.  Under the executive government, the authority
+of the legislative council had been exercised by a very few
+individuals, representing a mere clique in the capital, frequently
+opposed both to the government and to the Assembly, and considered by
+the people hostile to their interests.  In the lower chamber, the loss
+of public influence by the ministry had introduced absolute legislative
+chaos, and even the control over expenditure, and the examination of
+accounts, were of the loosest and most irregular character.[14]  In a
+private letter he allowed himself a freedom of expression which renders
+his description the _locus classicus_ for political conditions before
+the Union:--"The state of things here is far worse than I had expected.
+The country is split into factions animated with the most deadly hatred
+to each other.  The people have got into the way of talking so much of
+_separation_, {86} that they begin to believe in it.  The
+Constitutional party is as bad or worse than the other, in spite of all
+their professions of loyalty.  The finances are more deranged than we
+believed even in England.  The deficit, Ł75,000 a year, more than equal
+to the income.  All public works suspended.  Emigration going on fast
+_from_ the province.  Every man's property worth only half what it was.
+When I look to the state of government, and to the departmental
+administration of the province, instead of being surprised at the
+condition in which I find it, I am only astonished it has been endured
+so long.  I know that, much as I dislike Yankee institutions and rule,
+I would not have fought against them, which thousands of these poor
+fellows, whom the Compact call rebels, did, if it were only to keep up
+such a Government as they got....  Then the Assembly is such a House!
+Split into half a dozen parties.  The Government having _none--and no
+one man_ to depend on!  Think of a house in which half the members hold
+places, yet in which the Government does not command a single vote; in
+which the place-men generally vote against the Executive; and where
+there is no one to defend the Government when attacked, or {87} to
+state the opinion and views of the Governor."[15]
+
+With the eye of a political strategist, Poulett Thomson prepared his
+alternative system, a curious kind of despotism, based, however, simply
+on his own powers of influencing opinion in the House.  It was plain to
+him that the previous governments had wantonly neglected public
+opinion.[16]  It was also plain that the populace had regarded these
+governments as consisting not of the governor with his ministers under
+him, but of the Family Compact clique in place of the governor.[17]
+The system which he proposed to substitute expressed very fully his
+working theory.  Responsible government in the sweeping sense of that
+term employed by the reforming party he resisted, holding that, whether
+against his ministers, or the electors, he must be personally
+responsible for all his administrative acts.  At the same time he
+assured parliament that "he had received her Majesty's commands to
+administer the government of these provinces in accordance with the
+well-understood wishes and interests of the people, and to pay to their
+feelings, {88} as expressed through their representatives, the
+deference that is justly due to them."[18]  To secure this end, he
+called public attention to the despatch from Russell, definitely
+announcing the change of tenure of all save judicial and purely
+ministerial places, thereby making it clear that no man would be
+retained in office longer than he seemed acceptable to the governor and
+the community.  Then he set to work to build up, out of moderate men
+drawn from all groups, a party of compromise and good sense to support
+him and his ministry; and finally, he claimed for himself the central
+authority without any modifying conditions.  Concerning the ultimate
+seat of that authority he never hesitated.  Whatever power he had came
+from the Home Ministry as representing the Crown, and to them alone he
+acknowledged responsibility.  For the rest, he had to carry on the
+Queen's government; that is, to govern Canada so that peace and
+prosperity might remain unshaken; and as a first condition he had to
+defer to the wishes of the people.  But it cannot be too strongly
+re-asserted that he refused to surrender one iota of his
+responsibility, and that the ideal which he set for himself was a
+combination of governor and prime-minister.  The efficiency {89} of his
+system was to depend on the honestly benevolent intentions which the
+governor-general cherished towards the people, and on the fidelity of
+both the ministry and the parliamentary majority established and
+secured through belief in those intentions.
+
+The new system met with an astounding success.  The scheme of Union was
+laid before both Houses.  On the thirteenth of December the Council,
+which had hitherto been the chief obstacle, approved of the scheme by
+fourteen votes to eight, the minority consisting of Toronto 'die-hards'
+with the Bishop, recalcitrant as usual, at their head.  Ten days later,
+the governor-general was able to assure Russell that the Lower House
+had, after some strenuous debates and divisions, assented also; the
+only change from his own outline being an amendment that "such part of
+the civil list as did not relate to the salaries of the judges, and the
+governor, and the administration of justice, which are made permanent,
+should be granted for the lifetime of the Queen, or for a period of not
+less than ten years."[19]  On one point, not without its influence in
+embittering opinion among the French, {90} Parliament and Governor were
+agreed, that while the debates in the Union parliament might be
+conducted in either English or French, in the publication of all
+records of the Legislature the English language only should be
+adopted.[20]
+
+Swept on by this great initial success, Poulett Thomson determined if
+possible to settle the Clergy Reserve trouble out of hand.  As has been
+shown above, this ecclesiastical difficulty affected the whole life of
+the community; and its settlement would mean peace, such as Upper
+Canada had not known for a generation.  The pacificator, however, had
+to face two groups of irreconcilables, the Bishop of Toronto with his
+extremist following, and the secularizing party resolute to have done
+with any form of subsidy to religion.  As he himself confessed, he had
+little hope of succeeding in the Assembly, but he trusted to his new
+popularity, then at its spring tide, and he won.  Before the end of
+January the question had been settled on a compromise, by a majority of
+28 to 20 in the Assembly, and of 14 to 4 in the Council.  It was even
+more satisfactory to know that out of 22 members of Assembly who were
+communicants of the Church of England, only 8 {91} voted in favour of
+the _status quo_.  There was but one set-back.  Legal opinion in
+England decided that the local assembly had not powers to change the
+original act of 1791; and in the Imperial legislation which this check
+made necessary, other influences crept in, and the governor-general
+bitterly complained that the monstrous proportion allotted to the
+Church of England, and the miserable proportion set apart for other
+churches, rendered the Act only less an evil than if the question had
+been left unsettled.[21]  Still, the settlement retained existing
+reserves for religious purposes, ended the creation of fresh reserves,
+divided past sales of land between the Churches of England and of
+Scotland, and arranged for the distribution of the proceeds of future
+sales roughly in proportion to the numbers and importance of all the
+churches in Canada.  It was not an ideal arrangement, but quiet men
+were anxious to clear the obstacle from the way, and through such men
+Poulett Thomson worked his will.  It is the most striking testimony to
+the governor's power of management that, as a politician stated in
+1846, three-quarters of the people believed the arrangement unjust and
+partial, and acquiesced only because their political head desired it.
+But {92} the end was not yet, and the uneasy ambition of the Bishop of
+Toronto was in a few years to bring on his head just retribution for
+the strife his policy continued to create.  Nothing now remained but to
+close this, the last parliament of Upper Canada under the old regime,
+and the governor, who never suffered from lack of self-appreciative
+optimism, wrote home in triumph: "Never was such unanimity.  When the
+speaker read my speech in the Commons, after the prorogation, they gave
+me three cheers, in which even the ultras joined."[22]  It was perhaps
+the last remnant of this pardonable exultation which swept him over the
+360 miles between Toronto and Montreal in thirty-six hours, breaking
+all records for long-distance sleighing in the province.
+
+The primary duty of the governor had now been accomplished, for he had
+persuaded both local governments to accept an Imperial Act of Union,
+and it might seem natural to pass over the intervening months, until
+Union had been officially proclaimed, and the first Union parliament
+had been elected and had met.  But the _interregnum_ from February,
+1840, to February, 1841, must not be ignored.  In these twelve short
+months he turned {93} once again to the problem of Lower Canada,
+hurried on a short visit to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to settle
+constitutional difficulties there, returned in a kind of triumphal
+procession through the English-speaking district of Lower Canada known
+as the Eastern Townships,[23] and spent the autumn in a tour through
+the Western part of the newly united colony.  It was only fitting that
+a grateful Queen and Ministry should bestow on him a peerage;
+henceforward he must appear as Baron Sydenham of Sydenham and Toronto.
+
+But apart from these mere physical activities, he was preparing for the
+culmination of his work in the new parliament.  It must be remembered
+not only that he distrusted the intelligence and initiative of colonial
+ministers too much to dream of giving place to them, but that his
+theory of his own position--the benevolent despot, secured in his
+supremacy through popular management--forced on him an elaborate
+programme of useful administration.  He must face the new Parliament
+with a good record, and definite promises.  The failure of the home
+ministry to include the local government clauses, which formed a
+fundamental {94} part of the Union Bill, made such efforts even more
+necessary than before.  It had been plain to Durham and Charles Buller,
+as well as to Sydenham, that, if an Act of Union were to pass, it could
+only be made operative by joining to it an entirely new system of local
+government.  Accordingly, when opposition forced Russell to omit the
+essential clauses from his Act of Union, Sydenham penned one of his
+most vigorous despatches in reply.  "Owing to this (rejection), duties
+the most unfit to be discharged by the general legislature are thrown
+upon it; powers equally dangerous to the subject and to the Crown are
+assumed by the Assembly.  The people receive no training in those
+habits of self-government which are indispensable to enable them
+rightly to exercise the power of choosing representatives in
+parliament.  No field is open for the gratification of ambition in a
+narrow circle, and no opportunity given for testing the talents or
+integrity of those who are candidates for popular favour.  The people
+acquire no habits of self-dependence for the attainment of their own
+local objects.  Whatever uneasiness they may feel--whatever little
+improvement in their respective neighbourhoods may appear to be
+neglected, afford grounds for complaint against the executive.  All
+{95} is charged upon the Government, and a host of discontented spirits
+are ever ready to excite these feelings.  On the other hand, whilst the
+Government is thus brought directly in contact with the people, it has
+neither any officer in its own confidence, in the different parts of
+these extended provinces, from whom it can seek information, nor is
+there any recognized body, enjoying the public confidence, with whom it
+can communicate, either to determine what are the real wants and wishes
+of the locality, or through whom it may afford explanation."[24]
+
+Nothing could be done to remedy the evil in Upper Canada, until the new
+parliament had met, but the temporary dictatorship still remained in
+French Canada, and at once Sydenham set to work to create all that he
+wanted there, recognizing shrewdly that what had been granted in the
+Lower Province to the French must prove a powerful argument for a
+similar grant to Upper Canada, when the time should come for action.
+About the same time, he established by ordinance a popular system of
+registry offices, to simplify the difficulties introduced into land
+transfers by the French law--"all {96} the old French law of before the
+Revolution, _Hypothčques tacites et occultes_, Dowers' and Minors'
+rights, _Actes par devant notaires_, and all the horrible processes by
+which the unsuspecting are sure to be deluded, and the most wary are
+often taken in."[25]
+
+Curiously enough, although his love of good government drove him to
+amend conditions among the French, Sydenham's relations with that
+people seem to have grown steadily worse.  He had made advances to the
+foremost French politician, La Fontaine, offering him the
+solicitor-generalship of Lower Canada; but La Fontaine, who never had
+any enthusiasm for British Whig statesmanship,[26] regarded the offer
+as a bribe to draw him away from his countrymen and their national
+ideal, and declined it, thereby increasing the tension.  Thus, as the
+time for the election drew near, the French were still further
+hardening their hearts against the governor-general of United Canada,
+and Sydenham, his patience now exhausted, could but exclaim in baffled
+anger, "As for the French, nothing but time will do anything with them.
+They hate British rule--British connection--improvements of {97} all
+kinds, whether in their laws or their roads; so they will sulk, and
+will try, that is, their leaders, to do all the mischief they can."[27]
+
+Meantime he had prepared two other politic strokes before he called
+Parliament: the regulation of immigration, and a project for raising a
+British loan in aid of Canadian public works.  Immigration, more
+especially now that the current had set once more towards Canada, was
+one of the essential facts in the life of the colony; and yet the evils
+attendant on it were still as obvious as the gains.  Most of the
+defects so vividly portrayed by Durham and his commissioners still
+persisted--unsuitable immigrants, over-crowded ships, disease which
+spread from ship to land and overcrowded the local hospitals, wretched
+and poverty-stricken masses lingering impotently at Quebec, and a
+straggling line of westbound settlers, who obtained work and land with
+difficulty and after many sorrows.[28]  Sydenham had none of Gibbon
+Wakefield's doctrinaire enthusiasm on the subject; and, as he said, the
+inducements, to parishes and landlords to send out their surplus
+population were already {98} sufficiently strong.  But much could and
+must be done by way of remedy.  It was his plan to regulate more
+strictly the conditions on board emigrant ships, and to humanize the
+process of travelling.  Government agents must safeguard the rights of
+ignorant settlers; relief, medical and otherwise, should be in
+readiness for the destitute and afflicted when they arrived; sales of
+land were to be simplified and made easier; and a system of public
+works might enable the local authorities to solve two problems at one
+time, by giving the poorer settler steady employment, and by completing
+the great tasks, only half performed in days when money and labour
+alike were wanting.[29]  The final achievement of these objects
+Sydenham reserved until he should meet parliament, but he had laid his
+plans, and had primed the home authorities with facts long before that
+date.
+
+In the same way he had foreseen the need of Canada for Imperial
+assistance, both in her public works, and in her finance.  Assistance
+in the former of these matters was peculiarly important.  Colonists,
+more especially in the Upper Province, had undertaken the development
+of Canadian natural resources, but poverty had called a halt {99}
+before the development was complete, or, by preventing necessary
+additions and improvements, had rendered useless what had already been
+done.  Conspicuous among such imperfect works were the canals; and
+Sydenham realized the strange dilemma into which provincial enterprise
+seemed doomed to run.  The province, he told Russell, was sinking under
+the weight of engagements which it could only meet by fresh outlay,
+whilst that outlay the condition of its credit preventing it from
+making.[30]  He was therefore prepared to come before the United
+Parliament with a proposal, backed by the British Ministry, for a great
+loan of Ł1,500,000 to be negotiated by the home government, and to be
+utilized, partly in redeeming the credit of the province, and partly in
+completing its public works.  "It will therefore be absolutely
+necessary that Her Majesty's government should enable the governor of
+the province of Canada to afford this relief when the Union is
+completed, and the financial statement takes place; and I know of no
+better means than those originally proposed--of guaranteeing a loan
+which would remove a considerable charge arising from the high rate of
+interest payable by the province on the debt already contracted, or
+{100} which it would have to pay for raising fresh loans which may be
+required hereafter for great local improvements."[31]
+
+There remained now the last and greatest of Sydenham's labours before
+his stewardship could be honourably accounted for and surrendered, the
+summoning, meeting, and managing, of a parliament representative of
+that Canada, English and French, which he had restored and irritated.
+His reputation must depend the more on this political adventure,
+because he had already determined that 1841 should be his last year in
+Canada--he would not stay, he said, though they made him Duke of Canada
+and Prince of Regiopolis.  And indeed the Parliament of 1841, in all
+its circumstances, still remains one of the salient points in modern
+Canadian history.
+
+The Union came into force on the tenth of February, but long before
+that time all the diverse political interests in Canada had organized
+themselves for the fray.  Sydenham himself naturally occupied the
+foremost place.  He was acting now, not merely as governor-general, but
+as the prime minister of a new cabinet, and as a party manager, {101}
+whose main duty it was to secure parliamentary support for his men and
+his measures by the maintenance of a sound central group.  By the
+beginning of the year he thought he had evidence for believing that, in
+Upper Canada, a great majority of the members would be men who had at
+heart the welfare of the province, and the British connection, and who
+desired to make the Act of Union operate to the advantage of the
+country.[32]  But even in Upper Canada there were doubtful elements.
+The Family Compact men, few as they might be in number, were unlikely
+to leave their enemy, the governor-general, in peace; nor were all the
+Reformers prepared to acquiesce in Sydenham's very restrained and
+limited interpretation of responsible government.  Late in 1840, and
+early in 1841, the Upper Canadian progressives had organized their
+strength; and additional significance was given to their action by
+their communications with Lower Canada.[33]  There, indeed, was the
+crux of the experiment.  The French Canadians, already organized in
+sullen opposition, had just received what they counted a fresh insult.
+But Sydenham may be allowed to {102} explain his own action.  "There
+were," he wrote to Russell in March, 1841, "attached to the cities,
+both of Montreal and Quebec, very extensive suburbs, inhabited
+generally by a poor population, unconnected with the mercantile
+interests to which these cities owe their importance.  Had these cities
+been brought within the electoral limits, the number of their
+population would have enabled them to return one, if not both, of the
+members for each city.  But such a result would have been directly at
+variance with the grounds on which increased representation was given
+by Parliament to these cities.  On referring to the discussions which
+took place in both houses when the Union Bill was before them, I find
+that members on all sides laid great stress on the necessity of
+securing ample representation to the mercantile interests of Canada....
+Feeling myself, therefore, bound in duty to carry out the views of the
+British parliament in this matter, _I was compelled in fixing the
+limits of Quebec and Montreal to transfer to the county a large portion
+of the suburbs of each_."[34]  Whatever Sydenham's intentions may have
+been, the actual result of his action was to secure for his party four
+seats in the very heart of the enemy's country; {103} and the French
+Canadians, naturally embittered, resented the governor's action as a
+piece of gerrymandering, which had practically disfranchised many
+French voters.  Already, in 1840, under the active leadership of
+Neilson of Quebec, a British supporter of French claims, an anti-union
+movement had been started.[35]  In July of the same year La Fontaine
+visited Toronto, to canvass, said scandal, for the speaker's chair in
+the united assembly; and in any case he was able to assure his
+compatriots that they had sympathizers among the British in the West.
+The Tory paper in Sydenham's new capital, Kingston, in a review and
+forecast of the situation, settled on this Anglo-French co-operation as
+one of the serious possibilities of the future;[36] and Sydenham as he
+watched developments in the Lower Province, found himself growing
+unwontedly pessimistic.  "In Lower Canada," he wrote, "the elections
+will be bad.  The French Canadians have forgotten nothing and learnt
+nothing by the Rebellion, and the suspension of the constitution, and
+are more unfit for representative government {104} than they were in
+1791.  In most of the French counties, members, actuated by the old
+spirit of the Assembly, and without any principle except that of
+inveterate hostility to British rule and British connection, will be
+returned without a possibility of opposition."[37]
+
+The elections began on the 8th of March, and the date on which
+parliament was to meet was postponed, first from April 8th to May 26th,
+and then, in consequence of the continued lateness of the season,[38]
+from May 26th to June 14th.  The result of the elections, known early
+in April, gave matter for serious thought to many, Sydenham himself not
+excluded.  Absolute precision is difficult, but Sydenham's biographer
+has tabulated the groups as follows:
+
+  Government Members - - - -  24
+  French Members - - - - - -  20
+  Moderate Reformers - - - -  20
+  Ultra Reformers  - - - - -   5
+  Compact Party  - - - - - -   7
+  Doubtful - - - - - - - - -   6
+  Special Return - - - - - -   1
+  Double Return  - - - - - -   1
+                              --
+                              84[39]
+
+{105}
+
+In the confusion of groups, Sydenham still trusted to the centre--a
+party almost precisely similar to that which in 1867 was called
+Liberal-Conservative.  This centre he hoped to create out of moderate
+Conservatives who had enlarged their earlier views, and moderate
+Reformers who anxiously desired to see Sydenham's proposed improvements
+carried out.[40]  A shrewd observer, himself a member, and
+appreciatively critical of Sydenham's work, counted at least five
+parties in the new parliament.  Three of these groups came from Upper
+Canada--the Conservatives under Sir Allan MacNab; the Ministerialists,
+that is the Reformers and moderate Conservatives, under the
+Attorney-General Draper, and the Secretary Harrison, and the
+ultra-reformers who looked to Robert Baldwin for guidance.  From Lower
+Canada came the French nationalists, with some British supporters,
+under Morin, Neilson, and Aylwin, and the defenders of the Union
+policy, chiefly British, but with a few conservative French allies.
+"The division lists of the session 1841," writes the same observer,
+"cannot fail to strike anyone acquainted with the state of parties, as
+extraordinary.  Mr. Baldwin on several occasions voted with
+considerable {106} majorities in opposition to the Government, while as
+frequently he was in insignificant minorities.  There was a decided
+tendency towards a coalition with the Reformers of French origin, on
+the part of Sir Allan MacNab and the Upper Canada Conservatives.  The
+Ministerial strength lay in the support which it received from the
+British party of Lower Canada, and from the majority of the Upper
+Canada Reformers."[41]  Well might Sydenham speak of the delusive
+nature of the party nicknames borrowed by his legislators from England.
+
+Whatever were the characteristic faults of the parliament in 1841,
+sloth was not one of them.  All through the summer it worked with
+feverish energy.  Writing to his brother at the end of August, Sydenham
+boasted--"The five great works I aimed at have been got through--the
+establishment of a board of works with ample powers; the admission of
+aliens; a new system of county courts; the regulation of the public
+lands ceded by the Crown under the Union Act; and lastly the District
+Council Bill.  I think you will admit this to be pretty good work for
+one session, especially when superadded to half a dozen minor measures,
+as well {107} as the fact of having set up a government, brought
+together two sets of people, who hated each other cordially, and
+silenced all the threatened attacks upon the Union, which were expected
+to be so formidable....  What do you think of this, you miserable
+people in England, who spend two years upon a single measure?"[42]
+
+But the chief significance of the session lies in the persistent
+warfare waged between Sydenham and the advocates of a more extended
+system of autonomy.  The result, as will be shewn, was indecisive, but,
+under the circumstances a drawn battle was equivalent to defeat for the
+governor-general.
+
+Sydenham had never before flung himself so completely into the fight.
+"I actually breathe, eat, drink, and sleep nothing but government and
+politics," was his own description of life in Kingston.  He had
+accomplished with little resistance from others all that his opening
+speech had promised.  His ministry owned him as their actively
+directing head.  His power of managing individuals in spite of
+themselves passed into a jest.  Playing with men's vanity, tampering
+with their interests, their passions and their prejudices, placing
+himself in a position of familiarity with those from whom {108} he
+might at once obtain assistance and information--such, according to an
+eccentric writer of the day, were the secrets of Sydenham's
+success.[43]  Few men ever played the part of benevolent despot more
+admirably, and his achievements were the more creditable because he
+could count on no allegiance except that which he induced by his
+persuasive arts, and by the proofs he had given of a sincere desire to
+promote Canadian prosperity.
+
+Nevertheless, throughout the summer months, there occurred a series of
+sharp encounters with a half-organized party of reform; and the end of
+the session, while it saw Sydenham successful, saw also his adversaries
+as eager as ever, and much more learned than they had been in the ways
+of political opposition and agitation.  The opposition leaders massed
+their whole strength on one fundamental point--the claim to possess as
+fully as their fellow-citizens in Great Britain did, the cabinet and
+party system of government.  In other words, if any group, or coalition
+of groups, should succeed in establishing an ascendency in the popular
+assembly, that ascendency must receive acknowledgment by the creation
+of a cabinet, and the appointment of {109} a prime minister, approved
+by the parliamentary majority and responsible to them; and Sydenham's
+ingenious device of an eclectic ministry responsible to him alone was
+denounced as unconstitutional.  The first encounter came, two days
+before the session started, and Robert Baldwin of Toronto was the
+leader of the revolt.  In February, 1840, Sydenham had invited Robert
+Baldwin to be his Solicitor-General in the Upper Province.  Baldwin,
+although his powers were not those of a politician of the first rank,
+was perhaps the soundest constitutionalist in Western Canada.  He had
+been from the first a reformer, but he had never encouraged the wild
+ideas of the rebels of 1837.  Sir F. B. Head had called him to his
+councils in 1836, as a man "highly respected for his moral character,
+moderate in his politics and possessing the esteem and confidence of
+all parties,"[44] and only Head's impracticability had driven him from
+public service.  There is not a letter or official note from his pen,
+which does not bear the stamp of unusual conscientiousness, and a very
+earnest desire to serve his country.  So little was he a self-seeker,
+that he earned the lasting ill-will of his eldest son by passing a bill
+abolishing primogeniture, and thus {110} ending any hopes that existed
+of founding a great colonial family.  The Earl of Elgin, who saw much
+of him after 1847, regarded him not merely as a great public servant,
+but as one who was worth "two regiments to the British connection," and
+perhaps the most truly conservative statesman in the province.[45]  In
+his quiet, determined way, he had made up his mind that responsible
+government, in the sense condemned by both Sydenham and Russell, must
+be secured for Canada, and Sydenham's benevolent plans did not disguise
+from him the insidious attempt to limit what he counted the legitimate
+constitutional liberty of the colony.  It cannot justly be objected
+that his acceptance of office misled the governor-general, either in
+1840 or in 1841.  "I distinctly avow," he wrote publicly in 1840,
+"that, in accepting office, I consider myself to have given a public
+pledge that I have a reasonably well-grounded confidence that the
+government of my country is to be carried on in accordance with the
+principles of Responsible Government which I have ever held....  I have
+not come into office by means of any coalition with the
+Attorney-General,[46] or with any others now in {111} the public
+service, but have done so under the governor-general, and expressly
+from my confidence in him."[47]  In the same way, when Sydenham chose
+him for the Solicitor-Generalship of Upper Canada in the Union
+Ministry, Baldwin, who had no belief in Sydenham's cabinet of all the
+talents, wrote bluntly to say that he "had an entire want of political
+confidence in all of his colleagues except Mr. Dunn, Mr. Harrison, and
+Mr. Daly."[48]  In view of his later action, his critics charged him
+with error in thus accepting an office which placed him in an
+impossible position; but Baldwin's ready answer was: "The head of the
+government, the heads of departments in both provinces, and the country
+itself, were in a position almost anomalous.  That of the head of the
+government was one of great difficulty and embarrassment.  While he
+(Baldwin) felt bound to protect himself against misapprehensions as to
+his views and opinions, he also felt bound to avoid, as far as
+possible, throwing any difficulties in the way of the governor-general.
+At the time he was called to a seat in the Executive Council, he was
+already one of those public servants, the political character {112}
+newly applied to whose office made it necessary for them to hold seats
+in that Council.  Had he, on being called to take that seat, refused to
+accept it, he must of course have left office altogether, or have been
+open to the imputation of objecting to an arrangement for the conduct
+of public affairs which had always met with his most decided
+approbation."[49]  At worst, the Solicitor-General can only be blamed
+for letting his abnormally sensitive conscience lead him into political
+casuistry, the logic of which might not appear so cogent to the
+governor as to himself, when the crisis should come.  How sensitive
+that conscience was, may be gathered from the fact that his acceptance
+of office in 1841 was accompanied with an avowal of want of confidence,
+made openly to those colleagues with whom he disagreed.  It was further
+illustrated when he made a difficulty with Sydenham over taking the
+Oath of Supremacy, which, in a country, many of whose inhabitants were
+Roman Catholics protected in their religion by treaty rights, declared
+that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or
+ought to have any jurisdiction, {113} power, superiority, pre-eminence
+of authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm."[50]
+
+The crisis came, as Baldwin expected it to come, when parliament met.
+Already, as has been seen, the French Canadians had organized their
+forces and formed the most compact group in the Assembly, while the
+little band of determined reformers from Upper Canada made up in
+decision and principle what they lacked in numbers.  Hincks, who was
+one of the latter group, says that, before parliament met, the two
+sections consulted together concerning the government, and although La
+Fontaine had lost his election through a display of physical force on
+the other side, Baldwin was able to lead the combined groups into
+action.  On June 12th, he wrote to Sydenham stating that the United
+Reform Party represented the political views of the vast majority of
+Canadians, that four ministers--Sullivan, Ogden, Draper, and Day--were
+hostile to popular sympathies and ideals, and that he thought the
+accession of Lower Canada Reformers absolutely essential to a sound
+popular administration.  It was a perfectly consistent, if somewhat
+unhappily executed, attempt to secure {114} the absolute responsibility
+of the Executive Council to the representatives of the people; and a
+week later, in the Assembly, when no longer in office, he defended his
+action.  He believed that when the election had determined of what
+materials the House of Assembly was to be composed, it then became his
+duty to inform the head of the government that the administration did
+not possess the confidence of the House of Assembly, and to tender to
+the representative of his sovereign the resignation of the office which
+he held, having first, as he was bound to do, offered his advice to his
+Excellency that the administration of the country should be
+reconstructed.[51]
+
+It was the directest possible challenge to Sydenham's system.
+Baldwin's claim was that, once the representatives of the people had
+made known the people's will, it was the duty of the ministry to
+reflect that will in their programme and actions, or to resign.  As for
+the governor-general, he must obviously adjust whatever theories he
+might have, to a situation where colonial ministers were content to
+hold office only where they had the confidence of the people.
+
+The action of the governor-general was {115} characteristically
+summary.  His answer to Baldwin reproved him for a "proposal in the
+highest degree unconstitutional, as dictating to the crown who are the
+particular individuals whom it should include in the ministry";
+intimated the extreme displeasure of his Excellency, and assumed the
+letter to be equivalent to resignation.[52]  To the home government he
+spoke of the episode with anger and some contempt: "Acting upon some
+principle of conduct which I can reconcile neither with honour nor
+common sense, he strove to bring about this union (between Upper and
+Lower Canadian reformers), and at last, having as he thought effected
+it, coolly proposed to me, on the day before Parliament was to meet, to
+break up the Government altogether, dismiss several of his colleagues,
+and replace them by men whom I believe he had not known for 24
+hours--but who are most of them thoroughly well known in Lower Canada
+as the principal opponents of any measure for the improvement of the
+province."[53]
+
+The crisis once passed, Sydenham hoped, and not without justification,
+that Baldwin would carry few supporters over to the opposition, and
+{116} that the Assembly would settle quietly down to enact the measures
+so bountifully set out in the opening speech.  The first day of
+Assembly saw the party of responsible government make a smothered
+effort to state their views in the debate on the election of a speaker.
+On June 18th, an elaborate debate, nominally on the address, really on
+the fundamental point, found the attorney-general stating the case for
+the government, and Baldwin and Hincks pushing the logic of responsible
+government to its natural conclusion.  Baldwin once more grappled with
+the problem of the responsibility of the members of council, and the
+advice they should offer to the governor-general.  He admitted freely
+that unless the representative of the sovereign should acquiesce in the
+measures so recommended, there would be no means by which that advice
+could be made practically useful; but this consideration did not for a
+moment relieve a member of the council from the fulfilment of an
+imperative duty.  If his advice were accepted, well and good; if not,
+his course would be to tender his resignation.[54]
+
+{117}
+
+The government came triumphantly out of the ordeal, and all amendments,
+whether affecting the Union, or responsible government, were defeated
+by majorities, usually of two to one.  "I have got the large majority
+of the House ready to support me upon any question that can arise,"
+Sydenham wrote at the end of June; "and, what is better, thoroughly
+convinced that their constituents, so far as the whole of Upper Canada
+and the British part of Lower Canada are concerned, will never forgive
+them if they do not."[55]
+
+But the enemy was not so easily routed.  There had been much violence
+at the recent elections; and, among others, La Fontaine had a most just
+complaint to make, for disorder, and, as he thought, government
+trickery had ousted him from a safe seat at Terrebonne.  Unfortunately
+the protests were lodged too late, and a furious struggle sprang up, as
+to whether the legal period should, in the cases under consideration,
+be extended, or whether, as the government contended, an inquiry and
+amendments affecting only the future should suffice.  It was ominous
+for the cause of limited responsibility, that the government had to own
+defeat in the Lower House, and saved itself only {118} by the veto of
+the Legislative Council.  Nor was that the end.  A mosaic work of
+opposition, old Tories, French Canadians, British anti-unionists, and
+Upper Canada Reformers, was gradually formed, and at any moment some
+chance issue might lure over a few from the centre to wreck the
+administration.  Most of the greater measures passed through the ordeal
+safely, including a bill reforming the common schools and another
+establishing a Board of Works.  The critical moment of the latter part
+of the session, however, came with the introduction of a bill to
+establish District Councils in Upper Canada, to complete the work
+already done in Lower Canada.  The forces in opposition rallied to the
+attack, Conservatives because the bill would increase the popular
+element in government, Radicals because the fourth clause enacted that
+the governor of the province might appoint, under the Great Seal of the
+province, fit and proper persons to hold during his pleasure the office
+of Warden of the various districts;[56] and, as Sydenham himself
+hinted, there were those who regretted the loss to members of Assembly
+of a great opportunity for jobbery.  One motion passed by the
+chairman's casting vote; {119} and nothing, in the governor-general's
+judgment, saved the bill but the circumstance of his having already
+established such councils in Lower Canada.[57]
+
+There was one more attack in force before the session ended.  On
+September 3rd, Baldwin, seconded by a French Canadian, moved "that the
+most important as well as the most undoubted of the political rights of
+the people of the province, is that of having a provincial parliament
+for the protection of their liberties, for the exercise of a
+constitutional influence over the executive departments of the
+government, and for legislation upon all matters, which do not on the
+ground of absolute necessity constitutionally belong to the
+jurisdiction of the Imperial parliament, as the paramount authority of
+the Empire."[58]  The issue was stated moderately but quite directly,
+and there are critics of Sydenham who hold that his answer--for it was
+his voice that spoke--surrendered the whole position.  That answer took
+the form of resolutions, moved by the most moderate reformer in the
+Assembly, S. B. Harrison:
+
+(i) That the head of the provincial executive {120} government of the
+province, being within the limits of his government the representative
+of the Sovereign, is not constitutionally responsible to any other than
+the authority of the Empire.
+
+(ii) That the representative of the Sovereign, for the proper conduct
+and efficient disposal of public business, is necessarily obliged to
+make use of the advice and assistance of subordinate officers in the
+administration of his government.
+
+(iii) That in order to preserve the harmony between the different
+branches of the Provincial Parliament which is essential to the happy
+conduct of public affairs, the principal of such subordinate officers,
+advisers of the representative of the Sovereign, and constituting as
+such the provincial administration under him ... ought always to be men
+possessed of the public confidence of the people, thus affording a
+guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests of the people,
+which our gracious Sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the
+Provincial Government, will on all occasions be faithfully represented
+and advocated.
+
+(iv) That the house has the constitutional right of holding such
+advisers politically responsible for every act of the Provincial
+Government of a local {121} character sanctioned by such government
+while such advisers continue in office."[59]
+
+Of Sydenham's own doctrine of colonial government the outlines are
+unmistakeable.  A governor-general existed, responsible for his actions
+solely to the imperial authority.  Under that government the people had
+full liberty to elect their representatives, through whom their desires
+could be made known.  It was the duty of the governor-general to
+consult, on every possible detail, the popular will.  Sydenham
+therefore held it essential that the governor-general in Canada should
+be one trained in the Imperial Parliament to interpret and to guide
+popular expression of opinion; and he believed that in such
+parliamentary diplomacy the governor-general would have to make many
+minor surrenders.  But he never recoiled from a position, which was
+also that of Durham, that, as the proclamation of Union asserted, the
+grant of local autonomy was subject to certain limitations, and that
+these limitations no action of the Provincial Legislature could affect.
+Nor did he admit that his own responsibility to the Crown could be
+modified by the existence of a responsibility on the {122} part of his
+ministers to the Canadian people.  Moreover, his own imperious temper
+and sense of superior enlightenment made him act in the very spirit of
+his doctrine with a resolution which few imperial servants of his time
+could have surpassed.  It may be then that the final resolutions, and
+especially the last of them, were marked by a gentler mode of
+expression than before, but they were actually a reaffirmation of
+Sydenham's early views, and were quite consistent with the initial
+despatch of the colonial secretary.
+
+The end was now near.  Sydenham had already applied for and received
+permission, first to leave Canada, should his health require that step,
+and then, to resign.  He had delayed to act on this permission, until
+he should see the end of the session, and the accomplishment of his
+ambitions.  But, on September 4th, a fall from horseback inflicted
+injuries which grew more complicated through his generally enfeebled
+condition, and he died on Sunday, September 19th.  On the preceding
+day, one of the most useful and notable sessions in the history of the
+Canadian Parliament came to an end.
+
+Both by his errors, and by his acts of statesmanship, Sydenham
+contributed more than any other {123} man, except Elgin, to establish
+that autonomy in Canada which his theories rejected.  Before
+self-government could flourish in the colony, there must be some solid
+material progress, and two years of incessant legislation and
+administrative innovation, all of it suggested by Sydenham, had turned
+the tide of Canadian fortunes.  It was necessary, too, that some larger
+field than a trivial provincial assembly with its local jobs should be
+provided for the new adventure in self-government; and Sydenham not
+only engineered a difficult Act of Union past all preliminary
+obstacles, but, of his own initiative, gave Canada the local
+institutions through which alone the country could grow into
+disciplined self-dependence.
+
+But even his errors aided Canadian development.  Acting for a
+government in whose counsels there was no hesitation, Sydenham
+expounded in word and practice a perfectly self-consistent theory of
+colonial government.  It was he who, by the virility of his thought and
+action, forced those who demanded responsible government to test and
+think over again their own position.  The criticism which Elgin passed
+on him in 1847 is final: "I never cease to marvel what study of human
+nature, or of history, led him to the conclusion {124} that it would be
+possible to concede to a pushing and enterprising people, unencumbered
+by an aristocracy, and dwelling in the immediate vicinity of the United
+States, such constitutional privileges as were conferred on Canada at
+the time of Union, and yet restrict in practice their powers of
+self-government as he proposed."[60]  Yet he had raised the question,
+for both sides, to a higher level, and his adversaries owed something
+of their triumph, when it came, to the man who had taught them a more
+spacious view of politics.
+
+But it may be urged that he roused the French, insulted them, excluded
+them, and almost precipitated a new French rising.  Undoubtedly he was
+an enemy to French claims, but, at the time, most of these claims were
+inadmissible.  The French had brought the existing system of local
+government to a standstill.  Few of those who took part in the
+Rebellion had any reasonable or adequate conception of a reformed
+constitution.  As a people they had set themselves to obstruct the
+statesmen who came to assist them, and to oppose a Union which was
+doubtless imperfect as an instrument of government, but which was a
+necessary stage in the construction of a {125} better system.  Here
+again Sydenham aimed at carrying out a perfectly clear and consistent
+programme, the political blending of the French with the British
+colonists.  Unfortunately that programme was impossible.  It had been
+constructed by men who did not understand the racial problem, and who,
+even if they had understood it, would not have accepted the modern
+solution.  Yet French nationalism, between 1839 and 1841, had certain
+negative lessons still to learn.  As, in Upper Canada, Robert Baldwin
+discovered from his opposition to the governor-general the methods and
+limits of parliamentary opposition, so La Fontaine, the worthiest
+representative of French Canada, began in these years to substitute
+constitutional co-operation with the reformers of the West, for the old
+sullen negative nationalism which had failed so utterly in 1837, as the
+most suitable means for maintaining the rights of his people.
+
+
+
+[1] I disregard Cathcart's tenure of office.  For all practical
+purposes it was merely that of an acting governor.
+
+[2] Instructions to the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 7 September,
+1839.
+
+[3] _Ibid._
+
+[4] Lord John Russell to the Rt. Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 14 October,
+1839.
+
+[5] Lord John Russell to the Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, 16 October, 1839.
+
+[6] Greville, _A Journal of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV._,
+iii. p. 330.
+
+[7] Quoted from _The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, 19 October, 1839.
+
+[8] _Lord Durham's Report_ (Lucas), ii. p. 307.
+
+[9] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, p. 148.
+
+[10] Poulett Scrope, p. 168.
+
+[11] _Journals of the Special Council of Lower Canada_, 13 November,
+1839.
+
+[12] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 18 November,
+1839.
+
+[13] Sir John Colborne to Lord Normanby, 19 August, 1839.
+
+[14] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December
+1839.
+
+[15] Poulett Scrope, pp. 148-9.
+
+[16] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December,
+1839.
+
+[17] _Ibid._
+
+[18] Poulett Scrope, p. 163.
+
+[19] _Correspondence relative to the Reunion of Upper and Lower Canada_
+(23rd March, 1840), p. 20.
+
+[20] _Ibid._ p. 33.
+
+[21] Sydenham to Russell, 13 January, 1841.
+
+[22] Poulett Scrope, p. 164.
+
+[23] Poulett Scrope, p. 183.  "I have done nothing for two days, but
+pass under triumphal arches, and receive addresses of thanks and
+praise."
+
+[24] Correspondence relative to the Affairs of Canada (1841): The Right
+Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 16 September, 1840.
+
+[25] Poulett Scrope, p. 198.
+
+[26] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845,
+"You know that I do not like the Whigs."
+
+[27] Poulett Scrope, p. 181.
+
+[28] See a report from the agent for emigration at Toronto, made to
+Sydenham, 6 January, 1841.
+
+[29] Sydenham to Russell, 26 January, 1841.
+
+[30] Sydenham to Russell, 22 February, 1841.
+
+[31] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 27 June, 1840.
+
+[32] Sydenham to Russell, 26 February, 1841.
+
+[33] Merritt, _Life of the Hon. W. H. Merritt, M.P._  See under the
+years 1840 and 1841.
+
+[34] Sydenham to Russell, 6 March, 1841.  The italics are my own.
+
+[35] Poulett Scrope, p. 205.
+
+[36] _The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, 12 February, 1841.  "A
+powerful struggle will be made at the next election to secure the
+return of representatives, who will coincide with the views of the
+French party in the Lower Province."
+
+[37] Sydenham to Russell, 26 February, 1841.
+
+[38] _Ibid._, 1 June, 1841.
+
+[39] Poulett Scrope, p. 217.  As the Canadian portion of the biography
+was the work of Sydenham's secretary, Murdoch, it carries with it
+considerable authority.  Murdoch was, indeed, one of the most competent
+of the men round Sydenham.
+
+[40] Sydenham to Russell, 26 June, 1841.
+
+[41] Hincks, _Lecture on the Political History of Canada_, 1840-1855,
+pp. 22-23.
+
+[42] Poulett Scrope, p. 243.
+
+[43] Richardson, in his curious characterization of the man in _Eight
+Years in Canada_.
+
+[44] Sir F. B. Head to Lord Glenelg, February, 1836.
+
+[45] The references to Baldwin in the Elgin-Grey Correspondence are,
+without exception, most cordial, and usually complimentary.
+
+[46] The Hon. W. H. Draper, a moderate Conservative.
+
+[47] Quoted in Hincks, _Lecture on the Political History of Canada_, p.
+19.
+
+[48] _Ibid._ pp. 18-19.
+
+[49] Baldwin's own explanation, furnished to a volume _The Irishman in
+Canada_.  He was peculiarly fond of memoranda or declarations, written
+in the third person.
+
+[50] Sydenham to Russell, 28 May, 1841.  Sydenham dispensed with the
+oath on the advice of his legal officials.
+
+[51] _The Mirror of Parliament_ (published in Kingston), 23 June, 1841.
+
+[52] Sydenham to Baldwin, 13 June, 1841.
+
+[53] _Ibid._, 23 June, 1841.
+
+[54] _The Mirror of Parliament_, reporting Baldwin's speech of 18th
+June.  I have chosen to give Baldwin's own language in all its
+awkwardness and stiffness.
+
+[55] Poulett Scrope, p. 233.
+
+[56] District Municipal Council Act (1841), Cl. IV.
+
+[57] Sydenham to Russell, 28 August, 1841.
+
+[58] _Journals of the House of Assembly_, 3 September, 1841.
+
+[59] I have used as my chief authority here the reports in _The Quebec
+Gazette_, more especially the issue of Friday, 10 September, 1841.
+
+[60] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+
+
+
+
+{126}
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT.
+
+Sir Charles Bagot, the second governor-general of United Canada,
+contrasted strangely with his predecessor in character and political
+methods.  He was a man of the Regency, and of Canning's set.  Since
+1814 he had occupied positions of considerable importance in the
+diplomatic world, not because of transcendent parts, but because of his
+connections.  He had been ambassador at Washington, St. Petersburg, and
+the Hague; and in the United States, where, to the end, his friends
+remembered him with real affection, he had rendered service permanently
+beneficial both to Britain and to America by negotiating the Rush-Bagot
+treaty, which established the neutralization of the great lakes.  In
+Europe, he had been known to fame mainly as the recipient of George
+Canning's rhyming despatch; and for the rest, he allowed the great
+minister to make him, as he had made all {127} his other agents, a pawn
+in the game where he alone was player.  In his correspondence he stands
+out as an old-fashioned, worldly, cultured, and unbusiness-like
+diplomatist, worthy perhaps of a satiric but kindly portraiture by
+Thackeray--a genuine citizen of Vanity Fair.  Apart from his
+correspondence, his friendships, and his American achievements, he
+might have passed through life, deserving nothing more than some few
+references in memoirs of the earlier nineteenth century.  But by one
+freak of fortune he found himself transported to Canada in 1842, and,
+by another, he became one of the foremost figures in the history of
+Canadian constitutional development.  There have been few better
+examples of the curious good-fortune which has attended on the growth
+of British greatness than the story of Bagot's short career in Canada.
+When a very eminent personage demanded from the existing government
+some explanation of their selection of Bagot, Stanley, who was then
+Secretary of State for the Colonies, pointed, not to administrative
+qualifications, but to his diplomatic services in the United States.
+Relations with the American Republic do not here concern us, but it may
+be remembered that the situation in 1841 and 1842, just before the
+{128} Ashburton Treaty, was full of peril; and Bagot was sent to Canada
+as a person not displeasing to the Americans, and a diplomatist of
+conciliatory temper.  But his work was to be concerned with domestic,
+not international, diplomacy.
+
+Three factors must be carefully studied in the year of political
+turmoil which followed: the Imperial government, the Canadian political
+community, and the new governor-general.
+
+During this and the following governor-generalship, the predominant
+influence at the Colonial Office was Lord Stanley, almost the most
+distinguished of the younger statesmen of the day.  Peel's judicial and
+scientific mind usually controlled those of his subordinates; but even
+Peel found it hard to check the brilliant individualism of his colonial
+secretary; and this most interesting of all the great failures in
+English politics exercised an influence in Canadian affairs, such as
+not even Lord John Russell attempted.  Judged from his colonial
+despatches, Stanley seems to have found it very hard to understand that
+there could be another side to any question on which he had made up his
+mind.  His party had consented to a modification of the old oligarchic
+rule in Canada; but they were intent upon limiting the scope of the
+{129} change, and upon conducting all their operations in a very
+conservative spirit.  Stanley's instructions to Bagot had been drawn up
+in no ungenerous fashion.  Bagot was to know no distinctions of
+national origin or religious creed, and in so far as it might be
+consistent with his duty to his Sovereign, he was to consult the wishes
+of the mass of the community.[1]  Their happiness it was his main duty
+to secure.  In ecclesiastical matters, Stanley, who had changed his
+party rather than consent to weaken the Anglican Church in Ireland, was
+willing to acknowledge "that the habits and opinions of the people of
+Canada were, in the main, averse from the absolute predominance of any
+single church."[2]  But the theory inspiring the instructions was one
+which denied to the colonists any but the most partial responsibility
+and independence, and which regarded their party divisions as factious
+and at times treasonable.  This disbelief in the reality of Canadian
+parties was, however, discounted, and yet at the same time rendered
+more insulting to the reformers, because the colonial secretary
+regarded the fragments of old Family Compact Toryism as still the best
+guarantee in Canada for the British connection.  "Although {130} I am
+far from wishing to re-establish the old Family Compact of Upper
+Canada," he wrote, at a later date, "if you come into difficulties,
+that is the class of men to fall back upon, rather than the
+ultra-liberal party."[3]  Confidence in political adventurers and the
+disaffected French seemed to him a kind of madness.  In addition to
+this attitude towards existing parties, Stanley held stiffly to every
+constitutional expedient which asserted the supremacy of the Imperial
+government.  The Union had, by fixing a Civil List, taken the power of
+the purse within certain limits from Canadian hands, and this Civil
+List Stanley regarded as quite essential to the maintenance of British
+authority.[4]  In fact, any discussion of the subject seemed to him the
+"reopening of a chapter which has already led to such serious
+consequences, and in the prosecution of which I contemplate seriously
+the prospect of the dismemberment of the Empire."[5]  Holding views so
+resolute, he could not, like Russell, trust his representative on the
+spot; and, from the first, the troubles of the new governor-general
+were multiplied by Stanley's {131} determination to make the views of
+the Colonial Office prevail in Canada.  "I very much doubt," wrote
+Murdoch, Sydenham's former secretary, "how far Lord Stanley is really
+alive to the true state of Canada, and to the necessity of governing
+through the assembly."[6]
+
+Local influences provide the second factor in the situation.  As has
+been seen, the Canadian political community was demanding both
+responsible government, and the admission of the French to a share in
+office.  Sydenham had exhibited the most wonderful skill in working an
+anomalous system of government, and he had found himself on the brink
+of failure.  His Council, which Bagot had inherited, "might be said to
+represent the Reform or popular party of Upper Canada, and the moderate
+Conservatives of both provinces, to the exclusion of the French and the
+ultra-conservatives of both provinces,"[7] but the compromise
+represented less a popular demand for moderation, than Sydenham's own
+individual idea of what a Canadian Council should be.  There had been
+uneasiness in adjusting the opinions of individual members; there was a
+steady decline in the willingness of the Assembly {132} and the country
+to support them; and a determined constitutional opposition found
+additional strength through the support of the French party, whom the
+governor had alienated not simply as a political division but as a
+race.  In a sense, there was no imminent danger, as there had been in
+1837, for Sydenham's sound administration had given the country peace
+and prosperity.  English money and immigrants were flowing in; the
+woods were ringing with the axes of settlers too busy in clearing the
+ground to trouble much with politics; the lines of communication were
+being improved and transportation simplified; and, thanks to Ashburton,
+the war-cloud to the south had vanished over the horizon.  Yet the
+politicians held the central position--everything depended on them; and
+the crisis for Bagot would arise, first, when he should be called on to
+fill certain places in the Executive Council, and then, when Parliament
+met.  It is often assumed that public opinion was seriously divided on
+the question of the responsibility of the ministry to the Assembly, and
+of the extent of the concessions to be made to the French; and that the
+opposition to reform was almost equal in the numbers of its supporters
+to the progressive party.  But this is to over-estimate the forces of
+{133} reaction.  The Family Compact men had fallen on evil days.
+Strachan with his church party, and MacNab with his tail of Tory
+irreconcilables, had really very little substantial backing; and honest
+Tory gentlemen, like J. S. Cartwright, who openly advocated an
+aristocratic administration, were unlikely to attract the crowd.  The
+work of Sydenham had contributed much to the political education of
+Canada; popular opinion was now firmer and more self-consistent, and
+that opinion went directly contrary to the views of Stanley and his
+supporters.  One may find evidence of this in the views of moderates on
+either side.
+
+Harrison, who represented the moderate reforming party in Sydenham's
+ministry, held that responsible government, in some form or other, was
+essential, and that French nationalism must also receive concessions.
+"Looking at the present position of parties," he wrote to Bagot in
+July, "it may, I think, be safely laid down that, to obtain a working
+majority in the House of Assembly, it is absolutely necessary that the
+government should be able to carry with it the bulk of the
+French-Canadian members....  There is no disguising the fact that the
+French members possess the power of the country; and he who directs
+that {134} power, backed by the most efficient means of controlling it,
+is in a situation to govern the province best."[8]  It was his opinion
+that Bagot should anticipate the coming crisis by calling in Baldwin
+and the French, before events forced that step on him.
+
+On the Conservative side, a moderate man like W. H. Draper, the
+attorney-general for Upper Canada in Sydenham's ministry, argued in
+favour of a policy almost identical.  While his views tended to
+oscillate, now to this side, now to that, their general direction was
+clear.  He felt that the ideal condition was one of union between the
+parties of Western Canada, which would "render the position of the
+government safer in its dealings with the French-Canadians."  But no
+such union was possible, and Draper, with that honest opportunism which
+best expressed his mind and capacity, assured Bagot that action in the
+very teeth of his instructions was the only possible course.  "One
+thing I do not doubt at all," he wrote in July 1842, "and that is that,
+with the present House of Assembly, you cannot get on without the
+French, while it is necessary for me at the same time to declare
+frankly that I cannot sit at the {135} council-board with Mr.
+Baldwin."[9]  In other words, since Draper admitted that the opposition
+leaders must receive office, and at the same time declared the
+impossibility of his holding office with them, he was consenting to
+Cabinet government, not in the restricted form permitted in Lord John
+Russell's despatches, but after the regular British fashion.
+
+Outside the sphere of party politics moderate opinion took precisely
+the same stand.  Murdoch had been Sydenham's right-hand man, and was
+still the fairest critic of Canadian politics.  That he distrusted
+Stanley's methods is apparent in his letters to Bagot; and it was his
+suggestion that the Imperial position should be modified, and that some
+concession should be made to French national feeling.  "No half
+measures," he told Bagot, "can now be safely resorted to.  After the
+Rebellion, the government had the option, either of crushing the French
+and anglifying the province, or of pardoning them and making them
+friends.  And as the latter policy was adopted, it must be carried out
+to its legitimate consequences."[10]
+
+{136}
+
+The situation in Canada during the spring and summer of 1842 stood
+thus.  A governor-general, entirely new to the work of domestic
+administration, and to the province which had fallen to his lot, faced
+a curious dilemma.  The British cabinet, the minister responsible for
+the colonies, and all those in Canada who claimed to be the peculiar
+friends of the British connection, bade him govern for, but not by the
+people, and exclude from office almost all the French-Canadians, on the
+ground that they were devotedly French in sympathies.  Another group,
+at times aggressive, and very little accustomed to the orthodox methods
+of parliamentary opposition, bade him venture and trust; and warned him
+that no half measures would satisfy the claims of constitutional
+liberty and nationality.
+
+The administration of Bagot occupied a single year, and its more
+important episodes were crowded into a few weeks in the autumn of 1842.
+Yet there have been few years of equal significance in the history of
+Canadian political development.  There were intervals in which Bagot
+had time to reveal to Canada his genius for making friends; and the
+foundation of a provincial university in Toronto deeply interested one
+who had something of {137} Canning's wit and literary inclinations.
+But politics usually claimed all his attention.  The Union of the
+Provinces, and the Imperial supremacy, had to be defended against their
+assailants; the vacant places in the Executive Council had to be
+filled, as nearly as was possible in harmony with the wishes of the
+community; and whatever the character of that council might be, it
+would have to face the test of criticism from an Assembly, which had
+already striven not unsuccessfully with Sydenham.  In his attempt to
+answer these various problems, Bagot was at his worst in finance.  He
+had not the requisite business training, and entirely lacked Sydenham's
+knowledge, boldness, and precision.  In the correspondence over the
+mode in which the province should dispose of the British loan of
+Ł1,500,000, Stanley's views show a clearness and force, lacking in
+those of Bagot; and in the one really unfortunate episode of the year,
+his want of financial skill drew on the governor-general's head the
+remonstrances of both Stanley and the Treasury authorities.  To escape
+financial difficulties in Canada, Bagot had anticipated the loan, by
+drawing on British funds for Ł100,000, and the Treasury did not spare
+him.  "He ought," wrote the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "to have {138}
+considered those (difficulties) which must arise here from the
+presentation of large drafts at the Treasury, for which Parliament had
+made no provision; and for which, as Parliament was not sitting, no
+regular provision could be made.  The situation to which the Treasury
+is reduced is this: either to protest the bills for want of funds, or
+to accept the bills, and find within thirty days the means of paying
+them."[11]  This incident furnished to Stanley fresh proof, if any were
+needed, of Bagot's inexperience.  An anxious and mistrustful temper
+appears in all his despatches to Bagot; but, in fact, with little
+justification.  He never learned how completely the governor for whom
+he trembled was his master in the art of governing a half-autonomous
+colony.
+
+As early as March, Bagot had begun to feel that the views of the
+Cabinet in Britain were impracticable: and that even the Civil List
+might not be so easily defended as Stanley imagined.  "I know well by
+what a slender thread the adhesion of the colony will hang whenever we
+consent to leave the matter entirely in its own hands....  But the
+present supply is not sufficient for its purposes.  We must always be
+dependent on the Legislature for provision to meet its excess; and I
+cannot but {139} think that the sooner the Legislature succeeds, if
+they are to succeed, in carrying the point, the more generous they may
+possibly be in the use of their victory."[12]  Bagot was already
+defining the policy which was to be peculiarly his own.  He had a
+singularly clear eye for facts, even when they contradicted his
+preconceived ideas; and, being a man of the world, he saw that
+compromise with the opposition was as natural in Canada as in Britain.
+But in answer to his despatches, proposing such a compromise, Stanley,
+with his dogmatic omniscience, and eloquent certainty, had nothing but
+regrets to express, and difficulties to suggest.  England, he thought,
+had dealt generously with Canada in the terms of the Act of Union, and
+sound statesmanship lay in resolute defence of that measure.  And,
+since there always seems to be in such imperialists a sense of
+political pathos--the _lacrymae rerum politicarum_--he began to have
+pessimistic views of the permanence of the connection: "I am very far
+from underrating the value to Great Britain of her extensive and
+rapidly improving North American possessions, but I cannot conceal from
+myself the fact that they are maintained to her at no light cost, and
+at no {140} trifling risk.  To all this she willingly submits, so long
+as the bonds of union between herself and her colonies are strengthened
+by mutual harmony, good will, and confidence; and it would be indeed
+painful to me to contemplate the possibility that embarrassments,
+arising from uncalled for and unfounded jealousies on the part of
+Canada, might lead the people of England to entertain a doubt how far
+the balance of advantages preponderated in favour of the continuance of
+the present relations."[13]  The Civil List raised the fundamental
+question, but it was a simple issue, and it lay still far in the
+future.  The constitution of the ministry, however, and its relation to
+the coming parliament, could be neither evaded nor delayed.
+
+Bagot's instructions gave him a certain scope, for he was permitted to
+avail himself of the advice and services of the ablest men, without
+reference to the distinction of local party.  In making use of this
+liberty, Bagot had to consider chiefly the need of finding a majority
+in the Lower House--happily he could postpone their meeting till
+September.  Of the probable tone of that Assembly the estimates varied,
+but Murdoch, who knew the situation as well as any man, calculated that
+while {141} the government party would number thirty, the French, with
+their British Radical friends, would be thirty-six strong, the old
+Conservatives eight, and some ten or so would "wait on providence or
+rather on patronage."[14]  In Sydenham's last days, the government
+majority, which he had so subtly, and by means so machiavellian, got
+together, had vanished.  Reformers, not all of them so scrupulous as
+Baldwin, were ready to ruin a government which kept them from a
+complete triumph.  Sir Allan MacNab with his old die-hards, fulminating
+against all enemies of the British tradition, was still willing to make
+an unholy alliance with the French, if only he could checkmate a
+governor-general who did not seem to appreciate his past services to
+Britain.  And the French themselves, alienated and insulted by
+Sydenham, sat gloomily alone, restless over the Union, seemingly on the
+threshold of some fresh racial conflict.  Everything was uncertain,
+save the coming government defeat.[15]
+
+At the very outset, Bagot had this question of French Canada thrust
+upon him.  From the moment of his arrival his council advised the {142}
+admission of the French Canadians to a share in power.  He refused, for
+Stanley had very carefully instructed him on that subject.  The
+Colonial Secretary had spoken of the wisdom of forgetting old
+divisions, but he never permitted himself to forget that the French
+leaders--La Fontaine, Viger, Girouard--had all been, in some fashion or
+other, involved in the troubles of 1837.  He believed that there still
+existed in Lower Canada a gloomy, rebellious, French Canadian party,
+which no responsible British statesman could afford to recognize.
+Sober-minded Canadian statesmen told him that it was useless to attempt
+to detach from the party individuals--_les Vendus_ their compatriots
+called them.  He answered that he would like to multiply such _Vendus_;
+and he hoped for a day when the anglicising of the Lower Province
+should have been completed.  It was his intention to break down all
+forces tending in the opposite direction.  He was conscious of a
+repulsion, equally strong, in his feelings towards Baldwin, and the
+Reform party.  Whether it came by French racial hate, or Upper Canadian
+republicanism, which was the name he gave to all views of a reforming
+colour, the ruin of the Empire would follow hard on concession to
+agitation.  In his heart, he trusted only {143} the old Tories, and not
+all his disgust at MacNab's interested advances could alter his
+conviction that one party alone cared for Britain--the former Family
+Compact men.  When he bade Bagot disregard party divisions in his
+choice of ministers, he was unconsciously limiting Bagot's choice to a
+very little circle, all of them most unmistakably displeasing to the
+populace, whose wishes he professed to be willing to consult.  He
+claimed to be a man of principle--mistaking the clearness of
+doctrinaire ignorance for the certainty of honest knowledge.
+
+Happily the governor-general of Canada was not in this sense a man of
+principle.  He observed, took counsel, and began to shape his own
+policy.  It is not easy to describe that policy in a sentence, or even
+to make it absolutely clear.  He had come out to Canada, forewarned
+against Baldwin and the school of constitutionalists associated with
+him; and the warning made him reluctant to consent to their ideas.  He
+had been advised to draw his councillors from all directions, and his
+naturally moderate spirit approved a policy of judicious selection.
+But the noteworthy feature in the line of action which he ultimately
+followed was that he allowed his diplomatic instincts to overbalance
+the advice imposed on him by the British ministry.  {144} In selecting
+individuals for his councils, he almost unconsciously followed the
+wishes of Baldwin and his party, until, at the end, he found himself in
+the hands of resolute advocates of responsible government, and did
+nothing to withstand their doctrine.  But this is to anticipate events,
+and to simplify what was actually a process involved in some confusion.
+He filled two vacant places--one with the most brilliant of reforming
+financiers, Francis Hincks, whose merits he saw at once; the other,
+after a gentlemanly refusal from Cartwright, with Sherwood, a sound but
+comparatively moderate Conservative from Upper Canada.  In an admirable
+letter to Stanley at the beginning of the summer, he outlined his
+policy.  Stanley, ever fearful of rash experiments, warned him that a
+combination of black and white does not necessarily produce grey.  To
+this he answered: "My hope is that, circumstanced as I am, I possibly
+may be able to do this, that is, to take from all sides the best and
+fittest men for the public service....  The attempt to produce such a
+grey, whether it succeed or not, must, I think, after all that has
+passed, and at this particular crisis in which I find myself here, be
+the safest line."[16]  Stanley, then, limited his {145} choice of men,
+and in the event of a crisis, was prepared that he should risk a defeat
+and the violent imposition of an alien ministry, on the chance that
+such a reverse might provoke a loyalist uprising to defend the British
+connection.  Baldwin dreamed of a consistently Radical cabinet.
+MacNab, with his eyes shut to the consequences, seems to have
+considered a leap in the dark--a coalition between his men and the
+French Canadians.  Bagot, as opportunist as the Tories, but opportunist
+for the sake of peace, and some kind of constitutional progress, laid
+aside lofty ideals, and said, as his most faithful advisers also said,
+that the future lay with _judicious selection_, no party being barred
+except where their conduct should have made recognition of them
+impossible to a self-respecting governor.
+
+It is difficult to name all the influences which operated on Bagot's
+mind.  He corresponded largely and usefully with Draper, the soundest
+of his conservative advisers.  His own innate courtesy led him to end
+the social ostracism of the French, and taught him their good
+qualities.  Being quick-witted and observant, his political instincts
+began almost unconsciously to force a new programme upon him.  Before
+August, he had conciliated moderate reforming opinion through Hincks;
+he {146} had proved to the French, by legal appointments, which met
+with a stiff and forced acquiescence in Stanley, that at least he was
+not their enemy.  He had begun to question the certainty of Stanley's
+wisdom on the Civil List, and various other subjects.  Then, between
+July 28th and September 26th, the date of two sets of despatches,
+which, if despatches ever deserve the term, must be called works of
+genius, he completed his plan, brought it to the test of practice, and
+challenged the home government to acquiesce, or recall him.  With his
+ministry constituted as it was in July, he had to face the certainty of
+a vote of no confidence as soon as parliament met.  Were he to do
+nothing, some unholy alliance of groups would defeat the government.
+In that case, his ministers, pledged as they were to constitutionalism
+by the resolutions of September, 1841, had warned him beforehand, that
+they would resign in a body.  All hold over the French would be lost,
+and responsible government, whether he and Stanley willed it or not,
+would be established in its most obnoxious form.  To fill the vacant
+places, or to reconstruct the ministry, the field of choice was very
+small, even if men of every connection were included.  "Out of the 84
+members of the House of {147} Assembly," he told Stanley, "not above
+30, as far as I can judge, are at all qualified for office, by the
+common advantages of intelligence and education, and of these, ten at
+least are not in a position to accept it."[17]  In the case of the
+French he seemed to have reached an absolute deadlock.  He found offers
+to individual Frenchmen useless, for he did not gain the party, and he
+ruined the men whom he honoured.  The Assembly was to meet on the 8th
+of September, and as that date drew near, the excitement rose.  It was
+a crisis with many possibilities both for England and for Canada.
+
+As certainly as Stanley, with all the wisdom of Peel's cabinet behind
+him, was wrong, and fatally so, Bagot's conduct between September 10th
+and September 14th was precisely right.  In a correspondence with Peel,
+just before the crisis, Stanley sought to get his great leader to take
+his view.  Even Peel's genius proved incompetent to settle a problem of
+local politics, three thousand miles away from the scene of action.
+The wisdom of his answer lay, not in its suggestions, which were
+useless to Bagot, but in its hint "that much must be left to the
+judgment and discretion of those who have to act at a great distance
+from the supreme {148} authority."[18]  Stanley himself, from first to
+last, was for allowing Bagot to face defeat, although he always thought
+it possible that stubborn resistance to what he counted treason would
+rally a secure majority to Bagot and the Crown.  Time and again after
+assuring Bagot that he and the ministry acquiesced, which, to do them
+justice, they did like men, he harked back to the idea of allowing
+events to prove that the government was indeed powerless, before it
+made a definitive surrender.  Long before Parliament met, the situation
+had been discussed in all its bearings; and the only doubt that
+remained was concerning which out of three or four foreshadowed
+catastrophes would end the existence of the government.  The ministers
+themselves had their negative programme ready; for, having consented to
+the constitutional resolutions of September, 1841, they forewarned
+Bagot that if they were left in a minority, or in a very small
+majority, they should feel themselves compelled to resign, and they
+added that, if Bagot did not accept their recommendation to admit the
+French Canadians, they would insist upon his accepting their
+resignation.[19]
+
+{149}
+
+When the Assembly met, events moved very rapidly.  On the opening day,
+Neilson brought forward the exciting question of amnesty; and the air
+was filled with rumours and schemes, of which the most ominous for
+government was the project of coalition between Conservatives and
+French Canadians.  The time had come for action--if anything could
+really be done.  To understand the boldness of Bagot's tactics, it must
+be remembered that they went "in the teeth of an almost universal
+feeling at home ... certainly in opposition to Lord Durham's recorded
+sentiments, and as certainly to Lord Sydenham's avowed practice"--to
+say nothing of Stanley's own wishes.  La Fontaine was definitely
+approached on the tenth, and, seemingly, Bagot was not quite prepared
+for the greatness of his claims--"four places in the Council, with the
+admission of Mr. Baldwin into it."[20]  But he had no alternative, for
+on the 12th he received a plain statement from his cabinet that, if he
+failed, they were not prepared to carry on the government.[21]  To his
+dismay, the surrender, if one may so term it, which he signed next day,
+was not accepted, since Baldwin could not {150} countenance the
+pensioning of the ministers, Ogden and Davidson, who had been
+compulsorily retired, and, although MacNab was at hand with the offer
+of sixteen Conservative stalwarts, the plan was useless, and, in view
+of MacNab's general conduct at this time, irritating.  When Bagot wrote
+that night to Stanley it was as a despairing man, for the attack had
+begun at 3 o'clock, Baldwin leading off with an address, as usual
+pledging the House to responsible government, and there was every
+chance that he would defeat the ministry.  At this point Bagot took the
+strange and daring plan of allowing Draper to read his letter to La
+Fontaine in the House, that the Lower Canadians might "learn how
+abundantly large an offer their leaders have rejected, and the honest
+spirit in which that offer was made."[22]  His unconventionality won
+the day, by convincing the House that the governor-general was in
+earnest.  Successive adjournments staved off the debate on the address;
+and by September 16th, terms had been settled.  La Fontaine, Small,
+Aylwin, Baldwin, and Girouard if he cared to take office, were to
+enter, Draper, Davidson, Ogden and Sherwood passing out.
+Unfortunately, since neither Ogden nor Sherwood happened to be {151}
+present, Bagot had to accept their resignations on his own initiative,
+and without previous consultation with them.  Not even that dexterous
+correspondent could quite disguise the awkwardness of his position when
+he wrote to tell both men that they had ceased to be his ministers.[23]
+So the crisis ended.
+
+The address was carried by fifty-five votes to five, the malcontents
+being MacNab, foiled once more in his ambitions; Moffat and Cartwright,
+representing inflexible Toryism; Neilson, whose position as a
+recognized opponent of the Union tied his hands, and Johnstone, a
+disappointed place man.  Peace ruled in the Assembly, and the battle
+passed to the province, the newspapers, and most ominous of all for the
+governor, to the cabinet and public in Britain.  A storm of abuse,
+criticism, and regrets broke over Bagot's devoted head.  The opposition
+press in Canada called him "a radical, a puppet, an old woman, an
+apostate, a renegade descendant of old Colonel Bagot who fell at Naseby
+fighting for his King."[24]  MacNab, in the House, led a bitterly
+personal opposition.  At least one {152} cabinet meeting in England was
+called specially to consider the incident, and for some months Stanley
+tempered assurances that he and the government would support their
+representative, with caustic expressions of regret.  The necessity of
+the change, he reiterated, had not been fully proven.  The French
+members and Baldwin were doubtful characters.  If the worst must be
+accepted, and a ministry constructed, containing both Baldwin and the
+French, then Bagot had better obtain from the new cabinet some
+assurance of "their intention of standing by the provisions of the Act
+of Union, including the Civil List, and every other debatable
+question."  Then, fearing lest the very citadel of responsibility and
+control should be surrendered, he set forth his theory of government in
+an elaborate letter which revealed distinct distrust of his
+correspondent's power of resistance.  "Your position is different from
+that of the Crown in England.  The Crown acts avowedly and exclusively
+on the advice of its ministers, and has no political opinions of its
+own.  You act in concert with your Executive Council, but the ultimate
+decision rests with yourself, and you are recognised, not only as
+having an opinion, but as supreme and irresponsible, except to the Home
+government, for {153} your acts in your executive capacity.
+Practically you are (influenced) by the advice you receive, and by
+motives of prudence, in not running counter to the advice of those who
+command a majority in the Legislature; but you cannot throw on them the
+onus of your actions in the same sense that the Crown can in this
+country."[25]
+
+Yet, so far as Canada was concerned, Bagot had reason to feel
+satisfied.  Threatened with half a dozen hostile combinations, he had
+forestalled them all, and found the Assembly filled with friends, not
+enemies.  He had approached a sullen French nation--and thereafter the
+French party formed as solid an accession to Canadian political
+stability as they had once been dangerous to Imperial peace; and their
+union with the moderate reformers in government, while it gave them all
+they asked, enabled the governor to exercise a natural restraint on
+them, should they again be tempted to nationalist excesses.  He had not
+explicitly surrendered to any sweeping doctrine of responsible
+government.  There was peace at last.  The Assembly which passed over
+thirty acts, reaffirmed the rights of the royal prerogative, and {154}
+was dismissed in the most amiable temper with itself, and the
+governor-general.
+
+One may discern, however, a curious contradiction between the
+superficial consequences of the crisis, as described by Bagot, and the
+fundamental changes the beginnings of which he was able to trace in the
+months which followed.  On the face of it, Bagot's policy of frank
+expediency had saved Stanley and his party from a crushing defeat and a
+humiliating surrender to extreme views.  So far, he had assisted the
+cause of conservatism.  But the disaster and the humiliation would have
+come, not from the grant of responsible government, but from the misuse
+of it to which a victory, won against a more resolute governor, might
+have tempted Baldwin and La Fontaine, and from the false position in
+which the imperial government would have stood, towards the men who had
+challenged imperial authority and won.  It is interesting to follow the
+process by which Bagot came to see all that lay in his action.
+Yielding to Canadian autonomy, he went on to new surrenders.  He had
+already warned Stanley that the agitation over the Civil List would
+certainly reawaken; to the end he seems to have been considering the
+advisability of a complete surrender {155} on that point.  When he
+wrote communicating to the minister the Assembly's acknowledgment of
+the royal prerogative, in recognizing the right of the Crown to name
+the capital, he pointed out that, prerogative or no prerogative, the
+possessor of the purse had the final voice.  He rebuked his new
+minister, Baldwin, for tacking on question-begging constitutional
+phrases to a legal opinion, but he told Stanley, quite frankly, that,
+"whether the doctrine of responsible government is openly acknowledged,
+or is only tacitly acquiesced in, _virtually it exists_."[26]  During
+the remainder of his tenure of office, partly because of his own
+ill-health, but partly also, I think, from conviction, he gave his
+ministers the most perfect freedom of action.  And, although he did not
+gain the point, he was willing to make sweeping concessions in answer
+to the call for an amnesty for the rebels of 1837.  He recognized the
+force of trusting, in a self-governing community, even those who had
+once striven against the British rule with arms--the final proof in any
+man that he has come to understand the secrets, at once of Empire, and
+of constitutional government.
+
+There is little more to tell of Bagot's rule, for {156} the last months
+of his life were spent in a struggle to overcome extreme bodily
+sickness in the interest of public duty; and Stanley himself, in the
+name of the Cabinet, expressed his admiration for the gallantry of his
+stand.
+
+To the end, he held himself justified in his political actions, and if
+there were moments when he questioned whether Stanley would see things
+in a reasonable light, he possessed the perfect confidence of his
+Canadian ministers, who did not neglect his injunction to them to
+defend his memory.[27]
+
+Nevertheless the irritation of the Colonial Secretary was neither
+unnatural nor unjustifiable.  He confidently expected that separation
+from England would be the immediate consequence of a surrender to the
+reform party in Canada; and he believed that Bagot had made that
+surrender.  In the latter opinion he was correct.  There are times when
+the party of reaction sees more clearly than their opponents the scope
+and consequences of innovation, however blind they may be to the
+developments which by their parallel advance check the obvious dangers;
+and Sir Charles Metcalfe, whom Stanley sent to Canada to stay the
+flowing tide, has furnished the most accurate negative criticism of
+{157} the Bagot incident: "The result of the struggle naturally
+increased the conviction that Responsible Government was effectually
+established, new Councillors were forced on the governor-general....
+The Council was no longer selected by the governor.  It was thrust on
+him by the Assembly of the people.  Some of the new members of the
+Council had entered it with extreme notions of the supremacy of the
+Council over the governor; and the illness of Sir Charles Bagot, after
+this change, threw the current business of administration almost
+entirely into their hands, which tended much to confirm these
+notions."[28]  It fell to the lot of this critic to attempt to correct
+Bagot's mistakes.
+
+
+
+[1] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841.
+
+[2] _Ibid._
+
+[3] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 17 May, 1842.  The term
+_Bagot Correspondence_ is used to denote the letters to and from Bagot,
+other than despatches, in the possession of the Canadian Archives.
+
+[4] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841.
+
+[5] _Ibid._
+
+[6] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 18 October, 1842.
+
+[7] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842.
+
+[8] Bagot Correspondence: Harrison to Bagot, 11 July, 1842
+
+[9] Bagot Correspondence: W. H. Draper to Bagot, 18 May, and 16 July,
+1842.
+
+[10] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 3 September, 1842.
+
+[11] Goulburn to Stanley, 16 September, 1842.
+
+[12] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 26 March, 1842.
+
+[13] Stanley to Bagot, 27 May, 1842.
+
+[14] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, describing an interview
+with Murdoch, 1 September, 1842.
+
+[15] See Bagot's admirable analysis of French conditions in his public
+and confidential despatches, 26 September, 1842.
+
+[16] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 12 June, 1842.
+
+[17] Bagot to Stanley: 26 September, 1842--confidential.
+
+[18] Peel to Stanley, 28 August, 1842.
+
+[19] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842--confidential.
+
+[20] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 July, 1842.
+
+[21] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 13 September, 1842.
+
+[22] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 13 September, 1842.
+
+[23] Bagot Correspondence: letters to Sherwood 16 September, and to
+Ogden 19 September.  Dismissal is far too blunt a term in which to
+describe the transaction.
+
+[24] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 October, 1842.
+
+[25] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 3 November and 3 December,
+1842.
+
+[26] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 October, 1842.
+
+[27] Hincks, _Reminiscences of his Public Life_, p. 89.
+
+[28] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, p. 416.
+
+
+
+
+{158}
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE.
+
+A surrender of the official Imperial position so unexpected and so
+contrary to the intentions of the Colonial Office, as that which Bagot
+had made, provoked a natural reaction.  Bagot's successor was one of
+those men of principle who are continually revealing the flaws and
+limitations implicit in their principles by earnest over-insistence on
+them.  It is unfortunate that Sir Charles Metcalfe should appear in
+Canadian history as the man whose errors almost precipitated another
+rebellion, for among his predecessors and successors few have equalled
+him, none has outstripped him, in public virtue or experience.  He had
+earned, throughout thirty-seven years in India, a reputation for
+efficiency in every kind of administrative work.  As a lad of little
+more than twenty he had negotiated with Ranjit Singh the treaty which,
+for a generation, kept Sikhs and British at peace.  In the {159}
+residency at Hyderabad he had fought, in the face of the
+governor-general's displeasure, a hard but ultimately successful battle
+for incorrupt administration.  After Bentinck had resigned, Metcalfe
+had been appointed acting governor-general, and he might have risen
+even higher, had not the courageous act, by which he freed the press in
+India from its earlier disabilities, set the East India Company
+authorities against him.  He was something more than what Macaulay
+called him--"the ablest civil servant I ever knew in India"; his
+faculty for recommending himself to Anglo-Indian society on its lighter
+side, and the princely generosity which bound his friends to him by a
+curious union of reverence and affection, combined with his genius for
+administration to make him an unusual and outstanding figure in that
+generation of the company officials in India.  Led by the sense of duty
+which ever dominated him, he had passed from retirement in England to
+reconcile the warring elements in Jamaica to each other; and his
+success there had been as great as in India.  In English politics, in
+which he had naturally played little part, he identified himself with
+the more liberal wing of the Whigs, although his long absence from the
+centre of affairs, and the inclination natural to {160} an
+administrator, to think of liberalism rather as a thing of deeds and
+acts than of opinion, gave whatever radicalism he may have professed a
+bureaucratic character.  He described himself not inaptly to a friend
+thus: "A man who is for the abolition of the corn laws, Vote by Ballot,
+Extension of the Suffrage, Amelioration of the Poor-laws for the
+benefit of the poor, equal rights to all sects of Christians in matters
+of religion, and equal rights to all men in civil matters...; and (who)
+at the same time, is totally disqualified to be a demagogue--shrinks
+like a sensitive plant from public meetings; and cannot bear to be
+drawn from close retirement, except by what comes in the shape of real
+or fancied duty to his country."[1]  Outside of the greater figures of
+the time, he was one of the first citizens of the Empire, and Bagot, as
+he thought of possible successors, only dismissed the suggestion of
+Metcalfe's appointment because it seemed too good news to be true.
+Nevertheless Sir Charles Metcalfe had one great initial disadvantage
+for work in Canada.  Distinguished as were his virtues, a very little
+discernment in the home government might have discovered the obstacles
+which must meet an absolutely efficient, {161} liberal administrator in
+a country where democracy, the only possible principle of government
+for Canada, was still in its crude and repulsive stage.  The
+delimitation of the frontier between Imperial control and Canadian
+self-government required a subtler and more flexible mind than
+Metcalfe's, and a longer practice than his in the ways of popular
+assemblies.  Between March, 1843, when he assumed office, and the end
+of 1845, when he returned to die in England, Metcalfe's entire energy
+was spent in grappling with the problem of holding the balance level
+between local autonomy and British supremacy.  His real contribution to
+the question was, in a sense, the confusion and failure with which his
+career ended; for his serious practical logic reduced to an absurdity,
+as nothing else could have done, the position stated so firmly by
+Russell in 1839.
+
+Sir Charles Metcalfe came to Canada at a moment when responsible
+government in its most extended interpretation seemed to have
+triumphed.  In Upper and Lower Canada the reforming party had accepted
+Bagot's action as the concession of their principle, and the two chief
+ministers, Baldwin and La Fontaine, were men resolute to endure no
+diminution of their share of responsibility.  Bagot's {162} illness had
+given additional strength to their authority, and Gibbon Wakefield, who
+was then a member of Assembly, believed that Baldwin had already taken
+too great a share of responsibility to be willing to occupy a secondary
+place under an energetic governor.[2]  Indeed an unwillingness to allow
+the governor-general his former unlimited initiative becomes henceforth
+a mark of the leaders of the Reformers, and La Fontaine, who had
+resented Sydenham's activity as much as his anti-nationalist policy,
+protested against the suggestion that Charles Buller should be sent to
+Canada, because he "apprehended that Buller would be disposed to take
+an active part himself in our politics."[3]  There seemed to be no
+obstacle in the way of a complete victory for reforming principles.
+The French remained as solidly as ever a unit, and under La Fontaine
+they were certain to continue to place their solidarity at the disposal
+of the Upper Canada reformers.  The latter, _ultras_ and moderates
+alike, were too adequately represented, in all their shades and
+aspects, in the cabinet, to be willing to shake its power; and {163}
+the sympathetic co-operation between Irishmen in Canada, and those who
+at that time in Ireland were beginning another great democratic
+agitation, made the stream of Hibernian immigration a means of
+reinforcing the Canadian progressives.  One of the best evidences of
+the growth of Reform was the persistent agitation of the Civil List
+question.  Following up their action under Bagot, the reformers
+demanded the concession of a completer control than they seemed then to
+possess over their own finances, and a more economical administration
+of them.  The inspector-general, in a report characterized by all his
+admirable clearness, stated the issue thus: "It is impossible for any
+government to support a Civil List to which objections are raised, and
+with justice, by the people at large; first, on the ground that its
+establishment was a violation of their constitutional rights; second,
+that the services provided for are more than ought to be placed on the
+permanent Civil List; third, on the ground that the salaries provided
+are higher than the province can afford to pay with a due regard to the
+public interests, and more especially to the maintenance of the public
+credit."[4]
+
+{164}
+
+Metcalfe, then, found in Canada a ministry not far from being
+unanimous, supported by a union of French and British reformers; and he
+ought to have realized how deeply the extended view of self-government
+had affected the minds of all, so that only by a serious struggle could
+Sydenham's position of 1839 be recovered.  But Metcalfe was an
+Anglo-Indian, trained in the school of politics most directly opposed
+to the democratic ways of North America.  He was entirely new to
+Canadian conditions; and one may watch him studying them
+conscientiously, but making just those mistakes, which a clever
+examination candidate would perpetrate, were he to be asked of a sudden
+to turn his studies to practical account.  The very robustness of his
+sense of duty led him naturally to the two most contentious questions
+in the field--those which concerned the responsibility of the colonial
+executive government, and the place of party in dictating to the
+governor-general his policy and the use to be made of his patronage.
+
+His study of Sydenham's despatches revealed to him the contradiction
+between that statesman's resolute proclamation of Russell's doctrine,
+and the course of practical surrender which his actions seemed to have
+followed in 1841.  "In adopting {165} the very form and practice of the
+Home Government, by which the principal ministers of the Crown form a
+Cabinet, acknowledged by the nation as the executive administration,
+and themselves acknowledging responsibility to Parliament, he rendered
+it inevitable that the council here should obtain and ascribe to
+themselves, in at least some degree, the character of a cabinet of
+ministers."[5]  In a later despatch, Metcalfe attempted to demonstrate
+the inapplicability of such a form of government to a colony: "a system
+of government which, however suitable it may be in an independent
+state, or in a country where it is qualified by the presence of a
+Sovereign and a powerful aristocracy, and by many circumstances in
+correspondence with which it has grown up and been gradually formed,
+does not appear to be well adapted for a colony, or for a country in
+which those qualifying circumstances do not exist, and in which there
+has not been that gradual progress, which tends to smooth away the
+difficulties, otherwise sure to follow the confounding of the
+legislative and executive powers, and the inconsistency of the practice
+with the theory of the Constitution."[6]
+
+{166}
+
+To his mind, what Durham had advocated was infinitely sounder--"that
+all officers of the government except the governor and his secretary
+should be responsible to the united Legislature; and that the governor
+should carry on his government by heads of departments, in whom the
+United Legislature repose confidence....  The general responsibility of
+heads of departments, acting under the orders of the Governor, each
+distinctly in his own department, might exist without the destruction
+of the former authority of her Majesty's Government."[7]  So set was he
+in his opposition to cabinet government on British lines in Canada,
+that he prophesied separation as the obvious consequence of concession.
+It was natural that one so distrustful of cabinet machinery in a colony
+should altogether fail to see the place of party.  It must always be
+remembered that party, in Canada, had few of those sanctions of
+manners, tradition, and national service, which had given Burke his
+soundest arguments, when he wrote the apologetic of the eighteenth
+century Whigs.  Personal and sometimes corrupt interests, petty ideas,
+ignoble quarrels, a flavour of pretentiousness which came from the
+misapplication of British terms, and a {167} lack of political
+good-manners--in such guise did party present itself to the British
+politician on his arrival in British North America.  Metcalfe, from his
+previous experience, had come to identify party divisions with
+factiousness, a political evil which the efficient governor must seek
+to extirpate.  His triumph in Jamaica had secured the death of party
+through the benevolent despotism of the governor, and there can be no
+doubt that he hoped in Canada to perform a precisely similar task.
+"The course which I intend to pursue with regard to all parties," he
+wrote to Stanley in April, 1843, "is to treat all alike, and to make no
+distinctions, as far as depends on my personal conduct."  But since
+parties did exist, and were unlikely to cease to exist, the
+governor-general's distaste for party in theory merely forced him to
+become in practice the unconscious leader of the Canadian
+conservatives, who, under men like MacNab and the leaders of the Orange
+Lodges, differed only from other parties in the loudness of their
+loyalist professions, and the paucity of their supporters among the
+people.  Metcalfe complained that at times the whole colony must be
+regarded as a party opposed to her Majesty's Government.[8]  He might
+have {168} seen that what he deplored proceeded naturally from the
+identification of himself with the smallest and least representative
+group of party politicians in the colony.
+
+The radical opposition between the governor and the coalition which his
+executive council represented led naturally to the crisis of November
+26th, 1843.  For months the feeling of mutual alienation had been
+growing.  On several occasions, more notably in the appointment to the
+speakership of the legislative council, and in one to a vacant
+clerkship of the peace, the governor's use of patronage had caused
+offence to his ministers; and, towards the end of November, the entire
+Cabinet, with the exception of Daly, whose nickname "the perpetual
+secretary" betokened that he was either above party feeling or beneath
+it, handed in their resignations.  The motives of their action became,
+as will be shown, the subject of violent controversy; but the statement
+of Sir Charles Metcalfe seems in itself the fairest and most probable
+account of what took place.  "On Friday, Mr. La Fontaine and Mr.
+Baldwin came to the Government House, and after some irrelevant matters
+of business, and preliminary remarks as to the course of their
+proceedings, demanded of {169} the Governor-general that he should
+agree to make no appointment, and no offer of an appointment, without
+previously taking the advice of the Council; that the lists of
+candidates should in every instance be laid before the Council; that
+they should recommend any others at discretion; and that the
+Governor-general in deciding, after taking their advice, shall not make
+any appointment prejudicial to their influence."[9]
+
+At a slightly later date the ministers attributed their resignation to
+a serious difference between themselves and the governor-general on the
+theory of responsible government.  To that statement Metcalfe took
+serious exception, but he admitted that "in the course of the
+conversations which both on Friday and Saturday followed the explicit
+demand made by the Council regarding the patronage of the Crown, that
+demand being based on the construction put by some of the gentlemen on
+the meaning of responsible government, different opinions were elicited
+on the abstract theory of that still undefined question as applicable
+to a colony."[10]  There can be no doubt that the _casus belli_ was an
+absolute assertion of the right of the council to control patronage,
+but it is, at the same time, {170} perfectly clear that in the opinion
+of the ministers the disposal of patronage formed part of the system of
+responsible government, and that they were quite explicit to Metcalfe
+in their statements on that point.  The incident, striking enough in
+itself, gave occasion for an extraordinary outburst of pamphleteering;
+and the reckless or incompetent statements of men on either side make
+it necessary to dispel one or two illusions created by the partizan
+excitement of the time.  On the side of the council, Hincks, the
+inspector-general, then and afterwards contended that the incident was
+only an occasion and a pretext; that Stanley had sent Metcalfe out to
+wreck the system of responsible government, so far conceded by Sydenham
+and Bagot; and that the episode of 1843 was part of a deeper plot to
+check the growth of Canadian freedom.[11]  Apart from the absurdities
+contained in Hincks' statement of the case, the only answer which need
+be made to the charge is that, if Stanley could have descended to such
+ignoble plotting, Metcalfe was the last man in the world to act as his
+dishonoured instrument.  On the other side, Gibbon Wakefield believed
+that {171} the council chose the occasion to escape from a defeat
+otherwise inevitable, in the hope that a renewed agitation for
+responsible government might reinstate them in public favour.  As
+Metcalfe gave the suggestion some authority by accepting it
+provisionally in a despatch,[12] the details of Wakefield's charge may
+be given.  The ministry, he held, had been steadily weakening.  Two
+bills, advocated by them, had been abandoned owing to the opposition of
+their followers.  The French solidarity had begun to break up, and La
+Fontaine had found in Viger a rival in the affections of his adherents.
+The ministers, intoxicated by the possession of a little brief
+authority, had offended the sense of the House by their arrogance; and
+the debates concerning the change of the seat of government from
+Kingston to Montreal had been a cause of stumbling to many.  With their
+authority weakened in the House, doubtful in the country, and more than
+doubtful with the governor-general, the resignation of the ministers,
+in Wakefield's view of the case, "upon a ground which was sure to
+obtain for them much popular sympathy, was about the most politic of
+their ministerial acts."[13]
+
+{172}
+
+But the ministry possessed and continued to possess a great
+parliamentary majority; and a dissolution could not in any way have
+improved their position.  Besides this, the alienation of the
+councillors from the governor-general had developed far more deeply
+than was generally supposed; indeed it is difficult to see how common
+action between the opposing interests could have continued with any
+real benefit to the public.  On May 23rd, that is six months before the
+resignation, Captain Higginson, the Governor's civil secretary, had an
+interview with La Fontaine, to ascertain his views on the appointment
+of a provincial aide-de-camp, and on general topics.  The accuracy of
+Higginson's _précis_ of the conversation was challenged by La Fontaine,
+but its terms seem moderate and probable, and do not misrepresent the
+actual position of the Executive Council in 1843--a determined
+opposition to the governor-general's attempt to destroy government by
+party: "Mr. La Fontaine said, 'Your attempts to carry on the government
+on principles of conciliation must fail.  Responsible government has
+been conceded, and when we lose our majority we are prepared to retire;
+to strengthen us we must have the entire confidence of the
+Governor-general exhibited most {173} unequivocally--and also his
+patronage--to be bestowed exclusively on our political adherents.  We
+feel that His Excellency has kept aloof from us.  The opposition
+pronounce that his sentiments are with them.  There must be some acts
+of his, some public declaration in favour of responsible government,
+and of confidence in the Cabinet, to convince them of their error.
+This has been studiously avoided.'"[14]  The truth is that the ministry
+felt the want of confidence, which, on the governor's own confession,
+existed in his mind towards them.  Believing, too, as all of them did
+more or less, in party, they must already have learned the views of
+Metcalfe on that subject, and they suspected him of taking counsel with
+the conservatives, whom Metcalfe declared to be the only true friends
+to Britain in Canada.  Matters of patronage Metcalfe had determined, as
+far as possible, to free from party dictation; and so he and his
+ministers naturally fell out on the most obvious issue which their
+mutual differences could have raised.  There was nothing disingenuous
+in the popular party claiming that the patronage question stood in this
+case for the broader issue.  Indeed Metcalfe's own statement that "he
+objected to the {174} exclusive distribution of patronage with party
+views and maintained the principle that office ought, in every
+instance, to be given to the man best qualified to render efficient
+service to the State" was actually a challenge to the predominance of
+the party-cabinet system, which no constitutionalist could have allowed
+to pass in silence.  Egerton Ryerson, to whom in this instance the
+maxim about the cobbler sticking to his last is applicable, erected a
+ridiculous defence for Metcalfe, holding that "according to British
+practice, the councillors ought to have resigned on what Metcalfe had
+done, and not on what he would not promise to do.  If the Crown
+intended to do just as they desired the governor-general to do, still
+the promise ought not to be given, nor ought it to have been asked.
+The moment a man promises to do a thing he ceases to be as free as he
+was before he made the promise."[15]  The actual struggle lay between
+two schools directly opposed in their interpretation of responsible
+government; and since Sir Charles Metcalfe definitely and avowedly set
+himself against cabinet government, the party system, and the place of
+party in allocating patronage, the ministers were not free to allow him
+to {175} appoint men at his own discretion.  For the sake of a theory
+of government for which many of them had already sacrificed much, they
+were bound to defend what their opponents called the discreditable
+cause of party patronage.
+
+The line of action which the members of council followed had already
+been sketched out by Robert Baldwin in his encounter with Sydenham.  In
+the debate of June 18th, 1841, Baldwin had admitted that should the
+representative of the Crown be unwilling to accept the advice offered
+to him by his council, it would be impossible by any direct means to
+force that advice upon him.  But he also held that this did not relieve
+the members of council for a moment from the fulfilment of an
+imperative duty.  "If their advice," he said, "were accepted--well and
+good.  If not, their course would be to tender their resignations."[16]
+
+This indeed was battle _ŕ outrance_ between two conflicting theories of
+government.  Russell, Sydenham, and Metcalfe, had refused to admit
+self-government beyond a certain limit, and Metcalfe, in accepting the
+situation created by the resignation of his ministers, was battling
+very directly for his view.  On the other side, Baldwin and the {176}
+colonial politicians had claimed autonomy as far as it might be granted
+within the empire.  By resigning their offices, they called on their
+opponents to make the alternative system work.  For two years Metcalfe
+occupied himself with the task they set him.
+
+It is not necessary to enter into all the details of those years.  The
+relevant facts group themselves round three centres of interest--the
+painful efforts put forth by Metcalfe to build up a new council, the
+general election through which he sought to find a party for his
+ministers, and the attitude of the colony towards the new ministers,
+and of both toward the representative of the Crown on the eve of his
+departure for England in 1845.
+
+The struggle to reconstruct the ministry was peculiarly distressing,
+and ended in a very qualified success.  Daly, Metcalfe's one remaining
+councillor, carried no weight in the country.  Baldwin and his group
+could not be approached; and Harrison, the most moderate of the
+reformers, had previously resigned over the question of the removal of
+the seat of government from Kingston.  In Lower Canada, Metcalfe found
+himself almost as much the object of French hatred as Sydenham had
+been, and it was with great difficulty that he {177} secured Viger to
+represent the French Canadians in his council--at the expense of
+Viger's influence among his compatriots.[17]  By the end of 1843,
+Metcalfe had secured the services of three men, "Viger representing the
+French party, and Mr. Daly and Mr. Draper representing in some degree
+as to each both the British and moderate Reform parties."[18]
+Officious supporters, of whom Egerton Ryerson was chief, did their best
+to introduce to the governor competent outsiders, and Draper used his
+reputation for moderation in the effort to secure suitable candidates.
+Even after the election of 1844 was over, Draper, and Caron, the
+Speaker in the Upper House, actually attempted an intrigue with La
+Fontaine; and although the episode brought little credit to any of the
+parties concerned, La Fontaine at least recognized how much was
+involved in acceptance or rejection of the proposals of
+government--when he said: "If under the system of accepting office at
+any price, there are persons, who, for a personal and momentary
+advantage, do not fear to break the only bond which constitutes our
+strength, union among ourselves, I do not wish to be, and I never will
+be, of the {178} number."[19]  Eventually a patchwork ministry was
+constructed, but its pitiable weakness proved how difficult it was to
+create a council, except along orthodox British party lines.  It was a
+_reductio ad absurdum_ of the eclectic principle of cabinet building.
+
+The reconstruction of the council involved a dissolution of Parliament.
+The late councillors had a steady and decisive majority in the existing
+Assembly; and the governor-general found it necessary to face the risk
+of an appeal to the country.  The fate of Lower Canada he could imagine
+beforehand; nothing but accident could prevent the return of an
+overwhelming majority against his men.  Even among the western British
+settlers an unprejudiced observer reported early in 1844 that more than
+nine-tenths of the western voters were supporters of the late Executive
+Council.[20]  Montreal, which, thanks to Sydenham's manoeuvres, counted
+among the British seats, returned an opponent of the new Ministers at a
+bye-election in April, 1844, although the {179} government party
+explained away the defeat by stories of Irish violence.  But Metcalfe's
+extraordinary persistence, and his belief that the battle was really
+one for the continuance of the British connection, gave him and his
+supporters renewed vigour, and, even to-day, the election of November,
+1844, is remembered as one of the fiercest in the history of the
+colony.  Politics in Canada still recognized force as one of the
+natural, if not quite legitimate, elements in the situation, and it was
+eminently characteristic of local conditions that, early in his term of
+office, Metcalfe should have reported that meetings had been held near
+Kingston at which large numbers of persons attended armed with
+bludgeons, and, in some cases, with firearms.[21]  Montreal, with all
+its possibilities of conflict, and with its reputation for disorder to
+maintain, led the-way in election riots.  In April, 1844, according to
+the loyalists, the reformers had won through the use of Irish labourers
+brought in from the Lachine canal.  However that may be, the military
+had been called in, and at least one death had resulted from the
+confused rioting of the day.[22]  In November, the loyalists in their
+turn organized {180} a counter demonstration, and the success of the
+loyal party was not altogether disconnected with physical force.[23]
+From the west came similar stories of violence and trickery.  In the
+West Riding of Halton, the Tories were said to have delayed voting,
+which seemed to be setting against them, by various stratagems,
+including the swearing in of old grey-headed men as of 21 years of age,
+and among the accusations made by the defeated candidate was one that
+certain deputy returning officers had allowed seven women to vote for
+the sitting member.[24]  On the whole the election went in favour of
+the governor-general, although Metcalfe took too favourable a view of
+the situation when he reported the avowed supporters of government as
+46, as against 28 avowed adversaries.  At best his majority could not
+rise above six.  Yet even so, the decision of the country still seems
+astonishing.  There was the unflinching Tory element at the centre; and
+the British members from Lower Canada.  Ryerson had used his great
+influence among the Methodists, and, since the cry was one of loyalty
+to the Crown, many waverers {181} may have voted on patriotic grounds
+for the government candidates.  Metcalfe's reputation, too, counted for
+him, for he had already become known as more than generous, and one of
+his successors estimated that he spent Ł6,000 a year in excess of his
+official income.  "It must be admitted," he himself wrote to Stanley,
+"that this majority has been elected by the loyalty of the majority of
+the people of Upper Canada, and of those of the Eastern townships in
+Lower Canada."[25]
+
+The government, and presumably also the governor-general, were accused
+of having secured their victory by doubtful tactics, and Elgin reported
+in 1847 that his Assembly, which was that of the 1844 election, had had
+much discredit thrown on it on the ground that the late
+governor-general had interfered unduly in the elections.[26]  Neither
+side had been perfectly scrupulous in its methods of warfare, and it is
+not necessary to blame Metcalfe for the misguided zeal and cunning of
+his Ministers and his country supporters.  Be that as it may, the
+governor-general had won a hard-fought victory--Pyrrhic as it proved.
+
+Throughout this political warfare, Metcalfe had {182} been sustained by
+the strong support of the home government.  The cabinet announced
+itself ready to give him every possible support in maintaining the
+authority of the Queen, and of her representative, against unreasonable
+and exorbitant pretensions.[27]  In the debate on the troubles, which
+Roebuck introduced on May 30th, 1844, all the leading men on either
+side, Stanley, Peel, Russell, and Buller, warmly supported the
+governor, Russell and Buller being as strong in their reprobation of
+the demands of the council as Stanley himself.[28]  And the chorus of
+approval culminated in the letters from Peel and Stanley, which
+announced the conferring of a peerage on Metcalfe "as a public mark of
+her Majesty's cordial approbation of the judgment, ability, and
+fidelity, with which he had discharged the important trust confided to
+him by her Majesty."[29]  In a sense the honours and praise were not
+altogether out of place.  Metcalfe had been sent out to conduct the
+administration of Canada on what we now regard as an impossible system;
+and unlike his immediate predecessors he had conceded not one point to
+the other side.  In spite of all that his enemies could say, his {183}
+personal honour and dignity remained untarnished.  The nicknames and
+cruel taunts flung at him, in the earlier months, apparently by his own
+ministers, recoil now on their heads, as the petty insults of
+unmannerly politicians; indeed, the accusations which they made of
+simplicity and honesty, simply reinforce the impression of quixotic
+high-mindedness, which was not the least noble feature in Metcalfe's
+character.  His generosity had been unaffected by his difficulties; and
+there are few finer things in the history of British administration
+than the sense of duty exhibited throughout 1845 by Lord Metcalfe,
+when, dying of cancer in the cheek, almost blind, and altogether unable
+to write his despatches, he still clung to his post "to secure the
+preservation of this colony and the supremacy of the mother country."
+It is easy to separate the man from the official, and to praise the
+former as one of the noblest of early Victorian administrators.
+
+But even before Lord Metcalfe's departure at the end of 1845, the
+inadequacy of his system stood revealed.  He had indeed a majority in
+the Assembly, but a small and doubtful majority; and since its members
+had been elected rather to support Metcalfe than to co-operate with his
+ill-assorted {184} ministry, difficulties very soon revealed
+themselves.  There were causes of dissension, chief among them the
+University question in Upper Canada, which threatened to wreck the
+government party.  But the most ominous sign of coming defeat was the
+incompatibility of temper which rapidly developed between loyal
+ministers and loyal Assembly.  "It is remarkable," Metcalfe wrote in
+May, 1845, "that none of the Executive Council, although all are
+estimable and respectable, exercise any great influence over the party
+which supports the government.  Mr. Draper is universally admitted to
+be the most talented man in either House of the Legislature, and his
+presence in the Legislative Assembly was deemed to be so essential,
+that he resigned his seat in the Upper House, sacrificing his own
+opinions in order that he might take the lead in the Assembly;
+nevertheless he is not popular with the party that supports the
+government, nor with any other, and I do not know that, strictly
+speaking, he can be said to have a single follower.  The same may be
+remarked of every other member of the Executive Council; and although I
+have much reason to be satisfied with them, and have no expectation of
+finding others who would serve her Majesty better, still I do not {185}
+perceive that any of them individually have brought much support to the
+government."[30]
+
+That is the confession of a man who has attempted the impossible, and
+who is being forced reluctantly to witness his own defeat.  The
+ministry which he had created lacked the authority which can come only
+from the best political talent of a people acting in sympathy with the
+opinions of that people.  He had, with great difficulty, found a House
+of Assembly willing by a narrow majority to support him, but personal
+support is not in itself a political programme, and the fallacy of his
+calculations appeared when work in detail had to be accomplished.  He
+had reprobated party, and he found in a party--narrower in practice
+even than that which he had displaced--the only possible foundation for
+his authority.  He had come to Canada to complete the reconciliation of
+opposing races within the colony, and, when he left, the French seemed
+once more about to retreat into their old position of invincible
+hostility to all things British.  The governor-generalship of Lord
+Metcalfe is almost the clearest illustration in the nineteenth century
+of the weakness of the doctrinaire in practical politics.
+Unfortunately, the {186} doctrine which Metcalfe had strenuously
+enforced was backed by the highest of imperial authorities, and
+sanctioned by monarchy itself.  In less than ten years after the
+Rebellion, the renovated theory of colonial autonomy had produced a new
+dilemma.  It remained with Metcalfe's successor to decide whether
+Britain preferred a second rebellion and probable separation to a
+radical change of system.
+
+
+
+[1] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, revised edition, ii. p. 313.
+
+[2] _A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada_, by a
+member of the Provincial Parliament, p. 29.
+
+[3] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845.
+
+[4] _Parliamentary Paper concerning the Canadian Civil List_ (1 April,
+1844), p. 5.
+
+[5] Metcalfe to Stanley, 5 August, 1843.
+
+[6] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+
+[7] Metcalfe to Stanley, 6 August, 1843.
+
+[8] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+
+[9] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, ii. pp. 367-8.
+
+[10] _Ibid._ ii. p. 369.
+
+[11] See Hincks, _Lecture on the Political History of Canada_; and
+Dent, _The Last Forty Years_.  The latter work was written under the
+influence of Sir Francis Hincks, whose comments on it are contained in
+the inter-leaved copy in the possession of the Canadian archives.
+
+[12] Metcalfe to Stanley, 26 December, 1843.
+
+[13] _A Letter on the Ministerial Crisis, by the old Montreal
+Correspondent of the Colonial Gazette_, Kingston, 1843.
+
+[14] Quoted from Ryerson, _Story of my Life_, pp. 332-3.
+
+[15] Ryerson, _op. cit._ p. 323.
+
+[16] See above, p. 116.
+
+[17] Viger was defeated in the election of 1844.
+
+[18] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Melcalfe_, p. 426.
+
+[19] See, for the whole intrigue, _Correspondence between the Hon. W.
+H. Draper and the Hon. B. E. Garon; and, between the Honbles. L. H. La
+Fontaine and A. N. Morin_, Montreal, 1840.
+
+[20] The Rev. John Ryerson to Egerton Ryerson, February, 1844, in _The
+Story of my Life_.
+
+[21] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 December, 1843.
+
+[22] Montreal Gazette, 23 April, 1844.
+
+[23] _Montreal Daily Witness_, 7 March, 1896, containing reminiscences
+by Dr. William Kingsford.
+
+[24] Young, _Early History of Galt and Dumfries_, p. 193.
+
+[25] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 November, 1844.
+
+[26] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 9 December, 1847.
+
+[27] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 May, 1844.
+
+[28] _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.
+
+[29] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, ii. pp. 405-9.
+
+[30] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+
+
+
+
+{187}
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN.
+
+The year which intervened between Metcalfe's departure and the arrival
+of Lord Elgin at the beginning of 1847, may be disregarded in this
+inquiry.  Earl Cathcart, who held office in the interval, was chosen
+because relations with the United States at that time were serious
+enough to make it desirable to combine the civil and the military
+headship in Canada in one person.  In domestic politics the
+governor-general was a negligible quantity, as his successor confessed:
+"Lord Cathcart, not very unreasonably perhaps, has allowed everything
+that required thought to lie over for me."[1]
+
+But the arrival of Elgin changed the whole aspect of affairs, and
+introduced the most {188} important modification that was made in
+Canadian government between 1791 and the year of Confederation.  Since
+1839, governors-general who took their instructions from Britain, and
+who seldom allowed the Canadian point of view to have more than an
+indirect influence on their administration, had introduced the most
+unhappy complications into politics.  Both they and the home government
+were now reduced to the gloomiest speculations concerning the
+permanence of the British connection.  In place of the academic or
+official view of colonial dependence which had hitherto dominated
+Canadian administration, Elgin came to substitute a policy which
+frankly accepted the Canadian position, and which as frankly trusted to
+a loyalty dependent for none of its sanctions upon external coercion or
+encouragement.  With 1846, Great Britain entered on an era of which the
+predominating principle was _laissez faire_, and within twelve months
+of the concession of that principle in commerce, Elgin applied it with
+even more astonishing results in the region of colonial Parliamentary
+institutions.
+
+The Canadian episode in Elgin's career furnishes the most perfect and
+permanently useful service rendered by him to the Empire.  Although he
+{189} gathered laurels in China and India, and earned a notable place
+among diplomatists, nothing that he did is so representative of the
+whole man, so valuable, and so completely rounded and finished, as the
+seven years of his work in Canada.  Elsewhere he accomplished tasks,
+which others had done, or might have done as well.  But in the history
+of the self-governing dominions of Britain, his name is almost the
+first of those who assisted in creating an Empire, the secret of whose
+strength was to be local autonomy.
+
+He belonged to the most distinguished group of nineteenth century
+politicians, for with Gladstone, Canning, Dalhousie, Herbert, and
+others, he served his apprenticeship under Sir Robert Peel.  All of
+that younger generation reflected the sobriety, the love of hard fact,
+the sound but progressive conservatism, and the high administrative
+faculty of their great master.  It was an epoch when changes were
+inevitable; but the soundest minds tended, in spite of a powerful party
+tradition, to view the work in front of them in a non-partizan spirit.
+Gladstone himself, for long, seemed fated to repeat the party-breaking
+record of Peel; and three great proconsuls of the group, Dalhousie,
+Canning, and Elgin, found in imperial administration a more {190}
+congenial task than Westminster could offer them.  Elgin occupies a
+mediate position between the administrative careers of Dalhousie and
+Canning, and the parliamentary and constitutional labours of Gladstone.
+He was that strange being, a constitutionalist proconsul; and his chief
+work in administration lay in so altering the relation of his office to
+Canadian popular government, as to take from the governor-generalship
+much of its initiative, and to make a great surrender to popular
+opinion.  Between his arrival in Montreal at the end of January, 1847,
+and the writing of his last official despatch on December 18th, 1854,
+he had established on sure foundations the system of democratic
+government in Canada.
+
+Never was man better fitted for his work.  He came, a Scotsman, to a
+colony one-third Scottish, and the name of Bruce was itself soporific
+to the opposition of a perfervid section of the reformers.  His wife
+was the daughter of Lord Durham, whom Canadians regarded as the
+beginner of a new age of Canadian constitutionalism.  He had been
+appointed by a Whig Government, and Earl Grey, the new Colonial
+Secretary, was already learned in liberal theory, both in politics and
+economics, and understood that Britons, abroad as at home, {191} must
+have liberty to misgovern themselves.  Elgin's personal qualities were
+precisely those best fitted to control a self-governing community.  Not
+only was he saved from extreme views by his caution and sense of
+humour, but he had, to an extraordinary degree, the power of seeing
+both sides, and more especially the other side, of any question.  In
+Canada too, as later in China and India, he exhibited qualities of
+humanity which some might term quixotic;[2] and, as will be illustrated
+very fully below, his gifts of tact and _bonhomie_ made him a
+singularly persuasive force in international affairs, and secured for
+Britain at least one clear diplomatic victory over America.
+
+Following on a succession of short-lived and troubled governorships,
+under which, while the principle of government had remained constant,
+nothing else had done so, Elgin had practically to begin Durham's work
+afresh, and build without much regard for the foundations laid since
+1841.  The alternatives before him were a grant of really responsible
+government, or a rebellion, with annexation to the United States as its
+probable end.  The {192} new Governor saw very clearly the dangers of
+his predecessor's policy.  "The distinction," he wrote at a later date,
+"between Lord Metcalfe's policy and mine is twofold.  In the first
+place he profoundly distrusted the whole Liberal party in the
+province--that great party which, excepting at extraordinary
+conjunctures, has always carried with it the mass of the
+constituencies.  He believed its designs to be revolutionary, just as
+the Tory party in England believed those of the Whigs and Reformers to
+be in 1832.  And, secondly, he imagined that when circumstances forced
+the party upon him, he could check these revolutionary tendencies by
+manifesting his distrust of them, more especially in the matter of the
+distribution of patronage, thereby relieving them in a great measure
+from that responsibility, which is in all free countries the most
+effectual security against the abuse of power, and tempting them to
+endeavour to combine the role of popular tribunes with the prestige of
+ministers of the crown."[3]
+
+The danger of a crisis was the greater because, as has been shown,
+Metcalfe's anti-democratic policy had been more than the expression of
+a personal {193} mood.  It was the policy of the British government.
+After Metcalfe's departure, and Stanley's resignation of the Colonial
+office, Gladstone, then for a few months Colonial Secretary, assured
+Cathcart that "the favour of his Sovereign and the acknowledgment of
+his country, have marked (Metcalfe's) administration as one which,
+under the peculiar circumstances of the task he had to perform, _may
+justly be regarded as a model for his successors_."[4]  In truth, the
+British Colonial office was not only wrong in its working theory, but
+ignorant of the boiling tumult of Canadian opinion in those days;
+ignorant of the steadily increasing vehemence of the demand for true
+home rule, and of the possibility that French nationalism, Irish
+nationalism, and American aggression, might unite in a great upheaval,
+and the political tragedy find its consummation in another Declaration
+of Independence.
+
+But Elgin was allowed little leisure for general reflections; the
+concrete details of the actual situation absorbed all his energies.
+Since Metcalfe's resignation, matters had not improved.  There was
+still an uncertain majority in the House of Assembly, although, in the
+eyes of probably a {194} majority of voters, the disorders of the late
+election had discredited the whole Assembly.  But the ministry had gone
+on from weakness to further weakness.  Draper, who did his best to
+preserve the political decencies, had been forced to ask Cathcart to
+assist him in removing certain of his colleagues.  Viger had been a
+complete failure as President of the Council, and performed none of the
+duties of his department except that of signing his name to reports
+prepared by others.  Daly was of little use to him; and, as for the
+solicitor-general for Upper Canada, Sherwood, "his repeated absence on
+important divisions, his lukewarm support, and occasional (almost)
+opposition, his habit of speaking of the Members of your Excellency's
+Government and of the policy pursued by them, his more than suspected
+intrigues to effect the removal of some members of the council, have
+altogether destroyed all confidence in him."[5]  Draper himself had
+seemingly grown tired of the dust and heat of the struggle, and, soon
+after Elgin's assumption of authority, resigned his premiership for a
+legal position as honourable and more peaceful.
+
+{195}
+
+Elgin, then, found a distracted ministry, a doubtful Assembly, and an
+irritated country.  His ministers he thought lacking in pluck, and far
+too willing to appeal to selfish and sordid motives in possible
+supporters.[6]  He was irritated by what seemed to him the petty and
+inconsistent divisions of Canadian party life: "In a community like
+this, where there is little, if anything, of public principle to divide
+men, political parties will shape themselves under the influence of
+circumstances, and of a great variety of affections and antipathies,
+national, sectarian, and personal....  It is not even pretended that
+the divisions of party represent corresponding divisions of sentiment
+on questions which occupy the public mind, such as voluntaryism, Free
+Trade, etc., etc.  Responsible Government is the one subject on which
+this coincidence is alleged to exist."[7]  The French problem he found
+peculiarly difficult.  Metcalfe's policy had had results disconcerting
+to the British authorities.  Banishing, as he thought, sectarianism or
+racial views, he had yet practically shut out French statesmen from
+office so successfully, that, when Elgin, acting through Colonel Taché,
+{196} attempted to approach them, he found in none of them any
+disposition to enter into alliance with the existing ministry.[8]
+Elgin, who was willing enough to give fair play to every political
+section, could not but see the obvious fault of French Canadian
+nationalism.  "They seem incapable of comprehending that the principles
+of constitutional government must be applied against them, as well as
+for them," he wrote to Grey.  "Whenever there appears to be a chance of
+things taking this turn they revive the ancient cry of nationality, and
+insist on their right to have a share in the administration, not
+because the party with which they have chosen to connect themselves is
+in the ascendant, but because they represent a people of distinct
+origin."[9]  Most serious of all, because it hampered his initiative,
+he found every party except that in office suspicious of the governor's
+authority, and newspapers like Hincks' _Pilot_ grumbling over Imperial
+interference.
+
+One sweeping remedy, he had, within a few months of his arrival, laid
+aside as impossible.  Lord John Russell and Grey had discussed with
+{197} him the possibility of raising Canadian politics out of their
+pettiness by a federal union of all the British North American
+colonies.  But as early as May 1847, Elgin had come to doubt whether
+the free and independent legislatures of the colonies would be willing
+to delegate any of their authority to please a British ministry.[10]
+It was necessary then to fall back on the unromantic alternative of
+modifying the constitution of the ministry; and here French solidarity
+had made his task difficult.  Yet the amazing thing in Elgin was the
+speed, the ease, and the accuracy, with which he saw what none of his
+predecessors had seen--the need to concede, and the harmlessness of
+conceding, responsible government in Baldwin's sense of the term.
+Within two months of his accession to power, he declared, "I am
+determined to do nothing which will put it out of my power to act with
+the opposite party, if it is forced upon me by the representatives of
+the people."[11]  Two months later, sick of the struggles by which his
+ministers were trying to gain here and there some trivial vote to keep
+them in office, he recurred to the same idea as not merely harmless but
+sound.  That ministers {198} and opposition should occasionally change
+places struck him not merely as constitutional, but as the most
+conservative convention in the constitution; and in answer to the older
+school to whom a change of ministers at the dictation of a majority in
+the Assembly meant the degradation of the governor-generalship, he
+hoped "to establish a moral influence in the province, which will go
+far to compensate for the loss of power consequent on the surrender of
+patronage to an executive responsible to the local parliament."[12]
+
+To give his ministers a last fair chance of holding on to office, he
+dissolved parliament at the end of 1847, recognizing that, in the event
+of a victory, their credit would be immensely increased.  The struggle
+of December 1847, to January 1848, was decisive.  While the French
+constituencies maintained their former position, even in Upper Canada
+the discredited ministry found few supporters.  The only element in the
+situation which disturbed Elgin was the news that Papineau, the
+arch-rebel of 1837, had come back to public life with a flourish of
+agitating declarations; and that the French people had not condemned
+with sufficient decisiveness his seditious utterances.  Yet he need
+have {199} had no qualms.  _La Revue Canadienne_ in reviewing the
+situation certainly refused to condemn Papineau's extravagances, but
+its conclusion took the ground from under the agitator's feet, for it
+declared that "cette modération de nos chefs politiques a puissamment
+contribué ŕ placer notre parti dans la position avantageuse qu'il
+occupe maintenant."[13]  Now Papineau was incapable of political
+moderation.
+
+The fate of the ministry was quickly settled.  Their candidate for the
+speakership of the Lower House was defeated by 54 votes to 19; a vote
+of no confidence was carried by 54 to 20; on March 23rd parliament was
+prorogued and a new administration, the first truly popular ministry in
+the history of Canada, accepted office, and the country, satisfied at
+last, was promised "various measures for developing the resources of
+the province, and promoting the social well-being of its
+inhabitants."[14]
+
+The change was the more decisive because it was made with the approval
+of the Whig government in England.  "I can have no doubt," Grey wrote
+to Elgin on February 22nd, "that you must accept {200} such a council
+as the newly elected parliament will support, and that however unwise
+as relates to the real interests of Canada their measures may be, they
+must be acquiesced in, until it shall pretty clearly appear that public
+opinion will support a resistance to them.  There is no middle course
+between this line of policy, and that which involves in the last resort
+an appeal to parliament to overrule the wishes of the Canadians, and
+this I agree with Gladstone and Stanley in thinking impracticable."[15]
+The only precaution he bade Elgin take was to register his dissent
+carefully in cases of disagreement.  Having conceded the essential, it
+mattered little that Grey could not quite rid himself of doubts as to
+the consequences of his previous daring.  The concession had come most
+opportunely, for Elgin, who feared greatly the disturbing influences of
+European revolutionism, Irish discontent, and American democracy in its
+cruder forms, believed that, had the change not taken place, "we should
+by this hour (November 30th, 1848) either have been ignominiously
+expelled from Canada, or our relations with the United States would
+have been in a most precarious condition."
+
+{201}
+
+It is not necessary to follow Elgin through all the details of more
+than seven busy years.  It will suffice to watch him at work on the
+three great allied problems which combined to form the constitutional
+question in Canada; the character of the government to be conceded to,
+and worked along with, the colonists; the recognition to be given to
+French nationalist feeling; and the nature of the connection between
+Britain and Canada which would exist after concessions had been made on
+these points.  The significance of his policy is the greater, because
+the example of Canada was certain, _mutatis mutandis_, to be followed
+by the other greater colonies.  Elgin's solution of the question of
+responsible government was so natural and easy that the reader of his
+despatches forgets how completely his task had baffled all his
+predecessors, and that several generations of colonial secretaries had
+refused to admit what in his hands seemed a self-evident truth.  At the
+outset Elgin's own mind had not been free from serious doubt.  He had
+come to Canada with a traditional suspicion of the French Canadians and
+the progressives of Upper Canada; yet within a year, since the country
+so willed it, he had accepted a cabinet, composed entirely of these two
+sections.  On his {202} way to the formation of that cabinet he not
+only brushed aside old suspicions, but he refused to surrender to the
+seductions of the eclectic principle, which allowed his predecessors to
+evade the force of popular opinion by selecting representatives of all
+shades of that opinion.  He saw the danger of allowing responsible
+government to remain a party cry, and he removed "that most delicate
+and debatable subject" from party politics by conceding the whole
+position.  The defects of the Canadian party system never found a
+severer critic than Elgin, but he saw that by party Canada would be
+ruled, and he could not, as Metcalfe had done, deceive himself into
+thinking he had abolished it by governing in accordance with the least
+popular party in the state.  With the candour and the discriminating
+judgment which so distinguished all his doings in Canada, he admitted
+that, notwithstanding the high ground Lord Metcalfe had taken against
+party patronage, the ministers favoured by that governor-general had
+"used patronage for party purposes with quite as little scruple as his
+first council."[16]
+
+Since the first general election had proved beyond a doubt that
+Canadians desired a {203} progressive ministry, he made the change with
+perfect success, and remained a consistent guide and friend to his new
+ministers.
+
+There was something dramatic in the contrast between the possibilities
+of trouble in the year when the concession was made, and the peace
+which actually ensued.  It was the year of revolution, and the men whom
+he called to his assistance were "persons denounced very lately by the
+Secretary of State to the Governor-General as impracticable and
+disloyal";[17] but before the year was out he was able to boast that
+when so many thrones were tottering and the allegiance of so many
+people was waxing faint, there is less political disaffection in Canada
+than there ever had been before.  From 1848 until the year of his
+recall, he remained in complete accord with his liberal administration,
+and never was constitutional monarch more intimately and usefully
+connected with his ministers than was Elgin, first with Baldwin and La
+Fontaine, and then with Hincks and Morin.
+
+Elgin gave a rarer example of what fidelity to colonial
+constitutionalism meant.  In these years of liberal success, "Old
+Toryism" faced a new strain, and faced it badly.  The party had {204}
+supported the empire, when that empire meant their supremacy.  They had
+befriended the representative of the Crown, when they had all the
+places and profits.  When the British connection took a liberal colour,
+when the governor-general acted constitutionally towards the
+undoubtedly progressive tone of popular opinion, some of the tories
+became annexationists.  Many of them, as will be shown later,
+encouraged a dastardly assault on the person of their official head;
+and all of them, supported by gentlemen of Her Majesty's army, treated
+the representative of the Crown with the most obvious discourtesy.[18]
+Nevertheless, when opinion changed, and when a coalition attacked and
+unseated the Progressive ministry of 1848-1854, Elgin, without a
+moment's hesitation, turned to the men who had insulted him.  "To the
+great astonishment of the public, as well as to his own," wrote
+Laurence Oliphant, who was then on Elgin's staff, "Sir Allan MacNab,
+who had been one of his bitterest opponents ever since the Montreal
+events, was sent for to form a ministry--Lord Elgin by this act
+satisfactorily disproving the charges of {205} having either personal
+or political partialities in the selection of his ministers."[19]
+
+But the first great constitutional governor-general of Canada had to
+interpret constitutionalism as something more than mere obedience to
+public dictation with regard to his councillors.  He had to educate
+these councillors, and the public, into the niceties of British
+constitutional manners; and he had to create a new vocation for the
+governor-general, and to exchange dictation for rational influence.  He
+had to teach his ministers moderation in their measures, and,
+indirectly, to show the opposition how to avoid crude and extreme
+methods in their fight for office.  When his high political courage, in
+consenting to a bill very obnoxious to the opposition, forced them into
+violence, he kept his temper and his head, and the opposition leaders
+learned, not from punishment, but from quiet contempt, to express
+dissent in modes other than those of arson and sticks and stones.  For
+seven years, by methods so restrained as to be hardly perceptible even
+in his private letters to Grey, he guided the first experimental
+cabinets into smooth water, and when he resigned, he left behind him
+politicians {206} trained by his efforts to govern Canada according to
+British usage.
+
+At the same time his influence on the British Cabinet was as quiet and
+certain.  He was still responsible to the British Crown and Cabinet,
+and a weaker man would have forgotten the problems which the new
+Canadian constitutionalism was bound to create at the centre of
+authority.  Two instances will illustrate the point, and Elgin's clear
+perception of his duty.  They are both taken from the episode of the
+Rebellion Losses Bill, and the Montreal riots of 1849.  The Bill which
+caused the trouble had been introduced to complete a scheme of
+compensation for all those who had suffered loss in the late Rebellion,
+whether French or English, and had been passed by majorities in both
+houses; but while there seemed no valid reason for disallowing it,
+Elgin suspected trouble--indeed, at first, he viewed the measure with
+personal disapproval.[20]  He might have refused permission to bring in
+the bill; but the practical consequences of such a refusal were too
+serious to {207} be accepted.  "Only imagine," he wrote, "how difficult
+it would have been to discover a justification for my conduct, if at a
+moment when America was boiling over with bandits and desperadoes, and
+when the leaders of every faction in the Union, with the view of
+securing the Irish vote for the presidential election, were vying with
+each other in abuse of England, and subscribing funds for the Irish
+Republican Union, I had brought on such a crisis in Canada by refusing
+to allow my administration to bring in a bill to carry out the
+recommendation of Lord Metcalfe's commissioners."[21]  He might have
+dissolved Parliament, but, as he rightly pointed out, "it would be
+rather a strong measure to have recourse to dissolution because a
+Parliament, elected one year ago under the auspices of the present
+opposition, passed by a majority of more than two to one a measure
+introduced by the Government."  There remained only the possibility of
+reserving the bill for approval or rejection at home.  A weaker man
+would have taken this easy and fatal way of evading responsibility; but
+Elgin rose to the height of his vocation, when he explained his reason
+for acting on his own {208} initiative.  "I should only throw upon her
+Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the popular eye here)
+on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which rests, and ought I think
+to rest, on my own shoulders."[22]  He gave his assent to the bill,
+suffered personal violence at the hands of the Montreal crowd and the
+opposition, but, since he stood firm, he triumphed, and saved both the
+dignity of the Crown and the friendship of the French for his
+government.
+
+The other instance of his skill in combining Canadian autonomy with
+British supremacy is less important, but, in a way, more extraordinary
+in its subtlety.  As a servant of the Crown, he had to furnish
+despatches, which were liable to be published as parliamentary papers,
+and so to be perused by Canadian politicians.  Elgin had therefore to
+reckon with two publics--the British Parliament, which desired
+information, and the Canadian Parliament, which desired to maintain its
+dignity and freedom.  Before the Montreal outrage, and when it was
+extremely desirable to leave matters as vague as possible, Elgin simply
+refrained from giving details to the Colonial Office.  "I could not
+have made my official communication to {209} you in reference to this
+Bill, which you could have laid before Parliament, without stating or
+implying an irrevocable decision on this point.  To this circumstance
+you must ascribe the fact that you have not heard from me
+officially."[23]  With even greater shrewdness, at a later date, he
+made Grey expunge, in his book on Colonial Policy, details of the
+outrage which followed the passing of the Act; for, said he, "I am
+strongly of opinion that nothing but evil can result from the
+publication, at this period, of a detailed and circumstantial statement
+of the disgraceful proceedings which took place after the Bill
+passed....  _The surest way to arrest a process of conversion is to
+dwell on the errors of the past, and to place in a broad light the
+contrast between present sentiments and those of an earlier date_."[24]
+In constitutional affairs manners make, not merely the statesman, but
+the possibility of government; and Elgin's highest quality as a
+constitutionalist was, not so much his understanding of the machinery
+of government, as his knowledge of the constitutional temper, and the
+need within it of humanity and common-sense.
+
+{210}
+
+Great as was Elgin's achievement in rectifying Canadian constitutional
+practice, his solution of the nationalist difficulty in Lower Canada
+was possibly a greater triumph of statesmanship; for the present _modus
+vivendi_, which still shows no signs of breaking down, dates from the
+years of Elgin's governorship.  The decade which included his rule in
+Canada was pre-eminently the epoch of nationalism.  Italy, Germany, and
+Hungary, with Mazzini as their prophet, were all struggling for the
+acknowledgment of their national claims, and within the British Islands
+themselves, the Irish nationalists furnished, in Davis and the writers
+to _The Nation_, disciples and apostles of the new gospel.  It is
+always dangerous to trace European influences across the Atlantic; but
+there is little doubt that as the French rebellion of 1837 owed
+something to Europe, so the arch-rebel Papineau's paper, _L'Avenir_,
+echoed in an empty blustering fashion, the cries of the nationalist
+revolution of 1848.[25]
+
+Elgin found on his arrival that British administration had thrown every
+element in French-Canadian politics into headlong opposition to itself.
+How dangerous the situation was, one may infer from {211} the
+disquieting rumours of the ambitions of the American Union, and from
+the passions and memories of injustice which floods of unkempt and
+wretched Irish immigrants were bringing with them to their new homes in
+America.  In Elgin's second year of office, 1848, he had to face the
+possibility of a rising under the old leaders of 1837.  His solution of
+the difficulty proceeded _pari passu_ with his constitutional work.  In
+the latter he had seen that he must remove the disquieting subject of
+"responsible government" from the party programme of the progressives,
+and the politic surrender of 1847 had gained his end.  Towards French
+nationalism he acted in the same spirit.  As has already been seen, he
+was conscious of the political shortcomings of the French.  Yet there
+was nothing penal in his attitude towards them, and he saw, with a
+clearness to which Durham never attained, how idle all talk of
+anglicizing French Canada must be.  "I for one," he said, "am deeply
+convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to denationalize the
+French.  Generally speaking, they produce the opposite effect from that
+intended, causing the flame of national prejudice and animosity to burn
+more fiercely."[26]
+
+{212}
+
+But how could the pathological phase of nationalism be ended?  His
+first Tory advisers suggested the old trick of making converts, but the
+practice had long since been found useless.  His next speculation was
+whether the French could be made to take sides as Liberals or Tories,
+apart altogether from nationalist considerations.  But the political
+solidarity of the French had been a kind of trades-unionism, claiming
+to guard French interests against an actual menace to their very
+existence as a nation within the empire; and they were certain to act
+only with Baldwin and his friends, the one party which had regarded
+them as other than traitors or suspects, or at best tools.
+
+No complete solution of the problem was possible; but when Elgin
+surrendered to the progressives, he was making concessions also to the
+French--by admitting them to a recognized place within the
+constitution, and doing so without reservation.  The joint ministry of
+La Fontaine and Baldwin was, in a sense, the most satisfactory answer
+that could be made to the difficulty.  From the moment of its creation
+Elgin and Canada were safe.  He remained doubtful during part of 1848,
+for Papineau had been elected by acclamation to the Parliament which
+held its first session that year; and he "had {213} searched in vain
+... through the French organs of public opinion for a frank and decided
+expression of hostility to the anti-British sentiments propounded in
+Papineau's address."[27]  He did not at first understand that La
+Fontaine, not Papineau, was the French leader, and that the latter
+represented only himself and a few _Rouges_ of violent but
+unsubstantial revolutionary opinions.  Nevertheless, he gave his French
+ministers his confidence, and he applied his singular powers of winning
+men to appeasing French discontent.  As early as May, 1848, he saw how
+the land lay--that French Canada was fundamentally conservative, and
+that discontent was mainly a consequence of sheer stupidity and error
+on the part of England.  "Who will venture to say," he asked, "that the
+last hand which waves the British flag on American ground may not be
+that of a French Canadian?"[28]
+
+His final settlement of the question came in 1849, and the introduction
+of that Rebellion Losses Bill which has been already mentioned.  The
+measure was, in the main, an act of justice to French sufferers from
+the disturbances created by the Rebellion; for they had naturally
+shared but slightly {214} in earlier and partial schemes of
+compensation; and the opposition to the bill was directed quite frankly
+against the French inhabitants of Canada as traitors, who deserved, not
+recompense, but punishment.  Now there were many cases of real
+hardship, like that of the inhabitants of St. Benoit, a village which
+Sir John Colborne had pledged himself to protect when he occupied it
+for military purposes, but which, in his absence, the loyalist
+volunteers had set on fire and destroyed.  The inhabitants might be
+disloyal, but in the eyes of an equal justice a wrong had been done,
+and must be righted.  The idea of the bill was not new--it was not
+Elgin's bill; and if his predecessors had been right, then the French
+politicians were justified in claiming that the system of compensation
+already initiated must be followed till all legitimate claims had been
+met.
+
+It would be disingenuous to deny that Elgin calculated on the pacific
+influence which his support of the bill would exert in Lower Canada.
+"I was aware of two facts," he told Grey in 1852: "Firstly, that M. La
+Fontaine would be unable to retain the support of his countrymen if he
+failed to introduce a measure of this description; and secondly, that
+my refusal would be taken by him and his friends {215} as a proof that
+they had not my confidence."  But his chief concern was to hold the
+balance level, to redress an actual grievance, and to repress the fury
+of Canadian Tories whose unrestrained action would have flung Canada
+into a new and complicated struggle of races and parties.  "I am firmly
+convinced," he told Grey in June, speaking of American election
+movements at this time, "that the only thing which prevented an
+invasion of Canada was the political contentment prevailing among the
+French Canadians and Irish Catholics"; and that political contentment
+was the result of Elgin's action in supporting his ministers.  A happy
+chance, utilized to the full by Elgin's cautious wisdom, had enabled
+him to do the French what they counted a considerable service; and the
+rage and disorder of the opposition only played the more surely into
+the hands of the governor-general, and established, beyond any risk of
+alteration, French loyalty to him personally.[29]
+
+From that day, with trivial intervals or incidents of misunderstanding,
+the British and the French in Canada have played the political game
+together.  It was in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry that {216} the
+joint action, within the Canadian parties, of the two races had its
+real beginning; and while the traditions and idiosyncrasies of Quebec
+were too ingrained and fundamental to admit of modification beyond a
+certain point, Canadian parliamentary life was henceforth based on the
+free co-operation of French and English, in a party system which tried
+to forget the distinction of race.  From this time, too, Elgin began to
+discern the conservative genius of the French people, and to prophesy
+that, when Baldwin's moderate reforming influence should have been
+withdrawn, the French would naturally incline to unite with the
+moderate Conservatives--the combination on which, in actual fact, John
+A. Macdonald based his long control of power in Canada.
+
+The nationalist question is so intermingled with the constitutional
+that it is not always easy to separate the two issues.  The same
+qualities which settled the latter difficulty ended also French
+grievances--saving common-sense which did not refuse to do the obvious
+thing; _bonhomie_ which understood that a well-mannered people may be
+wooed from its isolation by a little humouring; a mind resolute to
+administer to every British subject equal rights; and an austere
+refusal to let an {217} arrogant and narrow-minded minority claim to
+itself a kind of oligarchic glory at the expense of citizens who did
+not belong to the Anglo-Saxon stock.
+
+There is a third aspect of Elgin's work in Canada of wider scope than
+either of those already mentioned, and one in which his claims to
+distinction have been almost forgotten--his contribution to the working
+theory of the British Empire.  Elgin was one of those earlier sane
+imperialists whose achievements it is very easy to forget.  It is not
+too much to say that, when Elgin came to Canada, the future of the
+British colonial empire was at best gloomy.  Politicians at home had
+placed in front of themselves an awkward dilemma.  According to the
+stiffer Tories, the colonies must be held in with a firm hand--how
+firm, Stanley had illustrated in his administration of Canada.  Yet
+Tory stiffness produced colonial discontent, and colonial discontent
+bred very natural doubts at home as to the possibility of holding the
+colonies by the old methods.  On the other hand, there were those, like
+Cobden, who, while they believed with the Tories that colonial
+home-rule was certain to result in colonial independence, were
+nevertheless too loyal to their doctrine of political liberty to resist
+colonial claims.  They looked to an immediate but {218} peaceful
+dissolution of the empire.  It seemed never to strike anyone but a few
+radicals, like Durham and Buller, that Britons still held British
+sentiments, even across the seas, and that they desired to combine a
+continuance of the British connection with the retention of all those
+popular rights in government which they had possessed at home.  A
+Canadian governor-general, then, had to deal with British Cabinets
+which alternated between foolish rigour and foolish slackness, and with
+politicians who reflected little on the responsibilities of empire,
+when they flung before careless British audiences irresponsible
+discussions on colonial independence--as if it were an academic subject
+and not a critical issue.
+
+Elgin had imperial difficulties, all his own, to make his task more
+complicated.  Not only were there French and Irish nationalists ready
+for agitation, but the United States lay across the southern border;
+and annexation to that mighty and flourishing republic seemed to many
+the natural euthanasia of British rule in North America.  Peel's
+sweeping reforms in the tariff had rekindled annexationist talk; for
+while Lord Stanley's bill of 1843 had attracted all the produce of the
+west to the St. Lawrence by its grant of preference to the {219}
+colony, "Peel's bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the
+New York channels of communication ... ruining at once mill-owners,
+forwarders and merchants."[30]  And every petty and personal
+disappointment, every error in colonial office administration, raised a
+new group to cry down the British system, and to call for a peaceful
+junction with the United States.
+
+Elgin had not been long in Canada before he saw one important
+fact--that the real annexationist feeling had commercial, not political
+roots.  Without diminishing the seriousness of the situation, the
+discovery made it more susceptible of rational treatment.  A colony
+suffering a severe set-back in trade found the precise remedy it looked
+for in transference of its allegiance.  "The remedy offered them,"
+wrote Elgin, "is perfectly definite and intelligible.  They are invited
+to form part of a community which is neither suffering nor free-trading
+... a community, the members of which have been within the last few
+weeks pouring into their multifarious places of worship, to thank God
+that they are exempt from the ills which affect other men, from those
+more especially which affect their despised neighbours, the inhabitants
+of North {220} America, who have remained faithful to the country which
+planted them."[31]  With free-trade in the ascendant, and, to the
+maturest minds of the time, unanswerably sound in theory, Elgin had to
+dismiss schemes of British preference from his mind; and, towards the
+end of his rule, when American policy was irritating Canada, he had
+even to restrict the scope within which Canadian retaliation might be
+practised.  There could be no imperial Zollverein.  But he saw that a
+measure of reciprocity might give the Canadians all the economic
+benefits they sought, and yet leave to them the allegiance and the
+government which, in their hearts, they preferred.  The annexationist
+clamour fell and rose, mounting highest in Montreal, and reaching a
+crisis in the year of the Rebellion Losses disturbance; but Elgin,
+while sometimes he grew despondent, always kept his head, and never
+ceased to hope for the reciprocity which would at once bring back
+prosperity and still the disloyal murmurs.  Once or twice, when the
+annexationists were at their worst, and when his Tory opponents chose
+support of that disloyal movement as the means of insulting their
+governor, he took stern measures for repressing an unnatural evil.  "We
+intend," {221} he wrote in November, 1849, after an annexation meeting
+at which servants of the State had been present, "to dismiss the
+militia officers and magistrates who have taken part in these affairs,
+and to deprive the two Queen's Counsels of their silk gowns."  But he
+relied mainly on the positive side of his policy, and few statesmen
+have given Canada a more substantial boon than did Elgin when, just
+before his recall, he went to Washington on that mission which Laurence
+Oliphant has made classic by his description, and concluded by far the
+most favourable commercial treaty ever negotiated by Britain with the
+United States.
+
+There is perhaps a tendency to underestimate the work of his
+predecessors and assistants in preparing the way, but no one can doubt
+that it was Elgin's persistence in urging the treaty on the home
+Cabinet, and his wonderful diplomatic gifts, which ultimately won the
+day.  Oliphant, certainly, had no doubt as to his chief's share in the
+matter.  "He is the most thorough diplomat possible--never loses sight
+for a moment of his object, and while he is chaffing Yankees, and
+slapping them on the back, he is systematically pursuing that
+object";[32] and again, "There was concluded in {222} exactly a
+fortnight a treaty, to negotiate which had taxed the inventive genius
+of the Foreign Office, and all the conventional methods of diplomacy,
+for the previous seven years."[33]
+
+It was a long, slow process by which Elgin restored the tone of
+Canadian loyalty.  Frenchmen who had dreamed of renouncing allegiance
+he won by his obvious fairness, and the recognition accorded by him to
+their leaders.  He took the heart out of Irish disaffection by his
+popular methods and love of liberty.  Tory dissentients fell slowly in
+to heel, as they found their governor no lath painted to look like
+iron, but very steel.  To desponding Montreal merchants his reciprocity
+treaty yielded naturally all they had expected from a more drastic
+change.  It is true that, owing to untoward circumstances, the treaty
+lasted only for the limited period prescribed by Elgin; but it tided
+over an awkward interval of disaffection and disappointment.
+
+He did more, however, than cure definite phases of Canadian
+disaffection; his influence through Earl Grey told powerfully for a
+fuller and more optimistic conception of empire.  With all its virtues,
+the bureaucracy of the Colonial Office did not understand the
+government of colonies such {223} as Canada; and where colonial
+secretaries had the ability and will, they had not knowledge sufficient
+to lead them into paths at once democratic and imperial.  Even Grey
+relapsed on occasion from the optimism which empire demands of its
+statesmen.  It was not simply that he emphasized the wrong
+points--military and diplomatic issues, which in Canada were minor and
+even negligible matters; but at times he seemed prepared to believe
+that the days of the connection were numbered.[34]
+
+In 1848 he had impaled himself on the horns of one of those dilemmas
+which present themselves so frequently to absentee governments and
+secretaries of state--either reciprocity and an Americanized colony, or
+a new rebellion as the consequence of a refusal in Britain to consent
+to a reciprocity treaty.[35]  In 1849, "looking at these indications of
+the state of feeling in Canada, and at the equally significant
+indications as to the feeling of the House of Commons respecting the
+value of our colonies," he had begun to despair of their retention.[36]
+But there were greater sinners than those of the Colonial Office.
+While Elgin {224} was painfully removing all the causes of trouble in
+Canada, and proving without argument, but in deeds, that the British
+connection represented normal conditions for both England and Canada,
+politicians insisted on making foolish speeches.  At last, an offence
+by the Prime Minister himself drove Elgin into a passion unusual in so
+equable a mind, and which, happily, he expressed in the best of all his
+letters.  "I have never been able to comprehend why, elastic as our
+constitutional system is, we should not be able, now more especially
+when we have ceased to control the trade of our colonies, to render the
+links which bind them to the British Crown at least as lasting as those
+which unite the component parts of the Union....  You must renounce the
+habit of telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional
+existence....  Is the Queen of England to be the sovereign of an
+empire, growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age,
+striking its roots deep into fresh earth and drawing new supplies of
+vitality from virgin soils?  Or is she to be for all essential purposes
+of might and power monarch of Great Britain and Ireland merely, her
+place and that of her land in the world's history determined by the
+productiveness of 12,000 square miles of a coal {225} formation which
+is being rapidly exhausted, and the duration of the social and
+political organization over which she presides dependent on the annual
+expatriation, with a view to its eventual alienization, of the surplus
+swarm of her born subjects?"[37]  That is the final question of
+imperialism; and Elgin had earned the right not only to put it to the
+home government with emphasis, but also to answer it in an affirmative
+and constructive sense.
+
+The argument forbids any mention of the less public episodes in Elgin's
+Canadian adventure; his whimsical capacity for getting on with men,
+French, British, and American; the sly humour of his correspondence
+with his official chief; the searching comments made by him on men and
+manners in America; the charm of such social and diplomatic incidents
+as Laurence Oliphant has related in his letters and his _Episodes in a
+Life of Adventure_.  But it may be permitted to sum up his qualities as
+governor, and to connect his work with the general movement towards
+self-government which had been proceeding so rapidly since 1839.
+
+He was too human, easy, unclassical, and, on {226} the other hand, too
+little touched with Byronic or revolutionary feeling, even to suggest
+the age of Pitt, Napoleon, Canning; he was too sensible, too orthodox,
+too firmly based on fact and on the past, to have any affinity with our
+own transitionary politics.  Like Peel, although in a less degree, he
+had at once a firm body of opinions, a keen eye for new facts, and a
+sure, slow capacity for bringing the new material to bear on old
+opinion.
+
+He was able, as few have been, to set the personal equation aside in
+his political plans, holding the balance between friends and foes with
+almost uncanny fairness, and astonishing his petty enemies by his
+moderation.  His mind could regard not merely Canada but also Britain,
+as it reflected on future policy; and, in his letters, he sometimes
+seems the one man in the empire at the time who understood the true
+relation of colonial autonomy to British supremacy.  Not even his most
+foolish eulogist will attribute anything romantic to his character.
+There was nothing of Disraeli's "glitter of dubious gems" about the
+honest phrases in which he bade Russell think imperially.  Unlike
+Mazzini, it was his business to destroy false nationalism, not to exalt
+that which was true, and {227} for that cool business the glow and
+fervour of prophecy were not required.  We like to see our leaders
+standing rampant, and with sulphurous, or at least thundery,
+backgrounds.  But Elgin's ironic Scottish humour forbade any pose, and
+it was his business to keep the cannon quiet, and to draw the lightning
+harmless to the ground.  The most heroic thing he did in Canada was to
+refrain from entering Montreal at a time when his entrance must have
+meant insult, resistance, and bloodshed, and he bore quietly the taunts
+of cowardice which his enemies flung at his head.
+
+He was far too clear-sighted to think that statesmanship consists in
+decisions between very definitely stated alternatives of right and
+wrong.  "My choice," he wrote in characteristic words, "was not between
+a clearly right and clearly wrong course--_how easy is it to deal with
+such cases, and how rare are they in life_--but between several
+difficulties.  I think I chose the least."[38]  His kindly, shrewd, and
+honest countenance looks at us from his portraits with no appeal of
+sentiment or pathos.  He asked of men that which they find it most
+difficult to give--moderation, common-sense, a willingness to look at
+both sides, and to {228} subordinate their egoisms to a wider good; and
+he was content to do without their worship.
+
+It is now possible to summarize the movement towards autonomy so far as
+it was affected by the governors-general of the transition period.
+
+The characteristic note in the earlier stages had been the domination
+of the governor-general's mind by a clear-cut theory--that of Lord John
+Russell.  That theory was in itself consistent, and of a piece with the
+rest of the constitution; and its merits stood out more clearly because
+Canadian progressives had an unfortunate faculty for setting themselves
+in the wrong--making party really appear as faction, investing
+self-government with something of the menace of independence, and
+treating the responsibility they sought in the most irresponsible way.
+The British theory, too, as guaranteeing a definitely British
+predominance in Canada, brought into rather lurid relief the mistaken
+fervour of French-Canadian nationalism.
+
+Yet Sydenham, who never consciously, or at least openly, surrendered
+one detail of the system entrusted to him by Russell, found events too
+much for him; and that which conquered Sydenham's resolution made short
+work of any resistance Bagot may have dreamed of offering.  Metcalfe
+was wrong {229} in suspecting a conscious intention in Sydenham's later
+measures, but he was absolutely right when he wrote, "Lord Sydenham,
+whether intending it or not, did concede Responsible Government
+practically, by the arrangements which he adopted, although the full
+extent of the concession was not so glaringly manifested during his
+administration as in that of his successor."[39]
+
+Canadian conditions were, in fact, evolving for themselves a new
+system--Home Rule with its limits and conditions left as vague as
+possible--and that new system contradicted the very postulates of
+Russell's doctrine.  It was only when the system of Russell became
+incarnate in a governor, Lord Metcalfe, and when the opposing facts
+also took personal form in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry, that both
+in Canada and Britain men came to see that two contradictory policies
+faced each other, and that one or other alternative must be chosen.  To
+Elgin fell the honour not merely of seeing the need to choose the
+Canadian alternative, but also of recognizing the conditions under
+which the new plan would bring a deeper loyalty, and a more lasting
+union with Britain, as well as political content to Canada.
+
+
+
+[1] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.  It
+would be wrong to call Cathcart the "acting governor-general"; yet
+apart from military matters that term describes his position in civil
+matters not inadequately.
+
+[2] Walrond, _Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin_, p. 424.  "During a
+public service of twenty-five years I have always sided with the weaker
+party."
+
+[3] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey on Grey's Colonial Policy,
+8 October, 1852.
+
+[4] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.  The italics are my own.
+
+[5] W. H. Draper to the Earl Cathcart, in Pope, _Life of Sir John
+Macdonald_, i. pp. 43-4.
+
+[6] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.
+
+[7] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+
+[8] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, enclosing a note from
+Col. Taché, 27 February, 1847.
+
+[9] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 28 June, 1847.
+
+[10] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 7 May, 1847.
+
+[11] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 27 March, 1847.
+
+[12] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.
+
+[13] _La Revue Canadienne_, 21 December, 1847.
+
+[14] The speech of the governor-general in proroguing Parliament, 1848.
+
+[15] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.
+
+[16] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 17 March, 1848.
+
+[17] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 5 February, 1848.
+
+[18] Elgin refers (11 June, 1849) to "military men, most of whom, I
+regret to say, consider my ministers and myself little better than
+rebels."
+
+[19] _Episodes in a Life of Adventure_, p. 57.
+
+[20] The obvious point, made by the Tories in Canada, and by Gladstone
+in England, was that the new scheme of compensation was certain to
+recompense many who had actually been in arms in the Rebellion,
+although their guilt might not be provable in a court of law.  See
+Gladstone in _Hansard_, 14 June, 1849.
+
+[21] Elgin to Grey, concerning Grey's _Colonial Policy_, 8 October,
+1852.  Metcalfe's policy in the matter had really forced Elgin's hand.
+
+[22] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 14 March, 1849.
+
+[23] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 12 April, 1849.
+
+[24] Elgin's letter of 8 October, 1852, criticizing Grey's book.  The
+italics are my own.
+
+[25] Elgin kept very closely in touch with the sentiments of the
+Canadian press, French and English.  See his letters _passim_.
+
+[26] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 4 May, 1848.
+
+[27] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 7 January, 1848.
+
+[28] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 4 May, 1848.
+
+[29] See an interesting reference in a letter to Sir Charles Wood,
+written from India.  Walrond, _op. cit._ pp. 419-20.
+
+[30] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 16 November, 1848.
+
+[31] Walrond, p. 105.
+
+[32] Mrs. Oliphant, _Life of Laurence Oliphant_, i. p. 120.
+
+[33] L. Oliphant, _Episodes in a Life of Adventure_, p. 56.
+
+[34] For Grey's mature position, see below, in Chapter VII.
+
+[35] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 27 July, 1848.
+
+[36] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 20 July, 1849.
+
+[37] The letter, which may be found in Walrond's _Life of Lord Elgin_,
+pp. 115-20, ought to be read from its first word to its last.
+
+[38] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 7 October, 1849.
+
+[39] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, p. 414.
+
+
+
+
+{230}
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY.
+
+While these great modifications were being made in the form and spirit
+of Canadian provincial government, corresponding changes were taking
+place in British opinion.  In the present chapter, it is proposed to
+examine these as they operated during the first two decades of the
+Victorian era.  But an examination of early Victorian imperialism
+demands, as a first condition, the dismissal of such prejudices and
+misjudgments as are implicit in recent terms like "Little-Englander"
+and "Imperialist."  It is, indeed, one of the objects of this chapter
+to show how little modern party cries correspond to the ideas prevalent
+from 1840 to 1860, and to exhibit as the central movement in imperial
+matters the gradual development of a doctrine for the colonies, and
+more especially for Canada, not dissimilar to that which dominated the
+economic theory of the day under the title of _laissez faire_.
+
+{231}
+
+It is important to limit the scope of the inquiry, for the problem of
+Canadian autonomy was strictly practical and very pressing.  There is
+little need to exhibit the otiose or irresponsible opinions of men or
+groups of men, which had no direct influence on events.  Little, for
+example, need be said of the views of the British populace.  No doubt
+Joseph Hume expressed views in which he had many sympathizers
+throughout the country; but his constituents were too ill-informed on
+Canadian politics to make their opinions worthy of study; and their
+heated debates, carried on in mutual improvement societies, had even
+less influence in controlling the actions of government than had the
+speeches of their leader in Parliament.[1]  After the sensational
+beginning of the reign in Canada, public opinion directed its attention
+to Canadian affairs only when fresh sensations offered themselves, and
+usually exhibited an indifference which was not without its advantages
+to the authorities.  "People here are beginning to forget Canada, which
+is the best thing they can do," wrote Grey {232} to Elgin after the
+Rebellion Losses troubles had fallen quiet.
+
+The British press, too, need claim little attention.  On the confession
+of those mainly concerned, it was wonderfully ignorant and misleading
+on Canadian subjects.  Elgin, who was not indifferent to newspaper
+criticism, complained bitterly of the unfairness and haphazard methods
+of the British papers, neglecting, as they did, the real issues, and
+emphasizing irritating but unimportant troubles.  "The English press,"
+he wrote, after an important viceregal visit to Boston in 1851, "wholly
+ignores our proceedings both at Boston and Montreal, and yet one would
+think it was worth while to get the Queen of England as much cheered in
+New England as she can be in any part of Old England."[2]  Grey in turn
+had to complain, not merely of indifference, but of misrepresentation,
+and that too in a crisis in Canadian politics, the Rebellion Losses
+agitation; "I am misrepresented in _The Times_ in a manner which I fear
+may do much mischief in Canada.  I am reported as having said that the
+connexion between Canada and this country was drawing rapidly to a
+close.  This is {233} the very opposite of what I really said."[3]  How
+irresponsible and inconsistent a great newspaper could be may be
+gathered from the treatment by _The Times_ of the Annexationist
+movement in 1849.  Professing at first a calm resignation, it refused
+for the country "the sterile honour of maintaining a reluctant colony
+in galling subjection"; yet, shortly afterwards, it took the high
+imperial line of argument and predicted that "the destined future of
+Canada, and the disposition of her people" would prevent so unfortunate
+an ending to the connection.[4]  The fact is that in all political
+questions demanding expert knowledge, newspaper opinion is practically
+worthless; except in cases where the services of some specialist are
+called in, and there the expert exercises influence, not through his
+articles, but because, elsewhere, he has made good his claims to be
+heard.  Canadian problems owed nothing of their solution to the British
+press.
+
+Another factor, irresponsible and indirect, yet closer to the scene of
+political action than the press, was assumed in those years to have a
+great {234} influence on events--the permanent element in the Colonial
+Office, and more especially the permanent under-secretary, James
+Stephen.  Charles Buller's pamphlet on _Responsible Government for the
+Colonies_ formulates the charge against the permanent men in a famous
+satiric passage.  Buller had been speaking of the incessant change of
+ministers in the Colonial Office--ten secretaries of state in little
+more than so many years.  "Perplexed with the vast variety of subjects
+presented to him--alike appalled by the important and unimportant
+matters forced on his attention--every Secretary of State is obliged at
+the outset to rely on the aid of some better informed member of his
+office.  His Parliamentary Under-Secretary is generally as new to the
+business as himself: and even if they had not been brought in together,
+the tenure of office by the Under-Secretary having on the average been
+quite as short as that of the Secretary of State, he has never during
+the period of his official career obtained sufficient information to
+make him independent of the aid on which he must have been thrown at
+the outset.  Thus we find both these marked and responsible
+functionaries dependent on the advice and guidance of another; and that
+other person must of course be one of the permanent {235} members of
+the office....  That mother-country which has been narrowed from the
+British Isles into the Parliament, from the Parliament into the
+executive government, from the executive government into the Colonial
+Office, is not to be sought in the apartments of the Secretary of
+State, or his Parliamentary Under-Secretary.  Where you are to look for
+it, it is impossible to say.  In some back-room--whether in the attic,
+or in what storey we know not--you will find all the mother-country
+which really exercises supremacy, and really maintains connexion with
+the vast and widely-scattered colonies of Britain."[5]
+
+The directness and strength of the influence which men like Sir Henry
+Taylor and Sir James Stephen exercised, both on opinion and events, may
+be inferred from Taylor's confessions with regard to the slave question
+in the West Indies, and the extent to which even Peel himself had to
+depend for information, and occasionally for direction, on the
+permanent men.[6]  It seems clear, too, that up till the year when Lord
+John Russell took over the Colonial Office, Stephen had a great {236}
+say in Canadian affairs, especially under Glenelg's regime.  "As to his
+views upon other Colonial questions," says Taylor, "they were perhaps
+more liberal than those of most of his chiefs; and at one important
+conjuncture he miscalculated the effect of a liberal confidence placed
+in a Canadian Assembly, and threw more power into their hands than he
+intended them to possess."[7]  On the assumption that he was
+responsible for Glenelg's benevolent view of Canadian local rights, one
+might attribute something of Lord John Russell's over logical and
+casuistical declarations concerning responsible government to Buller's
+"Mr. Mother-country."  But it is absurd to suppose that Russell's
+independent mind operated long under any sub-secretarial influence;
+more especially since the rapid succession of startling events in
+Canada made his daring and unconventional statesmanship a fitter means
+of government than the plodding methods of the bureaucrat.  After 1841,
+Stanley and Stephen were too little sympathetic towards each other's
+methods and ideas, and Gladstone too strongly fortified in his own
+opinions, for Stephen's influence to creep in; while the Whig
+government which entered as he left the Colonial Office, had, {237} in
+Grey, a Secretary of State too learned in the affairs of his department
+to reflect the last influences of his retiring under-secretary.
+Whatever, then, Mr. Over-Secretary Stephen did to dominate Lord
+Glenelg, and to initiate the concession of responsible government to
+Canada, his influence must speedily have sunk to a very secondary
+position, and the independent and conscious intentions of the
+responsible ministers held complete sway.  It is interesting to note
+that, according to his son, he seems to have come to share "the
+opinions prevalent among the liberal party that the colonies would soon
+be detached from the mother-country."[8]
+
+The actual starting-point of the development of British opinion with
+regard to Canadian institutions is perfectly definite.  It dates from
+the co-operation and mutual influence of a little group of experts in
+colonial matters, of whom Charles Buller and Gibbon Wakefield were the
+moving spirits, and the Earl of Durham the illustrious mouthpiece.  The
+end of the Rebellion furnished the occasion for their propaganda.
+
+The situation was one peculiarly susceptible to {238} the treatment
+likely to be proposed by these radical and unconventional spirits.  It
+was difficult to describe the constitutional position of Canada without
+establishing a contradiction in terms, and neither abstract and logical
+minds like that of Cornewall Lewis, nor bureaucratic intelligences like
+Stephen's, could do more than intensify the difficulty and emphasize
+it.  The _deus ex machina_ must appear and solve the preliminary or
+theoretic difficulties by overriding them.  There are some who describe
+the pioneers of Canadian self-government as philosophic radicals; but
+they were really not of that school.  It was through the absence of any
+philosophy or rigid logic that they succeeded.
+
+Foremost in the group came Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of those
+erratic but creative spirits whose errors are often as profitable to
+all (save themselves) as their sober acts.  It is not here necessary to
+enter on the details of his emigration system; in that he was, after
+all, a pioneer in the south and east rather than in the west.  But in
+the stirring years of colonial development, in which Canada, Australia,
+and New Zealand took their modern form, Wakefield was a leader in
+constitutional as well as in economic matters, and Canada was favoured
+not only with his opinions, but with {239} his presence.  In the _Art
+of Colonization_ he entered into some detail on these matters.  There
+was a certain breezy informality about his views, which carried him
+directly to the heart of the matter.  He understood, as few of his
+contemporaries did, that in all discussions concerning the "connexion,"
+the final argument was sentimental rather than constitutional; and he
+accepted without further argument the incapacity of Englishmen for
+being other than English in the politics of their colony.  "There would
+still be hostile parties in a colony," he wrote as he planned reforms,
+"yes, parties instead of factions: for every colony would have its
+'ins' and 'outs,' and would be governed as we are--as every free
+community must be in the present state of the human mind--by the
+emulation and rivalries, the bidding against each other for public
+favour, of the party in power and the party in opposition.  Government
+by party, with all its passions and corruptions, is the price that a
+free country pays for freedom.  But the colonies would be free
+communities: their internal differences, their very blunders, and their
+methods of correcting them, would be all their own; and the colonists
+who possessed capacity for public business would govern in turns far
+better on the whole than {240} it would be possible for any other set
+of beings on earth to govern that particular community."[9]  He was,
+then, for a most entire and whole-hearted control by colonists, and
+especially Canadians, of their own affairs.  But when he came to define
+what these affairs included, he had limits to suggest, and although he
+was aware of the dangers implicit in such a limitation, he was very
+emphatic on the need of imperial control in diplomacy and war, and more
+especially in the administration of land.[10]  How practical and
+sincere were his views on the supremacy of the home government, he
+proved by supporting, in person and with his pen, Sir Charles Metcalfe
+in his struggle to limit the claims of local autonomy.
+
+Powerful and suggestive as Wakefield's mind was, he had, nevertheless,
+to own a master in colonial theory; for the most distinguished, and by
+far the clearest, view of the whole matter is contained in Charles
+Buller's _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, which he published
+anonymously in 1840.  Buller was indeed the ablest of the whole group,
+and his early death was one of the greatest losses which English
+politics sustained in the nineteenth {241} century--"an intelligent,
+clear, honest, most kindly vivacious creature; the genialist Radical I
+have ever met,"[11] said Carlyle.  The ease of his writing and his gift
+for light satire must not be permitted to obscure the consistency and
+penetration of his views.  Even if Durham contributed more to his
+Report than seems probable, the view there propounded of the scope of
+Responsible Government is not nearly so cogent as that of the later
+pamphlet.  Buller, like the other members of his group, believed in the
+acknowledgment of a supremacy, vested in the mother country, and
+expressed in control of foreign affairs, inter-colonial affairs, land,
+trade, immigration, and the like; but outside the few occasions on
+which these matters called for imperial interference, he was for
+absolute non-interference, and protested that "that constant reference
+to the authorities in England, which some persons call responsibility
+to the mother country, is by no means necessary to insure the
+maintenance of a beneficial colonial connexion."[12]  His originality
+indeed is best tested by the vigour and truth of his criticisms of the
+existing administration.  First of all representation had been given
+without {242} executive responsibility.  Then for practical purposes
+the colonists were allowed to make many of their own laws, without the
+liberty to choose those who would administer them.  Then a colonial
+party, self-styled the party of the connexion, or the loyal party,
+monopolized office.  To Buller the idea of combining a popular
+representation with an unpopular executive seemed the height of
+constitutional folly; and, like Wakefield, he understood, as perhaps
+not five others in England did, the place of party government and
+popular dictation in colonial constitutional development.  "The whole
+direction of affairs," he said, "and the whole patronage of the
+Executive practically are at present in the hands of a colonial party.
+Now when _this is the case, it can be of no importance to the mother
+country in the ordinary course of things, which of these local parties
+possesses the powers and emoluments of office_."[13]  Unlike the
+majority of his contemporaries, he believed in assuming the colonists
+to be inspired with love for their mother country, common sense, and a
+regard for their own welfare; and it seemed obvious that men so
+disposed were infinitely better qualified than the Colonial Office to
+manage their own affairs.  Nothing but evil {243} could result "from
+the attempt to conduct the internal affairs of the colonies in
+accordance with the public opinion, not of those colonies themselves,
+but of the mother country."[14]  It may seem a work of supererogation
+to complete the sketch of this group with an examination of the
+opinions expressed in Lord Durham's Report; yet that Report is so
+fundamental a document in the development of British imperial opinion
+that time must be found to dispel one or two popular illusions.[15]  It
+is a mistake to hold that Durham advocated the fullest concession of
+local autonomy to Canada.  Sir Francis Hincks, a protagonist of
+Responsible Government, once quoted from the Report sentences which
+seemed to justify all his claims: "The crown must submit to the
+necessary consequences of representative institutions, and if it has to
+carry on the government in union with a representative body, it must
+consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that representative
+body has confidence"; and again, "I admit that the system which I
+propose would in fact place the internal government of the colony in
+the hands of the {244} colonists themselves, and that we should thus
+leave to them the execution of the laws of which we have long entrusted
+the making solely to them."[16]  Public opinion in Canada also put this
+extreme interpretation on the language of the Report.
+
+Yet, as a first modification, it was Lord Metcalfe's confident opinion
+that the responsibility of ministers to the Assembly for which Durham
+pled, was not that of a united Cabinet, but rather of departmental
+heads in individual isolation,[17] and certainly one sentence in the
+Report can hardly be interpreted otherwise: "This (the change) would
+induce responsibility for every act of the Government, and, as a
+natural consequence, it would necessitate _the substitution of a system
+of administration by means of competent heads of departments, for the
+present rude machinery of an executive council_."[18]
+
+In the second place, while Durham did indeed speak of making the
+colonial executive responsible to a colonial Assembly, he discriminated
+between the internal government of the colony and its {245} imperial
+aspect.[19]  In practice he modified his gift of home rule, by placing,
+like Wakefield and Buller, many things beyond the scope of colonial
+responsibility, for example, "the constitution of the form of
+government, the regulation of foreign relations, and of trade with the
+mother country, the other British colonies, and foreign nations, and
+the disposal of the public lands."[20]  There is too remarkable a
+consensus of opinion on this point within the group to leave any doubt
+as to the intention of Durham and his assistants; that an extensive
+region should be left subject to strictly imperial supervision.
+Durham's career ended before his actions could furnish a practical test
+of his theories, but Buller, like Wakefield, gave a plain statement of
+what he meant by supporting Metcalfe against his council, at a time
+when the colonial Assembly seemed to be infringing on imperial rights.
+"No man," said Buller, of the Metcalfe affair, "could seriously think
+of saying that in the appointment of every subordinate officer in every
+county in Canada, the opinion of the Executive Council was to be
+taken."[21]
+
+{246}
+
+To pass from controversy to certainty, there was one aspect of the
+Report which made it the most notable deliverance of its authors, and
+which set that group apart from every other political section in
+Britain, whether Radical, Whig, or Tory--I mean its robust and
+unhesitating imperialism.  How deeply pessimism concerning the Empire
+had pervaded all minds at that time, it will be the duty of this
+chapter to prove, but, in the Report at least, there is no doubt of its
+authors' desire, "to perpetuate and strengthen the connexion between
+this Empire and the North American Colonies, which would then form one
+of the brightest ornaments in your Majesty's Imperial Crown."  This
+confident imperial note, then, was the most striking contribution of
+the Durham Radicals to colonial development; and the originality and
+unexpectedness of their confidence gains impressiveness when contrasted
+with general contemporary opinion.
+
+They contributed, too, in another and less simple fashion, to the
+constitutional question.  Nowhere so clearly as in their writings are
+both sides of the theoretic contradiction--British supremacy and
+Canadian autonomy--so boldly stated, and, in spite of the
+contradiction, so confidently accepted.  They would trust implicitly to
+the sense and {247} feelings, however crude, of the colony: they would
+surrender the entire control of domestic affairs: they would sanction,
+as at home, party with all its faults, popular control of the
+executive, and apparently the decisive influence of that executive in
+advising the governor in internal affairs.  Yet, in the great imperial
+federation of which they dreamed, they never doubted the right of the
+mother country to act with overmastering authority in certain crises.
+That right, and the unquenchable affection of exiles for the land
+whence they came, constituted for them "the connexion."
+
+These were the views which came to dominate political opinion in
+Britain, for Molesworth was right when he declared that to Buller and
+Wakefield, more than to any other persons, was the country indebted for
+sound views on colonial policy.  The interest of the present inquiry
+lies in tracing the development of these views into something unlike,
+and distinctly bolder than, anything which these rash and
+unconventional thinkers had planned.
+
+Whatever might be the shortcomings of the Radical group, the daring of
+their trust in the colonists stands out in high relief against a
+background of conservative restriction and distrust.  It was natural
+for the Tories to think of colonies as {248} they did.  Under the
+leadership of North and George III. they had experienced what might
+well seem to them the natural consequences of the old constitutional
+system of colonial administration.  After 1782 they were disinclined to
+experiment in Assemblies as free as those of Massachusetts and
+Connecticut had been.  The reaction caused by the French Revolution
+deepened their distrust of popular institutions; and the war of 1812
+quickened their hatred of the United States--the zone of political no
+less than military danger for Canada.  The conquests which they made
+had given them a second colonial empire, and they had administered that
+empire with financial generosity and constitutional parsimony, hoping
+against hope that a fabric so unexpected and difficult as colonial
+empire might after all disappoint their fears by remaining true to
+Britain.  Developing in spite of themselves, and with the times, they
+had still learned little and forgotten little.  So it was that Sir
+George Arthur, a Tory governor _in partibus infidelium_, was driven
+into panic by Durham's frank criticisms, and expounded to Normanby, his
+Whig chief, fears not altogether baseless: "The bait of responsible
+government has been eagerly taken, and its poison is working most
+mischievously....  {249} The measure recommended by such high authority
+is the worst evil that has yet befallen Upper Canada":[22] and again,
+"since the Earl of Durham's Report was published, the reform party, as
+I have already stated, have come out in greater force--not in favour of
+the Union, nor of the other measures contemplated by the Bill, that has
+been sent out to this country, but for the daring object so strenuously
+advocated by Mackenzie, familiarly denominated responsible
+government."[23]
+
+The distrust and timidity of Arthur's despatches are shared in by
+practically the entire Tory party in its dealings with Canada, after
+the Rebellion.  The Duke of Wellington opposed the Union of the
+provinces, because, among other consequences, "the union into one
+Legislature of the discontented spirits heretofore existing in two
+separate Legislatures will not diminish, but will tend to augment, the
+difficulties attending the administration of the government;
+particularly under the circumstances of the encouragement given to
+expect the establishment in the united province of a local responsible
+administration of government."[24]  He {250} was greatly excited when
+the news of Bagot's concessions arrived.  Arbuthnot describes his
+chief's mood as one of anger and indignation.  "What a fool the man
+must have been," he kept exclaiming, "to act as he has done! and what
+stuff and nonsense he has written! and what a bother he makes about his
+policy and his measures, when there are no measures but rolling himself
+and his country in the mire."[25]
+
+During these years, and until late in 1845, Lord Stanley presided at
+the Colonial Office.  Naturally of an arrogant and unyielding temper,
+and with something of the convert's fanatic devotion to the political
+creed of his adoption, he administered Canada avowedly on the lines of
+Lord John Russell's despatch to Poulett Thomson, but with all the
+emphasis on the limitations prescribed in that despatch, and in a
+spirit singularly irritating.  His conduct towards Bagot exhibited a
+consistent distrust of Canadian self-government; and the fundamental
+defects of his advice to Bagot's successor cannot be better exhibited
+than in the letter warning Metcalfe of "the extreme risk which would
+attend any disruption of the present Conservative party of Canada.
+Their own steadiness {251} and your own firmness and discretion have
+gone far towards consolidating them as a party and securing a stable
+administration of the colony."[26]  In spite of the warnings of Durham
+and Buller, Stanley was aiming at restoring all the ancient
+landmarks--an unpopular executive, a small privileged party "of the
+connexion," and a colony quickly and surely passing from the control of
+Britain.  Even after Stanley's resignation, and the accession of an
+avowed Peelite and free-trader, Gladstone, to his office, the change in
+commercial theory did not at first effect any change in the Colonial
+Office interpretation of the Canadian constitution.  No doubt Gladstone
+recommended Cathcart to ascertain the deliberate sense of the Canadian
+community at large, and pay respect to the House of Assembly as the
+organ of that sense, but he committed himself and the new
+governor-general to a strong support of Metcalfe's system, and put him
+on his guard against "dishonourable abstract declarations on the
+subject of what has been termed responsible government."[27]
+
+It would be tedious to follow the subject into every detail of Canadian
+administration; but all {252} existing evidence tends to prove that the
+representative men of the British Tory party opposed the new
+interpretation of Canadian rights at every crisis in the period.  In
+the Rebellion Losses debate in 1849, Gladstone, taking in this matter a
+view more restricted than that of his leader Peel, held that Elgin
+should have referred to the Home Government at the very first moment,
+and before public opinion had been appealed to in the colony.[28]  The
+fall of the Whig ministry in 1851 was followed by the first of three
+brief Derby administrations: and the Earl of Derby proved himself to be
+more wedded than he had been as Lord Stanley to the old restrictive
+system.  The Clergy Reserve dispute was nearing its end, but Derby and
+Sir John Pakington, his colonial secretary, intervened to introduce one
+last delay, and to give the Bishop of Toronto his last gleam of hope.
+The appointment of Pakington, which, according to Taylor, was treated
+with very general ridicule, was in itself significant: even an ignorant
+and retrograde politician was adequate for his task when that task was
+obstruction.  After the short-lived Derby administration was over,
+Pakington continued his defence of Anglican rights in Canada, and
+although {253} Canadian opinion had declared itself overwhelmingly on
+the other side, he refused to admit that "the argument of
+self-government was so paramount that it ought to over-rule the sacred
+dedication of this property."
+
+So far nothing unexpected has been revealed in the early Victorian
+colonial policy of the Tories.  The party naturally and logically
+opposed all forms of democratic control; they stood for the strict
+subordination of the outlying regions to the centre in the
+administration of dependencies; they were, as they had always and
+everywhere been, the party of the Church, and of church endowment.  But
+it is surprising to find that the party of Wellington and of British
+supremacy varied their doctrine of central authority with very
+pessimistic prophecies concerning the connection between mother country
+and colonies.
+
+Stanley has already been exhibited, during the Bagot and Metcalfe
+incidents, as a prophet of pessimism; and at the same period, Peel
+seems to have shared in the views of his Colonial Secretary.  "Let us
+keep Nova Scotia and New Brunswick," he said, "but the connection with
+the Canadas _against their wills_, nay without the cordial co-operation
+of the predominant party in Canada, is {254} a very onerous one.  The
+sooner we have a distinct understanding on that head the better.  The
+advantage of commercial intercourse is all on the side of the colony,
+or at least is not in favour of the mother country.  Why should we go
+on fighting not our own battle (I speak now of a civil battle) but
+theirs--in a minority in the Legislature, the progress of the contest
+widening daily old differences and begetting new ones!  But above all,
+if the people are not cordially with us, why should we contract the
+tremendous obligation of having to defend, on a _point of honour_,
+their territory against American aggression?"[29]
+
+Ten years later, Tory pessimists still talked of separation.  Lord John
+Manners, in an oration which showed as much rhetorical effort as it did
+little sense and information, was prepared for disaster over no more
+tragic an issue than the Clergy Reserves.  Concession to local demands
+on that point for him involved something not far from disruption of the
+Empire.  "Far better than this, if you really believe it to be
+necessary to acknowledge the virtual independence of Canada, recall
+your Governor-General, call back your army, call home your fleet, and
+let Canada, if she be so {255} minded, establish her independence and
+cast off her character as a colony, or seek refuge in the extended arms
+of the United States."[30]  But perhaps it is not fair to confront a
+man with his perorations.
+
+The most remarkable confession of Tory doubt still remains to be told.
+It is not usually noticed that Disraeli's famous phrase "these wretched
+colonies will all be independent too in a few years, and are a
+mill-stone round our necks,"[31] was used in connection with Canadian
+fishery troubles, and belongs to this same region of imperial
+pessimism.  There is, however, another less notorious but perfectly
+explicit piece of evidence betraying the fears which at this time
+disturbed the equanimity of the founder of modern imperialism.  He had
+been speaking of the attempts of liberalism to effect the
+disintegration of the Empire; but the speech, which contained his
+counter-scheme of imperial consolidation, was itself an evidence of
+doubt deeper than that harboured by his opponents.  "When those subtle
+views were adopted by the country, under the plausible plea of granting
+{256} self-government to the Colonies, _I confess that I myself thought
+that the tie was broken_.  Not that I for one object to
+self-government.  I cannot conceive how our distant colonies can have
+their affairs administered except by self-government.  But
+self-government, in my opinion, when it is conceded, ought to have been
+conceded as part of a great policy of Imperial consolidation."[32]
+Disraeli was speaking of the views on colonial government, which he had
+held, apparently at the time when Grey and Elgin introduced their new
+system.  That system had since been developed under Gladstone's
+supervision; and, in 1872, the date of Disraeli's speech, it presented
+not fewer, but more decided signs of colonial independence.  Yet the
+statesman who accused the Whigs and Liberals of planning the disruption
+of the Empire, never attempted, when in office, to stay the decline of
+imperial unity by any practical scheme of federation, and must be
+counted either singularly indifferent to the interests of the empire,
+or sceptical as to its future.  A few years later, when the Imperial
+Titles Bill was under discussion, Disraeli again revealed a curious
+disbelief in, or misunderstanding of, the character of the
+self-governing colonies.  He had been {257} challenged to defend his
+differentiation of the royal title in India from that authorized in the
+rest of the British Empire.  It would have been easy to confess that an
+imperial dignity, appropriate to the East, would have been singularly
+out of place in communities more democratic than Britain herself.  But
+he chose to argue from the unsubstantiality of separate colonial
+existence, and the natural inclination of prosperous colonists to make
+for England, the moment their fortunes had been made.  "The condition
+of colonial society," he said, "is of a fluctuating character....
+There is no similarity between the circumstances of our colonial
+fellow-subjects and those of our fellow-subjects in India.  Our
+colonists are English; they come and go, they are careful to make
+fortunes, to invest their money in England; their interests are
+immense, ramified, complicated, and they have constant opportunities of
+improving and enjoying the relations which exist between themselves and
+their countrymen in the metropolis.  Their relations to their Sovereign
+are ample, they satisfy them.  The colonists are proud of those
+relations, they are interested in the titles of the Queen, they look
+forward to return when they {258} leave England, they do return--in
+short they are Englishmen."[33]
+
+It seems fair to argue from these instances that Disraeli, with all his
+imagination and insight, did not, even in 1876, understand the
+constitutional and social self-sufficiency of the greater colonies; or
+the nature of the bond which held them fast to the mother country.  His
+consummate rhetorical skill persuaded the nation to be imperial, while
+he himself doubted the very possibility of permanence in an empire
+organized on the only lines--those of strict autonomy--which the
+colonists were willing to sanction.
+
+So the party of the earlier British Empire distrusted the foundations
+laid by Durham and his group for a new structure; and behind all their
+proclamations of authority, there were ill-concealed fears of another
+declaration or succession of declarations of independence.
+
+It is now time to turn to the central body of imperial opinion--that
+which used Durham's views as the foundation of a new working theory of
+colonial development.  Its chief exponents were the Whigs of the more
+liberal school, who counted {259} Lord John Russell their
+representative and leader.
+
+It was only at the end of a period dominated by other interests that
+Lord John Russell was able to turn his attention to colonies, and more
+particularly to Canada.  Even in 1839, the leader of the House of
+Commons, and the politician on whom, after all, the fate of the Whig
+party depended, had many other claims on his attention.  He was no
+theorist at general on the subject, and his interest in Canada was
+largely the product of events, not of his own will.  But he came at a
+decisive moment in Canadian history; his tenure of the Colonial Office
+coincided with the period in which Durham's Report exercised its
+greatest influence, and Russell, who had the politician's faculty for
+flinging himself with all his force into the issue dominating the
+present, inaugurated what proved to be a new regime in colonial
+administration.
+
+In attributing so decisive a part to Russell's work at the Colonial
+Office, one need not estimate very highly his powers of initiative or
+imagination.  It was Lord John Russell's lot, here as in Parliamentary
+Reform, to read with honest eyes the defects of the existing system, to
+initiate a great and useful change, and then to predicate finality
+{260} of an act, which was really only the beginning of greater
+changes.  But in Canadian politics as in British, he must be credited
+with being better than his words, and with doing nothing to hinder a
+movement which he only partially understood.
+
+His ideas have in part been criticized in relation to Lord Sydenham's
+governor-generalship: in a sense, Sydenham was simply the Russell
+system incarnate.  But it is well to examine these ideas as a whole.
+Russell was a Durhamite "with a difference."  Like Durham he planned a
+generous measure of self-government, but he was a stricter
+constitutional thinker than Durham.  He reduced to a far finer point
+the difficulty which Durham only slightly felt, about the seat of
+ultimate authority and responsibility; and his instructions to Sydenham
+left no doubt as to the constitutional superior in Canada.  With
+infinitely shrewder practical insight than his prompter, he refused to
+simplify the problem of executive responsibility, by making the council
+subject to the Assembly in purely domestic matters, and to the Crown
+and its representative in external matters.  "Supposing," he said,
+"that you could lay down this broad principle, and say that all
+external matters {261} should be subject to the home government, and
+all internal matters should be governed according to the majority of
+the Assembly, could you carry that principle into effect?  I say, we
+cannot abandon the responsibility which is cast upon us as Ministers of
+the Executive of this great Empire."[34]  Ultimately the surrender had
+to be made, but it was well that Russell should have refused to consent
+to what was really a fallacy in Durham's reasoning.  In consequence of
+this position, the Whig leader regarded Bagot's surrender as one,
+difficult perhaps to avoid, but unfortunate in its results, and he was
+an unflinching supporter of Metcalfe.  He further declared that he
+thought Metcalfe's council had an exaggerated view of their power, and
+that to yield to them would involve dangers to the connection.[35]  The
+novelty involved in his policy lay, however, outside this point of
+constitutional logic: it was a matter of practice, not of theory.  Not
+only did he support Sydenham in those practical reforms in which the
+new political life of Canada began, but in spite of his theory he
+really granted all save the form of full responsibility.  So completely
+had he, and his agent Sydenham, undermined their own imperial {262}
+position, that when Peel's ministry fell in 1846, it was one of the
+first acts of Lord John Russell, now prime minister, to consent to the
+demolition of his own old theories.  If he may not dispute with Grey
+the credit of having conceded genuine responsibility to Canada, at
+least he did not exercise his authority to forbid the grant.
+
+It seems to me, indeed, that Russell definitely modified his position
+between 1841 and 1847.  At the earlier date he had been a stout
+upholder of the supremacy of Britain in Canada, for he believed in the
+connection, and the connection depended on the retention of British
+supremacy.  In the debate of January 16th, 1838, he argued thus for the
+Empire: "On the preservation of our colonies depends the continuance of
+our commercial marine; and on our commercial marine mainly depends our
+naval power; and on our naval power mainly depends the strength and
+supremacy of our arms."[36]  It is worthy of note that Charles Buller
+took occasion to challenge this description of the pillars of
+empire--it seemed a poor theory to him to make the empire a
+stalking-horse for the commerce and interests of the mother country.
+But as events taught Russell surely that the casuistry of 1839 {263}
+was false, and that Responsible Government was both a deeper and a
+broader thing than he had counted it, and yet inevitable, he accepted
+the more radical position.  At the same time, he either came to lay
+less stress on the unity of Empire, or he was forced to acknowledge
+that, since Home Rule must be granted, and since with Home Rule
+separation seemed natural, Britain had better practise resignation in
+view of a possible disruption.  The best known expression of this phase
+in Russell's thought is his speech on Colonial Administration in 1850:
+"I anticipate, indeed, with others that some of the colonies may so
+grow in population and wealth that they may say, 'Our strength is
+sufficient to enable us to be independent of England.  The link is now
+become onerous to us; the time is come when we think we can, in amity
+and alliance with England, maintain our independence.'  I do not think
+that that time is yet approaching.  But let us make them as far as
+possible fit to govern themselves ... let them increase in wealth and
+population; and whatever may happen, we of this great empire shall have
+the consolation of saying that we have contributed to the happiness of
+the world."[37]  It is possible to {264} argue that because Russell
+admitted that the time for separation was not yet approaching he was
+therefore an optimist.  But the evidence leans rather to the less
+glorious side.  It was this speech which kindled Elgin into a passion
+and made him bid Grey renounce for himself and his leader the habit of
+telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional existence.  The
+same speech, too, extorted complaints from Robert Baldwin, the man whom
+Sydenham and Russell had once counted half a traitor.  "I never saw him
+so much moved," wrote Elgin, to whom Baldwin had frankly said about a
+recent meeting.  "My audience was disposed to regard a prediction of
+this nature proceeding from a Prime Minister, less as a speculative
+abstraction than as one of that class of prophecies which work their
+own fulfilment."[38]  The speech was not an accidental or occasional
+flash of rhetoric.  The mind of the Whig leader, acquiescing now in the
+completeness of Canadian local powers, and reading with disquiet the
+signs of the times in the form of Canadian turbulence, seems to have
+turned to speculate on the least harmful form which separation might
+take.  Of this there is direct evidence in a private letter from Grey
+to Elgin: "Lord {265} John in a letter I had from him yesterday,
+expresses a good deal of anxiety as to the prospects of Canada, and
+reverts to the old idea of forming a federal union of all the British
+provinces, in order to give them something more to think of than their
+mere local squabbles;[39] and he says that if to effect this a
+separation of the two Canadas were necessary he should see no objection
+to it.  His wish in forming such a union would be to bring about such a
+state of things, that, _if you should lose our North American
+provinces, they might be likely to become an independent state, instead
+of being merged in the Union_."[40]
+
+Russell moved then at this period through a most interesting
+development of views.  His initial position was a blend of firm
+imperialism and generous liberal concession, the latter more especially
+inspired by Durham.  As his genuine sympathies with liberty and
+democracy operated on his political views, these steadily changed in
+the direction of a more complete surrender to Canadian demands.  But,
+since, in spite of his sympathies, he still remained logical, and since
+he had believed the connection to depend on {266} the
+governor-general's supremacy, the modification of that supremacy
+involved the weakening of his hopes of empire.  If the change seem
+somewhat to his discredit, his best defence lies in the fact that Peel,
+who made a very similar modification of his mind on Canadian politics,
+was also contemplating in these years a similar separation.  "The
+utility of our connexion with Canada," he said in 1844, "must depend
+upon its being continued with perfect goodwill by the majority of the
+population.  It would be infinitely better that that connexion should
+be discontinued, rather than that it should be continued by force and
+against the general feeling and conviction of the people."[41]  Indeed,
+Russell seems to have been accompanied on his dolorous journey by all
+the Peelites and not a few of the Whigs.  "There begins to prevail in
+the House of Commons," wrote Grey to Elgin in 1849, "and I am sorry to
+say in the highest quarters, an opinion (which I believe to be utterly
+erroneous) that we have no interest in preserving our colonies and
+ought therefore to make no sacrifice for that purpose.  Peel, Graham,
+and Gladstone, if they do not avow this opinion as openly as Cobden and
+his friends, yet betray very clearly that they {267} entertain it, nor
+do I find some members of the Cabinet free from it."[42]
+
+Meanwhile, the direction of colonial affairs had fallen to the writer
+of the letter just quoted: from the formation of the Russell ministry
+in 1846 until its fall, Earl Grey was the dominant force in British
+colonial policy.  Unlike Russell, Grey was not so much a politician
+interested in the great parliamentary game, as an expert who had
+devoted most of his attention to colonial and economic subjects.
+Consciously or unconsciously, he had imbibed many of Wakefield's ideas,
+and in that period of triumphant free trade, he came to office resolute
+to administer the colonies on free-trade principles.  It said much for
+the fixity and consistency of his ideas of colonial administration
+that, unlike Russell, Buller, and others, he had not been misled by the
+Metcalfe incident.  "The truth is," he said of Metcalfe, "he did not
+comprehend responsible government at all, nor from his Indian
+experience is this wonderful."[43]
+
+The most comprehensive description of the Grey regime is that it
+practised _laissez faire_ principles in colonial administration as they
+never had been {268} practised before.  Under him Canada first enjoyed
+the advantages or disadvantages of free trade, and escaped from the
+shackles of the Navigation Laws.  Grey and Elgin co-operated to bring
+the Clergy Reserve troubles to an end, although the Whigs fell before
+the final steps could be taken.  Grey secured imperial sanction for
+changes in the Union Act of 1840, granting the French new privileges
+for their language, and the colony free control of its own finances.
+But all these were subordinate in importance to the attitude of the new
+minister towards the whole question of Canadian autonomy, and its
+relation to the Imperial Parliament.  That attitude may be examined in
+relation to the responsibility of the Canadian executive, the powers of
+the Imperial Parliament, the occasions on which these powers might be
+fitly used, and the bearing of all the innovations on the position of
+Canada within the British Empire.
+
+Grey's policy with regard to Responsible Government was simple.  As
+Canadians viewed the term, and within the very modest limits set to it
+by them, he surrendered the whole position.  So much has already been
+said on this point in connection with Elgin, that it need not be
+further elaborated.  Yet, since there might linger a suspicion that the
+{269} policy was that rather of the governor than of the minister,
+Grey's position may be given in a despatch written to Sir John Harvey
+in Nova Scotia, before Elgin went to Canada.
+
+"The object," wrote Grey, "with which I recommend to you this course is
+that of making it apparent that any transfer, which may take place, of
+political power from the hands of one party to those of another is the
+result, not of an act of yours, but of the wishes of the people
+themselves, as shown by the difficulty experienced by the retiring
+party in carrying on the government of the Province according to the
+forms of the Constitution.  To this I attach great importance; I have
+therefore to instruct you to abstain from changing your Executive
+Council until it shall become perfectly clear that they are unable with
+such fair support from yourself as they have a right to expect, to
+carry on the government of the province satisfactorily, and command the
+confidence of the Legislature....  In giving all fair and proper
+support to your Council for the time being, you will carefully avoid
+any acts which can possibly be supposed to imply the slightest personal
+objection to their opponents, and also refuse to assent to any measures
+which may be {270} proposed to you by your Council, which may appear to
+you to involve an improper exercise of the authority of the Crown for
+party rather than for public objects.  In exercising however this power
+of refusing to sanction measures which may be submitted to you by your
+Council, you must recollect that this power of opposing a check upon
+extreme measures, proposed by the party for the time in the Government,
+depends entirely for its efficacy upon its being used sparingly and
+with the greatest possible discretion.  A refusal to accept advice
+tendered to you by your Council is a legitimate ground for its members
+to tender to you their resignation--a course they would doubtless
+adopt, should they feel that the subject on which a difference had
+arisen between you and themselves was one upon which public opinion
+would be in their favour.  Should it prove to be so, concession to
+their views must sooner or later become inevitable, since it cannot be
+too distinctly acknowledged that it is neither possible nor desirable
+to carry on the government of any of the British Provinces in North
+America, in opposition to the opinion of the inhabitants."[44]
+
+In strict accordance with this plan, Grey gave {271} Elgin the most
+loyal support in introducing responsible government into Canada, and,
+in a note written not long after Papineau had once more awakened the
+political echoes with a distinctly disloyal address, he expressed his
+willingness to include even the old rebel in the ministerial
+arrangement, should that be insisted on by the leaders of a party which
+could command a majority.[45]
+
+Complete as was the concession made by Grey to local claims, it would,
+nevertheless, be a grave error to think that he left no space for the
+assertion of imperial authority.  No doubt it was part of his system to
+reduce to a minimum the occasions on which interference should be
+necessary, but that such occasions might occur, and demand sudden and
+powerful action from Britain, he ever held.  Even in matters of a
+character purely domestic, he believed, with Lord John Russell, that
+intervention might be necessary, and he desired to prevent danger, not
+by minimizing the powers of the imperial authority, but by exercising
+them with great discretion.[46]  It was perhaps with this conservation
+of central power in view that {272} he was willing to transfer to the
+British treasury the responsibility of paying the salary of the
+governor-general, provided the colonists would take over some part of
+the expenses and difficulties of Canadian defence.  But the extent to
+which he was prepared to exalt the supremacy is best illustrated in the
+control of imperial commerce.  A great change had just been made in the
+economic system of Britain.  Free trade was then to its adherents not
+an arguable position, but a kind of gospel; and men like Grey, who had
+something of the propagandist about them, were inclined to compel
+others to come in.  Now, unfortunately for Canada, free trade appeared
+there first rather as foe than as friend.  As has already been seen,
+the measures of 1846 overturned the arrangement made by Stanley in
+1843, whereby a preference given to Canadian flour had stimulated a
+great activity in the milling and allied industries; and the removal of
+the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Acts did not take place till
+1849.  At the same time the United States, the natural market for
+Canadian products, showed little inclination to listen to talk of
+reciprocity; and the Canadians, seemingly deprived of pre-existing
+advantages by Peel's action, talked of retaliation as a means of {273}
+bettering their position, at least in relation to the United States.
+Grey, however, was an absolute believer in the magic powers of free
+trade.  "When we rejected all considerations of what is called
+reciprocity," he wrote to Elgin, "and boldly got rid of our protective
+duties without inquiring whether other nations would meet us or not,
+the effect was immediately seen in the increase of our exports, and the
+prosperity of our manufactures."[47]  Canada, then, in his opinion
+could retaliate most effectively, not by setting up a tariff against
+the United States, but by opening her ports more freely then before.
+He had a vision, comparable although in contrast, to that of believers
+in an imperial tariff, of an empire with its separate parts bound to
+each other by a general freedom of trade.  Besides all this, he had a
+firm trust that the evils which other nations less free than Britain
+might for a time inflict on her trade by their prohibitions, would
+shortly end, since all would be convinced by the example of Britain and
+would follow it.  Under these circumstances he set imperial policy
+against local prejudice, and wrote to his governor-general: "I do trust
+you will be able to prevent the attempt to enter upon that silliest of
+all silly policies, the {274} meeting of commercial restrictions by
+counter restrictions; _indeed it is a matter to be very seriously
+considered, whether we can avoid disallowing any acts of this kind
+which may be passed_."[48]
+
+In spite, then, of the present thoroughness of Grey's conversion to the
+Canadian position with regard to Home Rule, there was for him still an
+empire operating through the Houses at Westminster and the Crown
+ministers, and striking in, possibly on rare occasions, but, when
+necessary, with a heavy hand.  To such a man, too, belief in the
+permanence of empire was natural.  There are fewer waverings on the
+point in Grey's writings than in those of any of his contemporaries,
+Durham, Buller, and Elgin alone excepted.  He had, indeed, as his
+private correspondence shows, moments of gloom.  Under the strain of
+the Montreal riots, and the insults to Elgin in 1849, he wrote: "I
+confess that looking at these indications of the state of feeling
+there, and at the equally significant indications to the feelings in
+the House of Commons, respecting the value of our colonies, I begin
+almost to despair of our long retaining those in North America; while I
+am persuaded that to both parties a hasty separation will be a very
+serious {275} evil."[49]  Elgin's robust faith, and perfect knowledge,
+however, set him right.  Indeed, in tracing the growth of Grey's
+colonial policy, it is impossible for anyone to mistake the evidences
+of Elgin's influence; and the chapter on Canada in his _Colonial
+Policy_ owes almost more to Elgin than it does to the avowed author.
+His final position may be stated thus.  The empire was to the advantage
+of England, for, apart from other reasons, her place among the nations
+depended on the colonies, and the act of separation would also be one
+of degradation.  The empire was an unspeakable benefit to the colonies:
+"To us," he once wrote in a moment of doubt, "except the loss of
+prestige (no slight one I admit) the loss of Canada would be the loss
+of little but a source of heavy expense and great anxiety, while to the
+Canadians, the loss of our protection, and of our moderating influence
+to restrain the excesses of their own factions, would be one of the
+greatest that can be conceived."[50]  But, apart from these lower loss
+and gain calculations, to Grey the British Empire was a potent
+instrument, essential to the peace and soundness of the world, and he
+expected the {276} provinces to which he had conceded British rights,
+to rally to uphold British standards through a united and loyal
+imperial federation.  Those were still days when Britain counted
+herself, and not without justification, a means of grace to the less
+fortunate remainder of mankind.  "The authority of the British Crown is
+at this moment the most powerful instrument, under Providence, of
+maintaining peace and order in many extensive regions of the earth, and
+thereby assists in diffusing among millions of the human race, the
+blessings of Christianity and civilization.  Supposing it were clear
+(which I am far from admitting) that a reduction of our national
+expenditure (otherwise impracticable) to the extent of a few hundred
+thousands a year, could be effected by withdrawing our authority and
+protection from our numerous Colonies, would we be justified, for the
+sake of such a saving, in taking this step, and thus abandoning the
+duty which seems to have been cast upon us?"[51]
+
+Such, then, was the imperial policy of Britain under the man who
+carried it farthest forward, before the great renaissance at the end of
+Queen Victoria's reign.  To Grey, Canada was all that it had meant to
+Durham--a province peopled by {277} subjects of the Queen, and one
+destined by providence to have a great future--a fundamental part of
+the Empire, and one without which the imperial whole must be something
+meaner and less glorious.  Like Durham he planned for it a constitution
+on the most generous lines, and conferred great gifts upon it.  And, in
+exchange, he claimed a loyalty proportionate to the generosity of the
+Crown, and a propriety of political behaviour worthy of citizens of so
+great a state.  In the last resort he held that in abnormal crises, or
+in response to great and beneficial policies, Canadians must forget
+their provincial outlook, or, if they could not, at least accept the
+ruling of an imperial parliament and a crown more enlightened and
+authoritative on these matters than a colonial ministry or people could
+be.  Having conceded all the rights essential to a free existence, he
+mentioned duties, and called the sum of these duties Empire.
+
+The concluding stage in the evolution of mid-Victorian opinion
+concerning Canada, which must now be described, differs essentially
+from the earlier stages, although, as it seems to me, the chief factor
+in the development is still Durham and his group.  It is the period of
+separatism.
+
+One thing has appeared very prominently in the {278} foregoing
+argument--the prevalence of a fear, or even a fixed belief, that the
+connection between Britain and Canada must soon cease.  Excluding, for
+the present, the entire group of extreme radicals, there was hardly a
+statesman of the earlier years of Victoria, who had not confessed that
+Canada must soon leave England, or be left.  Many instances have been
+already cited.  Among the Tories, Stanley thought that Bagot had
+already begun the process of separation, and that Metcalfe's failure
+would involve the end of the connection.  Peel, ever judicial, gave his
+verdict in favour of separation, should Canadians persist in resenting
+imperial action.  As Lord John Russell's view of autonomy expanded, his
+hopes for continued British supremacy contracted; and, on the evidence
+of a letter from Grey quoted above, Russell was not alone among the
+Whigs in his opinion, nor Peel among his immediate followers.  The
+reckless and partizan use of the term Little-Englander has largely
+concealed the fact that apart from Durham, whose faith was not called
+upon to bear the test of experience, and Buller, Grey, and Elgin, who
+had special grounds for their confidence, all the responsible
+politicians of the years between 1840 and 1860 moved steadily towards a
+"Little England" position.  {279} The reasons for that movement are
+worthy of examination.
+
+So far as the Tories were concerned, the change, already traced in
+detail, was not unnatural.  In the eighteenth century, the colonies,
+possessed of just that responsible government for which Canadian
+reformers were clamouring, had with one accord left the Empire.  The
+earlier nineteenth century had witnessed in the British American
+colonies a steadily increasing demand for the liberties, formerly
+possessed by the New England states.  Representative assemblies had
+been granted; then a modified form of responsibility of the executive
+to these assemblies; then the complete surrender of executive to
+legislature.  Attempts had been made to gain some countervailing powers
+by bargain; but, in Canada, the civil list had now been surrendered to
+local control, the endowment of the Church of England was practically
+at an end, patronage was in the hands of the provincial ministry, and
+all the exceptions which the central authority had claimed as essential
+to its continued existence followed in the wake of the lost executive
+supremacy.  Neither Whigs nor Tories quite understood how an Empire was
+possible, in which there was no definite federating principle; or, if
+there {280} were, where the federating principle existed only to be
+neutralized as, one by one, the restrictions imposed by it were felt by
+the colonists to be annoying to their sense of freedom.  Empire on
+these terms seemed to mean simply a capacity in the mother country for
+indefinite surrender.  The accomplishment of the purpose proclaimed by
+Durham, Russell, and Grey, would, to a Tory even less peremptory than
+the Duke of Wellington, mean the end of the connection; and as they
+felt, so they spoke and acted.  They were separatists, not of
+good-will, but from necessity and the nature of things.
+
+Among the Whigs, an even more important process was at work.  By 1850
+the disintegration of the Whig party was already far advanced.
+Finality in reform had already been found impossible, and Russell and
+the advanced men were slowly drawing ahead of conservatives like
+Melbourne and Palmerston.  After 1846, the liberalizing power of Peel's
+steady scientific intelligence was at work, transforming the ideas of
+his allies, as he had formerly shattered those of his old friends, and,
+of Peel's followers, Gladstone at least seemed to be looking in the
+same direction as his master--towards administrative liberalism.  The
+{281} Whig creed and programme were in the melting pot.  Now, what made
+the final product not Whig, but Liberal, was on the whole the
+increasing influence of the parliamentary Radicals; and in colonial
+matters the Radicals, who told on the revived and quickened Whig party,
+were pronouncedly in favour of separation.  It is too often assumed
+that the imperial creed of Durham and Buller was shared in by their
+fellow Radicals.  That is a grave mistake.  One may trace a descent
+towards separatism from Molesworth to Roebuck and Brougham.  In
+Molesworth, the tendency was comparatively slight.  No doubt in 1837,
+under the stress of the news of rebellion, he had proclaimed the end of
+the British dominion in America as his sincere desire.[52]  But he
+believed in a colonial empire, if England would only guarantee good
+government.  "The emancipation of colonies," he said, in a cooler mood,
+"must be a question of time and a question, in each case, of special
+expediency ... a question which would seldom or never arise between a
+colony and its mother country if all colonies were well governed"; and
+he explained his language about Canada on grounds of bad government.
+"I hope that the people of {282} that country (Lower Canada) will
+either recover the constitution which we have violated, or become
+wholly independent of us."[53]  It is not necessary to quote Hume's
+confused but well-intentioned wanderings--views sharing with those of
+the people whom Hume represented, their crude philanthropy and
+imperfect clearness.  But Roebuck marked a definite stage in advance;
+for, while he was willing to keep "the connexion," where it could be
+kept with honour, he seems to have regarded separation as
+inevitable--"come it must," he said--and his best hopes were that the
+separation might take place in amity and that a British North American
+federation might counterbalance the Union to the south.[54]  Grote's
+placid and facile radicalism accepted the growing breach with Canada as
+the most desirable thing which could happen both to the mother country
+and the colony; and Brougham directed all his eccentric and ill-ordered
+energy and eloquence, not only to denounce the Whig leaders, but to
+proclaim the necessity of the new Canadian republic.  "Not only do I
+consider the possession as worth no breach of the Constitution ... but
+in a national view I really hold those colonies to {283} be worth
+nothing.  I am well assured that we shall find them very little worth
+the cost they have entailed on us, in men, in money, and in injuries to
+our trade; nay, that their separation will be even now a positive gain,
+so it be effected on friendly terms, and succeeded by an amicable
+intercourse."[55]
+
+Separation was indubitably a dogma of philosophic radicalism; and yet
+it was not so much the influence of this metaphysical and doctrinaire
+belief which moved Whig opinion.  It was rather the plain business-like
+and matter-of-fact radicalism of the economist statesmen, led by Bright
+and Cobden.  Of the two forces represented by Peel and by Cobden, which
+completed the formation of a modern Liberal party, the latter was on
+the whole the stronger; and Bright and Cobden took the views of their
+Radical predecessors, and out of airy and ineffectual longings created
+solid political facts.  "I cannot disguise from myself," wrote Grey to
+Elgin in 1850, "that opinion in this country is tending more and more
+to the rejection of any burden whatever, on account of our colonies";
+and the reason for the tendency was certainly the purely economic views
+to which {284} Cobden was accustoming Britain, and the cogency of the
+arguments by which he was driving amateur politicians from their
+earlier indefensible positions.  That trade was all-important, and that
+the operations of trade disregarded the irrelevant facts of nationality
+and race; that no one community could interfere in the social and
+political life of another without disaster to both; that the defence of
+colonies was not only dangerous to peace as provoking suspicious
+neighbours, but needless expense to the mother country; in short that
+_laissez-faire_ was the dominating principle in politics, and that
+_laissez-faire_ shattered the earlier dreams of imperial supremacy and
+colonial dependency--these were the views introduced by Cobden and
+Bright into a newly awakened and imperfectly educated England; and they
+played just such havoc with earlier political ideas, as Darwin and
+evolution did with pre-existing theological orthodoxy.[56]
+
+It was hardly wonderful then that the Whigs moved steadily onward until
+they almost acquiesced in the idea of imperial disruption; and, since
+Peel {285} had left his party moved almost wholly by Cobden's economic
+propaganda, it was not unnatural that the Peelites should share the
+views of their Whig allies.  It is indeed possible to find some cold
+consolation in Gladstone's Chester speech in 1855, when he predicted
+that if only the colonies were left freedom of judgment, it would be
+hard to say when the day of separation might come.[57]  But Grey had
+already suspected Gladstone of pessimism on the point, and we now know
+that as an imperialist Gladstone's course from 1855 had a downward
+tendency.  He could not resist the arguments of his Radical friends and
+teachers.
+
+Almost all the important relevant facts and events which concerned the
+connection after 1846 assisted these party movements towards belief in
+separation.
+
+Grey, whose confidence in the beneficial results of free trade
+challenged that of Cobden himself, believed that with Protection there
+vanished an awkward enemy of the connection between Canada and
+Britain.[58]  But Grey was unmistakably doctrinaire on the point.
+Elgin warned him, again and again, of "the uneasy feeling which the
+{286} free-trade policy of the mother country ... has tended to produce
+in the colonial mind,"[59] and that uneasiness passed gradually over to
+Britain.  It would be to trespass unduly beyond the limits prescribed
+in this essay to deal with the introduction of the Canadian tariff in
+1858 and 1859; yet the statements of Galt who introduced the budget in
+the latter year strike the reader now, as they must have struck the
+British reader then, with a sense that the connection was practically
+at an end: "The government of Canada cannot, through those feelings of
+deference which they owe to the Imperial authorities, in any measure
+waive or diminish the right of the people of Canada to decide for
+themselves both as to the mode and extent to which taxation shall be
+imposed....  The Imperial government are not responsible for the debts
+and engagements of Canada.  They do not maintain its judicial,
+educational, or civil service.  They contribute nothing to the internal
+government of the country; and the Provincial Legislature, acting
+through a ministry directly responsible to it, has to make provision
+for all these wants.  They must necessarily claim and exercise the
+widest latitude, as to the nature, and {287} the extent of the burdens,
+to be placed upon the industry of the people."[60]  There was almost
+everything to be said in favour of this enlightened selfishness; and
+yet a growing coolness on the part of British legislators was, under
+the circumstances, very comprehensible.  It was all the more so,
+because the innovations in Canada influenced British diplomacy in its
+relations with the United States; and between 1854, the date of Elgin's
+Reciprocity Treaty, and 1867, British statesmen learned some of the
+curious ramifications of their original gift of autonomy to Canada.  In
+diplomacy as in economic relations, their appreciation of the value of
+the connection did not increase.
+
+Parallel with this disruptive tendency in the new economic policy,
+another in military matters began to make itself felt.  As Canada
+received her successive grants of liberties, and ever new liberties,
+the imperial authorities began to consider the advisability of
+withdrawing imperial troops by degrees, and of leaving Canada to meet
+the ordinary demands of her own defence.  Grey and Elgin had
+corresponded largely on the point; and the result had been a very
+general reduction of British troops {288} in Canada, the assumption
+being that Canada would look to her own protection.  To discover the
+character of the change thus introduced, and its bearing on imperial
+politics, it again becomes necessary to travel beyond the limit set,
+and to examine its results between 1860 and 1867.  In these years the
+military situation developed new and alarming possibilities for Canada.
+The re-organization of the Canadian tariff excited much ill-feeling in
+the United States, for it seemed an infringement of the arrangements
+made by Elgin in 1854.[61]  Then followed the _Trent_ episode, the
+destruction created by the _Alabama_, the questionable policy both of
+England and of Canada in taking sides, no matter how informally, in the
+war.  In addition, the Irish-American section of the population, which
+had furnished its share, both of rank and file, and of leaders, to the
+war, was in those years bitterly hostile to the British Empire, and
+plotted incessantly some secret stroke which should wound Britain
+through Canada.  The gravest danger threatening British peace and
+supremacy at that time lay, not in Europe, but along the Canadian {289}
+frontier, nor would it be fair to say that Britain alone, not Canada,
+had helped to provoke the threatened American attack.  Under these
+circumstances, partly because of the expense, but partly also through
+factiousness and provincial shortsightedness, the Canadian assembly
+rejected a scheme for providing an adequate militia, and left a
+situation quite impossible from the military point of view.  Instantly
+a storm of criticism broke over the heads of the colonies, so bitter
+and unqualified that there are those who believe that to this day the
+mutual relations of Britain and Canada have never quite recovered their
+old sincerity.[62]  A member of the Canadian parliament, who was
+travelling at the time in England, found the country in arms against
+his province: "You have no idea of the feeling that exists here about
+the Militia Bill, and the defences of Canada generally.  No one will
+believe that there is not a want of loyalty among the Canadians, and
+whenever I try to defend Canada, the answer is always the same, that
+'the English look for actions not assertions'; many hard and unjust
+things are now said about the country, all of which add strength to the
+Goldwin Smith party, which, after {290} all, is not a very small one;
+and the Derbyites make no secret of what they would do if they were in
+power,--let Canada take her chance."[63]  Even Earl Grey was prepared,
+at that crisis, to submit to the British and Canadian parliaments a
+clear issue, calling on the latter to afford adequate support to the
+British forces left in British North America, or to permit the last of
+them to leave a country heedless of its own safety.[64]  From that time
+forth, more especially after Lee, Jackson, Grant, and Sherman had
+revealed the military possibilities of the American Republic, even
+military men began to accept the strategic arguments against the
+retention of Canada as unanswerable, and joined the ranks of those who
+called for separation.  Richard Cartwright, who had opportunities for
+testing British opinion, more especially among military officers, found
+a universal agreement that Canada was indefensible, and that separation
+had better take place, before rather than after war.[65]  So John
+Bright and the leaders of the British army had at last found a point in
+diplomacy and strategy on which they might agree.
+
+{291}
+
+A considerable portion of authoritative British opinion has now been
+traversed; and beneath all its contradictions and varieties a deep
+general tendency has been discovered.  That tendency made for the
+separation of Canada from England and the Empire.  It is strange to see
+how resolutely writers have evaded the conclusion, and yet, if the
+views discussed above have been fairly stated, only four men of note
+and authority, Durham, Buller, Elgin, and Grey remained unaffected by
+the growing pessimism of the time, and of these, the last seemed at the
+end to find it difficult to maintain the confidence of 1853 under the
+trials of 1862.  Britain was, in fact, undergoing a great secular
+change of policy.  She had been driven, step by step, from the old
+position of supremacy and authority.  As in commerce the security of
+protection had been abandoned for the still doubtful advantages of free
+trade, so, in the colonies, the former cast-iron system of imperial
+control had been abandoned for one of _laissez-faire_ and
+self-government.  It would have been impossible for British statesmen
+to follow any other course than that which they actually chose.
+Self-government, and self-government to the last detail and corollary
+of the argument they must perforce concede.  But {292} in the stress of
+their imperial necessities, it was not strange that they should discern
+all the signs of disruption, rather than the gleams of hope; and men
+like Disraeli who claimed at a later date that they had never despaired
+of the Empire, did so at the expense of their sincerity, and could do
+so only because the false remedies they prescribed were happily
+incapable of application.  Little Englandism, if that unfortunate term
+may be used to describe an essential and inevitable phase of imperial
+expansion, was the creed of all but one or two of the most capable and
+daring statesmen of the mid-Victorian age.
+
+Strangely enough, while they had exhausted the materials for their
+argument so far as these lay in Britain, they had all failed to regard
+the one really important factor in the situation--the inclinations of
+the Canadian people.  For the connection of Britain with Canada
+depended less on what the ministers of the Crown thought of Canada than
+on what the Canadians thought of their mother country.
+
+
+
+[1] In Fenwick (Scotland), the Improvement of Knowledge Society
+discussed Canadian affairs on 1 January, 1839, when James Taylor
+proposed the sentiment, "The speedy success of the Canadian struggle
+for emancipation from British thraldom."  The toast, according to the
+minute book, was enthusiastically honoured.
+
+[2] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 1 November, 1851.
+
+[3] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 11 May, 1849.
+
+[4] Allin and Jones, _Annexation, Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity_,
+Chap. IX.
+
+[5] _Responsible Government for the Colonies, London_, 1840.  See the
+extract made by Wakefield in his _View of the Art of Colonization_, p.
+279.
+
+[6] _The Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor, passim._
+
+[7] _Ibid._ ii. pp. 302-3.
+
+[8] Leslie Stephen, _Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen_, p. 49.  "On
+the appointment of a Governor-general of Canada, shortly before his
+resignation of office, he observes in a diary, that it is not unlikely
+to be the last that will ever be made."
+
+[9] Wakefield, _Art of Colonization_, p. 317.
+
+[10] _Ibid._ pp. 312-3.
+
+[11] Froude, _Early Life of Carlyle_, ii. p. 446.
+
+[12] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 65.
+
+[13] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 37.
+
+[14] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 98.
+
+[15] I am inclined to accept John Stuart Mill's account of the
+authorship--"written by Charles Buller, partly under the influence of
+Wakefield."
+
+[16] Quoted by Hincks in _A Lecture on the Political History of
+Canada_, p. 9.
+
+[17] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, pp. 414-15.
+
+[18] _Lord Durham's Report_ (Lucas), ii. p. 280.
+
+[19] See an admirable discussion of the point in Lucas's edition of the
+_Report_, i. p. 146 and ii. p. 281.
+
+[20] _Ibid._ ii.  p. 282.
+
+[21] A speech by Charles Buller in _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.
+
+[22] Arthur to Normanby, 21 August, 1839.
+
+[23] _Ibid._ 15 October, 1839.
+
+[24] Protest of the Duke of Wellington against the Third Reading of a
+bill, etc., 13 July, 1840.
+
+[25] Parker, _Life of Sir Robert Peel_, iii. pp. 382-3.
+
+[26] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 June, 1845.
+
+[27] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.
+
+[28] Gladstone's speech in Hansard, 14 June, 1849.
+
+[29] Parker, _Life of Sir Robert Peel_, iii. p. 389.
+
+[30] _Hansard_, 4 March, 1853.
+
+[31] _Memoirs of an Ex-Minister_, i. p. 344: Disraeli to Malmesbury, 13
+August, 1852.
+
+[32] _The Speeches of the Earl of Beaconsfield_, ii. p. 530.
+
+[33] _Hansard_, 9 March, 1876.  The whole speech is an admirable
+example of Disraeli's gift of irresponsible paradox.
+
+[34] _Hansard_, 3 June, 1839.
+
+[35] _Ibid._ 30 May, 1844.
+
+[36] _Hansard_, 16 January, 1838.
+
+[37] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, pp. 339-40.
+
+[38] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, pp. 339-40.
+
+[39] The reference is to the Rebellion Losses Act riots.
+
+[40] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 8 August, 1849.
+
+[41] _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.
+
+[42] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 18 May, 1849.
+
+[43] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 6 April, 1849.
+
+[44] Earl Grey to Sir John Harvey, 3 November, 1846.
+
+[45] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.
+
+[46] Grey, _Colonial Policy_, i. p. 25.
+
+[47] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 5 December, 1850.
+
+[48] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 25 October, 1849.
+
+[49] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 20 July, 1849.
+
+[50] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 22 March, 1848.
+
+[51] Grey, _Colonial Policy_, i. pp. 13-14.
+
+[52] Molesworth in _Hansard_, 22 December, 1837.
+
+[53] Molesworth in _Hansard_, 6 March, 1838.
+
+[54] Roebuck before the House of Commons, 22 January, 1838.
+
+[55] Brougham in _Hansard_, 18 January, 1838.
+
+[56] See, for a very complete statement of Bright's views on the point,
+his speech on _Canadian Fortifications_, 23 March, 1865.  Cobden's
+colonial policy is scattered broadcast through his speeches.
+
+[57] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, i. p. 269.
+
+[58] See the preliminary chapter in his _Colonial Policy_.
+
+[59] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 6 December, 1848.
+
+[60] See Galt, _Canada from_ 1849 _to_ 1859, and his memorandum of 25
+October, 1859.
+
+[61] See a despatch from Lord Lyons respecting the Reciprocity Treaty,
+Washington, 28 February, 1862: enclosing a copy of the report of the
+committee of the House of Representatives on the Reciprocity Treaty.
+
+[62] See Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. p. 426.
+
+[63] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 242.
+
+[64] Earl Grey, in _Hansard_, 18 July, 1862.
+
+[65] Sir Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, p. 55.
+
+
+
+
+{293}
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY.
+
+A change so informally achieved, and yet so decisive, as the completion
+of a system of self-government in Canada could not but have
+far-reaching and unexpected secondary consequences.  It is the object
+of this chapter to trace the more important of these as they appeared
+in the institutions and public life of Canada, and in the modification
+of Canadian sentiment towards Great Britain.
+
+The most obvious and natural effect of Elgin's concessions was a
+revolution in the programmes of the provincial parties, and in their
+relations to each other and to government.  It may be remembered that
+all the governors of the period agreed in reprobating the factiousness
+and pettiness of Canadian party politics.  Even Elgin had been unable
+to see very much rationality in their methods.  There was, he held,
+little of public principle to divide {294} men, apart from the
+fundamental question of responsible government.[1]  But it is possible
+to underestimate the reality and importance of the party system as it
+existed down to 1847.  To have admitted that men differed on the
+principle of responsible government, was to have admitted that party
+strife had some justification; and all the other details--affections
+and antipathies, national, sectarian, and personal--were the
+circumstances natural to party life as that life has everywhere come
+into existence.  Burke himself sought no higher ground for the grouping
+of men into parties than that of family connection, and common
+friendships and enmities.  No doubt the squalor and pettiness of early
+Canadian party life contrasted meanly with the glories of the
+eighteenth century Whigs, and the struggles of Fox and Pitt.  But a
+nation must begin somewhere, and these trivial divisions received a
+kind of consecration when they centred round the discussion of colonial
+self-government.  After all, so long as autonomy was only partially
+conceded, and so long as men felt impelled to take opposite sides on
+that subject, it was foolish to deny that there were Canadian parties,
+and that their differences were of some importance.
+
+{295}
+
+Moreover, before 1847 there were other good reasons for the existence
+of two distinct parties.  It was true, as Sydenham had said, that the
+British party names were not quite appropriate to the parties in Canada
+who had adopted them.  Yet there were some links between British and
+Canadian parties.  The British and the Canadian Tories had, in 1840,
+many views in common.  In a time of change both stood for a pronounced
+distrust of democracy; both regarded the creation of responsible
+government in Canada as disastrous to the connection; both were the
+defenders of Church and State.  On the other hand, it was not
+unnatural, as Elgin came to see, to compare the party led by Baldwin
+and La Fontaine with the Reformers in England who looked to Lord John
+Russell as their true leader.  Until the political traditions, which
+most of the recent immigrants had brought with them from Britain, had
+disappeared or been transformed into a new Canadian tradition, and so
+long as certain grave constitutional defects which cried for remedy
+remained unaltered, Canadian Tories and Reformers must exist, and
+government, as Metcalfe discovered, was impossible, unless it
+recognized in these provincial divisions the motive power of local
+administration.
+
+{296}
+
+But between 1847 and 1854 the foundations of these earlier parties had
+been, not so much undermined, as entirely removed.  "The continuance of
+agitation on these intensely exciting questions," wrote Elgin in his
+latest despatch from Canada, "was greatly to be deprecated, and their
+settlement, on terms which command the general acquiescence of those
+who are most deeply interested, can hardly fail to be attended with
+results in a high degree beneficial."[2]  Elgin had removed the reason
+for existence of both parties by settling the issues which divided
+them.  At the same time, the growth of a political life different from
+that of Britain, had, year by year, made the British names more
+inappropriate.  John A. Macdonald, the leader of those who had once
+called themselves Tories, was confessing the change when he wrote, in
+1860, "While I have always been a member of what is called the
+Conservative party, I could never have been called a Tory, although
+there is no man who more respects what is called old-fogey Toryism than
+I do, so long as it is based upon principle."[3]  The fierce battles
+over constitutional theories, {297} which a series of British governors
+and governments had so long deprecated, had at last been eliminated by
+the natural development of Canadian political life.
+
+The same natural development provided a substitute for the older party
+system.  Elgin, as has been seen, belonged to the group of Peelites,
+who, during the lifetime of their leader and long after it, endeavoured
+to solve the new administrative problems of the nineteenth century
+without too strict an adherence to party programmes and lines of
+division.  Curiously enough, he was the chief agent in stimulating a
+similar political movement in Canada.  There was, however, this
+difference, that while in Peel's case, and still more in that of his
+followers, the British party tradition proved overwhelmingly powerful,
+in Canada, where tradition was weaker, and the need for sound
+administration far more vital, the movement became dominant in the form
+of Liberal-conservatism.  In other words, in place of small violently
+antagonistic parties, moderate men inclined to come together to carry
+out a broad, non-controversial, national programme.
+
+There are few more remarkable developments in Canada between 1840 and
+1867 than this tendency {298} towards government by a single party.  It
+was Sydenham's shrewd insight into the Canadian political situation,
+even more than his desire to rule, which led him to govern Canada by a
+coalition of moderate men.  His only mistake lay in trying to force on
+the province what should have come by nature.  The Baldwin-La Fontaine
+compact, which really dominated Canadian politics from 1841, was a
+partial experiment in government by an alliance of groups; and when the
+great exciting questions, Responsible Government and Church
+Establishment, had been settled, and the end in view seemed simply to
+be the carrying on of the Queen's government, Liberal-conservatism
+entered gradually into possession.  When Baldwin and La Fontaine made
+way for Hincks and Morin in 1851, the change was recognized as a step
+towards the re-union of the moderates.  For, in the face of George
+Brown, and his advocacy of a more provocative radical programme,
+Francis Hincks declared for some kind of coalition: "I regret to say
+there have been indications given by a section of the party to which I
+belong, that it will be difficult indeed, unless they change their
+policy, to preserve the Union.  I will tell these persons (the
+anti-state church reformers of Upper Canada) {299} that if the Union is
+not preserved by them, as a necessary consequence, other combinations
+must be formed by which the Union may be preserved.  _I am ready to
+give my cordial support to any combination of parties by which the
+Union shall be maintained_."[4]  Three years later, the party of
+moderate reform which had co-operated with Elgin in creating a system
+of truly responsible government, and which had done so much to restore
+Canadian political equanimity, fell before a factious combination of
+hostile groups.  But the succeeding administration, nominally
+Conservative, was actually Liberal-Conservative, and it remained in
+power chiefly because Francis Hincks, who had led the Reformers,
+desired his followers to assist it, as Peel and his immediate disciples
+kept the British Whigs in office after 1846.  Robert Baldwin had been
+the leader of opposition during Sydenham's rule, and before it; indeed,
+he may be called the organizer of party division in the days before the
+grant of responsible government.  Yet when the opponents of the compact
+of 1854 quoted his precedent of party division against Hincks'
+principle of union, Baldwin disowned his would-be supporters: "However
+disinclined myself to {300} adventure upon such combinations, they are
+unquestionably, in my opinion, under certain circumstances, not only
+justifiable, but expedient, and even necessary.  The government of the
+country _must_ be carried on.  It ought to be carried on with vigour.
+If that can be done in no other way than by mutual concessions and a
+coalition of parties, they become necessary."[5]  In consequence, the
+autumn of 1854 witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a Tory government,
+headed by Sir Allan MacNab, carrying a bill to end the Clergy Reserve
+troubles, in alliance with Francis Hincks and their late opponents.
+The chief dissentients were the extreme radicals, who were now
+nicknamed the Clear-Grits.[6]
+
+After 1854, and for ten years, the political history of Canada is a
+_reductio ad absurdum_ of the older party system.  Government succeeded
+government, only to fall a prey to its own lack of a sufficient
+majority, and the unprincipled use by its various opponents of casual
+combinations and {301} alliances.  Apart from a little group of
+Radicals, British and French, who advocated reforms with an absence of
+moderation which made them impossible as ministers of state, there were
+not sufficient differences to justify two parties, and hardly
+sufficient programme even for one.  The old Tories disappeared from
+power with their leader, Sir Allan MacNab, in 1856.  The Baldwin-Hincks
+reformers had distributed themselves through all the parties--Canadian
+Peelites they may be called.  The great majority of the representatives
+of the French followed moderate counsels, and were usually sought as
+allies by whatever government held office.  The broader principles of
+party warfare were proclaimed only by the Clear-Grits of Upper Canada
+and the _Rouges_ of Lower Canada.  The latter group was distinct enough
+in its views to be impossible as allies for any but like-minded
+extremists: "Le parti rouge," says _La Minerve_, "s'est formé ŕ
+Montreal sous les auspices de M. Papineau, en haine des institutions
+anglaises, de notre constitution déclarée vicieuse, et surtout du
+gouvernement responsable regardé comme une duperie, avec des idées
+d'innovation en religion et en politique, accompagnées d'une haine
+profond pour le clergé, et avec l'intention {302} bien formelle, et
+bien prononcée d'annexer le Canada aux Etats-Unis."[7]
+
+As for the original Clear-Grits, their distinguishing features were the
+advocacy of reforming ideas in so extreme a form as to make them
+useless for practical purposes, an anti-clerical or extreme Protestant
+outlook in religion, and a moral superiority, partly real, but more
+largely the Pharisaism so inevitably connected with all forms of
+radical propaganda.  They proved their futility in 1858, when George
+Brown and A. A. Dorion formed their two-days' administration, and
+extinguished the credit of their parties, and themselves, as
+politicians capable of existence apart from moderate allies.  Until
+Canadian politics could have their scope enlarged, and the issues at
+stake made more vital, and therefore more controversial, it was obvious
+that the grant of responsible government had rendered the existing
+party system useless.
+
+The significant moment in this period of Canadian history came in 1864,
+when all the responsible politicians in the country, and more
+especially the two great personal enemies, John A. Macdonald and George
+Brown, came together to carry out a scheme of confederation, which was
+too great to {303} be the object of petty party strife, and which
+required the support of all parties to make it successful.  Both
+political parties, as George Brown confessed, had tried to govern the
+country, and each in turn had failed from lack of steady adequate
+support.  A general election was unlikely to effect any improvement in
+the situation, and the one hope seemed to lie in a frank combination
+between opponents to solve the constitutional difficulties which
+threatened to ruin the province.  "After much discussion on both
+sides," ran the official declaration, "it was found that a compromise
+might probably be had in the adoption either of the federal principle
+for the British North American provinces, as the larger question, or
+for Canada alone, with provisions for the admission of the Maritime
+Provinces and the North-Western Territory, when they should express the
+desire": and to secure the most perfect unanimity the ministers, Sir E.
+P. Taché and Mr. Macdonald, "thereon stated that, after the
+prorogation, they would be prepared to place three seats in the Cabinet
+at the disposal of Mr. Brown."[8]
+
+It is not within the scope of this essay to discuss {304} developments
+after Confederation, yet it is an interesting speculation whether, up
+to a date quite recent, the grant of responsible government did not
+continue to make a two-party system on the British basis unnatural to
+Canada.  Between 1847 and 1867, the destruction of the dual system, and
+the creation of government by coalition, were certainly the dominant
+facts in Canadian politics, and both were the products of the gift of
+autonomy.  Since 1867, it is possible to contend that, while two sets
+of politicians offer themselves as alternative governments to the
+electors, their differentiation has reference rather to the holding of
+office than to a real distinction in programme.  Alike in trade,
+imperial policy, and domestic progress, the inclination has been
+towards compromise, and either side inclines, or is forced, to steal
+the programme of the other.  Responsible government was the last issue
+which arrayed men in parties, neither of which could quite accept a
+compromise with the other.  It remains to be seen whether questions of
+freer trade, imperial organization, and provincial rights, will once
+more create parties with something deeper in their differences than
+mere rival claims to hold office.
+
+If the creation of a Liberal-Conservative party {305} was a direct
+result of the grant of autonomy, so also was the policy which led to
+Confederation.  It is no part of the present volume to trace the growth
+of the idea of Confederation, or to determine who the actual fathers of
+Confederation were.  The connection between Autonomy and Confederation
+in the province of Canada was that the former made the latter
+inevitable.
+
+Earlier chapters have dealt with the French Canadian problem, and the
+difficulty of combining French _nationalité_ with the Anglo-Saxon
+elements of the West.  In one sense, Elgin's regime saw nationalism
+lose all its awkward features.  Papineau's return to public life in
+1848, and the revolutionary stir of that year had left Lower Canada
+untouched, save in the negligible section represented by the _Rouges_.
+The inclusion of La Fontaine and his friends in the ministry had proved
+the _bona fides_ of the governor, and the French, being, as Elgin said,
+"quiet sort of people," stood fast by their friend.  "Candour compels
+me to state," he wrote after a year of annexationist agitation, "that
+the conduct of the Anglo-Saxon portion of our M.P.Ps contrasts most
+unfavourably with that of the Gallican....  The French have been
+rescued from the false position into which they {306} have been driven,
+and in which they must perforce have remained, so long as they believed
+that it was the object of the British government, as avowed by Lord
+Sydenham and others, to break them down, and to ensure to the British
+race, not by trusting to the natural course of events, but by dint of
+management and state craft, predominance in the province."[9]
+
+But while French nationalism had assumed a perfectly normal phase, the
+operations of autonomy after 1847 made steadily towards the creation of
+a new nationalist difficulty.  That difficulty had two phases.
+
+In the first place, while the Union of Upper and Lower Canada had been
+based on the assumption that from it a single nationality with common
+ideals and objects would emerge, experience proved that both the French
+and the British sections remained aggressively true to their own ways;
+and the independence bred by self-government only quickened the sense
+of racial distinction.  Now there were questions, such as that of the
+Clergy Reserves, which chiefly concerned the British section; and
+others, like the settlement of the seigniorial tenure, of purely
+French-Canadian {307} character.  Others again, chief among them the
+problem of separate schools, in Lower Canada for Protestants, in Upper
+Canada for Catholics, seemed to set the two sections in direct
+opposition.  Under the circumstances, a series of conventions was
+created to meet a situation very involved and dangerous.  The happy
+accident of the dual leadership of La Fontaine and Baldwin furnished a
+precedent for successive ministries, each of which took its name from a
+similar partnership of French and English.  Further, although the
+principle never received official sanction, it became usual to expect
+that, in questions affecting the French, a majority from Lower Canada
+should be obtained, and in English matters, one from Upper Canada.  It
+was also the custom to expect a government to prove its stability by
+maintaining a majority from both Upper and Lower Canada.  Nothing, for
+example, so strengthened Elgin's hands in the Rebellion Losses fight as
+the fact that the majority which passed the bill was one in both
+sections of the Assembly.  Yet nearly all cabinet ministers, and all
+the governors-general, strongly opposed the acknowledgment of "the
+double majority" as an accepted constitutional principle.  "I have told
+Colonel Taché," wrote Head, in 1856, "that I {308} expect the
+government formed by him to disavow the principle of a double
+majority";[10] and both Baldwin, and, after him, John A. Macdonald
+refused to countenance the practice.  Unfortunately, while the idea was
+a constitutional anomaly, threatening all manner of complications to
+the government of Canada, there were occasions when it had to receive a
+partial sanction from use.  When the Tories were sustained by a
+majority of 4 in 1856, government suffered reconstruction because there
+had been a minority of votes from Upper Canada.  As the new Tory leader
+explained, "I did not, and I do not think that the double majority
+system should be adopted as a rule.  I feel that so long as we are one
+province and one Parliament, the fact of a measure being carried by a
+working majority is sufficient evidence that the Government of the day
+is in power to conduct the affairs of the country.  But I could not
+disguise from myself that it (the recent vote) was not a vote on a
+measure, but a distinct vote of confidence, or want of confidence; and
+there having been a vote against us from Upper Canada, expressing a
+want of confidence in the government, I felt that it was a sufficient
+indication that the measures of the government {309} would be met with
+the opposition of those honorable gentlemen who had by their solemn
+vote withdrawn their confidence from the government."[11]  The practice
+continued in this state of discredit varied by occasional forced use,
+until a government--that of J. S. Macdonald and Sicotte--which had
+definitely made the double majority one of the planks in its platform,
+found that its principal measure, the Separate Schools Act of R. W.
+Scott, had to be carried by a French majority, although the matter was
+one of deep concern to Upper Canada.  It was becoming obvious that
+local interests must receive some securer protection than could be
+afforded by what was after all an evasion of constitutional practice.
+
+Meanwhile complications were arising from another movement, the
+agitation for a revision of parliamentary representation.  The twelfth
+section of the Union Act had enacted that "the parts of the said
+Province which now constitute the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada
+respectively, shall be represented by an equal number of
+representatives."  At the time of Union the balance of population had
+inclined decisively towards {310} Lower Canada; indeed that part of the
+province might fairly claim to have a constitutional grievance.  But
+between 1830 and 1860 the balance had altered.  In Lower Canada a
+population, which in 1831 had been 511,922, had increased by 1844 to
+almost 700,000; while in Upper Canada the numbers had increased from
+334,681 to well over 700,000 in 1848;[12] and each year saw the west
+increase in comparison with the east, until George Brown, speaking no
+doubt with forensic rather than scientific ends in view, estimated that
+in 1857 Upper Canada possessed a population of over 1,400,000, as
+against a bare 1,100,000 in Lower Canada.[13]  These changes produced a
+most interesting complication.  The representation after 1840 stood
+guaranteed by a solemn act--the more solemn because it had been the
+result of a bargain between Sydenham and the provincial authorities in
+Upper and Lower Canada.  It had the appearance rather of a treaty than
+of an ordinary Act of Parliament.  On the other hand, since
+self-government had been secured, and since self-government seemed to
+involve the principle of representation in proportion {311} to the
+numbers of the population, it was, according to the Upper Canadian
+politicians, absurd to give to 1,100,000 the same representation as to
+1,400,000.  So George Brown, speaking from his place in Parliament, and
+using, at the same time, his extraordinary and unequalled influence as
+editor of _The Globe_, flung himself into the fray, seeking, as his
+motion of 1857 ran, "that the representation of the people in
+Parliament should be based upon population, without regard to a
+separating line between Upper and Lower Canada."[14]  His thesis was
+too cogent, and appealed too powerfully to all classes of the Upper
+Canada community, to be anything but irresistible.  Even Macdonald,
+whose political existence depended on his alliance with the French,
+knew that his rival had made many converts among the British
+Conservatives.  "It is an open question," he wrote of representation by
+population, in 1861, "and you know two of my colleagues voted in its
+favour."[15]
+
+Yet nothing was better calculated to rouse into wild agitation the
+quiescent feeling of French nationalism.  The attempt of Durham and his
+successors to end, by natural operation, the separate {312} existence
+of French nationality was now being renewed with far greater vigour,
+and with all the weight of a normal constitutional reform.  If George
+Brown was hateful to the French electorate because of his Protestant
+and anti-clerical agitation, he was even more odious as the statesman
+who threatened, in the name of Canadian autonomy, the existence of old
+French tradition, custom, and right.  It was in answer to this twofold
+difficulty that Canadian statesmen definitely thought of Confederation.
+There were many roads leading to that event--the desire of Britain for
+a more compact and defensible colony; the movement in the maritime
+provinces for a local federation; the dream, or vague aspiration,
+cherished by a few Canadians, of a vaster dominion, and one free from
+petty local divisions and strifes.  But it was no dream or imperial
+ideal which forced Canadian statesmen into action; it was simply the
+desire, on the one hand, to give to the progressive west the increased
+weight it claimed as due to its numbers; and on the other, to safeguard
+the ancient ways and rights of the French community.  From this point
+of view, it was George Brown, the man who preached representation by
+population in season and out of season, who actually forced {313}
+Canadian statesmen to have resort to a measure, the details of which he
+himself did not at first approve; and the argument used to drive the
+point home was not imperial, but a bitter criticism of existing
+conditions.  After the great Reform convention of 1859, Brown moved in
+Parliament "that the existing legislative union between Upper and Lower
+Canada has failed to realize the anticipations of its promoters: has
+resulted in a heavy debt, burdensome taxation, great political abuses,
+and universal dissatisfaction; and it is the matured conviction of this
+Assembly, from the antagonisms developed through difference of origin,
+local interests, and other causes, that the union in its present form
+can be no longer continued with advantage to the people."[16]  In 1864
+a distracted province found itself at the end of its resources.  Its
+futile efforts at the game of political party had resulted in the
+defeat of four ministries within three years; its attempt to balance
+majorities in Upper and Lower Canada had hopelessly broken down; and
+the moment in which the stronger British west obtained the increased
+representation it sought, the French feeling for nationality would
+probably once more produce rebellion.
+
+{314}
+
+So Confederation came--to satisfy George Brown, because in the Dominion
+Assembly his province would receive adequate representation--to
+satisfy, on the other hand, a loyal Frenchman like Joseph Cauchon,
+because, as he said, "La confédération des deux Canadas, ou de toutes
+les provinces, en nous donnant une constitution locale, qui sauverait,
+cependant, les priviléges, les droits acquis et les institutions des
+minorités, nous offrirait certainement une mesure de protection, comme
+Catholiques et comme Français, autrement grand que l'Union actuelle,
+puisque de minorité nous deviendrons et resterons, ŕ toujours, la
+majorité nationale et la majorité religieuse."[17]  That was the
+second, and perhaps the greatest of all the results of self-government.
+
+Before passing to inquire into the influence of autonomy on Canadian
+loyalty, it may prove interesting to note the political manners and
+morals of the statesmen who worked the system in its earlier stages.
+In passing judgment, however, one must bear in mind the newness of the
+country and the novelty of the experiment; the fact that a democratic
+constitution far more daring than {315} Britain allowed herself at
+home, was being tested; and the severity of the struggle for existence,
+which left Canadians little time and money to devote to disinterested
+service of their country.  In view of all these facts, and in spite of
+some ugly defects, the verdict must be on the whole favourable to the
+colony.
+
+Of direct malversation, or actual sordid dishonesty, there was, thanks
+probably to a vigorous opposition, far less than might have been
+expected.  The _cause célčbre_ was that of Francis Hincks, premier from
+1851 to 1854, who was accused, among other things, of having profited
+through buying shares in concerns with which government had dealings--a
+fault not unknown in Britain; of having induced government to improve
+the facilities of regions in which he had holdings, and generally of
+having used his position as minister to make great private gains.  A
+most minute inquiry cleared him on all scores, but the committee of the
+Legislative Council, without entering further into the questions,
+mentioned as points worthy of consideration by Parliament, "whether it
+is beneficial to the due administration of the affairs of this country
+for its ministers to purchase lands sold at public competition, and
+Municipal Debentures, also {316} offered in open market or otherwise;
+whether the public interests require an expression of the opinions of
+the Two Houses of Parliament in that respect; and whether it would be
+advisable to increase the salaries of the Members of the Executive
+Council to such a figure, as would relieve them from the necessity of
+engaging in private dealings, to enable them to support their families
+and maintain the dignity of their position, without resorting to any
+kind of business transactions while in the service of the crown."[18]
+Canada was passing through an ordeal, which, sooner or later, Britain
+too must face.  Her answer, in this case, to the dilemma between
+service of the community and self-aggrandisement was not unworthy of
+the mother country.
+
+Still, in spite of the acquittal of Hincks, there were cases of
+complicated corruption, and a multitude of little squalid sins.  Men
+like Sir Allan MacNab, who had been bred in a system of preferments and
+petty political gains, found it difficult to avoid small jobbery.  "He
+has such an infernal lot of hangers on to provide for," wrote one
+minister to another, concerning the gallant knight, "that he finds it
+difficult to do the {317} needful for them all."[19]  It is clear, too,
+that when John A. Macdonald succeeded MacNab as Tory leader, purity did
+not increase.  It was no doubt easy for George Brown to criticize
+Macdonald's methods from a position of untempted rectitude, and no
+doubt also Brown had personal reasons for criticism; but he was
+speaking well within the truth, when he attacked the Tory government of
+1858, not only for grave corruption in the late general election, but
+for other weightier offences.  It was elicited, he said, by the Public
+Accounts Committee that Ł500,000 of provincial debentures had been sold
+in England by government at 99Ľ, when the quotation of the Stock
+Exchange was 105 @ 107, by which the province was wronged to the extent
+of Ł50,000.  It was elicited that a member of Parliament, supporting
+the government, sold to the government Ł20,000 of Hamilton debentures
+at 97Ľ which were worth only 80 in the market....  It was elicited that
+large sums were habitually drawn from the public chest, and lent to
+railway companies, or spent on services for which no previous sanction
+of Parliament had been obtained.[20]  It is, perhaps, the gravest
+charge {318} against Macdonald that, at the entrance of Canada into the
+region of modern finance and speculation, he never understood that
+incorrupt administration was the greatest gift a man could give to the
+future of his country.
+
+In a young and not yet civilized community it was natural that the
+early days of self-government should witness some corruption among the
+voters, the more so because, at election times "there were no less than
+four days, the nomination, two days' polling, and declaration day, on
+all of which, by a sort of unwritten law, the candidates in many
+constituencies were compelled to keep open house for their supporters,"
+while direct money bribes were often resorted to, especially on the
+second day's polling in a close contest.[21]
+
+Apart from jobbery and frank corruption, Canadian politicians
+condescended at times to ignoble trickery, and to evasions of the truth
+which came perilously near breaches of honour.  The most notorious
+breach of the constitutional decencies was the celebrated episode
+nicknamed the "Double Shuffle."  Whatever apologists may say, John A.
+Macdonald sinned in the very first essentials of political fair-play.
+He had already {319} led George Brown into a trap by forcing government
+into his hands.  When Brown, too late to save his reputation,
+discovered the sheer futility of his attempt to make and keep together
+a government, and when it once more fell to the Conservatives to take
+office, Macdonald saved himself and his colleagues the trouble of
+standing for re-election by a most shameful constitutional quibble.
+According to a recent act, if a member of Legislative Council or
+Assembly "shall resign his office, and within one month after his
+resignation, accept any other of the said offices (enumerated above),
+he shall not vacate his seat in the said Assembly or Council."[22]  It
+was a simple, and a disgraceful thing, for the ministers, once more in
+power, to accept offices other than those which they had held before
+resignation, and then, at once, to pass on to the reacceptance of the
+old appropriate positions.  They saved their seats at the expense of
+their honour.  In spite of Macdonald's availability, there was too much
+of the village Machiavelli about his political tactics to please the
+educated and honest judgment.
+
+It was very natural too that, in these early struggles towards
+independence and national {320} self-consciousness, the crudities
+inseparable from early colonial existence should be painfully apparent.
+In Canada at least, vice could not boast that it had lost half its evil
+by losing all its grossness.  According to Sir Richard Cartwright, the
+prolonged absence from domestic associations, led to a considerable
+amount of dissipation among members of parliament.  The minister who
+dominated Canadian politics for so many years before and after
+Confederation set an unfortunate example to his flock; and many of the
+debates read as though they drew their heat, if not their light, from
+material rather than intellectual sources.  Apart from offences against
+sobriety and the decalogue, there can be no doubt that something of the
+early ferocity of politics still continued, and the disgrace of the
+Montreal riots which followed Elgin's sanction of the Rebellion Losses
+bill was rendered tenfold more disgraceful by the participation in them
+of gentlemen and politicians of position.  Half the success of
+democratic institutions lies in the capacity of the legislators for
+some public dignity, and a certain chivalrous good nature towards each
+other.  But that is perhaps too high a standard to set for the first
+colonial Assembly which had exercised full {321} powers of
+self-government since 1776.  After all, there were great stretches of
+honesty and high purpose to counterbalance the squalid jobs and tricks.
+If Macdonald sinned in one direction, Alexander Mackenzie had already
+begun his course of almost too austere rectitude in another.
+Opposition kept a keen eye on governmental misdoings, and George Brown,
+impulsive, imprudent, often lacking in sane statesmanship, and, once or
+twice, in nice honour, still raised himself, the readers of his
+newspaper, and the Assembly which he often led in morals, if not in
+politics, to a plane not far below that of the imperial Parliament.
+But the highest level of feeling and statesmanship reached by Canadian
+politicians before 1867 was attained in those days of difficulty in
+1864, when the whole future of Canada was at stake, and when none but
+Canadians could guide their country into safety.  There were many
+obstacles in the way of united action between the leaders on both
+sides; the attempt to create a federal constitution was no light task
+even for statesmen of genius; and the adaptation of means to end, of
+public utilities to local jealousies, demanded temper, honesty, breadth
+of view.  George Brown, who with all his impracticability and lack of
+restraint, behaved with {322} notable public spirit at this time, spoke
+for the community when he said, "The whole feeling in my mind is one of
+joy and thankfulness that there were found men of position and
+influence in Canada, who, at a moment of serious crisis, had nerve and
+patriotism enough to cast aside political partizanship, to banish
+personal considerations, and unite for the accomplishment of a measure
+so fraught with advantage to their common country."[23]  In the debate
+from which these words are taken, Canadian statesmen excelled
+themselves, and it is not too much to say that whether in attack or
+defence, the speakers exhibited a capacity and a public spirit not
+unworthy of the imperial Parliament at its best.[24]
+
+It would, however, be a mistake to exhibit the Canadian Assembly of
+early Victorian days as characterized for long by so sublime and
+Miltonic a spirit as is suggested by the Confederation debates.  After
+all, they were mainly provincial lawyers and shrewd uncultured business
+men who guided the destinies of Canada, guilty of many lapses from
+dignity in their public behaviour, and exhibiting {323} not
+infrequently a democratic vulgarity learned from the neighbouring
+republic.  That was a less elevated, but altogether living and real
+picture of the Canadian politician, which Sir John Macdonald's
+biographer gave of his hero, and the great opposition leader, as they
+returned, while on an imperial mission, from a day at the Derby:
+"Coming home, we had lots of fun: even George Brown, a covenanting old
+chap, caught its spirit.  I bought him a pea-shooter and a bag of peas,
+and the old fellow actually took aim at people on the tops of busses,
+and shot lots of peas on the way home."[25]
+
+It now becomes necessary to answer the question which, for twenty
+years, English politicians had been putting to those who argued in
+favour of Canadian self-government.  Given a system of local
+government, really autonomous, what will become of the connection with
+Great Britain?  So far as the issue is one purely constitutional and
+legal, it may be answered very shortly.  Responsible government in
+Canada seriously diminished the formal bonds which united that province
+to the mother country.  For long the pessimists in Britain had been
+proclaiming that the diminution of the governor-general's authority and
+{324} responsibility would end the connection.  After the retirement of
+Lord Elgin, that diminution had taken place.  It is a revelation of
+constitutional change to pass from the full, interesting, and
+many-sided despatches and letters of Sydenham, Bagot, and Elgin, to the
+perfunctory reports of Head and Monck.  Elgin had contended that a
+governor might hope to establish a moral influence, which would
+compensate for the loss of power, consequent on the surrender of
+patronage to an executive responsible to the local parliament;[26] but
+it was not certain that either Head or Monck possessed this indirect
+control.  In 1858 Sir Edmund Head acted with great apparent
+independence, when he refused to allow George Brown and his new
+administration the privilege of a dissolution; and the columns of _The
+Globe_ resounded with denunciations which recalled the days of Metcalfe
+and tyranny.  But, even if Head were independent, it was not with an
+authority useful to the dignity of his position; and the whole affair
+has a suspicious resemblance to one of John A. Macdonald's tricks.  The
+voice is Macdonald's voice, if the hands are the hands of Head.  Under
+Monck, the most conspicuous assertion of independence was the {325}
+governor's selection of J. S. Macdonald to lead the ministry of 1862,
+instead of Foley, the more natural alternative for premier.
+Nevertheless Monck's despatches, concerned as they are with diplomatic
+and military details, present a striking contrast to those of Sydenham
+and Elgin, who proved how active was the part they played in the life
+of the community by the vividness of their sketches of Canadian
+politics and society.  So sparing, indeed, was Monck in his
+information, that Newcastle had to reprove him, in 1863, for sending so
+little news that the Colonial Office could have furnished no
+information on Canada to the Houses of Parliament had they called for
+papers.[27]  During the confederation negotiations, the governor made
+an admirable referee, or impartial centre, round whom the diverse
+interests might group themselves: but no one could say that events were
+shaped or changed by his action.  The warmest language used concerning
+Her Majesty's representative in Canada may be found in the speech of
+Macdonald in the confederation debate: "We place no restriction on Her
+Majesty's prerogative in the selection of her representative.  The
+Sovereign has unrestricted freedom of choice.  Whether in making {326}
+her selection she may send us one of her own family, a Royal Prince, as
+a Viceroy to rule us, or one of the great statesmen of England to
+represent her, we know not....  But we may be permitted to hope that
+when the union takes place, and we become the great country which
+British North America is certain to be, it will be an object worthy the
+ambition of the statesmen of England to be charged with presiding over
+our destinies."[28]
+
+Apart from the viceregal operations of the governor, the direct action
+of the Crown was called for by the province in one notable but
+unfortunate incident, the choice of a new capital.  Torn asunder by the
+strife of French and English, Canada was unable, or at least unwilling,
+to commit herself to the choice of a definitive capital, after Montreal
+had been rendered impossible by the turbulence of its mobs.  So the
+Queen's personal initiative was invited.  But the awkwardness of the
+step was revealed in 1858, when a division in the House practically
+flung her decision contemptuously aside--happily only for the moment,
+and informally.  George Brown was absolutely right when he said: "I
+yield to no man for a single {327} moment in loyalty to the Crown of
+England, and in humble respect and admiration of Her Majesty.  But what
+has this purely Canadian question to do with loyalty?  It is a most
+dangerous and ungracious thing to couple the name of Her Majesty with
+an affair so entirely local, and one as to which the sectional feelings
+of the people are so excited."[29]  It had become apparent, long before
+1867, that while the loyalty of the province to the Sovereign, and the
+personal influence of her representative were bonds of union, real, if
+hard to describe in set terms, the headship over the Canadian people
+was assumed to be official, ornamental, and symbolical, rather than
+utilitarian.
+
+In other directions, the formal and legal elements of the connection
+were loosening---more especially in the departments of commerce and
+defence.[30]  The careers of men like Buchanan and Galt, through whom
+the Canadian tariff received a complete revision, illustrate how little
+the former links to Britain were allowed to remain in trade relations.
+There was a day when, as Chatham himself would have contended, the
+regulation of trade was an indefeasible right of the Crown.  That
+contention {328} received a rude check not only in the elaboration of a
+Canadian tariff in 1859, but in the claims made by the minister of
+finance: "It is therefore the duty of the present government,
+distinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian Legislature to adjust
+the taxation of the people in the way they judge best, even if it
+should meet the disapproval of the Imperial ministry.  Her Majesty
+cannot be advised to disallow such acts, unless her advisers are
+prepared to assume the administration of the affairs of the colony,
+irrespective of the views of the inhabitants."[31]  Similarly, the
+adverse vote on the militia proposals of 1862, which so exercised
+opinion in Britain, was but another result of the spirit of
+self-government operating naturally in the province.  It was not that
+Canadians desired consciously to check the military plans of the
+empire.  It was only that the grant of autonomy had permitted
+provincial rather than imperial counsels to prevail, and that a new
+laxity, or even slipshodness, had begun to appear in Canadian military
+affairs, weakening the formal military connection between Britain and
+{329} Canada.  Canadian defence, from being part of imperial policy,
+had become a detail in the strife of domestic politics.  "There can be
+no doubt," Monck reported, "that the proposed militia arrangements were
+of a magnitude far beyond anything which had, up to that time, been
+proposed, and this circumstance caused many members, especially from
+Lower Canada, to vote against it; but I think there was also, on the
+part of a portion of the general supporters of government, an intention
+to intimate by their vote the withdrawal of their confidence from the
+administration."[32]
+
+Even before 1867, then, it had become apparent that the imperial system
+administered on Home Rule principles was something entirely different
+from a federation like that of the United States, with carefully
+defined State and Federal rights.  All the presumption, in the new
+British state, was in favour of the so-called dependency, and the
+British Tories were correct, when they prophesied a steady
+retrogression in the legal rights possessed by the mother country.  But
+the element which they had ignored was that of opinion.  Public feeling
+rather than constitutional law was to be the new foundation of empire.
+How did the {330} development of Canadian political independence affect
+public sentiment towards Britain?
+
+The new regime began under gloomy auspices.  In 1849 Lord Elgin gave
+the most decisive proof of his allegiance to Canadian autonomy; and in
+1849 a violent agitation for annexation to the United States began.[33]
+Many forces assisted in the creation of the movement, and many groups,
+of the most diverse elements, combined to constitute the party of
+annexation.  There was real commercial distress, in part the result of
+the commercial revolution in Britain, and Montreal more especially felt
+the strain acutely.  "Property," wrote Elgin to Grey in 1849,[34] "in
+most of the Canadian towns, and more especially in the Capital, has
+fallen 50 per cent. in value within the last three years.
+Three-fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt.  Owing to free trade
+a large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada is obliged to
+seek a market in the States.  It pays a duty of 20 per cent. on the
+frontier.  If free navigation, and reciprocal trade with the Union be
+not secured for us, the worst, I fear, will come, {331} and at no
+distant day."  Now, for that distress there seemed to be one natural
+remedy.  Across the border were prosperity and markets.  A change in
+allegiance would open the doors, and bring trade and wealth flowing
+into the bankrupt province.  Consequently many of the notable names
+among the Montreal business men may be found attached to annexation
+proclamations.
+
+Again, in spite of the great change in French opinion wrought by
+Elgin's acceptance of French ministers, there was a little band of
+French extremists, the _Rouges_, entirely disaffected towards England.
+At their head, at first, was Papineau.  Papineau's predilections,
+according to one who knew him well, were avowedly democratic and
+republican,[35] and his years in Europe, at the time when revolution
+was in the air, had not served to moderate his opinions.  The election
+address with which he once more entered public life, at the end of
+1847, betrays everywhere hatred of the British government, a decided
+inclination for things American, and a strong dash of European
+revolutionary sentiment, revealed in declamations over _patriotes_ and
+_oppresseurs_.[36]  Round him gathered a little band {332} of
+anti-clericals and ultra-radicals, as strongly drawn to the United
+States as they were repelled by Britain.  Even after Papineau had
+reduced himself to public insignificance, the group remained, and in
+1865 Cartier, the true representative of French-Canadian feeling, spoke
+of the _Institut Canadien_ of Montreal as an advocate, not of
+confederation, but of annexation.[37]
+
+After the years of famine in Ireland, there was more than a possibility
+that, in Canada, as in the United States, the main body of Irish
+immigrants would be hostile to Britain, and Elgin watched with anxious
+eyes for symptoms of a rising, sympathetic with that in Ireland, and
+fostered by Irish-American hatred of England.  Throughout the province
+the Irish community was large and often organized--in 1866 D'Arcy M'Gee
+counted thirty counties in which the Irish-Catholic votes ranged from a
+third to a fifth of the whole constituency.[38]  Now while, {333} in
+1866, M'Gee spoke with boldness of the loyalty of his countrymen, it is
+undoubtedly true that, in 1848 and 1849, there were hostile spirits,
+and an army of Irish patriots across the border, only too willing to
+precipitate hostilities.
+
+For the rest, there were Americans in the province who still thought
+their former country the perfect state, and who did not hesitate to use
+British liberty to promote republican ends; there were radicals and
+grumblers of half a hundred shades and colours, who connected their
+sufferings with the errors of British rule, and who spoke loosely of
+annexation as a kind of general remedy for all their public ills.  For
+it cannot be too distinctly asserted that, from that day to this, there
+has always been a section of discontented triflers to whom annexation,
+a word often on their lips, means nothing more than their fashion of
+damning a government too strong for them to assail by rational
+processes.
+
+The annexation cry found echoes throughout the province, both in the
+press and on the platform, and it continued to reassert its existence
+long after the outburst of 1849 had ended.  Cartwright declares that,
+even after 1856, he discovered in Western Ontario a sentiment both
+strong and {334} widespread in favour of union with the United States.
+But the actual movement, which at first seemed to have a real threat
+implicit in it, came to a head in 1849, and found its chief supporters
+within the city of Montreal.  "You find in this city," wrote Elgin in
+September, 1849, "the most anti-British specimens of each class of
+which our community consists.  The Montreal French are the most
+Yankeefied French in the province; the British, though furiously
+anti-Gallican, are with some exceptions the least loyal; and the
+commercial men the most zealous annexationists which Canada
+furnishes."[39]
+
+Two circumstances, apparently unconnected with annexationism,
+intensified that movement, the _laissez faire_ attitude of British
+politicians towards their colonies, and the behaviour of the defeated
+Tory party in Canada.  Of the first enough has already been said; but
+it is interesting to note that _The Independent_, which was the organ
+of the annexationists, justified its views by references to "English
+statesmen and writers of eminence," and that the Second Annexation
+Manifesto quoted largely from British papers.[40]  The second fact
+{335} demands some examination.  The Tories had been from the first the
+party of the connection, and had been recognized as such in Britain.
+But the loss of their supremacy had put too severe a strain on their
+loyalty, and it has already been seen that when Elgin, obeying
+constitutional usage, recognized the French as citizens, equally
+entitled to office with the Tories, and passed the Rebellion Losses
+Bill in accordance with La Fontaine's wishes, the Tory sense of decency
+gave way.  Many of them, not content with abusing the governor-general,
+and petitioning for his recall, actually declared themselves in favour
+of independence, or joined the ranks of the annexation party.  In an
+extraordinary issue of the _Montreal Gazette_, a recognized Tory
+journal, the editor, after speaking of Elgin as the last governor of
+Canada, proclaimed that "the end has begun.  Anglo-Saxons!  You must
+live for the future.  Your blood and race will now be supreme, if true
+to yourselves.  You will be English at the expense of not being
+British."[41]  But other journals and politicians were not content with
+the half-way house of independence, and the majority of those who
+signed the first annexation manifesto belonged to the Tory party.[42]
+John {336} A. Macdonald, who was shrewd and cool-headed enough to
+refuse to sign the manifesto, admitted that "our fellows lost their
+heads"; but he cannot be allowed to claim credit for having advocated
+the formation of another organization, the British-American League, as
+a safety-valve for Tory feeling.[43]  Unfortunately for his accuracy,
+the League was formed in the spring of 1849; it held its first
+convention in July; and the manifesto did not appear till late autumn.
+Still, it is true that the meetings of the League provided some
+occupation for minds which, in their irritable condition, might have
+done more foolish things, and Mr. Holland MacDonald described the
+feelings of the wiser of his fellow-leaguers when he said at Kingston:
+"I maintain that there is not an individual in this Assembly, at this
+moment, prepared to go for annexation, although some may be suspected
+of having leanings that way."[44]  It was a violent but passing fit of
+petulance which for the moment obscured Tory loyalty.  When it had
+ended, chiefly because Elgin acted not only with prudence, but with
+great insight, in pressing for a reciprocity treaty with the United
+States, the British American {337} League and the Annexation Manifesto
+vanished into the limbo of broken causes and political indiscretions.
+
+The truth was that every great respectable section of the Canadian
+people was almost wholly sound in its allegiance.  Regarded even
+racially, it is hard to find any important group which was not
+substantially loyal.  The Celtic and Gallic sections of the populace
+might have been expected to furnish recruits for annexation; and
+disaffection undoubtedly existed among the Canadian Irish.  Yet Elgin
+was much more troubled over possible Irish disaffection in 1848 than he
+was in 1849; the Orange societies round Toronto seem to have refused to
+follow their fellow Tories into an alliance with annexationists; and,
+as has been already seen, D'Arcy M'Gee was able, in 1866, to speak of
+the Irish community as wholly loyal.
+
+The great mass of the French-Canadians stood by the governor and
+Britain.  Whatever influence the French priesthood possessed was
+exerted on the side of the connection; from Durham to Monck there is
+unanimity concerning the consistent loyalty of the Catholic Church in
+Canada.  Apart from the church, the French-Canadians, when once their
+just rights had been conceded, {338} furnished a stable, conservative,
+and loyal body of citizens.  Doubtless they had their points of
+divergence from the ideals of the Anglo-Saxon west.  It was they who
+ensured the defeat of the militia proposals of 1862, and there were
+always sufficient _Rouges_ to raise a cry of nationality or annexation.
+But the national leaders, La Fontaine and Cartier, were absolutely true
+to the empire, and journalists like Cauchon flung their influence on
+the same side, even if they hinted at "jours qui doivent nécessairement
+venir, que nous le voulions ou que nous ne le voulions pas"--to wit, of
+independence.[45]
+
+Of the English and Scottish elements in the population it is hardly
+necessary to say that their loyalty had increased rather than
+diminished since they had crossed the Atlantic; but at least one
+instance of Highland loyalty may be given.  It was when Elgin had been
+insulted, and when the annexation cause was at its height.  Loyal
+addresses had begun to pour in, but there was one whose words still
+ring with a certain martial loyalty, and which Elgin answered with
+genuine emotion.  The Highlanders of Glengarry county, after assuring
+{339} their governor of their personal allegiance to him, passed to
+more general sentiments: "Our highest aspirations for Canada are that
+she may continue to flourish under the kindly protection of the British
+flag, enjoying the full privilege of that constitution, under which the
+parent land has risen to so lofty an eminence; with this, United Canada
+has nothing to covet in other lands; with less than this, no true
+Briton would rest satisfied."[46]
+
+As all the distinctive elements in the population remained true to
+Britain, so too did all the statesmen of eminence.  It would be easy to
+prove the fact by a political census of Upper and Lower Canada; but let
+three representative men stand for those groups which they led--Robert
+Baldwin for the constitutional reformers, George Brown for the
+Clear-Grits and progressives, John A. Macdonald for the conservatives.
+Robert Baldwin was the man whom Elgin counted worth two regiments to
+the connection, and who had expressed dismay at Lord John Russell's
+treason to the Empire.  When the annexation troubles came on, he made
+it perfectly clear to one of his followers, who had trifled with
+annexation, that he must change his views, or remain outside the
+Baldwin connection.  {340} "I felt it right to write to Mr. Perry,
+expressing my decided opinions in respect of the annexation question,
+and that I could look upon those only who are in favour of the
+continuance of the connection with the mother country as political
+friends; those who are against it as political opponents....  I believe
+that our party are hostile to annexation.  I am at all events hostile
+to it myself, and if I and my party differ upon it, it is necessary we
+should part company.  It is not a question upon which a compromise is
+possible."[47]
+
+Loyalty so strong as this seems natural in a Whig like Baldwin, but one
+associates agitation and radicalism with other views.  The progressive,
+when he is not engaged in decrying his own state, often exhibits a
+philosophic indifference to all national prejudice--he is a
+cosmopolitan whose charity begins away from home.  There were those
+among the Canadian Radicals who were as bad friends to Britain as they
+were good friends to the United States, but the Clear-Grit party up to
+confederation was true to Britain, largely because their leader, after
+1850, was George Brown, and because Brown was the loyalest Scot in
+Canada.  Brown was in a sense the most remarkable figure of the time in
+{341} his province.  Fierce in his opinions, a vehement speaker, an
+agitator whose best qualities unfitted him for the steadier work of
+government, he committed just those mistakes which make the true
+agitator's public life something of a tragedy, or at least a
+disappointment.  But Brown's work was done out of office.  His
+passionate advocacy of the policy of Abraham Lincoln and the abolition
+of slavery kept relations with the United States calm through a
+diplomatic crisis.  He it was who made confederation not possible, but
+necessary, by his agitation for a sounder representation.  His work as
+opposition leader, and as the greatest editor known to Canadian
+journalism, saved Canadian politics from becoming the nest of jobs and
+corruption which--with all allowance for his good qualities--John A.
+Macdonald would have made them.  Never before, and certainly never
+since his day, has any Canadian influenced the community as Brown did
+through _The Globe_.  "There were probably many thousand voters in
+Ontario," says Cartwright,[48] "especially among the Scotch settlers,
+who hardly read anything except their _Globe_ and their Bible, and
+whose whole political creed was practically dictated to them {342} by
+the former."  Now that influence was exerted, from first to last, in
+favour of Britain.  In his maiden speech in parliament Brown protested
+against a reduction of the governor's salary, and on the highest
+ground: "The appointment of that high authority is the only power which
+Great Britain still retains.  Frankly and generously she has one by one
+surrendered all the rights which were once held necessary to the
+condition of a colony--the patronage of the Crown, the right over the
+public domain, the civil list, the customs, the post office have all
+been relinquished ... she guards our coasts, she maintains our troops,
+she builds our forts, she spends hundreds of thousands among us yearly;
+and yet the paltry payment to her representative is made a topic of
+grumbling and popular agitation."[49]  In the same spirit he fought
+annexation, and killed it, among his followers; and, when confederation
+came, he helped to make the new dominion not only Canadian, but
+British.  In that age when British faith in the Empire was on the wane,
+it was not English statesmanship which tried to inspire Canadian
+loyalty, but the loyalty of men like Brown which called to England to
+be of better heart.  "I am much concerned {343} to observe," he wrote
+to Macdonald in 1864, "that there is a manifest desire in almost every
+quarter that ere long, the British American colonies should shift for
+themselves, and in some quarters, evident regret that we did not
+declare at once for independence.  I am very sorry to observe this, but
+it arises, I hope, from the fear of invasion of Canada by the United
+States, and will soon pass away with the cause that excites it."[50]
+
+Of Sir John Macdonald's loyalty it would be a work of supererogation to
+speak.  His first political address proclaimed the need in Canada of a
+permanent connection with the mother country,[51] and his most famous
+utterance declared his intention of dying a British subject.  But
+Macdonald's patriotism struck a note all its own, and one due mainly to
+the influence of Canadian autonomy working on a susceptible
+imagination.  He was British, but always from the standpoint of Canada.
+He had no desire to exalt the Empire through the diminution of Canadian
+rights.  For the old British Tory, British supremacy had necessarily
+involved colonial dependence; for Macdonald, the Canadian Conservative,
+the glory of the Empire lay in the {344} fullest autonomous development
+of each part.  "The colonies," he said in one of his highest flights,
+"are now in a transition stage.  Gradually a different colonial system
+is being developed--and it will become, year by year, less a case of
+dependence on our part, and of over-ruling protection on the part of
+the Mother Country, and more a case of healthy and cordial alliance.
+Instead of looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England will
+have in us a friendly nation--a subordinate but still a powerful
+people--to stand by her in North America in peace or in war.  The
+people of Australia will be such another subordinate nation.  And
+England will have this advantage, if her colonies progress under the
+new colonial system, as I believe they will, that though at war with
+all the rest of the world, she will be able to look to the subordinate
+nations in alliance with her, and owning allegiance to the same
+Sovereign, who will assist in enabling her again to meet the whole
+world in arms, as she has done before."[52]
+
+
+These words serve as a fitting close to the argument and story of
+Canadian autonomy.  A review of the years in which it attained its full
+strength {345} gives the student of history but a poor impression of
+political foresight.  British and Canadian Tories had predicted
+dissolution of the Empire, should self-government be granted, and they
+described the probable stages of dissolution.  But all the events they
+had predicted had happened, and the Empire still stood, and stood more
+firmly united than before.  British progressives had advocated the
+grant, while they had denied that autonomy need mean more than a very
+limited and circumscribed independence.  But the floods had spread and
+overwhelmed their trivial limitations, and the Liberals found
+themselves triumphant in spite of their fears, and the restrictions
+which these fears had recommended.  Canadian history from 1839 to 1867
+furnishes certain simple and direct political lessons: that communities
+of the British stock can be governed only according to the strictest
+principles of autonomy; that autonomy, once granted, may not be
+limited, guided, or recalled; that, in the grant, all distinctions
+between internal and imperial, domestic and diplomatic, civil authority
+and military authority, made to save the face of British supremacy,
+will speedily disappear; and that, up to the present time, the measure
+of local independence has also been the measure of local loyalty {346}
+to the mother country.  It may well be that, as traditions grow
+shadowy, as the old stock is imperceptibly changed into a new
+nationality, and as, among men of the new nationality, the pride in
+being British is no longer a natural incident of life, the autonomy of
+the future may prove disruptive, not cohesive.  Nothing, however, is so
+futile as prophecy, unless it be pessimism.  The precedents of
+three-quarters of a century do not lend themselves to support counsels
+of despair.  The Canadian community has, after its own fashion, stood
+by the mother country in war; it may be that, in the future, the
+attempt to seek peace and ensue it will prove a more lasting, as it
+must certainly be a loftier, reason for continued union.
+
+
+
+[1] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+
+[2] He was reporting (18 December, 1854) the passing of acts dealing
+with the Clergy Reserves, and Seigniorial Tenure.
+
+[3] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 151.
+
+[4] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, pp. 47-48.
+
+[5] Baldwin to Hincks, 22 September, 1854: in Hincks, _Lecture on the
+Political History of Canada_, pp. 80-81.
+
+[6] The Clear-Grits are thus described in _The Globe_, 8 October, 1850:
+"disappointed ministerialists, ultra English radicals, republicans and
+annexationists....  As a party on their own footing, they are powerless
+except to do mischief."  Brown had not yet transferred his allegiance.
+
+[7] Quoted from Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. p. 190.
+
+[8] Ministerial explanations read to the House of Assembly, by the Hon.
+John A. Macdonald, on Wednesday, 22 June, 1864.
+
+[9] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 2 August, 1850.
+
+[10] Head to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 May, 1856.
+
+[11] Statement of the Hon. John A. Macdonald in the Assembly, 26 May,
+1856.
+
+[12] See _Appendix to the First Report of the Board of Registration and
+Statistics_, Montreal, 1849.
+
+[13] _Life of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 263.  This is undoubtedly an
+overestimate--prophetic rather than truthful.
+
+[14] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 267.
+
+[15] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, p. 234.
+
+[16] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 72.
+
+[17] Cauchon, L'Union des provinces de l'Amerique Britannique du Nord,
+p. 45.
+
+[18] _Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council_, p.
+xiv., Quebec, 1855.
+
+[19] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, p. 149.
+
+[20] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 271.
+
+[21] Sir Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, pp. 20-21.
+
+[22] The Independence of Parliament Act--20 Victoria, c. 22.
+
+[23] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 299.
+
+[24] See the volume containing the Parliamentary Debates on
+confederation, in 1865.
+
+[25] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 283.
+
+[26] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.
+
+[27] The Secretary of State for the Colonies to Monck, 10 July, 1863.
+
+[28] _Confederation Debates_ (1865), p. 34.
+
+[29] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 272.
+
+[30] See the previous chapter, pp. 283-290.
+
+[31] See the most important statement by Galt, dated 25 October, 1859,
+and contained in _Sessional Papers of the Canadian Parliament_, vol.
+xviii., No. 4.
+
+[32] Monck to Newcastle, 28 July, 1863.
+
+[33] See, on the Annexation movement, Allin and Jones, _Annexation,
+Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity_, a useful summary of Canadian
+opinion in 1849 and 1850.
+
+[34] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 23 April, 1849.
+
+[35] Christie, _History of Lower Canada_, iv. p. 539.
+
+[36] See _La Revue Canadienne_, 21 December, 1847.
+
+[37] _Confederation Debates_, p. 56.  In answer to Cartier, "the Hon.
+Mr. Dorion said that was not the case.  The honorable gentleman had
+misquoted what had passed there (_i.e._ at the _Institut_).  The Hon.
+Mr. Cartier said he was right.  If resolutions were not passed,
+sentiments were expressed to that effect.  Then the organ of the
+Institute--_L'Ordre_ he thought--had set forth that the interests of
+Lower Canada would be better secured by annexation to the United States
+than by entering into a Confederation with the British American
+Provinces."
+
+[38] _The Irish Position in British, and in Republican North
+America_--a lecture, p. 13.
+
+[39] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 3 September, 1849.
+
+[40] Allin and Jones, _op. cit._ pp. 91 and 164.
+
+[41] _Montreal Gazette_, 25 April, 1849.
+
+[42] Allin and Jones, _op. cit._ p. 115.
+
+[43] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 71.
+
+[44] _Convention of the British American League_, 1849, p. li.
+
+[45] Joseph Cauchon, _L'Union des provinces de L'Amerique Britannique
+du Nord_, p. 51.
+
+[46] _Further Papers relative to the Affairs of Canada_ (7 June, 1849),
+p. 25.
+
+[47] Quoted from Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. pp. 181-2.
+
+[48] Sir Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, pp. 9-10.
+
+[49] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 50.
+
+[50] Written from England.  Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, ii. p.
+274.
+
+[51] _Ibid._ p. 32.
+
+[52] _Confederation Debates_, p. 44.
+
+
+
+
+{347}
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Agriculture of the _Habitants_, 16
+
+  "Alabama" affair, the, 288
+
+  Alien Admission Bill, 106
+
+  America, United States of, Bagot's diplomatic services in, 126, 127-8
+    and Canadian Annexation, 204, 218, 219
+    and Canada, Federation in, differences between, 329
+    Elgin's skilful Diplomacy with, 191
+    Politics in, as affecting Canadian (1852), 200, 207, 215
+    Relations with Great Britain as affected by Canadian Autonomy, 287
+    Tory feeling to, after 1812, 248
+    Trade of, with Canada as affected by Free Trade, 272, Grey's
+      views on, 273
+
+  American Aggression, and the Defence of Canada, Peel on, 254
+    Education, Burke on, 40
+    Immigrants, Annexation views of, 333
+    War, the, attitude to, of Canada and Great Britain, 288;
+      Military power shown by, 290
+
+  Amnesty, Bagot's attitude to, 155
+
+  Anderson, John, political indifference of, 55-6 _&n._
+
+  Anglicanism (_see also_ Clergy Reserves), in Canada, 43-4, 47;
+      Imperial support to, 48, 49
+
+  Anglicization of French Canada, views on, of various Governors,
+      57, 59, 83, 142, 211, 306, 311-12
+
+  Anglo-French Reforming _bloc_, evolution of, 65, 161
+    Attitude of, on Metcalfe's arrival, 161 _et sqq._
+
+  Annexation, Federation as alternative to, Russell on, 265
+    Manifestoes on, 334, 337
+    Movement in favour of, activity in 1849, 330;
+      Inconsistencies on, of _The Times_, 233; Opposition to, of
+      Brown, 342; Supporters of, 204, 330 _et sqq._; _Rouges_
+      views on, 302
+    Risk of, on Elgin's arrival, 191
+    Tory views on, 204, 254, 255
+
+  Anti-Union attitude of French Canadians, 124
+
+  Ashburton Treaty, the, Difficulties solved by, 127-8, 132
+
+  Armstrong, Peter, Typical Squatter, 29
+
+  _Art of Colonization_, by Wakefield, 239
+
+  Arthur, Sir George, Governor-General, Timid despatches of, 249
+    on Colonial Disloyalty, 60-1
+    on the Durham Report and its effect, 248-9
+
+  Autonomy, Canadian, the Struggle for, _passim_
+    British opinion on, changes in, 230 _et sqq._
+    Conditions demanded by, 277
+    Limitations on, views of Durham and Sydenham on, 119-21
+    Macdonald's views on, 344
+    Movement towards, as affected by Successive Governors, 122-5,
+      138, 228, by Elgin, 228-9, and by Grey, 268-71
+    Natural outcome of _Laissez-faire_, 291
+    Results, as affecting Anglo-American relations, 287;
+      Confederation, 305; Connexion of Canada and Great Britain,
+      323 _et sqq._; Party system, 302-5; Summary of, 345-6
+
+  Aylwin, T. C., in office, 150
+
+
+  B
+
+  Bagot, Sir Charles, Governor-General, 70, 126 _et sqq._, 156, 163;
+      as Financier, 237-8; and King's College, Toronto, 36; Political
+      antecedents of, 126-7; Political opportunism of, 138 _et sqq._,
+      143-6, wisdom of his methods, 147; the practical surrender of
+      Responsible Government by, 158, 161, 228-9; Russell's view on,
+      261, Stanley's view on, 278; Relations with French-Canadians,
+      57, 146-7, 149-50; Stanley's instructions to, 129, and relations
+      with, 127 _et sqq._
+    Work of his period of office, three factors of, 128 _et sqq._
+    on Autonomy, Separation, and Loyalty, 138; on the Crown's right
+      to name the Capital, 155; on the French Canadians after the
+      Union, 57-8
+
+  Baldwin, Robert, Leader of Reforming Loyalists, 64, 105, 125, 197,
+      295; Anti-annexation actions of, 339; Averse to the "Double
+      majority," 308; Bagot and, 143, 144; Challenge by, to Sydenham's
+      system, 143-6; Character and Politics of, 109 _et sqq._, 141;
+      Check to, 155; and the Clergy Reserve question, 52; and Elgin,
+      203; Harrison's views on, and Draper's, 134; Insistence by, on
+      Responsible Government, 113-5, 116, 119, 150, 161-2, 176; Loyalty
+      of, 339; Motion by, demanding a Provincial Parliament, 119;
+      Office claimed for, 149; and the Patronage crisis, 168; as
+      Solicitor-General of Upper Canada, 109 _et sqq._; Stanley's
+      attitude to, 142.
+    on Coalition government, 299-300; on Patronage, and the position of
+      the Council, 175; on Russell's Colonial Administration Speech
+      (1850), 264
+
+  Baldwin-Hincks Reformers, in Politics, 301
+
+  Baldwin-La Fontaine Ministry, the, 161, 212, and the origin of
+      Anglo-French Solidarity, 215-6, 229, 295, 298; Precedent provided
+      by, 307
+
+  Belleville, Population (1846), 24
+
+  Bentinck, Lord William, Governor-General of India, 159
+
+  Black, Dr., and the Clergy Reserve question, 48
+
+  Board of Works for Canada set up, 106, 118
+
+  Boston, Elgin's official visit to (1851), 232
+
+  Bridges, Lack of, 12
+
+  Bright, John, and Separation, 283, 290
+
+  British aid to Canada, need of (1839), and Sydenham's Loan Scheme,
+      68-9, 97 _et sqq._
+    Approval of Metcalfe's methods, and those of earlier Governors,
+      170, 175, 180, 182, 186, 193
+    Colonial Empire, maintenance of, views on, 275, 277 _et sqq._
+    Communities, Government of, Lesson on, from Canadian history, 345
+    Community, attempted absorption in, of French-Canadians, 57, 59,
+      83, 142, 211, 306, 311-12
+    Empire, permanence of, some firm believers in, 274; World-value of,
+      Grey's view on, 275-6
+
+  British Half-pay Officers as Colonists, 18-20
+    Opinion on Canadian Autonomy, changes in, 235 _et sqq._
+    Predominance, passim; Russell's theory of, effects of, 228-9
+    Universities, relations of, with Canadian College Education, 37-8
+      _&n._1
+    Views on Imperialism, early Victorian, 230, gradual change in, 230
+      _et sqq._
+
+  British-American League, aims of, 336-7
+
+  British-Canadian connexion, on what chiefly dependent, 292
+
+  Brockville, Population (1846), 25
+
+  Brougham, Lord, and Separation, 281, 282-7
+
+  Brown, George, pioneer of Political journalism, Scottish origin of,
+      23; Characteristics of, 323, 340-3; and the Clear-Grits, 300
+      _&n._2, 340-1; and Confederation, 312-14, 341, 342; as Editor,
+      and Leader, 341; Loyalty of, 339; and Macdonald's federation
+      scheme, 302 _&n._ _et sqq._; Macdonald's unfairness to, 319;
+      Political rectitude of, 321; Political views of, 298; Why
+      disliked by the French, 312
+    on Canadian loyalty, 326-7; on Canadian population distribution
+      (1857), 310-11, and Parliamentary representation, 310-11; on
+      Political corruption, 317; on Public spirit connected with
+      Confederation, 322
+
+  Brown-Dorion two days' administration, the, 302
+
+  Buchanan, Isaac, and Canadian Tariff, 327
+
+  Buller, Arthur, on the Illiteracy of the _Habitants_, 16
+
+  Buller, Charles, characteristics of, 241; as Educator in sound
+      Colonial policy, 247, 251; Imperialism of, 162, 245; La Fontaine's
+      objection to, 162; and Local Government, 94; Non-belief of, in
+      Separation, 278, 281; Views of, on Colonial affairs, 94, 162, 234-5,
+      236, 237, 240-3, 247, 251, 278, 281, 291
+    famous pamphlet by, 234-5, 236, 240-3
+    on Permanent Officials and Changing Heads at the Colonial Office,
+      234-5, 236; on Russell's Imperialism, 262
+
+  Burke, Edmund, on American Education and Book-reading, 40; on
+      Colonial Independence and Imperial Unity, 2, 3; on Party, 294;
+      on the Whigs, 166
+
+  Bytown (Ottawa), and the Immigrants, 21; Population (1846), 24;
+      Social conditions at, 30
+
+
+  C
+
+  Campbell, Robert, as School-master, 33
+
+  Canada, Autonomy of, _see_ Autonomy.
+    Communications in, and to, in early days, 9 _et sqq._
+    Disaffection in, how cured by Elgin, 222
+    as Envisaged by Grey and by Durham, 276-7
+    History of, Political lessons from, 345-6
+    Loyalty of, as affected by Autonomy, 203, 229, 314, 323 _et sqq._,
+      342; Mistrust of, over Militia Bill, 289
+    Relations of, with Great Britain, as affected by Autonomy, in
+      anticipation (Stanley's), 139-40, 156, and in fact, 156, 323
+      _et sqq._; true basis of, 239
+    Social and Physical conditions in (_circa_ 1839), 8 _et sqq._
+    Tariff reorganisation in, difficulties created by, with U.S.A., 288
+
+  Canal-works, condition in 1841, 99
+
+  Canning, George, 189; and Bagot, 126, 137
+
+  Capital, the, Crown's right to name, Bagot on, 155; Brown on, 326-7
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas, on Buller, 241
+
+  Caron, Réné Edouard, Speaker of Upper House, and La Fontaine, 177
+
+  Cartier, Sir George Étienne, French-Canadian Leader, 14; and
+      French-Canadian feeling, 332 _&n._; Loyalty of, 338
+
+  Cartwright, J. S., 144; Political views of, 60, 133, 151
+
+  Cartwright, Sir Richard, and British views on Separation, 290
+    on Annexation views after 1856, 333-4; on Personal Morals of Members
+      of Canadian Assemblies, 320; on the Political influence of _The
+      Globe_, 341-2
+
+  Cathcart, Earl of, as interim Governor-General, 7 _n._, 70 _n._,
+      187 _&n._
+
+  Cauchon, Joseph, and Confederation, 314; Loyalty of, 338
+
+  Chatham, Earl of, 4
+
+  China, Elgin's work in, 189, 191
+
+  _Christian Guardian, The_, 38 _&n._2
+
+  Church of England in Canada (_see also_ Clergy Reserves), 43-4, 47, 49
+
+  Church Support, Voluntary principle of, Rolph on, 51-2
+
+  Civil List difficulties, 138, 140, 146, 154, 155, 163; Grey's
+      attitude as to, 272; Stanley's views on, 130; the Surrender,
+      154-5, 163, 279
+
+  Clear-Grit party, Loyalty of, 339; Politics of, 300 _&n._2, 301, 302
+
+  Clericalism in French Canada, 14, 15, 17; and School Control, 31-2
+
+  Clergy Reserve Question, dispute on, 47-54, 62, 64, 252-3, 254-5,
+      268; Settlement of, by compromise, 90-2, 279, 306
+
+  Coalition Governments in Canada (_see_ Baldwin-Hincks _& others_),
+      298-9, 304
+
+  Cobden, Richard, and Separation, 217, 283, 284, 285
+
+  Coburg, Population (1846), 25; Social conditions and prices at
+      (1845), 27-8
+
+  Colborne, Sir John, Acting Governor, and the Anglican Church, 43;
+      French risings quelled by, 5, 57, 214; on the French and the
+      Union, 83
+
+  Colleges and Universities, Canadian, 35-8, 136
+
+  Colonial Administration, Russell's speech on, 1850, 263
+    Autonomy (_see also_ Autonomy, Canadian), MacDonald's views on, 344
+    Connexion with the Empire, Continuance of, various views on (_see
+      also_ Annexation, Separation, _&c._), 2, 3, 277 _et sqq._,
+      323 _et sqq._
+    Government, Conflicting views on, _passim_
+    Independence, Burke's view on, 2, 3
+    Parliaments, Defects of, 65-6, 289
+    Unity, Conditions adverse to, 24
+
+  Colonial Office, the, Elgin's influence on, 222-5; Permanent officials
+      of, Buller on, 234-5, 236
+
+  _Colonial Advocate_, The, 38
+
+  _Colonial Gazette_, on Poulett Thomson, 77-8
+
+  _Colonial Policy_, by Earl Grey, Canada chapter in, inspired by
+      Elgin, 275
+
+  _Colonies, Responsible Government for_, Buller's famous pamphlet,
+      234-5 _&n._, 236, 240
+
+  Colonies, Secretaries of State for, _see also under_ Names
+    Lord J. Russell, 1839
+    Lord Stanley, 1841
+    Gladstone, 1846
+    Earl Grey, 1846
+    Sir J. Pakington, 1852
+    Duke of Newcastle, 1852
+    Sir George Gray, 1854
+    Views on, of British Politicians, 2, 3, 217, 230 _et sqq._, 255-8,
+      262, 264, 283, 284, 285, 290, 292 _et alibi_
+
+  Colonists, Buller's views on, 242; Cartwright's opinion of, 60
+
+  _Colonization, The Art of_, by Wakefield, 239
+
+  Commercial crisis, Canadian, in 1849, Elgin on, 331
+    Marine, as a pillar of Empire, 262
+    Relations, Peel on, 254
+    Treaty, _see_ Reciprocity Treaty
+
+  Compromise, Bagot's views on, and Stanley's, 139-40
+
+  Confederation of British North American Colonies, various Schemes
+      for, 196-7; the result of Autonomy, 305; Difficulties connected
+      with, 279-80, 312; Russell's aim in furthering, 265; Scheme of
+      Brown and Macdonald for, 302 _et sqq._, 312-14, 341, 342
+
+  "Connexion," the Basis of, sentimental rather than practical, 239;
+      Effect on, of Autonomy, 323 _et sqq._
+
+  Conservative Party, Canadian (see also Family Compact, & Tory Party),
+      in 1841, 105; Loyalty of, 339
+
+  Conservatism of the French Canadians, 15, 17, 32, 41
+    United Empire Loyalists, 18
+
+  Constitutional Act of 1791, and the Clergy Reserve question, 48-9
+
+  Constitutional Question in Canada, three allied problems forming,
+      Elgin's mode of dealing with, 201 _et sqq._
+
+  Convent Education of Women, 16, 31
+
+  Copyright prohibition, effect on Reading habits, 39 _&n._, 40
+
+  Corduroy Roads, 12
+
+  Cornwall, Strachan's School at, 35
+
+  Corruption, political, in Canada, 315 _et sqq._; Brown's salutary
+      counteraction of, 341
+
+  County Courts, Canadian, new system set up, 106
+
+  Crime, in early days, 29 _&n._2, 30
+
+  Crown, the, and the Case of a Governor-General, compared by
+      Stanley, 152-3
+
+  Crown Colony administration, period of, 4-5
+
+
+  D
+
+  Dalhousie, Earl of, Governor-General, 189-90
+
+  Daly, Sir Dominick, the "perpetual secretary," 168, 176, 177
+
+  Darwin, and Bright & Cobden, parallel between, 284
+
+  Davidson, John, retirement of, 150
+
+  Day, Charles Dewey, 113
+
+  Debate in House of Commons on Canadian affairs (1844), 182
+
+  Defence of Canada (_see also_ Militia Bill), British views on, 254,
+      272, 287 _et sqq._
+
+  Democracy, attitude to, of the Family Compact, 60 _et sqq._
+
+  Democratic Government in Canada, established by Elgin, 190
+    Institutions, Elements of Success in, 320
+
+  Derby, Earl of (_see_ for earlier references, Stanley, Lord), 252
+
+  Derbyites, and Separation, 290
+
+  Despatches of Elgin and later Governors, 208-9, 249, 325
+
+  Diplomacy, and Separation, 287 War, and Land as matters for
+      Imperial Control, in Wakefield's view, 240
+
+  District Councils for French Canada set up, 98, 118, 119
+
+  Draper, Hon. H. W., Attorney-General, leader of Ministerialists,
+      105, 111 _&n._, 113, 150, 177; Metcalfe on, 184; Resignation
+      of, 194
+    on the Political crisis of 1842, 134-5
+
+  Disraeli, Benjamin (Earl of Beaconsfield), Imperialism of,
+      misgivings in, 255-8, 292
+
+  District Council Bill (Canadian), passed, 106, 118
+
+  Doctrinaire, the, in Practical Politics, position of Metcalfe as
+      illustrating, 185,
+
+  Domestic Colonial affairs, Imperial Intervention in, views of
+      Russell, and of Grey, 271-2, 274
+
+  Dorchester, Earl of, and Colonial affairs, 4; and the French
+      Canadians, 13
+
+  Dorion, A. A., _see_ Brown-Dorion ministry
+
+  "Double majority," evolution of, 307-8
+
+  "Double Shuffle" episode, 318-9
+
+  Dougalls, the, and the _Montreal Witness_, 38-9
+
+  Drunkenness, among Whites and Indians, 30; among Members of
+      Parliament, 320
+
+  Durham, Earl of, Governor-General, 6, 14, 71, 76, 190, 191, 251;
+      Canadian views on, 190; and the Change in British views on
+      Canadian affairs, 237; and the Destruction of French Nationalism,
+      57, 59, 83, 211, 311-2; and Immigration, 97; Responsible Colonial
+      government as advocated by, 61, 149, 166, 244-5; non-Separationist
+      views, 281; Visit of, to Canada, 31
+    on the Catholic clergy of Lower Canada, 41-2; on Local Government, 94
+
+  _Durham's Report_, 4 _n._, 5 _n._, 6, 57; Effects of, 249; Fallacy in,
+      260-1; Illusions on, dispelled, 243-4; Imperial note of, 246-7
+
+
+  E
+
+  Economics, and Separation, 220, 285-6, 330-1
+
+  Education, French-Canadian, 14, 15, 16
+    by Newspaper, 38-9
+    School and College, 31 _et sqq._, 136
+    of Scottish immigrants, 23
+
+  Ekfried, Early Education at, 33
+
+  Elgin, Countess of, 190
+
+  Elgin, Earl of, Governor-Generalship of, 7, 56, 70, 187 _et sqq._
+    Character and Politics of, 188 _et sqq._, 190, 191, 209, 221, 225
+      _et sqq._, 256, 297; Chief result of his rule, 190, 268-71;
+      Despatches of, 325, Influence of, on Autonomy movement, 188 _et
+      sqq._, 228-9, and on Grey's Colonial policy, 275; Insult to, 204,
+      208-9, 227, 320, Scottish loyal address on, 328-9; and Irish
+      disaffection, 200, 337; Non-Separationist views of, 278, 281;
+      Relations with French Canada, 193, 195-6, 198, 210 _et sqq._, 222
+    Later career of, 188-9, 191
+    on Baldwin, 110, 339; on British Press methods, 232; on Canadian
+      attitude to Free Trade, 220, 285-6; on Canadian Party Politics,
+      56, 195, 293, 295; on the elections of 1844, 181; on French
+      Canadian Nationalism, 196, and Loyalty (1850), 305-6; on
+      Metcalfe's policy, 192, 202; on Montreal, its inhabitants and
+      Annexation views at (1849), 334; on Moral influence of
+      Governors, 324; on Sydenham's attitude to Autonomy, 123-4; on
+      True and False Imperialism, 224-5
+
+  Emigration and its horrors, 20-1; Wakefield's system of, 238
+
+  English Canadians, loyalty of, 338
+
+  English character of Colonists, Disraeli's views on, 257-8
+
+  English tone in Canadian Society (_circ._ 1846), 26-7
+
+  _Episodes in a Life of Adventure_, by Oliphant, referred to, 225
+
+  _Examiner, The_, Politics of, 64
+
+  Executive Council, British and Canadian views on, 71 _et sqq._
+    Sydenham's, inherited by Bagot, 131; Stanley's advice on, 129,
+      136, 143, 144-5, actual Composition of, 144; La Fontaine's
+      demands and the upshot, 149 _et sqq._; Stanley's sarcasm, 152-3
+
+  Executive Responsibility, as conceived by Durham, 244-5
+
+
+  F
+
+  "Family Compact," the, Political views, and position of, 18, 60 _et
+      sqq._, 101, 129-30, 133
+
+  Farmers, Life and work of (_circa_ 1845), 28-9
+
+  Federation, _see_ Confederation
+
+  Finance, Canadian (see also Civil List, Clergy Reserves, Tariffs,
+      Taxation), in 1839, 86; Bagot's action concerning, 137-8; Grey on,
+      in 1846, 272
+
+  Foley, ----, 325
+
+  Forests, difficulties due to, 9, 12-13
+
+  Fowlds, Matthew, on Life at Coburg (1845), 27-8 _&n._1
+
+  Franchise conditions (1832), 22
+
+  Free-Trade, effects of, in Canada, 220, 285-6, 330; Views on, of
+      Elgin, 220, 285-6, and of Grey, 267, 272-4, 285
+
+  French, the, in Canada, _see_ French-Canadians
+
+  French-British Political  solidarity (_see also_ Anglo-French
+      _bloc_), birth of, 215 _et sqq._
+
+  French Canadians of Lower Canada (_see also_ Papineau, Rebellions,
+      _&c._), 13-17
+    Anti-Union movement among, 103
+    District Councils set up for, 95, 118, 119
+    Fate settled by Poulett-Thomson, 79-90
+    Importance of, in 1842, 131, 132, 133-6, 141, 148, need for
+      Conciliating, Harrison on, 133-4; Admission of, to Office,
+      problem of, and struggle for, 133 _et sqq._, the climax, 148-51,
+      the aftermath, 151 _et sqq._
+    Influence of the Roman Catholic clergy in, 15, 32-3, 337
+    Language question and, 90
+    Loyalty of, 337-8
+    Nationalism, and the Nationalist Party among, Anglicization of,
+      efforts towards, 57, 59, 83, 142, 211, 306, 311-12; Obvious
+      fault of, 196; Problem of, on Elgin's arrival, 193, 195-6, 198,
+      Elgin's solution of the difficulties, 210 _et sqq._, 305;
+      Irritation of, over Parliamentary Representation, 311-13;
+      Confederation favoured by, 314
+    Political views of (_see also_ Conservatism, Nationalism _supra_,
+      Rouges), 15-17, 32, 41, 57-9, 105, 143, 196, 210 _et sqq._, 301,
+      302, 305, 331, 338
+    Privileges accorded to, by Grey, 268
+    Relations with Bagot, 57, 146-7, 149-50; with Elgin, 193, 195-6,
+      198, 215, 222, 305-6; with Metcalfe, 176-7, 195-6; with
+      Sydenham, 79 _et sqq._, 125, 132-5, 176
+
+  French Revolution, the, Effects of, 4, 248
+
+  Fur-trade, Social drawbacks of, 29-30
+
+
+  G
+
+  Galt, Alexander Tilloch, and Canadian Tariffs, 327; on Separation,
+      286-7
+
+  George III., and the Colonies, 248
+
+  Girouard, John Joseph, and the rebellion, 142; Office open to, 150
+
+  Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., trained by Peel, 189-90, 200; and
+      Administrative Liberalism, 280; as Colonial Secretary, 251, 256
+    on British approval of Metcalfe's methods, 193; on Rebellion
+      Losses Bill, 206 _n._; on Separation, 266-7, 285
+
+  Glenelg, Lord, at the Colonial Office, 236; and the Clergy Reserve
+      question, 49; on Canadian local rights, 236
+
+  _Globe, The_, Brown's newspaper, on the Clear-Grits, 300 _n._2;
+      Influence of, 311, 341-2
+
+  Good Government essential to Colonial Empire, Molesworth on, 281-2
+
+  Gourlay, Robert, agitator, Scottish origin of, 23
+
+  Governor-General and Assembly, Russell's instructions concerning,
+      72 _et sqq._
+    and Colonial Executive, relations between, as sketched by Grey, 269
+    in relation to Confederation, 325
+    Diminution of importance of, after Autonomy, 324 _et sqq._
+    Duties of, Sydenham's views on, 119-21
+    Salary of (_see also_ Civil List), Brown's attitude on, 342
+
+  Governors-General referred to, in order of date, _see also
+      under_ Names
+    Dalhousie, Earl of, 1820
+    Colborne, Sir John (acting), 1830
+    Thomson, C. Poulett, 1833; _later_ Lord Sydenham, 1841
+    Durham, Earl of, 1838
+    Colborne, Sir John, 1838
+    Bagot, Sir Charles, 1842
+    Metcalfe, Lord, 1843
+    Cathcart, Earl of, 1846
+    Elgin, Earl of, 1847
+    Head, Sir Edmund W., 1854
+    Monck, Viscount, 1861
+
+  Grant, General Ulysses, 290
+
+  Great Britain (_see also_ British), and the Colonies, future
+      relations between, MacDonald on, 344
+    Imperial policy of, under Grey, 275-6 _et proevi_; Change in,
+      process and progress of, 291
+    Relations with Canada as affected by Autonomy, 323 _et sqq._;
+      Basis of, 239
+
+  Greville, Charles, on Poulett Thomson, 77
+
+  Grey, Earl, as Colonial Secretary, 196, 222, 237; Characteristics
+      of the man and his ideas, 267 _et sqq._; Events of his term of
+      office, 268 _et sqq._
+    Colonial policy of, 190-1, 196, 199, 256, 267-8 _et sqq._;
+      Elgin's influence on, 209 _&n._2, 275; and Federation, 196-7;
+      Free Trade with Canada urged by, 267-8, 272-4; and the Militia
+      Bill crisis, 290; Views of, on Separation, 278, 281, occasional
+        misgivings, 223, 283
+    on Attitude of a Governor of a Self-governing Colony, 269-70; on
+      British indifference to Canada (1851), 232; on Elgin's best
+      attitude to the Canadian Executive of 1848, 200; on Newspaper
+      misrepresentation, 232; on Separationist views at Westminster,
+      260-7
+
+  Grey, Sir George, on the Clergy Grants, 48 _&n._1
+
+  Grote, George, and Separation, 282
+
+
+  H
+
+  _Habitants_, the, Characteristics of, 15-17
+
+  Hamilton, Population (1846), 24
+
+  Harrison, S. B., Secretary, 105, Moderate Reform views of, 119,
+      176; Resolutions moved by, on Provincial Parliaments, 119-20
+    on the Need for Responsible Government, and for Conciliation of
+      the French Canadians, 133-4
+
+  Harvey, Sir John, Grey's letter to, on attitude of Governors of
+      Self-Governing Colonies, 269-70
+
+  Head, Sir Edmund W., as Governor-General, 324; Averse to the "Double
+      majority," 307-8
+
+  Head, Sir F. B., on Baldwin, 109
+
+  Herbert, Sydney (Lord Herbert of Lea), 189
+
+  Higginson, Captain, and La Fontaine, 172
+
+  Hincks, Sir Francis, Advocate of Responsible Government, 38; Press
+      exponent of Reforming Loyalist views, 64, 196; in Bagot's
+      Executive, 144; Interpretation by, of Durham's Report, 243-4;
+      Political morality of, attacked, 315
+    on the Civil List difficulty, 163; on Coalitions, 298-9; on the
+      Patronage Crisis, 170; on the Reformers, 113
+
+  Hincks-Morin Ministry, the, and Moderate re-union, 298
+
+  Home Rule (_see also_ Autonomy), Evolution of, in Canada,
+      antithesis of, to Russell's theory, 229
+
+  Hume, Joseph, and Canadian politics, 231, 282
+
+  Hyderabad, Metcalfe at, 159
+
+
+  I
+
+  Immigration and its Problems, 20 _et sqq._, 97-8, 238
+
+  Imperial Aid to Religious bodies in Canada, _see_ Anglican Church,
+      _and_ Clergy Reserve question
+    Control, Struggle for, 1-229, _et passim_; Views of various
+      British  politicians, 230 _et sqq._
+    Creed of Durham and Buller, not that of their party, 281
+    Government, and the French Canadians, 136
+    Note of Durham's Report, 246-7
+    Solidarity, some staunch believers in, 274
+    Sentiment, and Bagot's action, antagonism between, 149
+    Tariff, 273
+    Unity, Burke's view on, 2, 3, 6
+
+  Imperial Parliament, Courtesies of, 66; Over-ruling by, of
+      Canadian wishes, various views on, 200; as Training school for
+      Colonial Governors, 121
+
+  Imperial Titles Bill, Disraeli's speech on, 255-8
+
+  Imperialism, British, Early Victorian, 230
+    Disraeli's, the gaps in, 253 _et sqq._
+    Durham's, 281
+    Elgin's, 217 _et sqq._
+    True basis of, Feeling rather than Laws, 329
+
+  Independence, Colonial, Russell on, 263
+     and Loyalty, ratio between, 345-6
+
+  Independence of Parliament Act, as affecting Resignations, 319
+
+  Independency, as moulding New England Character, 41
+
+  Indian Career of Elgin, 189, 191, and of Metcalfe, 158-9
+
+  Indians, Canadian, Trade and Drink as affecting, 29-30
+
+  _Institut Canadien_, Annexationist advocate, 332 _&n._1
+
+  Internal government, and Imperial matters, Durham's distinction
+      concerning, 244-5
+
+  Irish Agitation, as affecting Canada, 22 _&n._2, 200, 337
+    Immigrants; as Colonists, 21, 22, 23; Political trend of, 163;
+      Turbulence of, 22, 67, 179; won by Elgin, 222; Arriving after
+      the Famine, anxieties caused by, 332-3
+
+  Irish-American hostility to Great Britain as affecting Canada,
+      288-9, 332, 333
+
+  Irish Republican Union, 207
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jackson, General ("Stonewall"), 290
+
+  Jamaica, Metcalfe's success in, 159, 167
+
+  Jameson, Mrs., on Colonel Talbot as Colonist, 19; on Toronto and
+      its Conventionalism, 26
+
+
+  K
+
+  King's College, Toronto, 36
+
+  Kingston, Anglicanism in, 43, 44; as Capital, 103; Educational
+      efforts at, 36; Election riots near (1844), 179; Population
+      of (1839-46), 13, 24; Presbyterianism in, 44; Removal from,
+      of the Seat of Government, 171, 176
+
+  _Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, on the Anglo-French Anti-Union
+      Movement, 103 _&n._2
+
+  Knox, John, & Melville, Canadian followers of, 44
+
+
+  L
+
+  Lachine, portage to, 10
+
+  Lachine Canal, 179
+
+  La Fontaine, Sir Louis, Leader of French Canadians, 14, 32, 59, 65,
+      295; and Anglo-French cooperation, 125, 162; and the Anti-Union
+      movement, 103; Claims of, as to Office, 149, Bagot's action,
+      150-1; and the Clergy Reserve troubles, 52-3; Loss of Election
+      by, 113, 117; Loyalty of, 338; Office refused by (1845), 96;
+      accepted (1848), effects of, 305; and the Patronage Crisis,
+      168, 171; and the Rebellion of 1837, 142; and the Rebellion
+      Losses Bill, 214; Restrictive attitude to Governors-General,
+      162; on the Importance of the Anglo-French Union, 177; on
+      Patronage, 172-3
+
+  La Fontaine-Baldwin Ministries, 161, 212, 215-16, 229, 295, 298
+
+  _Laissez faire_ doctrine, in British colonial politics, 188, 230;
+      Autonomy the natural result of, 291; and Home Control, in
+      Colonial affairs, Grey's views on, 267 _et sqq._; as
+      Influencing Annexationism, 334
+
+  Lake Ontario, 10
+
+  Lake-neutralization Treaty, _see_ Rush-Bagot Treaty
+
+  Lanark, Scottish and Canadian, ties between, 45
+
+  Land transfers, under French law, Sydenham's efforts to simplify,
+      95-6, 306
+
+  Languages for Debates and Records, 90
+
+  Lee, General, 290
+
+  Legislative and Executive powers of Canadian Government, views on,
+      of Russell, and of the Canadians, 71 _et sqq._
+
+  Lewis, Cornewall, 238
+
+  Liberal-Conservatism Canadian, evolution of, 297
+
+  Liddell, Dr., and Queen's College, 37
+
+  Lincoln, President, Brown's support of, 341
+
+  Literary Inactivity, Canadian, some causes, 39 _&n._, 40
+
+  "Little Englanders," Early Victorian, 278 _et sqq._, 292
+
+  Local government, Absence of Provision for, in Act of Union, 93-5;
+      in French Canada, Bagot on, 57; as Training for higher politics,
+      94; Sydenham's views on, 94, and efforts for, 106
+
+  London, and Early Canadian Society, 27
+
+  London (Ontario), in early days, 13; population of (1846), 24
+
+  Lower Canada, French-Canadians of (_q.v._), Clericalism, Politics
+      and Society among, 14-17; Priestly control of Schools in, 31-2
+    Municipal Franchise limitations in; results, 25
+    Union with Upper, difficulties in, 82
+
+  Lowland Scots, as Settlers, 21
+
+  Loyalist electioneering practices (1844), 179-80
+
+  Loyalty, Canadian, as affected by Autonomy, 203, 229, 314, 323
+      _et sqq._
+    Inspiration given to, by Brown and such men, 342-3
+    Mistrust of, begotten over the Militia Bill, 289
+
+  Lyons, Lord, on Elgin's Reciprocity Treaty, 288 _n._
+
+  Lucas, Sir C. P. _cited_, 4 _n._, 5 _n._
+
+  Lumberers, Wild life among, 30
+
+
+  M
+
+  Macaulay, Lord, on Metcalfe, 159
+
+  MacDonald, Rolland, on Annexation, 336
+
+  Macdonald-Sicotte Ministry, and the "Double majority," 309
+
+  Macdonald, Sir John A., and Annexation, 336; Averse to the "Double
+      majority," 308-9; Basis of his control of power, 216; and
+      Brown's scheme of Confederation, 302 _et sqq._; Imperialism
+      of, 23; Leadership of, 325; Loyalty of, 339, 343-4; Political
+      Morality of, 317-19, 321, 324, 341
+    and Representation by Population, 316
+    on Canada's Governors-General, 325-6; on Change of Political
+      views, 296
+
+  M'Gee, D'Arcy, on the Irish-Catholic vote in Canada (1866), 332-3;
+      on Loyalty of Irish Canadians, 333, 337
+
+  M'Gill University, 37
+
+  Mackenzie, Alexander, Liberal leader, 23; Political rectitude of, 321
+
+  Mackenzie, William Lyon, Press organ of, 38; Rebellion under, 5, 11,
+      55, recognition by, of its error, 63
+
+  MacNab-Hincks Ministry, the, 300
+
+  MacNab, Sir Allan Napier, Tory leader, 62, 63, 105, 133, 143, 167,
+      300, 301; and Bagot, 141, 143, 150, 151; Defender of the Clergy
+      Reserves, 62, 63; Invited by Elgin to form a Ministry, 204; and
+      Political jobbery, 316-7
+
+  M'Taggart, --, on French Canadians, 16; on Irish settlers, 16, 21;
+      on Quebec as Social Centre, 25; on Squatter life, 29
+
+  Manners, Lord John, on the Future of Canada, 254-5
+
+  Marriage and the Squatter, 29
+
+  Melbourne, Earl of, 280
+
+  Metcalfe, Lord (Sir Charles Metcalfe), as Governor-General, 7 _n._,
+      70, 158 _et sqq._; Character and qualifications of, 158-61, 164,
+      181, 183; earlier career, 159-60, 267
+    Attitude of his Cabinet, 66; Despatches _cited_, 164-5; Dislike
+      or party, results of, 167-8; and the La Fontaine-Baldwin
+      Ministry, 229; Last days in harness, 183; and Local
+      administration, 295; and the  Patronage crisis of 1843, 168-70,
+      202; Policy of, Elgin on, 192, 202, Grey on, 267; Struggles of,
+      to balance Autonomy and Supremacy, 161 _et sqq._; Supporters of,
+      182, 240, 249, 261; and the United Empire Loyalists, 17-18
+    on Demagogues in Lower Canada, 14-15; on Durham's view of
+      Executive Responsibility, 244; on Electioneering Language, 67;
+      on the Influence of the Roman Church in Canada, 32 _n._; on
+      Irish agitation and its effects on Canada, 21 _n._2; on the
+      Parliament of 1844, 181; on Results of Bagot's administration,
+      157; on Sydenham's concession of Responsible Government, 229
+
+  Methodism in Canada, 15-17; and Education, 46
+
+  Military attitude to Elgin, 204 _&n._
+    Prominence in Canadian Society, 26
+    Settlers, 18, 20
+    Views on Separation, 290
+
+  Militia Bill, Canadian rejection of, and the effects, 289-90; True
+      inwardness of the affair, 328-9
+
+  Mill, John Stuart, on the Authorship of Durham's Report, 243 _n._2
+
+  _Minerve, La_, on the _Rouges_, 301
+
+  Ministerial Responsibility to the Crown, and to a Governor, Stanley
+      on, 152-3
+
+  Ministerialist Party (1841), 105
+
+  Ministers, Loyal, and the Assembly, difficulties between (1845), 184
+
+  Moffat, George, Politics of, 151
+
+  Molesworth, ----, on Separation, 281
+
+  Monck, Viscount, as Governor, 324; scanty Despatches of, 325; on
+      the Militia Bill, 329
+
+  Montreal, British and French views in, 14; and the Election of
+      1844, 178, 179-80; Merchants of, and the Reciprocity Treaty,
+      222; zealous Annexationists, 334; Population of, 13, 24; Riots
+      at, 67, 68, 179-80, 206, 208, 227, 320, 326; Roads near (1840),
+      11; as Seat of Government, 68, 171; Social conditions at (1840),
+      26; Suburbs of, 102
+
+  _Montreal Gazette_, on Independence, 335
+
+  _Montreal Witness_, The, characteristics and value of, 38-9
+
+  Moral Influence of Governors, _versus_ Political Patronage, Elgin
+      on, 198, and as exercised by him, 205 _et sqq._
+
+  Morin, Augustin Norbert, French Canadian politician, 59, and the
+      Nationalists, 105
+
+  Mowat, Oliver, Liberal leader, 23
+
+  Murdoch, T. W. C., 104 _n._, 140-1; the Need for Conciliating the
+      French, 135; on Stanley's view of Canadian autonomy, 131
+
+
+  N
+
+  _Nation Canadienne, La_, 13; as represented in the Union Assembly, 59
+
+  Navigation Acts, Restrictions of, abolished by Grey, 267, 272
+
+  Neilson, ----, and the Anti-Union movement, 103, 105, 151; and
+      the Amnesty question, 149
+
+  Newcastle, Duke of, and Monck's scanty Despatches, 325
+
+  Newspaper Opinion, real value of, 233
+
+  Newspapers, Educational and Political influence of, 38-9 _&nn._,
+      311, 341-2
+
+  Non-Separationists, the four, 278, 491
+
+  Normanby, Earl of, 248
+
+  North, Lord, and the Colonies, 248
+
+  Nova Scotia, 269
+
+
+  O
+
+  Oath of Supremacy, Baldwin's difficulty concerning, 112; Dispensed
+      with, by Sydenham, 113 _n._
+
+  O'Connell, Daniel, 22
+
+  Office, Colonial, Change in Tenure of, 74-5
+
+  Ogden, ----, Political views of, 113; retirement of, 150
+
+  "Old Toryism" after concession of Responsible Government, 203
+      _et sqq._
+
+  Oliphant, Laurence, on Elgin in Canada, 204-5, 221, 222, 225
+
+  Orange Lodge, the, Politics of, 167
+
+  Ottawa, _see_ Bytown
+
+  Ottawa River route, 10
+
+
+  P
+
+  Pakington, Sir John, and the Clergy Reserves dispute, 252-3
+
+  Palmerston, Viscount, 280
+
+  Papineau, Louis, French-Canadian Leader, 14, 301, 331; Rebellion
+      led by, 3; Republicanism of, 65, 271; Return of, to Public Life
+      (1847-8), 198-9, 212-13, 271, 305, 331-2; as Leader of the
+      _Rouges_, 301, 331
+
+  Parliament, British, _see_ Imperial Parliament
+    Canadian characteristics of, 65, 289; First Union, 59, composing
+      group, 104, 113, Crisis in, on Responsible Government, 113-22,
+      Five great measures carried by, 106
+
+  Parliamentary Representation after the Union, Proportionalism in,
+      309-11, attempted reform, 311 _et sqq._
+
+  Party Government, and Colonial Constitutional development, views
+      on, of Wakefield, 239-40, and of Buller, 242
+    Names, as used in Canada, 56, 106, 195, 295
+    Politics in Canada, before and after Autonomy, 56, 106, 166-7,
+      173, 185, 195, 293 _et sqq._, 302-5 _et sqq._
+
+  Patronage, Crisis concerning, 168-70; Surrender of, by Elgin,
+      198, 279
+
+  Peel, Sir Robert, 262, 283; and Elgin, a comparison, 226; and "the
+      Man on the spot," 147-8; and the Permanent Staff of the Colonial
+      Office, 235; Political pupils of, 189; and Stanley, 128;
+      Transforming influence of, on the Whigs, 280; Views of, on
+      Separation, 253-4, 266-7, 278
+
+  Peelites, the, and Party ties, 297; Views of, on Separation, 266, 285
+    Canadian, 301
+
+  Permanent Officials, and Transitory Chiefs, 234-5
+
+  Perry, Peter, Baldwin's letter to, on Annexation, 340
+
+  Personalities and Politics, 66
+
+  Perth (Canada), Early Educational efforts at, 33-4; and its
+      Minister, 48
+
+  Pessimism of British opinion on the Colonies _circa_ 1844, 246
+
+  _Pilot, The_, 196
+
+  Pioneers, the, of Canadian Self-government, 237-8 _et sqq._
+
+  Political Groups,  Canadian--British Early days, 14, 56; (_a_)
+      United Empire Loyalists, 17, 20; (_b_) Half-Pay Officers, 18;
+      (_c_) Immigrants, 20, 56
+        Later days--Anglo-French bloc, 65, 161; Liberal-Conservatives,
+          297
+    French-Canadian, 14, 15, 20; importance of, 56-9
+
+  Political Manners and Morals, after Autonomy, 314 _et sqq._
+
+  Political and Material conditions and Needs of Canada in 1839, 68-9
+
+  Politics in early days, 13 _et sqq._, 64 _et sqq._; _per_ Newspaper,
+      38; Questions of chief concern, 56; Turbulence in (_see_
+      Montreal riots), 65-8 _et alibi_
+
+  Population, Canadian, Composition of, and Problems of, 13 _et
+      sqq._; Changes in distribution, 1830-60, in reference to
+      Parliamentary Representation, 310-11; Town, growth of, 24
+
+  Preference, and Retaliation, Elgin's difficulties as to, 220
+
+  Presbyterianism in Canada, 43, 44-5, 47; Influence of, on Scottish
+      democracy, 41
+
+  Press, British, and Canadian Politics, 232-3
+    Canadian, _see_ Newspapers
+    Indian, Disabilities of, relieved by Metcalfe, 159
+
+  Progressives, Canadian, Loyalty of, 339
+
+  Protection as enemy to Canadian-British  connexion, Grey's view
+      on, 285
+
+  Provincial Parliament, Baldwin's motion for, 119; Resolutions
+      replying to, 119-21
+
+  Provincialism, and its causes, 26, 27, 40
+
+  Public Lands Regulation enacted, 106
+    Opinion, Canadian, development and trend of, 133; as affected
+      by Autonomy, 292, 329 _et sqq._; Sydenham's attitude to, 87
+    Works, Canadian, condition in early days, 25-6; British loan
+      for, projected by Sydenham, 97 _et sqq._
+
+  Purse-holding and Prerogative, Bagot on, 165
+
+
+  Q
+
+  Queen's College, Kingston, 55; history of, 37
+
+  Quebec, British, and British views in, 14; Immigrant miseries at,
+      97; Length of voyage to, 9; Population-Centre, 13, increase in
+      population of (1790-1844), 24; as Social Centre, 25; Suburbs
+      of, 102; Urban conditions in, 25
+
+
+  R
+
+  Racial Distinction, intensified by Autonomy, 306
+
+  Radical party, Separation anticipated by, 278, 281
+
+  Radicals of the Durham brand, views of, on the Colonies, _circa_
+      1844, 246 _et proevi_
+
+  Ranjit Singh, Metcalfe's Treaty with, 158
+
+  Reactionaries, Insight of, as to results of Innovations, 166-7
+
+  Reading-habits how checked (1839), 39, 40
+
+  Rebellion, Risk of, from Metcalfe's methods, 158, 186, 191, 193
+
+  Rebellion Losses Act, effects of, 68, 213, 214, 215, Annexation
+      agitation connected with, 220-1, 232-3, 265 _&n._1; and the
+      "Double majority, " 307; Elgin's action concerning, 206-9,
+      214, 220-1, 335; Gladstone on, 250; and the Tories, 335
+
+  Rebellions in Canada, 5, 11, 14, 15, 36, 38, 55-6, 57, 59, 103,
+      124, 186; After-effects, 135, 213-15; Change in British opinion
+      after, by whom directed, 237 _et sqq._; Mackenzie on (1848), 63;
+      Molesworth's views on, 281; Settlers' attitude to, 55-6
+
+  Reciprocity, Grey on, 273
+    and Loyalty, Elgin's view on, 220
+
+  Reciprocity Treaty, Elgin's, 221-2, 287, 336; Benefits of, 222,
+      272; as affected by Canadian Autonomy, 288 _&n._; Cessation of
+      (cf. Free Trade), effects on Canadian Trade, 272
+
+  Reform, Colonial, Stanley's mistrust of, 142
+
+  Reform Parties, Canadian and British, 295
+
+  Reform Party, Canadian (Reformers, Reforming Loyalists, Reforming
+      Opposition), Acceptance by, of Bagot's action, as concession to
+      their views; consequences in Metcalfe's Governor-Generalship,
+      161 _et sqq._; Attitude to the French, 65; Civil List control
+      desired by, 163; Demand for Executive Council, Russell's
+      objections and concessions, 72-5; in Early Assemblies, 63,
+      Methods and Leaders of, 64; Measures favoured by, 64-5; and
+      Responsible Government, 101; in the Second Union Parliament,
+      141; Faculty for setting themselves in the wrong, 228
+    Constitutional, Loyalty of, 339
+    Intransigeant, 301
+
+  Religion in Canada, Forms prevalent; _see_ Anglicanism, Methodism,
+      Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism
+
+  Representation Act, the, 310
+
+  Responsible Government (_see also_ Autonomy), the Struggle for,
+      _passim_
+    Baldwin on, 110-11
+    Conflict over, in first Union Parliament, 107 _et sqq._
+    Durham in favour of, 61
+    Effect on Struggle of admission of French to Office, 148 _et sqq._
+    Elgin's work for, 191, 197 _et sqq._
+    Grey's attitude to, 268-71, and views on British Intervention, 271
+    Hindrances to, 65-8
+    Impetus given to, by the Durham Report, 249
+    Limitations on, views of Russell and others, 101, 135, 175
+    Opponents of, 60
+    Patronage crisis in relation to, 169-70
+    Practical concession of, by Sydenham and Bagot, 146, 155, 157,
+      175, 228-9
+    Russell's policy and, 101, 135, 175, 260-2, final upshot of, 262
+    Stanley's attitude to, 129, 130-1
+    Supporters of, 61, 64, 178, 268-71
+    Views on, of Arthur, Cartwright, and the Family Compact, 60-1 _et
+      sqq._; of Bagot, 139 _et sqq._; of Elgin, 123-4, 192, 202; of
+      Metcalfe, 164 _et sqq._, 175; of Sydenham, 87, 88, 101
+    Training for, Russell on, 263
+
+  _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, Buller's pamphlet on,
+      234-5, 236, 240-3
+
+  Retaliation, as Trade weapon, 272, Grey's views on, 273-4
+
+  _Revue Canadienne, La_, on Papineau, and Political Moderation
+      (1847), 199
+
+  Richardson, Major, on Sydenham's success, 107-8 _&n._
+    Book-sales of, 40
+
+  Rideau Military Canal route, 11
+
+  Rioting, Political, 65-8, 179-80, 206, 208, 227, 320, 326
+
+  Road and River Communication in early days, 9 _et sqq._
+
+  Robinson, John Beverley, 27; tribute by, to Methodism, 46-7
+
+  Roebuck, John Arthur, M.P., Debate on Canada introduced by, 182;
+      and Separation, 281, 282
+
+  Rolph, Dr. John, on the Clergy Reserves, 51-2
+
+  Roman Catholicism in Lower Canada, 14-17, 31-2, 41-2; of Scottish
+      and Irish Settlers, 42
+
+  _Rouges_, the, of Lower Canada, Politics of, and Annexation views,
+      301, 302, 305, 331, 338
+
+  Rush-Bagot Treaty, the, 126
+
+  Russell, Lord John, as Colonial Secretary, policy of, 128, 164,
+      235, 259-67; and the Act of Union, 94; Baldwin on, 339; and
+      Federation, 196-7; and the Government of Canada, 70 _et sqq._,
+      110, 228-9; Leader of British Reformers, 295; Political
+      evolution of, 262-6, 280; Separation anticipated by, 278
+
+  Russellite Whigs, use made by, of the Durham Report, 258 _et sqq._
+
+  Ryerson, Egerton, and Canadian Education, 35; in Defence of
+      Metcalfe, 174; and Methodism, 180
+
+  Ryerson family, value of, to Canada, 18
+
+
+  S
+
+  St. Benoit, Village of, and the Rebellion Losses Bill, 214
+
+  St. Lawrence River, Rapids on, 10
+
+  Salaries of Executive, in relation to Political purity, 316
+
+  Schools, early, 32 _et sqq._
+    Convent, 16, 31
+    Problem of, 307, 309
+
+  Scott, R. W., and the Separate Schools Act, 309
+
+  Scotsmen as Settlers, 23, 27-9, 42, 45; Keenness for Education,
+      33-7; Links of, with Scotland, 44, 45; Loyalty of: a
+      striking instance, 338; Noteworthy names among, 23
+
+  Sectarianism and Education, 34, 35, 36
+
+  Secularization, Advocates of, 64, 90
+
+  Seignorial tenure difficulties, 95-6, 306
+
+  Self-government, Colonial, _see_ Autonomy, _and_ Responsible
+      Government
+
+  Separate Schools Act (Scott's), how carried, 307
+
+  Separation, Anticipations of, 166, 200, 231, 248, 266, 274, 278
+      _et sqq._, 282, of British Tories, 253, 254, 255, 256
+    Four disbelievers in, 278, 291
+    Military views on, 290
+    Possibility as affected by Autonomy, 323 _et sqq._
+    Russell's views at different times, 262, 263, 265
+
+  Settlers, _see_ Half-pay officers, Irish, Population, Scotsmen,
+      Squatters, United Empire Loyalists, _&c._
+
+  Sherman, General, 290
+
+  Sherwood, Henry, Solicitor-General, Bagot and, 144; Elgin and,
+      194; Retirement of, 250
+
+  Sicotte-Macdonald Ministry, and the "Double majority," 309
+
+  Simcoe, Lieut.-General John Graves, 19
+
+  Single-party Government, Canadian tendency to, 298-9
+
+  Small, J. E., in Office, 150
+
+  Smith, Professor Goldwin, and his party, Separationists, 289
+
+  Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in Canada, 43
+
+  Sovereign, the, True relations with Canadian people, 327
+
+  Squatters, 22, 29
+
+  Stanley, Lord, as Colonial  Secretary, relations with Bagot and
+      Canada, 127, 128 _et sqq._, 156, 217, 236, 250-2; Hincks'
+      indictment of, 170; Separation anticipated by, 278
+    on Bagot's diplomatic services, 127; on the Tie between Great
+      Britain and the Colonies, 139-40
+
+  Statesmanship, Elgin's conception of, 227
+
+  Statesmen, Canadian, Loyalty of the more eminent, 339 _et sqq._
+
+  Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, Influence of, at the Colonial Office,
+      234-7, 238; Views of, on Separation, 237 _&n._
+
+  Stephen, Sir Leslie, 236 _&n._
+
+  Strachan, Dr. John, Bishop in Toronto, 36, 89, 133; and the
+      Anglican Church, 43; and the Clergy Reserve question, 49, 50,
+      52, 54, 90, 92; and Education, 35, 36; and Methodism, 45
+
+  Strickland family, the, as Colonists, 19
+
+  Strickland, Lieut.-Colonel Samuel, and Mackenzie's Rebellion, 55;
+      on Unsuitable Colonists, 19-20
+
+  Sullivan, Robert Baldwin, 113
+
+  Suburbs, and the Electorate, 102
+
+  Sydenham, Lord (Rt. Hon. Charles Poulett Thomson), as
+      Governor-General, 54, 57, 65, 70; Raised to Peerage, 53;
+      Characteristics, 76-8, 107-8, 131, 141; and his Coalition of
+      Moderates, 113, 141, 298; Debt to, of Canada, 122-5, 132, 133;
+      Despatches of, 325; Episodes and course of his rule, 78 _et sqq._;
+      the Fall of the Family Compact, 63; Practice of, Bagot's action
+      contrasted with, 149; Relations with French Canadians, 58, 141,
+      162; Religious distribution of members of his Council (1841),
+      47; Responsible Government practically granted by, 107, 228-9,
+      his own views as worded by Harrison, 119-20, Metcalfe on, 164-5;
+      and Russell's system, 260; Settlement by, of Clergy Reserve
+      Question, 53, 54; Sleigh-journey, record breaking 11-12, 92;
+      Success with the Act of Union, 92
+    on Baldwin's action in the First Union Parliament, 44-5; on
+      Business in a Colonial Parliament, 65-6; on the Clergy Reserve
+      question, 53-4; on Early Travel in Canada, 10; on the French
+      Anti-Union movement, 103-4; on Party names, 56, 295
+
+
+  T
+
+  Taché, Colonel Sir Étienne Pascal, 195, 307; and Federation, 303
+
+  Talbot, Colonel, in Canada, 19
+
+  Tariffs, Canadian, and the Home country, 327-8
+
+  Taxation, Canadian, Independence in, asserted, 287, 328
+
+  Taylor, Sir Henry, Influence of, at the Colonial Office, 235; on
+      Russell as Chief Secretary, 236
+
+  Teachers, Lack of, in early days, 33-5
+
+  Terrebonne, and La Fontaine's election, 117
+
+  Thomson, Poulett, _see_ Sydenham, Lord
+
+  Three Rivers, 13
+
+  _Times, The_, and Canadian affairs, 232-3
+
+  Toronto, 65; Anglicanism in, 43; Journey to (1839), 10; King's
+      College at, 36; Population of (1824-46), 13, 24; Social
+      characteristics (_circ._ 1846), 26
+
+  Toronto, Bishop in, _see_ Strachan
+
+  Toronto University, set on foot by Bagot, 36, 136
+
+  Tory Party
+    British, and Colonial aspirations, 217, 247 _et sqq._; Separation
+      anticipated by, 278, 279, 329; Views analogous to those of
+      Canadian Tories, 295
+    Canadian (_see also_ Family Compact), Annexationist views of,
+      204, 220, Elgin's methods with, 221, 222, 295-6, 334 _et sqq._
+
+  Toryism of the French Canadians, _see_ French Canadians, Political
+      views of
+
+  Towns, Large and Small, Characteristics of (_circa_ 1846),
+      25 _et sqq._
+
+  Trade between Canada and the U.S.A., as affected by Free Trade, 272,
+      Grey's views on, 273
+    and Colonial relations, Views on, of Bright and Cobden, 284
+
+  Trade-regulation, formerly Controlled by the Crown, 327
+
+  Trade-relations of Canada with Great Britain after Autonomy, 327-8
+
+  _Trent_ episode, 288
+
+
+  U
+
+  Ulstermen as Settlers, 21
+
+  Ultra-Reformers party (1841), 105
+
+  Union, Act of, Acceptance by both Provincial governments, 92;
+      French-Canadian attitude to, 57-8; Guarantees, desired by
+      Stanley, 152; Grey's Changes in, as affecting the French,
+      268; Serious Omission in, 93-5
+
+  Union of Canada, Lord John Russell's instructions on, 71
+    First Parliament of, 100; Elections (and other preliminaries),
+      101; Results, 104; Groups in, 59, 100, 104-5; Sydenham's
+      successes, and struggles against the Autonomy party, 106
+      _et sqq._; Work of the First Session, 106
+    Second, Bagot's, forecasts on, 140-1
+
+  United Empire Loyalists, origin, characteristics, and views of,
+      17-20
+
+  United Reform Party, Baldwin on, 113
+
+  Unity
+    Forces conducing to Education, 16, 31 _et sqq._; Politics, 31;
+      Religion, 31, 32, 40 et seq.
+    Forces retarding, Physical, 8-13, 24, 28-9; Racial, 13, 20-3,
+      24; Religious, 34-5; Social, 24
+
+  University Question, in Upper Canada (1845), 184
+
+  Universities of Canada, 36-8 _&n._1, 136
+
+  Upper Canada, Arrested Development of, Sydenham's plans in aid,
+      98-100; Educational Efforts in, 33 _et sqq._; Methodism in,
+      45-7; Population increase of, 24; Radicalism of, 32; and
+      the Union, 83-9
+
+  Upper Canada College, 35, 50
+
+
+  V
+
+  _Vendus, Les_, 142
+
+  Viger, Jacques, French Canadian politician, 59; and the Rebellion,
+      142; Rival to La Fontaine, 171; in Metcalfe's Council, 177, 194
+
+  Voluntary Principle in matters Ecclesiastical, pros and cons of,
+      51-2
+
+
+  W
+
+  Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, _Art of Colonization_ by, 239; Enthusiasm
+      of, for Immigration, 97; Influence of, on British views on
+      Colonization, 237 _et sqq._; Influence on Grey, 267
+    on Baldwin's position at Metcalfe's arrival, 162; on the Patronage
+      crisis, 170-1
+
+  Wardens, Canadian, appointment of, 118
+
+  Washington, Elgin's diplomacy at, 221
+
+  Wellington, Duke of, opposition of, to Canadian Union, 249-50, 280
+
+  West Indies Slave question, 235
+
+  Whig party, Evolution from, of the Liberal Party, 280-1; Separation
+      views of, 266, 278, 280
+
+  Women of the _habitants_, 16, 31
+
+
+
+
+  GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+  BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: In the index entry "Non-Separationists, the four,
+278, 491", "491" is clearly incorrect since there are not that many
+pages in the book.  It is unknown what this number should have been.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of British Supremacy & Canadian
+Self-Government, by J. L. Morison
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIT. SUPREMACY & CANAD. SELF-GOVT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31363-8.txt or 31363-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/6/31363/
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+
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diff --git a/31363-8.zip b/31363-8.zip
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<HTML>
+<HEAD>
+
+<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+<TITLE>
+The Project Gutenberg E-text of British Supremacy & Self-Government,
+by J. L. Morison
+</TITLE>
+
+<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
+BODY { color: Black;
+       background: White;
+       margin-right: 10%;
+       margin-left: 10%;
+       font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;
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+
+P {text-indent: 4% }
+
+P.noindent {text-indent: 0% }
+
+P.poem {text-indent: 0%;
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+P.letter {text-indent: 0%;
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+         margin-left: 0% ;
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+         margin-left: 10% ;
+         margin-right: 10% }
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+          text-align: center ;
+          text-indent: 0% ;
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+
+IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto;
+                margin-bottom: 0;
+                margin-top: 1%;
+                margin-right: auto; }
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+.pagenum { position: absolute;
+           left: 1%;
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+           text-align: left;
+           text-indent: 0;
+           font-style: normal;
+           font-weight: normal;
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+</STYLE>
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+</HEAD>
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+<BODY>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government, by 
+J. L. Morison
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government
+       1839-1854
+
+Author: J. L. Morison
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2010 [EBook #31363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIT. SUPREMACY & CANAD. SELF-GOVT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Lord Elgin" BORDER="2" WIDTH="509" HEIGHT="680">
+<H5>
+Lord Elgin
+</H5>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+British Supremacy
+<BR>
+&amp;
+<BR>
+Canadian Self-Government
+</H1>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+1839-1854
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+By
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+J. L. Morison, M.A., D.Litt.
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+Professor of Colonial History in Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
+</H5>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+Late Lecturer on English Literature in the University of Glasgow
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+Toronto
+<BR>
+S. B. Gundy
+<BR>
+<I>Publisher in Canada for Humphrey Milford</I>
+<BR>
+1919
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS<BR>
+BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+To
+<BR>
+M. T.
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Pvi"></A>vi}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+PREFACE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The essay which follows had been printed, and was on the point of being
+published, when the outbreak of war involved my venture in the general
+devastation from which we are only now emerging.  More than four years
+of military service lie between me and the studies of which this book
+is the summary.  It was written under one dispensation; it is being
+published under another.  My first impulse, therefore, was to ask
+whether the change which has rendered so much of the old world obsolete
+had not invalidated also the conclusions here arrived at.  But
+reflection has simply confirmed me in the desire to complete the
+arrangements for publication.  Self-government is the keynote of the
+essay, and it is unlikely that self-government will cease to be the
+central principle of sane politics either in the British Empire or in
+the world outside.  I watched a Canadian division coming out of the
+last great battle in France, battered and reduced in numbers, but with
+all
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Pviii"></A>viii}</SPAN>
+its splendid energy and confidence untouched.  The presence
+of the Canadians there, their incomparable spirit and resolution, the
+sacrifices they had just been making, with unflinching generosity, for
+the Empire, seemed only the last consequences of the political struggle
+for autonomy described in the pages which follow.  They would have been
+impossible had the views of all the old imperialists from Wellington to
+Disraeli prevailed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The material on which this volume is based falls into three groups.
+First in importance are the state papers and general correspondence of
+the period, contained in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa.  In addition
+to the correspondence, ordinary and confidential, between the
+Secretaries of State for the Colonies, and the Governors-General, from
+1839 to 1867, I read two very notable collections, designated in the
+foot-notes the Bagot Correspondence and the Elgin-Grey Correspondence.
+In the former are contained not only Bagot's private correspondence
+with Lord Stanley, but also letters from Bagot's British friends and
+Canadian political advisers.  These constitute the most important
+evidence which exists for Bagot's year of office.  In the same way, the
+private correspondence, carried on between Earl Grey and the Earl of
+Elgin from
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Pix"></A>ix}</SPAN>
+1847 to 1852, takes precedence of all other Canadian
+material of that period; and is, indeed, the most enlightening series
+of documents in existence on mid-Victorian Colonial policy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The second group is composed of pamphlets and early newspapers, more
+especially the admirable collection of pre-confederation pamphlets in
+the Archives at Ottawa, and the Bell and Morris collections at Queen's
+University.  Kingston.  I cannot pretend to have mastered all the
+material supplied by the newspapers of the period; but I have attempted
+to work through such representative journals as the <I>Toronto Globe</I>,
+the <I>Montreal Witness</I>, and the Kingston papers published while
+Kingston was capital of the united Provinces.  I consulted certain
+others, French and English, on definite points of political interest,
+such as the reappearance of Papineau in politics in 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The <I>Canadiana</I> of Queen's University Library gave me my third group of
+documents: and the facts from books were confirmed or modified by
+information gathered, chiefly in Kingston, from persons whose memories
+of the period under discussion were still fresh and interesting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the work proceeded, certain impressions were
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Px"></A>x}</SPAN>
+very definitely
+created in my mind.  It seemed clear, in the first place, that no
+statesman, whose experience was limited by unbroken residence in
+Europe, quite understood the elements which, between 1839 and 1867,
+constituted the Home Rule problem in Canada.  More especially on
+fundamental points concerning Canadian opinion, and the general temper
+of the populace, even the best men in England seemed singularly
+ignorant.  A second impression was that, while the colony remained
+throughout essentially loyal, and while the political leaders in Canada
+displayed really great qualities of statesmanship at critical moments,
+the general development of Canadian political life was seriously
+delayed by the crudities and rudeness of provincial politicians.
+British ignorance was not the only obstacle in the way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The last impression was that the relations between Britain and Canada
+depended then, as now, not on constitutional forms, or commercial
+bargains, or armed protection, but on racial solidarity, and community
+in social and moral ideals.  It was this solidarity, far more than
+conscious statesmanship, which held Canada and Britain together.  These
+impressions I have tried to analyse and elucidate in the chapters which
+follow.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Pxi"></A>xi}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+I have to thank the Dominion Archivist, Dr. A. G. Doughty, for many
+kindnesses, and more especially for permitting me to read the
+Elgin-Grey Correspondence.  To my friends, Mr. K. K. M. Leys, of
+University College, Oxford, Dr. Adam Shortt, Ottawa, and Professor W.
+D. Taylor, of Queen's University, Kingston, I am indebted for advice
+and information.  Mr. James MacLehose and Dr. George Neilson made the
+final stages of printing easy by their generous assistance.  The
+opinions which I express are my own, occasionally in spite of my
+friends' remonstrances.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+J. L. MORISON.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+INNELLAN, ARGYLLSHIRE,<BR>
+<I>May</I>, 1919.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%">
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%">CHAPTER</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="80%">&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%">PAGE</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">INTRODUCTORY  </A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">   1</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY  </A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">   8
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM  </A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">  70</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT  </A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 126</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE</A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 158</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN</A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 187</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY</A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">  230</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY</A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">  293</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#index">INDEX </A></TD>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> 347</TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P1"></A>1}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+INTRODUCTORY.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+There are antinomies in politics as in philosophy, problems where the
+difficulty lies in reconciling facts indubitably true but mutually
+contradictory.  For growth in the political world is not always
+gradual; accidents, discoveries, sudden developments, call into
+existence new creations, which only the generous logic of events and
+the process of time can reconcile with pre-existing facts and systems.
+It is the object of this essay to examine one of these political
+antinomies&mdash;the contradiction between imperial ascendancy and colonial
+autonomy&mdash;as it was illustrated by events in early Victorian Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The problem was no new one in 1839.  Indeed it was coeval with the
+existence of the empire, and sprang from the very nature of colonial
+government.  Beneath the actual facts of the great
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P2"></A>2}</SPAN>
+American
+revolution&mdash;reaching far beyond quarrels over stamp duties, or the
+differentiation between internal and external taxation, or even the
+rights of man&mdash;was the fundamental difficulty of empire, the need to
+reconcile colonial independence with imperial unity.  It was the
+perception of this difficulty which made Burke so much the greatest
+political thinker of his time.  As he wrote in the most illuminating of
+his letters, "I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the
+difficulty of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful
+towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely
+diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the provinces,
+which they must enjoy (in opinion and practice, at least), or they will
+not be provinces at all.  I know, and have long felt, the difficulty of
+reconciling the unwieldy haughtiness of a great ruling nation,
+habituated to command, pampered by enormous wealth, and confident from
+a long course of prosperity and victory, to the high spirit of free
+dependencies, animated with the first glow and activity of juvenile
+heat, and assuming to themselves as their birthright, some part of that
+very pride which oppresses them."[<A NAME="chap01fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn1">1</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P3"></A>3}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Dissatisfied as he ever was with merely passive or negative views,
+Burke was led to attempt a solution of the problem.  He had never been
+under any illusion as to the possibility of limiting colonial
+constitutional pretensions.  A free government was what the colonists
+thought free, and only they could fix the limit to their claims.  But
+many considerations made him refuse to despair of the empire.  His
+intensely human view of politics led him to put more trust in the bonds
+of kindred and affection than in constitutional forms.  He hated the
+petty quibbles of political legists and pedants&mdash;their dilemmas, and
+metaphysical distinctions, and catastrophes.  In his opinion the bulk
+of mankind was not excessively curious concerning any theories whilst
+they were really happy.  But perhaps his political optimism depended
+most on his belief that institutions, as living things, were
+indefinitely adaptable, and that the logic of life and progress
+naturally overcame all opposing arguments.  In his ideal state there
+was room for many mansions, and he did not speak of disaster when
+American colonists proposed to build according to designs not ratified
+in Westminster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have dwelt on the views of Burke because here, as in Indian affairs,
+he was the first of British
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P4"></A>4}</SPAN>
+statesmen to recognize what was implied
+in the empire, and because his views still stand.  But his
+contemporaries failed utterly, either to see the danger as he saw it,
+or to meet it as he bade them meet it.  Save Chatham, they had no
+understanding of provincial opinion; in their political methods they
+were corrupt individualists, and their general equipment in imperial
+politics was contemptibly inadequate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After the loss of the American colonies, the government in England
+contrived for a time to evade the problems and responsibilities of
+colonial empire.  The colonies which remained to England were limited
+in extent and population; and such difficulties as existed were faced,
+not so much by the government in London, as beyond the seas by
+statesmen with local knowledge, like Dorchester.  At the same time, the
+consequences of the French Revolution and the great wars drew to
+themselves the attention of all active minds.  Under these
+circumstances imperial policy lost much of its prestige, and imperial
+problems either vanished or were evaded.  It was a period of "crown
+colony" administration.[<A NAME="chap01fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn2">2</A>]  The connexion, as it was called, was
+maintained through oligarchic
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P5"></A>5}</SPAN>
+institutions, strictly controlled
+from Westminster; local officials were selected from little groups of
+semi-aristocrats, more English than the home government itself; and the
+only policy which recommended itself to a nation, which still lacked
+both information and imagination, was to try no rash constitutional
+experiments, and to conciliate colonial opinion by economic favours and
+low taxation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet the old contradiction between British ascendancy and colonial
+autonomy could not for long be ignored; and as in the early nineteenth
+century a new colonial empire arose, greater and more diversified than
+the old, the problem once more recurred, this time in Canada.  It is
+not the purpose of this book to discuss the earlier stages of the
+Canadian struggle.  The rebellions under Mackenzie in the West and
+Papineau in the East were abnormal and pathological episodes, in
+considering which the attention is easily diverted from the essential
+questions to exciting side issues and personal facts.  In any case,
+that chapter in Canadian history has received adequate attention.[<A NAME="chap01fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn3">3</A>]
+But after Colborne's firmness had repressed the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P6"></A>6}</SPAN>
+armed risings, and
+Durham's imperious dictatorship had introduced some kind of order,
+there followed in Canada a period of high constitutional importance, in
+which the old issue was frankly faced, both in England and in Canada,
+almost in the very terms that Burke had used.  It is not too much to
+say that the fifteen years of Canadian history which begin with the
+publication, in 1839, of <I>Durham's Report</I>, are the most important in
+the history of the modern British empire; and that in them was made the
+experiment on the success of which depended the future of that empire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These years are the more instructive, because in them there are few
+distracting events drawing the attention from the main constitutional
+question.  There were minor points&mdash;whether voluntaryism, or the
+principle of church establishment, was best for Canada; what place
+within the empire might safely be conceded to French-Canadian
+nationalism; how Canadian commerce was to relate itself to that of
+Britain and of the United States.  All of these, however, were included
+in, or dominated by, the essential difficulty of combining, in one
+empire, Canadian self-government and British supremacy.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P7"></A>7}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+The phrase, responsible government, appears everywhere in the writings
+and speeches of those days with a wearisome iteration.  Yet the
+discussion which hinged on that phrase was of primary importance.  The
+British government must either discover the kind of self-government
+required in the greater dependencies, the <I>modus vivendi</I> to be
+established between the local and the central governments, and the seat
+of actual responsibility, or cease to be imperial.  Under four
+governors-general[<A NAME="chap01fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn4">4</A>] the argument proceeded, and it was not until 1854
+that Elgin, in his departure from Canada, was able to assure the
+British government that the question had been for the time settled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The essay which follows will describe the character of the political
+community within which the question was raised; the fortunes and policy
+of the governors-general concerned in the discussion; the modifications
+introduced into British political thought by the Canadian agitation;
+and the consequences, in England and Canada, of the firm establishment
+of colonial self-government.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap01fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap01fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap01fn4"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap01fn1text">1</A>] Burke, <I>Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap01fn2text">2</A>] Sir C. P. Lucas, <I>Introduction to Lord Durham's Report</I>, p. 266.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap01fn3text">3</A>] Its latest statement may be found in Sir C. P. Lucas's admirable
+edition of <I>Lord Durham's Report</I>, Oxford, 1912.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap01fn4text">4</A>] I omit from my reckoning the brief and unimportant tenure of office
+by the Earl Cathcart, who filled a gap between Metcalfe's retirement
+and Elgin's arrival.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P8"></A>8}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+To understand the political evolution of Canada it is essential to
+begin with a study of the elements of Canadian society.  Canadian
+constitutionalists would have written to better purpose, had they
+followed the example of the Earl of Durham, in whose <I>Report</I> the
+concluding practical suggestions develop naturally from the vivid
+social details which occupy its earlier pages, and raise it to the
+level of literature.  In pioneering communities there is no such thing
+as the constitution, or politics, <I>per se</I>; and the relation between
+the facts, sordid and mean as they often are, of the life of the
+people, and the growth of institutions and political theories, is
+fundamental.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Canadian society, in 1839 and long afterwards, was dominated by the
+physical characteristics of the seven hundred miles of country which
+stretched from Quebec to the shores of Lake Huron, with
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P9"></A>9}</SPAN>
+its long
+water-front and timid expansion, north and south; its forests
+stubbornly resisting the axes of the settlers; its severe extremities
+of heat and cold; the innumerable inconveniences inflicted by its
+uncultivated wastes on those who first invaded it; and the imperfect
+lines of land communication which multiplied all distances in Canada at
+least four-fold.  It was perhaps this sense of distance, and difficulty
+of locomotion, which first impressed the settler and the visitor.  To
+begin with, the colony was, for practical purposes, more than a month's
+distance from the centre of government.  Steam was gradually making its
+way, and the record passage by sailing ship, from Quebec to Portsmouth,
+had occupied only eighteen days and a half,[<A NAME="chap02fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn1">1</A>] but sails were still the
+ordinary means of propulsion, and the average length of voyage of 237
+vessels arriving at Quebec in 1840 was well over forty days.[<A NAME="chap02fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn2">2</A>]  To the
+immigrant, however, the voyage across the Atlantic was the least of his
+troubles; for the internal communications of Canada left much to be
+desired.  The assistance
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P10"></A>10}</SPAN>
+of railway transportation might be
+entirely ignored,&mdash;as late as 1847 only twenty-two miles of railway
+lines had been laid and worked.[<A NAME="chap02fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn3">3</A>]  There was, of course, during the
+open season, the wonderful passage by river and lake into the heart of
+the continent; although the long winter months broke into the
+regularity of the traffic by water, and the St. Lawrence rapids added
+to the traveller's difficulties and expenses.  Even the magic of a
+governor-general's wand could not dispel the inconveniences of this
+simplest of Canadian routes.  "I arrived here on Thursday week,"
+grumbled Poulett Thomson, writing from Toronto in 1839.  "The journey
+was bad enough; a portage to Lachine; then the steamboat to the
+Cascades, twenty-four miles further; then road again (if road it can be
+called) for sixteen miles; then steam to Cornwall forty miles; then
+road, twelve miles; then, by a change of steamers on to Lake Ontario to
+Kingston, and thence here.  I slept one night on the road, and two on
+board the steamers.  Such, as I have described it, is the boasted
+navigation of the St. Lawrence!"[<A NAME="chap02fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn4">4</A>]  For military purposes there was
+the alternative route, up the Ottawa to Bytown,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P11"></A>11}</SPAN>
+and thence by the
+Rideau military canal to Kingston and the Lakes.  On land, progress was
+much more complicated, for even the main road along the river and lake
+front was in shamefully bad condition, more especially when autumn
+passed into winter, or when spring once more loosened up the roads.
+There is a quite unanimous chorus of condemnation from all&mdash;British,
+Americans, and Canadians.  One lively traveller in 1840 protested that
+on his way from Montreal, he was compelled to walk at the carriage side
+for hours, ankle-deep in mud, with the reins in his hands, and that,
+with infinite fatigue to both man and beast, he accomplished sixty
+miles in two days&mdash;a wonderful performance.[<A NAME="chap02fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn5">5</A>]  In the very heart of
+the rebellion, W. L. Mackenzie seems to have found the roads fighting
+against him, for he speaks of the march along Yonge Street as over
+"thirty or forty miles of the worst roads in the world"; and attributes
+part of the disheartening of his men to what one may term
+mud-weariness.[<A NAME="chap02fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn6">6</A>]  Local tradition still remembers with a sense of
+wonder that Sydenham, eager to return to his work in Lower Canada, once
+travelled by sleigh
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P12"></A>12}</SPAN>
+the 360 miles from Toronto to Montreal in
+thirty-six hours.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Off the main routes, roads degenerated into corduroy roads, and these
+into tracks, and even "blazed trails "; while, as for bridges, cases
+were known where the want of them had kept settlers who were living
+within three miles of a principal town, from communicating with it for
+days at a time.[<A NAME="chap02fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn7">7</A>]  And, as the roads grew rougher, Canadian conditions
+seemed to the stranger to assert themselves more and more offensively,
+animate and inanimate nature thrusting man back on the bare elements of
+things.  The early descriptions of the colony are crowded with pictures
+of wretched immigrants, mosquito-bitten, or, in winter, half dead with
+cold, struggling through mud and swamp, to find the land whither they
+had come to evade the miseries of civilization, confronting them with
+the squalor and pains of nature.  Far into the Victorian era Canada,
+whether French or British, was a dislocated community, with settlements
+set apart from each other as much by mud, swamp, and wood-land, as by
+distance.  Her population, more particularly in the west, was engaged
+not with political ideals, but in an incessant struggle
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P13"></A>13}</SPAN>
+with the
+forests; and the little jobs, which enabled the infant community to
+build a bridge or repair a road at the public expense, must naturally
+have seemed to the electors more important items of a political
+programme than responsible government or abolition of the clergy
+reserves.  No doubt, in the older towns and cities, the efforts of the
+earlier settlers had gained for their sons leisure and a chance of
+culture; yet even in Toronto, the wild lands were but a few miles
+distant, and, as Richardson saw it, London was "literally a city of
+stumps, many of the houses being still surrounded by them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Straggling along these 700 miles, although here and there concentrated
+into centres like Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, Kingston, and
+Toronto, was a population numbering well over a million, which from its
+internal divisions, its differences in origin and disposition, and its
+relation to the British government, constituted the central problem at
+the time in British colonial politics.  The French population formed,
+naturally, the chief difficulty.  Thanks to the terms of the surrender
+in 1763, and the policy of Dorchester, a unit which called itself <I>la
+nation Canadienne</I> had been formed, <I>nationalité</I> had become a force in
+Lower
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P14"></A>14}</SPAN>
+Canada, imperfectly appreciated even by the leaders of the
+progressive movement in England and Western Canada.  In the Eastern
+townships, and in Quebec and Montreal, flourishing and highly organized
+British societies existed.  The Rebellion had found sturdy opponents in
+the British militia from the townships, and the constitutional
+societies of Quebec and Montreal expressed, in innumerable resolutions
+and addresses, the British point of view.  But Lower Canada was for
+practical purposes a French unit, Roman Catholic in religion, and, in
+structure, semifeudal.  In the cities, the national self-consciousness
+of the French was most conspicuously present; and leaders like
+Papineau, La Fontaine, and Cartier proved the reality of French culture
+and political skill.  Below the higher classes, Durham and Metcalfe
+noticed that in Lower Canada the facilities given by the church for
+higher education produced a class of smaller professional men, from
+whose number the ordinary politicians and agitators were drawn.  To the
+church they owed their entrance into the world of ideas; but apparently
+they were little more loyal to the clergy than they were to Britain.
+"I am led to believe," wrote Metcalfe in 1845, "that the influence of
+the clergy is not predominant,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P15"></A>15}</SPAN>
+among the French-Canadian people,
+and that the avocat, the notary, and the doctor, generally disposed to
+be political demagogues, and most of them hostile to the British
+government, are the parties who exercise the greatest influence.
+Whatever power the clergy might have acting along with these
+demagogues, it would, I fear, be slight when exercised in opposition to
+them."[<A NAME="chap02fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn8">8</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These active, critical, political groups were not, however,
+representative of French Canada.  So long as their racial pride
+remained unhurt, the French community was profoundly conservative.  It
+was noticed that the rebels of 1837 and 1838 had received no support
+from the Catholic priesthood; and in a country where the reverence for
+that ancient form of Christianity was, in spite of Metcalfe's opinion
+to the contrary, profound, it was unlikely that any anti-religious
+political movement could make much permanent headway.  Devoted to their
+religion, and controlled more especially in education by their
+priests,[<A NAME="chap02fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn9">9</A>] the <I>habitants</I> formed the peculiar people of the American
+continent.  Education flourished not at all among
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P16"></A>16}</SPAN>
+the rank and
+file.  Arthur Buller found the majority of those whom he met either not
+able to write, or able to write little more than their names.[<A NAME="chap02fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn10">10</A>]  The
+women, he said, were the active, bustling portion of the <I>habitants</I>,
+thanks to the admirable and yet inexpensive training to be had in the
+nunneries.  As for the men, they farmed and lived as their fathers had
+done before them.  They cleared their land, or tilled it where it had
+been cleared, and thought little of improvement or change.  M'Taggart,
+whose work on the Rideau Canal, made him an expert in Canadian labour,
+much preferred French Canadians to the Irish as labourers, and thought
+them "kind, tender-hearted, very social, no way very ambitious, nor
+industrious, rarely speculative."[<A NAME="chap02fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn11">11</A>]  To the Canadian commonwealth,
+the French population furnished a few really admirable statesmen; a
+dominant and loyal church; some groups of professional men,
+disappointed and discontented sons of humble parents, too proud to sink
+to the level of their uninstructed youth, and without the opportunity
+of rising higher; and a great mass of men who hewed wood and drew
+water, not for a master, but for themselves,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P17"></A>17}</SPAN>
+submissive to the
+church, and well-disposed, but ignorant, and at the mercy of any clever
+demagogue who might raise the cry of nationalism.  Still, when
+nationality remained unchallenged, the French-Canadians were at least
+what, till recently, they remained, the most purely conservative
+element in Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The second element, in point of stability and importance, in the
+Canadian population was that of the United Empire Loyalists, the
+remnants of a former British supremacy in the United States.  They had
+proved their steadfastness and courage by their refusal to accept the
+rules of the new republic; and their arrival in Canada gave that
+country an aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon origin to counterbalance that of
+the seigneurs on the Lower St. Lawrence.  The men had in many cases
+been trained to arms in the revolutionary war, and they served a second
+and perhaps a harder apprenticeship in the Canadian forests.  They had
+formed the centre of resistance to American attacks in the war of 1812.
+Their sons and grandsons had once more exhibited the hereditary loyalty
+of the group, in resisting the rebels of 1837-38; and Metcalfe, who was
+their best friend among the governors of the United Provinces, justly
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P18"></A>18}</SPAN>
+looked on them as the most conspicuous examples of devotion to
+connection with the British Empire, and loyal subjection to the
+Crown.[<A NAME="chap02fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn12">12</A>]  Robinsons, Cartwrights, Ryersons, and a score of other
+well-known families, proved, generation after generation, by their
+sustained public capacity, how considerably the struggle for existence,
+operating on sound human material, may raise the average of talent and
+energy.  The tendency of the Loyalists to conservatism was, under the
+circumstances, only natural.  Their possession, for a time, of all the
+places in Upper Canada which were worth holding, was the consequence of
+their priority in tenure, and of their conspicuous pre-eminence in
+political ingenuity.  Critics of a later date forgot, and still forget,
+in their wholesale indictment of the Family Compact, that the Loyalist
+group called by that name had earned their places by genuine ability.
+If, like other aristocracies, they found it hard to mark the precise
+moment for retirement before the rise of democracy, their excuse must
+be found in their consciousness of high public spirit and their
+hereditary talents for administration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Politically and socially one may include among the Loyalists the
+half-pay officers, from both
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P19"></A>19}</SPAN>
+navy and army, whom the great peace
+after Waterloo sent to Canada, as to the other colonies; and certain
+men of good family, Talbots or Stricklands, who held fast by English
+conservative tradition, played, where they could, the English gentleman
+abroad, and incidentally exhibited no mean amount of public spirit.
+Conspicuous among these was Colonel Talbot, who had come to Upper
+Canada with Simcoe in 1793, and became there an erratic but energetic
+instrument of empire.  "For sixteen years," says Mrs. Jameson, writing
+with a pardonably feminine thrill after a visit to the great man, "he
+saw scarce a human being, except a few boors and blacks employed in
+clearing and logging his land; he himself assumed the blanket coat and
+axe, slept upon the bare earth, cooked three meals a day for twenty
+woodsmen, cleaned his own boots, washed his own linen, milked his cows,
+churned the butter, and made and baked the bread."[<A NAME="chap02fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn13">13</A>]  Yet, as
+Strickland confesses, in his <I>Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West</I>, there
+were few Talbots.  "Many high-spirited gentlemen," he says, "were
+tempted by the grants of land bestowed on them by the government, which
+made actual settlement one of the conditions of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P20"></A>20}</SPAN>
+the grant.  It
+followed, as a matter of course, that the majority of these persons
+were physically disqualified for such an undertaking, a fact which many
+deserted farms in the rear townships of the county in which I reside
+painfully indicate."[<A NAME="chap02fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn14">14</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+French Canadians and United Empire Loyalists constituted the stable
+factors in Canadian public life; but the process of immigration, which
+the years of rebellion checked only for a time, had by 1840 prepared
+another element, and that the most incalculable and disturbing both
+socially and politically.  Indeed the real problem of Canadian public
+life lay simply in the influence of the humbler class of immigrants on
+existing administration and opinion.  It was natural for the other
+settlers and the governing class to regard the larger part of the new
+population as beneath the political level.  The very circumstances of
+the emigrating process carried with them a suggestion of degradation.
+Durham had embodied in his <I>Report</I> the more flagrant examples of the
+horrors of emigration;[<A NAME="chap02fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn15">15</A>] but a later review, written in 1841, proves
+that many of the worst features of the old system still continued.
+There were still the privations, the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P21"></A>21}</SPAN>
+filth and the diseases of
+this northern "middle passage," the epidemics and disorders inflicted
+on the Canadian community as ship-load after ship-load of poor wretches
+passed ashore at Quebec.  On land their sorrows were renewed, for many
+of them were paupers, and there was still no organized effort to
+introduce the labourer to those who required his labour.  More than one
+half of the 12,000 who, according to the report of 1841, passed in that
+year through Bytown locks, were considered objects of charity.  Many of
+them were common labourers with families, men who had little but their
+physical strength as capital for the new venture; and cholera, typhus,
+or smallpox had in many cases reduced even that to the vanishing point.
+More especially among the Irish settlers, who, in these years and
+later, fled in dismay from the distresses of Ireland, the misery
+continued long after the first struggle.  M'Taggart, who had his
+prejudices, but who had unusually good opportunities for observation,
+thought that a tenth of the poorer Irish settlers died during their
+first two years in the country.  He found them clumsy at their work,
+accustomed to the spade and shovel, not to the axe, and maiming
+themselves most fearfully, or even killing themselves, in their
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P22"></A>22}</SPAN>
+experiments in clearing the ground.[<A NAME="chap02fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn16">16</A>]  Of all who came, the
+immigration agents thought the Lowland Scots and the Ulster Irishmen
+the best, and while the poorer class of settler lagged behind in the
+cities of Lower Canada, these others generally pushed on to find a hard
+earned living among the British settlers in the Upper Province.  Some
+of them found their way to the United States.  Others, faced with the
+intolerable delays of the land administration, took the risk of
+"squatting," that is, settling on wild land without securing a right to
+it&mdash;often to find themselves dislodged by a legal owner at the moment
+when their possession <I>de facto</I> seemed established.  The majority
+settled as small farmers in the more frequented districts, or became
+shop-keepers and artisans in the towns.  Politically their position was
+curious.  The Reform Act of 1832 had extended the British franchise,
+but the majority had still no votes; and the immigrants belonged to the
+unenfranchised classes.  The Irish had the additional disability of
+being reckoned disloyal, followers of the great Irish demagogue, and
+disorderly persons until proved otherwise.[<A NAME="chap02fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn17">17</A>] To government servants
+and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P23"></A>23}</SPAN>
+the older settlers alike, it seemed perilous to the community
+to share political power with them.  Yet they were British citizens;
+many of them at once became active members of the community through
+their standing as freeholders; the democratic influence of the United
+States told everywhere on their behalf; and even where hard work left
+little time for political discussion, the fact that local needs might
+be assisted by political discussion, and the stout individualism bred
+by the life of struggle in village, town, and country, forced the new
+settlers to interest themselves in politics.  Many of the new arrivals
+had some pretensions to education&mdash;more especially those from Scotland.
+Indeed it is worthy of note that from the Scottish stream of
+immigration there came not only the earlier agitators, Gourlay and
+Mackenzie, but, at a later date, George Brown, the first great
+political journalist in Canada, Alexander Mackenzie and Oliver Mowat,
+future leaders of Canadian liberalism, and John A. Macdonald, whose
+imperialism never lacked a tincture of traditional Scottish caution.
+The new immigrants were unlikely to challenge the social supremacy of
+the old aristocracy, but they formed so large an accession to the
+population that they could not
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P24"></A>24}</SPAN>
+long remain without political
+power.  They must either be granted the rights of numerical majority or
+be exasperated into destructive agitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is not altogether easy to describe the community or chain of
+communities created out of these diverse elements.  Distance, climatic
+difficulties, and racial misunderstandings weakened the sense of unity
+in the colony; and the chief centres of population were still too young
+and unformed to present to the visitor the characteristics of a
+finished civilization.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everywhere, but more especially in the west, the town population showed
+remarkable increases.  Montreal, which had, in 1790, an estimated
+population of 18,000, had almost trebled that number by 1844; in the
+same interval, Quebec increased from 14,000 to nearly 36,000.  In the
+Upper Province, immigration and natural increase produced an even more
+remarkable expansion.  In the twenty-two years between 1824 and 1846,
+Toronto grew from a village of 1,600 inhabitants to be a flourishing
+provincial capital of 21,000.  In the census of 1848, the population of
+Hamilton was returned as 9,889; that of Kingston as 8,416; Bytown, the
+future capital, had 6,275 inhabitants; while a score of villages such
+as London, Belleville,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P25"></A>25}</SPAN>
+Brockville, and Cobourg had populations
+varying from one to four thousand.[<A NAME="chap02fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn18">18</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Social graces and conveniences had, however, hardly kept pace with the
+increase in numbers.  The French region was, for better or worse,
+homogeneous, and Quebec formed a social centre of some distinction,
+wherein the critical M'Taggart noted less vanity and conceit than was
+to be met with in the country.[<A NAME="chap02fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn19">19</A>]  But further west, British observers
+were usually something less than laudatory.  The municipal franchise in
+the cities of Lower Canada, being confined to the possessors of real
+estate, shut out from civic management the more enterprising trading
+classes, with the natural result that mismanagement and inefficiency
+everywhere prevailed.  In Quebec there was no public lighting, the
+community bought unwholesome water from carters who took it from the
+St. Lawrence, and the gaol&mdash;a grim but useful test of the civilization
+of the place&mdash;not merely afforded direct communication between the
+prisoners and the street, but was so ill ordered that, according to a
+clerical authority, "they who happily are
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P26"></A>26}</SPAN>
+pronounced innocent by
+law may consider it a providential deliverance if they escape in the
+meantime the effects of evil communication and example."[<A NAME="chap02fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn20">20</A>]  While
+Montreal had a better water supply, it remained practically in darkness
+during the winter nights, through the lapsing in 1836 of its earlier
+municipal organization.[<A NAME="chap02fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn21">21</A>]  Strangers were said to find the provincial
+self-importance of its inhabitants irritating.  At the other extreme of
+the province, Mrs. Jameson found fault with the citizens of Toronto for
+their social conventionalism.  "I did not expect to find here," she
+wrote, "in the new capital of a new country, with the boundless forests
+within half a mile of us on almost every side, concentrated as it were,
+the worst evils of our old and most artificial social system at home,
+with none of its <I>agrémens</I>, and none of its advantages.  Toronto is
+like a fourth or fifth rate provincial town with the pretensions of a
+capital city."[<A NAME="chap02fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn22">22</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everywhere, if contemporary prints of the cities may be taken as
+evidence, the military element was very prominent, and the tone was
+distinctly English.  The leaders of society looked
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P27"></A>27}</SPAN>
+to London for
+their fashions, and men like John Beverley Robinson moved naturally, if
+a little stiffly, in the best English circles when they crossed to
+England.  It was, indeed, a straining after a social standard not quite
+within the reach of the ambitious provincial, which produced the
+conventionalism and dullness, noticed by British visitors in Canadian
+towns.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the smaller towns or villages where pretensions were fewer, and
+society accepted itself for that which it really was, there was much
+rude plenty and happiness.  An Ayrshire settler writing in 1845, after
+an orthodox confession that Canada, like Scotland, "groaned under the
+curse of the Almighty," described his town, Cobourg, as a place where
+wages were higher and prices lower than at home.  "A carpenter," he
+writes, "asks 6s. sterling for a day's work (without board), mason 8s.,
+men working by the day at labourer's work 2s. and board, 4s. a day in
+harvest.  Hired men by the month, 10 and 11 dollars in summer, and 7
+and 8 in winter, and board.  Women, 3 and 4 dollars per month, not much
+higher than at home.  Provisions are cheaper here than at home.  Wheat,
+4s. per bushel; oats 1s. 3d. and 1s. 6d per bushel; potatoes, 1s. 6d.;
+beef and pork, 3d. and 4d. per
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P28"></A>28}</SPAN>
+lb.; butter, 6d. per lb.; cheese,
+6d.; tobacco, 1s. per lb.; whisky, 1s. 6d. per gallon; apples, 1s. 6d.
+per bushel; tea from 2s. 6d. to 4s., and sugar, 6d. per lb....  A man
+by honest industry here may live comfortably and support himself
+decently&mdash;I can, I know&mdash;and save something too.  We live much better
+here than at home."[<A NAME="chap02fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn23">23</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+More especially in the smaller towns, the externals must have presented
+a steady and dull monotony&mdash;the jail and court-house, three or four
+churches, a varying number of mean-looking stores including a liberal
+proportion of taverns, and the irregular rows of private houses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If lack of efficient public spirit, and social monotony, marked the
+towns, the settlers in the bush were hardly likely to show a vigorous
+communal spirit.  They had their common life, building, clearing,
+harvesting in local "bees," primitive assemblies in which work,
+drinking, and recreation welded the primitive community together, and
+the "grog-boss" became for a time the centre of society.[<A NAME="chap02fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn24">24</A>]  But the
+average day of the farmer was solitary, and, except where politics
+meant
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P29"></A>29}</SPAN>
+bridges, roads, and material gifts, his outlook was limited
+by the physical strain of his daily life, and work and sleep followed
+too closely on each other's track to leave time for other things.
+M'Taggart has a quaint picture of a squatter, which must have been
+typical of much within the colony in 1839.  He found the settler, Peter
+Armstrong, "in a snug little cabin, with a wife, two children, some
+good sleek grey cats, and a very respectable-looking dog.  He had but
+few wants, his health was aye good; there was spring water plenty just
+aside him, and enough to make a good fire in winter, while with what he
+caught, shot, gathered and grew in the yard, he lived well enough."
+His relation to the state, secular and ecclesiastical, is best gauged
+by his admission that when it came to marriage, he and his
+wife&mdash;Scottish like himself&mdash;"just took ane anither's word on't."[<A NAME="chap02fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn25">25</A>]
+Crime, on the whole, considering the elements out of which the
+community had been formed, was surprisingly little in evidence.[<A NAME="chap02fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn26">26</A>]  In
+certain regions it had a natural fertility.  Wherever the white trader
+met the Indian, or rival
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P30"></A>30}</SPAN>
+fur-traders strove in competition, the
+contact between the vices of the two communities bred disorder, and
+Canadian trading success was too often marked by the indiscriminate
+ruin of the Indians through drink and disease.[<A NAME="chap02fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn27">27</A>]  At Bytown, where
+the lumberers gathered to vary their labours in the bush with
+dissipation, the community "was under the control of a very dangerous
+class of roughs, who drank, gambled, and fought continually, and were
+the terror of all well-disposed citizens."[<A NAME="chap02fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn28">28</A>]  Drunkenness seems to
+have been a very prevalent vice, probably because whisky was so cheaply
+produced; and where self-restraint was weak, and vast numbers of the
+poorest classes from Britain formed the basis of society, drunkenness
+was accompanied by bestial violence, or even death, in sudden and
+dreadful forms.[<A NAME="chap02fn29text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn29">29</A>]  But it was the verdict of a Scottish clergyman,
+who played his part in pioneer work round Perth, that "considering the
+mixture of worthless persons, which our population formerly contained,
+it was astonishing how few crimes had been committed."
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P31"></A>31}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Three powerful influences helped to shape the young Canadian community
+and to give it some appearance of unity&mdash;education, religion, and
+politics.  It now becomes necessary to examine these factors in
+Canadian existence in the years prior to, and immediately after, the
+visit of Durham to the colony.  In religion and education, however, our
+analysis must concern Upper and British Canada rather than the French
+region.  In the latter the existence and dominance of the Catholic
+church greatly simplified matters.  Thanks to the eighteenth century
+agreements with the French, Roman Catholicism had been established on
+very favourable terms in Lower Canada, and dominated that region to the
+exclusion of practically all other forms of religious life.  As has
+already been shown, the church controlled not only religion but
+education.  If the women of the Lower Province were better educated
+than the men, it was because the convent schools provided adequately
+for female education.  If higher education was furnished in
+superabundance, again the church was the prime agent, as it was also in
+the comparative neglect of the rank and file; and comment was made by
+Durham's commissioners on the fact that the priesthood resented
+anything which weakened
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P32"></A>32}</SPAN>
+its control over the schools.  This
+Catholic domination had a very notable influence in politics, for,
+after the first outbursts of nationality were over, the Catholic laity
+in politics proved themselves a steadily conservative force.  La
+Fontaine, the first great French leader who knew how to co-operate with
+the British Canadians, was only by accident a progressive, and escaped
+from politics when the growth of Upper Canada radicalism began to draw
+him into dangerous religious questions.[<A NAME="chap02fn30text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn30">30</A>]  But in the Upper Province,
+education and religion did not show this stationary and consistent
+character, and played no little part in preparing for and accentuating
+the political agitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Education had a history rather of good intentions than of brilliant
+achievement.  At different times in the earlier nineteenth century,
+schemes for district grammar schools and general common schools were
+prepared, and sums of money, unhappily not in increasing amounts, were
+voted for educational purposes.  But, apart from the doubtful
+enthusiasm of the legislators, the education
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P33"></A>33}</SPAN>
+of the British settlers was hampered by an absence of suitable
+teachers, and the difficulty of letting children, who were often the
+only farm assistants at hand, attend school for any length of time.
+According to good evidence, half of the true school population never
+saw the schools, and the other half could give only seven months in the
+year to their training.[<A NAME="chap02fn31text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn31">31</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In most country districts, the settlers had to trust to luck both for
+teachers and for schoolhouses, and beginnings which promised better
+things too often ended in blank failure.  There is both humour and
+romance in these early struggles after education.  In Ekfried, by the
+Thames, in Western Canada, there had been no school, till the arrival
+of an honest Scot, Robert Campbell, and the backwardness of the season
+in 1842, gave the settlement a schoolmaster, and the new settler some
+ready money.  "I get a dollar and a half, a quarter per scholar," he
+wrote to his friends in Scotland, "and seeing that the wheat did
+little, I am glad I did engage, for we got plenty of provisions."[<A NAME="chap02fn32text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn32">32</A>]
+In Perth, a more ambitious start
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P34"></A>34}</SPAN>
+met with a tragic end.  The
+Scottish clergyman, appointed to the district by government, opened a
+school at the request of the inhabitants.  All went well, and a
+generous government provided fifty pounds by way of annual stipend;
+until a licentiate of the Anglican Church arrived.  By virtue of the
+standing of his church, the newcomer took precedence of the Scottish
+minister and displaced him as educational leader.  But, says the Scot,
+with an irony, unchristian but excusable, "the school under the
+direction of my clerical successor, soon after died of a consumption,
+and the school-house has been for sometime empty."[<A NAME="chap02fn33text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn33">33</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The main difficulty in education was to provide an adequate supply of
+competent teachers.  Complaints against those who offered their
+services were almost universal.  According to a Niagara witness, not
+more than one out of ten teachers in the district was competent to
+instruct his pupils even in the humblest learning,[<A NAME="chap02fn34text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn34">34</A>] and the
+commissioners who reported to the government of Upper Canada in 1839
+both confirmed these
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P35"></A>35}</SPAN>
+complaints, and described the root of the
+offence when they said, "In this country, the wages of the working
+classes are so high, that few undertake the office of schoolmaster,
+except those who are unable to do anything else; and hence the
+important duties of education are often entrusted to incompetent and
+improper persons.  The income of the schoolmaster should, at least, be
+equal to that of a common labourer."[<A NAME="chap02fn35text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn35">35</A>]  In so precarious a position,
+it was unfortunate that sectarian and local feeling should have
+provoked a controversy at the capital of the western district.  Much as
+the education of the province owed to John Strachan, he did infinite
+harm by involving the foundation of a great central school, Upper
+Canada College, and of the provincial university, in a bitter religious
+discussion.  It was not until the public capacity and unsectarian
+enthusiasm of Egerton Ryerson were enlisted in the service of
+provincial education, that Upper Canada emerged from her period of
+failure and struggle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Apart from provincial and governmental efforts, there were many
+voluntary experiments, of which Strachan's famous school at Cornwall,
+was perhaps the most notable.  After all, the colonists were
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P36"></A>36}</SPAN>
+Britons, many of them trained in the Scottish system of national
+democratic education, and wherever the struggle for existence slackened
+down, they turned to plan a Canadian system as like as possible to that
+which they had left.  Kingston was notably enterprising in this
+respect.  Not only were there schools for the more prosperous classes,
+but attempts were made to provide cheap education for the poor, at
+first supported by the voluntary contributions of ladies, and then by a
+committee representative of the best Anglican and Presbyterian
+sentiment.  Three of these schools were successfully conducted at very
+small charges, and, in certain cases, the poorest received education
+free.[<A NAME="chap02fn36text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn36">36</A>]  In higher education the period of union in Canada exhibited
+great activity.  The generous provision made for a King's College in
+Toronto had been for a long time stultified by the ill-timed sectarian
+spirit of the Bishop of Toronto; but a more reasonable temper prevailed
+after the Rebellion, and the second governor-general of the united
+provinces, Sir Charles Bagot, spent much of his short time of service
+in securing professors and seeing the provincial university
+launched.[<A NAME="chap02fn37text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn37">37</A>]
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P37"></A>37}</SPAN>
+At the same time, the two other Canadian colleges of
+note, M'Gill University and Queen's College, came into active
+existence.  In October, 1839, after many years of delay, Montreal saw
+the corner-stone of the first English and Protestant College in Lower
+Canada laid,[<A NAME="chap02fn38text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn38">38</A>] and in the winter of 1841-2, Dr. Liddell sailed from
+Scotland to begin the history of struggle and gallant effort which has
+characterized Queen's College, Kingston, from first to last.  It is
+perhaps the most interesting detail of early university education in
+Canada, that the Presbyterian College started in a frame house, with
+two professors, one representing Arts and one Theology, and with some
+twenty students, very few of whom, however, were "fitted to be
+matriculated."[<A NAME="chap02fn39text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn39">39</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is well to remember, in face of beginnings so irregular, and even
+squalid, that deficiencies in Canadian college education had been made
+good by the English and Scottish universities, and that Canadian higher
+education was from the outset assisted by the genuine culture and
+learning of the British colleges; for the main sources of university
+inspiration in British North America
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P38"></A>38}</SPAN>
+were Oxford and Cambridge,
+Glasgow and Edinburgh.[<A NAME="chap02fn40text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn40">40</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were, of course, other less formal modes of education.  When once
+political agitation commenced, the press contributed not a little to
+the education of the nation, and must indeed be counted one of the
+chief agencies of information, if not of culture.  Everywhere, from
+Quebec to Hamilton, enterprising politicians made their influence felt
+through newspapers.  The period prior to the Rebellion had seen
+Mackenzie working through his <I>Colonial Advocate</I>; and the cause of
+responsible government soon found saner and abler exponents in Francis
+Hincks and George Brown.  At every important centre, one, two, or even
+more news-sheets, not without merit, were maintained; and the secular
+press was reinforced by such educational enterprise as the Dougalls
+attempted in the <I>Montreal Witness</I>, or by church papers like the
+Methodist <I>Christian Guardian</I>.[<A NAME="chap02fn41text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn41">41</A>]
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P39"></A>39}</SPAN>
+Nothing, perhaps, is more
+characteristic of this phase of Canadian intellectual growth than the
+earlier volumes of the <I>Witness</I>, which played a part in Canada similar
+to that of the Chambers' publications in Scotland.  The note struck was
+deeply sober and moral; the appeal was made to the working and middle
+classes who in Canada as in Scotland were coming into possession of
+their heritage; and if the intellectual level attained was never very
+high, an honest attempt was being made to educate the shop-keepers and
+farmers of Canada into wholesome national ideals.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Little literary activity seems to have existed outside of politics and
+the newspapers.  For a time cheap reprints from America assisted
+Britons in Canada with their forbidden fruits, but government at last
+intervened.  It is a curious fact that this perfectly just and natural
+prohibition had a most unfortunate effect in checking the reading
+habits of the colony.[<A NAME="chap02fn42text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn42">42</A>]  In the larger towns there
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P40"></A>40}</SPAN>
+were
+circulating libraries, and presumably immigrants occasionally brought
+books with them; but newspaper advertisements suggest that school
+books, and the like, formed almost the only stock-in-trade of the
+book-shop; and the mercurial Major Richardson, after agitating the
+chief book-sellers in Canada on behalf of one of his literary ventures,
+found that his total sales amounted to barely thirty copies, and even
+an auction sale at Kingston discovered only one purchaser, who limited
+his offer to sevenpence halfpenny.  In speaking, then, of the Canadian
+political community in 1839, one cannot say, as Burke did of the
+Americans in 1775, that they were a highly educated or book-reading
+people.  Their politicians, progressive and conservative alike, might
+have shortened, simplified, and civilized certain stages in their
+political agitations, had they been able more fully to draw on the
+authority of British political experience; and their provincialism
+would not have thrust itself so disagreeably on the modern student, had
+Locke, Rousseau, Burke, and the greater leaders in modern political
+science, been household names in early Victorian Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As with other young communities, the church and religion had their part
+to play in the shaping
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P41"></A>41}</SPAN>
+of modern Canada.  And yet it would be
+impossible to attribute to any of the Canadian churches an influence so
+decisive as that which religion exercised through Presbyterianism in
+the creation of the Scottish democracy, or through Independency in
+moulding the New England character.  For while the question of a
+religious establishment proved one of the most exciting issues in
+politics, influences more truly religious suffered a natural
+degradation and diminution through their over-close association with
+secular affairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once again the situation in Lower Canada was simplified by the
+conditions prevailing among the French Canadians.  For Lower Canada was
+whole-heartedly Catholic, and the Canadian branch of the Roman Church
+had its eulogy pronounced in no uncertain fashion by the Earl of
+Durham, who, after praising its tolerant spirit, summed up the services
+of the priesthood in these terms: "The Catholic priesthood of this
+Province have, to a remarkable degree, conciliated the good-will of
+persons of all creeds; and I know of no parochial clergy in the world,
+whose practice of all the Christian virtues, and zealous discharge of
+their clerical duties, is more universally admired, and has been
+productive of more beneficial consequences.
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P42"></A>42}</SPAN>
+Possessed of incomes
+sufficient, and even large, according to the notions entertained in the
+country, and enjoying the advantage of education, they have lived on
+terms of equality and kindness with the humblest and least instructed
+inhabitants of the rural districts.  Intimately acquainted with the
+wants and characters of their neighbours, they have been the promoters
+and dispensers of charity, and the effectual guardians of the morals of
+the people; and in the general absence of any permanent institutions of
+civil government, the Catholic Church has presented almost the only
+semblance of stability and organization, and furnished the only
+effectual support for civilization and order.  The Catholic clergy of
+Lower Canada are entitled to this expression of my esteem, not only
+because it is founded on truth, but because a grateful recognition of
+their eminent services, in resisting the arts of the disaffected, is
+especially due to them from one who has administered the government of
+the Province in these troubled times."[<A NAME="chap02fn43text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn43">43</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Upper Canada and the British community presented a somewhat different
+picture.  Certain Roman Catholic elements among the Irish and the
+Scottish Highlanders reinforced the ranks of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P43"></A>43}</SPAN>
+Catholicism, but for
+the greater part Anglicanism and Presbyterianism were the
+ecclesiastical guides of the settlers.  At first, apart from official
+religion, the Church of England appeared in Canada in missionary form,
+and about 1820 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had
+fifteen missionaries in Lower Canada, and seventeen in Upper Canada.
+But under the fostering care of governors like Colborne, and the
+organizing genius of Dr. Strachan, Rector, Archdeacon, and latterly
+Bishop in Toronto, the Anglican Church in Canada became a
+self-dependent unit.  The Bishop of Toronto was able to boast in 1842
+that in his western visitation, which lasted from June till October, he
+had "consecrated two churches and one burial ground, confirmed 756
+persons at twenty-four different stations, and travelled, including his
+journeys for the formation of District Branches of the Church Society,
+upwards of 2,500 miles."[<A NAME="chap02fn44text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn44">44</A>]  In cities like Toronto and Kingston it
+was on the whole the church of the governing class, and shared in the
+culture and public qualities of that class.  Nor was it negligent of
+the cure of poorer souls, for Anglicans co-operated with Presbyterians
+in the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P44"></A>44}</SPAN>
+management of the poor schools in Kingston, and in that and
+the other more prominent towns of the province, the English parish
+church system seems to have been transplanted and worked most
+efficiently.  Equal in importance, if not in numbers, Scottish
+Presbyterianism claimed its section of the community.  Down to 1822,
+there were but six organized congregations in Upper and Lower Canada
+connected with the Church of Scotland,[<A NAME="chap02fn45text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn45">45</A>] but at the first
+Presbyterian Synod held in Canada, in 1831, fourteen ministers and five
+elders gathered at Kingston to represent the Church;[<A NAME="chap02fn46text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn46">46</A>] and by 1837
+the number of congregations had grown to 37 in Upper Canada, and 14 in
+Lower Canada.  Nor were these weak and struggling efforts.  The
+Scottish Church at Kingston had in 1841 a membership of 350, and an
+average attendance of 800.  Like its Anglican rival, it was simply a
+parish church, and its minister, trained in Edinburgh, as the Anglican
+cleric came naturally from an English college, visited, preached, and
+disciplined according to the rules of Knox and Melville, and
+maintained, perhaps more genuinely than either school or
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P45"></A>45}</SPAN>
+newspaper
+could, an educational influence on his flock not unworthy of the mother
+country.  Here and there the ties, which still remained strong, between
+Canadian settlements and the districts in Scotland whence the settlers
+were drawn, proved useful aids in church extension.  Lanark, in Upper
+Canada, owed its church to the efforts of friends in Lanarkshire, in
+Scotland, who collected no less a sum than Ł290 for the purpose.[<A NAME="chap02fn47text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn47">47</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the religious life of Canada was assisted by another less official
+force, the Methodist Church.  Methodism in its earlier days incurred
+the reproach of being rather American than British, and, in one of his
+most unjustifiable perversions of the truth, Strachan tried to make the
+fact tell against the sect, in his notorious table of ecclesiastical
+statistics.  Undoubtedly there was a stronger American element in the
+Methodist connection than in either of the other churches; and its
+spirit lent itself more readily to American innovations.  Its fervent
+methods drew from the ranks of colder churches the more emotional, and
+being freer and homelier in its ritual, it appealed very directly to a
+rude and half-educated community.  Thus the Methodist preachers made
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P46"></A>46}</SPAN>
+rapid headway, more especially in regions untouched by the
+official churches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the representative man of early Canadian Methodism, Egerton Ryerson,
+qualities conspicuously British and conservative, appeared.  Through
+him Methodism came forward as the supporter of the British connection
+in the Metcalfe troubles, as through him it may claim some of the glory
+of organizing an adequate system of provincial education.  But, after
+all, the noblest work of the sect was done in informal and irregular
+fashion.  They were the pioneers and <I>coureurs du bois</I> of the British
+province in the religious world.  Perhaps the most genuine tribute paid
+to this earlier phase of Methodism was that of John Beverley Robinson,
+when his fellow Anglicans blamed him in 1842 for granting a plot of
+ground for a Methodist chapel.  "Frequently," he retorted, "in the most
+lonely parts of the wilderness, in townships where a clergyman of the
+Church of England had never been heard, and probably never seen, I have
+found the population assembled in some log building, earnestly engaged
+in acts of devotion, and listening to those doctrines and truths which
+are inculcated in common by most Christian denominations, but which, if
+it had not been for
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P47"></A>47}</SPAN>
+the ministration of dissenting preachers,
+would for thirty years have been but little known, if at all, to the
+greater part of the inhabitants of the interior of Upper Canada."[<A NAME="chap02fn48text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn48">48</A>]
+Still the Canadian Methodist Church did not occupy so conspicuous a
+place in the official public life of Canada, and in Sydenham's
+Legislative Council of 1841, out of twenty-four members, eight
+represented Anglicanism, eight Presbyterianism, eight Catholicism, and
+Methodism had to find lowlier places for its political leaders.[<A NAME="chap02fn49text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn49">49</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hitherto religion has been viewed in its social and spiritual aspects.
+But Canadian history has, with perhaps over-emphasis, selected one
+great controversy as the central point in the religious life of the
+province.  It is not my intention to enter here into the wearisome
+details of the Clergy Reserve question.  But the fight over the
+establishment principle forms an essential factor in the social and
+political life of Canada between 1839 and 1854, the year in which it
+was finally settled.  It is first necessary to discriminate between
+what may be called casual and incidental support to churches in Canada,
+and the main Clergy Reserve
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P48"></A>48}</SPAN>
+fund.  When Dr. Black challenged, in
+the interests of Presbyterianism, certain monies paid to Anglican
+churches in Upper and Lower Canada, he was able to point to direct
+assistance given by the Imperial Parliament to the Anglican Church in
+Canada.  He was told in answer that these grants were temporarily made
+to individuals with whose lives they terminated, and that a pledge had
+been given in 1832 that Britain should be relieved of such
+expenses.[<A NAME="chap02fn50text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn50">50</A>]  In a similar fashion, when the district of Perth, in
+Upper Canada, was settled by discharged soldiers and emigrants from
+Scotland, "Government offered assistance for the support of a minister,
+<I>without respect to religious denomination</I>," and, as a matter of fact,
+the community thus assisted to a clergyman, received, not a minister of
+the Church of Scotland, but one ordained by the Secession Church in
+Scotland&mdash;a curious but laudable example of laxity on the part of
+government.[<A NAME="chap02fn51text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn51">51</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The root and ground of offending lay in the thirty-sixth and following
+clauses of the Constitutional Act of 1791, which proposed to support
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P49"></A>49}</SPAN>
+and maintain a Protestant clergy in the provinces by grants of
+land, equal in value to the seventh part of lands granted for other
+purposes.  On the face of it, and interpreted by the clauses which
+follow, the Act seems to bear out the Anglican contention that the
+English Church establishment received an extension to Canada through
+the Act, and that no other church was expected to receive a share.  It
+is true that the legal decision of 1819, and the views of colonial
+secretaries like Glenelg, admitted at least the Scottish Church to a
+portion of the benefits.  But for the purposes of the situation in
+1839, it is merely necessary to say that a British parliament in 1791,
+ignorant of actual colonial conditions, and more especially of the
+curious ecclesiastical developments with which the American colonies
+had modified the British system before 1776, and probably forgetful of
+the claims of the Church of Scotland to parliamentary recognition, had
+given Canada the beginnings of an Anglican Church establishment; and
+that the Anglicans in Canada, and more especially those led by Dr. John
+Strachan, had more than fulfilled the sectarian and monopolist
+intentions of the legislators.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three schools of opinion formed themselves in
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P50"></A>50}</SPAN>
+the intervening
+years.  First and foremost came the establishment men, mainly Anglican,
+but with a certain Presbyterian following, who claimed to monopolize
+the benefits, such as they were, of the Clergy Reserve funds.  Canada
+as a British colony was bound to support the one or two state churches
+of the mother country; religious inequality was to flourish there as at
+home; dissent was to receive the same stigma and disqualification, and
+the dominant church or churches were to live, not by the efforts of
+their members, but at the expense of all citizens of the state, whether
+Anglican, Presbyterian, or Methodist.  This phase of opinion received
+its most offensive expression from leaders like the Bishop of Toronto.
+To these monopolists, any modification of the Anglican settlement
+seemed a "tyrannical and unjust measure," and they adopted an
+ecclesiastical arrogance towards their fellow-Christians, which did
+much to alienate popular sympathies throughout the province.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the other extreme was a solid mass of public sentiment which had
+little interest in the ecclesiastical theories of the Bishop of
+Toronto, and which resented alike attempts to convert the provincial
+university into an Anglican college, and the cumbrous and unjust form
+of church establishment,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P51"></A>51}</SPAN>
+the most obvious evidence of which lay in
+the undeveloped patches of Clergy Reserve land scattered everywhere
+throughout the settlements.  It was the undoubted desire of a majority
+in 1840 that the Clergy Reserve system should be ended, the former
+reserves sold, and the proceeds applied to educational and general
+purposes; a desire which had been registered in the House of Assembly
+on fourteen different occasions since 1826.[<A NAME="chap02fn52text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn52">52</A>]  The case for the
+voluntary principle in Canada had many exponents, but these words of
+Dr. John Rolph in 1836 express the spirit of the movement in both its
+strength and its weakness: "Instead of making a State provision for any
+one or more churches; instead of apportioning the Clergy Reserves among
+them with a view to promoting Christianity; instead of giving pensions
+and salaries to ministers to make them independent of voluntary
+contributions from the people, I would studiously avoid that policy,
+and leave truth unfettered and unimpeded to make her own conquests....
+The professions of law and physic are well represented in this
+Assembly, and bear ample testimony to the generosity of the people
+towards them.  Will good, pious and evangelical ministers of our holy
+religion be likely to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P52"></A>52}</SPAN>
+fare worse than the physicians of the body,
+or the agents for our temporal affairs?  Let gospel ministers, as the
+Scriptures say, live by the gospel, and the apostolic maxim that the
+workman is worthy of his hire implies the performance of duty rewarded
+temporarily by those who impose it.  There is no fear that the
+profession will become extinct for want of professors."[<A NAME="chap02fn53text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn53">53</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Between the extremes, however, there existed a group of moderate
+politicians, represented, in the Upper Province by Baldwin, in the
+Lower by La Fontaine, and among British statesmen apparently by both
+Sydenham and Elgin.  Especially among its Canadian members, this group
+felt keenly the desirability of supporting religion, as it struggled
+through the difficulties inevitably connected with early colonial life.
+But neither Baldwin, who was a devoted Anglican, nor La Fontaine, a
+faithful son of his Church, showed any tinge of Strachan's bitterness
+as they considered the question; and nothing impressed Canadian opinion
+more than did La Fontaine's speech, in a later phase of the Clergy
+Reserve troubles, when he solemnly renounced on behalf of his
+coreligionists any chance of stealing an advantage while the
+Protestants
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P53"></A>53}</SPAN>
+were quarrelling, and when he stated his opinion that
+the endowment belonged to the Protestant clergy, and should be shared
+equally among them.  It was this school of thought&mdash;-to anticipate
+events by a year or two&mdash;which received the sanction of Sydenham's
+statesmanship, and that energetic mind never accomplished anything more
+notable than when, in the face of a strong secularizing feeling, to the
+justification for which he was in no way blind, he repelled the party
+of monopoly, and yet retained the endowment for the Protestant churches
+of Canada.  "The Clergy Reserves," he wrote in a private letter, "have
+been, and are, the great overwhelming grievance&mdash;the root of all the
+troubles of the province, the cause of the Rebellion&mdash;the never-failing
+watchword at the hustings&mdash;the perpetual source of discord, strife, and
+hatred.  Not a man of any party but has told me that the greatest boon
+which could be conferred on the country would be that they should be
+swept into the Atlantic, and that nobody should get them.  My Bill[<A NAME="chap02fn54text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn54">54</A>]
+has gone through the Assembly by a considerable majority, thirty to
+twenty, and I feel confident that I can get it through the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P54"></A>54}</SPAN>
+Council
+without the change of a word.  If it is really carried, it is the
+greatest work that ever has been done in this country, and will be of
+more solid advantage to it than all the loans and all the troops you
+can make or send.  It is worth ten unions, and was ten times more
+difficult."[<A NAME="chap02fn55text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn55">55</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is a melancholy comment on the ecclesiastical interpretation of
+religion that, ten years later, when the firmly expressed desires of
+all moderate men had given the Bishop of Toronto a good excuse for
+acquiescence in Sydenham's <I>status quo</I>, that pugnacious ecclesiastic
+still fought to save as much of the monopoly as could be secured.[<A NAME="chap02fn56text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn56">56</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With the Clergy Reserve dispute, the region of politics has been
+reached; and, after all, politics furnished the most powerful influence
+in the young Canadian community.  But politics must be taken less in
+the constitutional sense, as has been the custom with Canadian writers,
+and more in the social and human sense.  It is important also to note
+the broad stretches of Canadian existence
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P55"></A>55}</SPAN>
+into which they hardly
+intruded.  Political questions found few exponents among the pioneers
+as they cleared the forests, or gathered lumber for the British market,
+or pushed far to the west and north in pursuit of furs.  Even the
+Rebellion, when news of it reached Strickland and his fellow-settlers
+in the Peterborough country, came to them less as part of a prolonged
+struggle in which they all were taking part, than as an abnormal
+incident, to be ended outright by loyal strength.  They hardly seem to
+have thought that any liberties of theirs were really endangered.  When
+Mackenzie himself complained that instead of entering Toronto with four
+or five thousand men, he found himself at the head of a poor two
+hundred, he does not seem to have realized that, even had his
+fellow-conspirators not mismanaged things, it would still have been
+difficult to keep hard-working settlers keyed up to the pitch of
+revolutionary and abstract doctrines.[<A NAME="chap02fn57text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn57">57</A>]  There must have been many
+settlers of the temper of the humble Scottish janitor in Queen's
+College, Kingston, who wrote, in the midst of the struggle of parties
+in 1851: "For my part I never trouble my head about one of them.
+Although the polling-house was just across
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P56"></A>56}</SPAN>
+the street, I never
+went near it."[<A NAME="chap02fn58text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn58">58</A>]  In the cities, however, and along the main lines of
+communication, the interest must have been keen, and the country
+undoubtedly attained its manhood as it struggled towards the solution
+of questions like those of the Clergy Reserves, the financing of the
+colony, the regulation of trade and immigration, and, above all others,
+the definition of responsible government.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Something has already been said of the various political groups in the
+colony, for they corresponded roughly to the different strata of
+settlement&mdash;French, Loyalist, and men of the later immigration.  It is
+true, as Sydenham and Elgin pointed out, that the British party names
+hardly corresponded to local divisions&mdash;and that these divisions were
+really too petty to deserve the name of parties.  Yet it would be
+foolish to deny the actual existence of the groups, or to refuse to see
+in their turbulence and strife the beginning of national
+self-consciousness, and the first stage in a notable political
+development.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Most conspicuous among the political forces, because the bond of party
+union was for them
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P57"></A>57}</SPAN>
+something deeper than opinion, and must be
+called racial, was the French-Canadian group, with the whole weight of
+<I>habitant</I> support behind it.  From the publication of Lord Durham's
+<I>Report</I>, through the Sydenham regime, and down till Sir Charles Bagot
+surrendered to their claims, the French politicians presented an
+unbroken and hostile front to the British community.  Colborne had
+repressed their risings at the point of the bayonet; a Whig government
+had deprived them temporarily of free institutions; Durham&mdash;their
+friend after his fashion&mdash;had bidden them be absorbed into the greater
+British community; Sydenham came to enforce what Durham had suggested;
+and, with each new check, their pride had grown more stubborn and their
+nationalism more intense.  Bagot, who understood them and whom they
+came to trust, may be allowed to describe their characteristics,
+through the troubled first years of union: "On Lord Sydenham's
+arrival," he wrote to Stanley, "he found the Lower Province deprived of
+a constitution, the legislative functions of the government being
+administered by a special council, consisting of a small number of
+members nominated by the Crown.  A large portion of the people, at
+least those of French origin, prostrate under
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P58"></A>58}</SPAN>
+the effects of the
+Rebellion, overawed by the power of Great Britain, and excluded from
+all share in the government, had resigned themselves to a sullen and
+reluctant submission, or to a perverse but passive resistance to the
+government.  This temper was not improved by the passing of the Act of
+Union.  In this measure, heedless of the generosity of the Imperial
+government, in overlooking their recent disaffection, and giving them a
+free and popular constitution, ... they apprehended a new instrument of
+subjection, and accordingly prepared to resist it.  Lord Sydenham found
+them in this disposition, and despairing, from its early
+manifestations, of the possibility of overcoming or appeasing it,
+before the period at which it would be necessary to put in force the
+Act of Union, he determined upon evincing his indifference to it, and
+upon taking steps to carry out his views, in spite of the opposition of
+the French party....  They have from that time declared and evinced
+their hostility to the Union ... and have maintained a consistent,
+united, and uncompromising opposition to the government which was
+concerned in carrying it into execution."[<A NAME="chap02fn59text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn59">59</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To describe the French in politics, it has been
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P59"></A>59}</SPAN>
+necessary to
+advance a year or two beyond 1839, for the Rebellion had terminated one
+phase of their political existence, and the characteristics of the next
+phase did not become apparent till the Union Assembly of 1841 and 1842.
+It was indeed an abnormal form of the national and racial question
+which there presented itself.  French Canada found itself represented
+by a party, over twenty in number, the most compact in the House of
+Assembly, and with <I>la nation Canadienne</I> solidly behind them.  In La
+Fontaine, Viger, Morin and others, it had leaders both skilful and
+fully trusted.  Yet the party of the British supremacy quoted Durham
+and others in favour of a plan for the absorption of French Canada in
+the British element; and the same party could recount, with telling
+effect, the past misdeeds, or at least the old suspicions, connected
+with the names of the French leaders.  Misunderstood, and yet half
+excusably misunderstood; self-governing, and yet deprived of many of
+the legitimate consequences and fruits of self-government; without
+places or honours, and yet coherent, passionately French, and
+competently led, the French party stood across the path of Canadian
+peace, menacing, and with a racial rather than a party threat.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P60"></A>60}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+In the Upper Province, the party in possession, the so-called Family
+Compact group, posed as the only friends of Britain.  They had never
+possessed more than an accidental majority in the Lower House, and,
+since Durham's rule, it seemed likely that their old supremacy in the
+Executive and Legislative Councils had come to an end.  Yet as their
+power receded, their language became the more peremptory, and their
+contempt for other groups the more bitter.  One of the most respectable
+of the group, J. S. Cartwright, frankly confessed that he thought his
+fellow-colonists unfit for any extension of self-government "in a
+country where almost universal suffrage prevails, where the great mass
+of the people are uneducated, and where there is but little of that
+salutary influence which hereditary rank and great wealth exercise in
+Great Britain."[<A NAME="chap02fn60text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn60">60</A>]  Their position had an apparent but unreal
+strength, because they knew that the older type of Colonial official,
+the entire British Conservative party, and the Church of England, at
+home and abroad, supported them.  As late as July, 1839, Arthur, the
+representative of the Crown in Upper Canada, could write thus to his
+government concerning more than half the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P61"></A>61}</SPAN>
+population under his
+authority: "There is a considerable section of persons who are disloyal
+to the core; reform is on their lips, but separation is in their
+hearts.  These people having for the last two or three years made a
+'responsible government' their watch-word, are now extravagantly elated
+because the Earl of Durham has recommended that measure.  They regard
+it as an unerring means to get rid of all British connection, while the
+Earl of Durham, on the contrary, has recommended it as a measure for
+cementing the existing bond of union with the mother country."[<A NAME="chap02fn61text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn61">61</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Their programme was precise and consistent.  The influence of a too
+democratic franchise was to be modified by a Conservative upper house,
+and an executive council, chosen not in accordance with popular wishes,
+but from the class&mdash;their own&mdash;which had so long been dominant in the
+executive.  The British connection depended, in their view, on the
+permanent alliance between their group and whatsoever representative
+the British crown might send to Canada.  French Canadian feeling they
+were prepared to repress as a thing rebellious and un-English, and the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P62"></A>62}</SPAN>
+friends of the French in Upper Canada they regarded very much as a
+South African might the Englishman who should be prepared to strengthen
+his political position by an alliance with the native peoples; although
+events were to prove that, when other elements of self-interest
+dictated a different course, they were not unwilling to co-operate in
+the interests of disorder with the French.  In ecclesiastical affairs,
+they supported the establishment of an Anglican Church in Canada, and
+insulted religion never found more eloquent defenders than did the
+Clergy Reserve establishment at the hands of Sir Allan MacNab, the
+Conservative leader, and his allies.  But events and their own factious
+excesses had broken their power.  They had allowed nothing for the
+possibilities of political education, in a land where the poorest had
+infinite chances of gaining independence.  They scorned democracy at a
+time when nothing else in politics had a stable future; and the country
+naturally distrusted constitutional logicians whose conclusions
+invariably landed them in the sole possession of emoluments and place.
+Sydenham's quick eye foresaw the coming rout, and it was his opinion,
+before the Assembly of 1841 came to make matters certain, that moderate
+men would overturn the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P63"></A>63}</SPAN>
+sway of old Toryism, and that the wild
+heads under MacNab would stultify themselves by their foolish
+conduct.[<A NAME="chap02fn62text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn62">62</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In Upper Canada, the Conservative and Family Compact group had to face
+a vigorous Reforming opposition.  It is well, however, after 1838, to
+discriminate between any remnants of the old Mackenzie school, and the
+men under whom Canada was to secure unrestricted self-government.  The
+truth is that the situation up to 1837 had been too abnormal to permit
+the constitutional radicals to show themselves in their true character.
+Mackenzie himself, in the rather abject letter with which he sought
+reinstatement in 1848, admitted the falsity of his old position: "Had I
+seen things in 1837 as I do in 1848, I would have shuddered at the very
+idea of revolt, no matter what our wrongs might have been.  I ought, as
+a Scotsman, to have stood by the government in America to the last;
+exerted any energy I possessed to make it better, more just, more
+perfect; left it for a time, if too oppressive, but never tried, as I
+did, to put it down."[<A NAME="chap02fn63text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn63">63</A>]  Mackenzie's ideal, discovered
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P64"></A>64}</SPAN>
+by him
+too late to be very useful, was actually that of the Reforming
+Loyalists who refused to indulge in treason in 1837, but who determined
+to secure their ends by peaceful persuasion.  Their leader in public
+affairs was Robert Baldwin, whose career and opinions may be more fitly
+considered at a later point, and Francis Hincks expounded their views
+in his paper <I>The Examiner</I>.  They were devoted adherents of the
+Responsible Government school; that is, they desired to have provincial
+cabinets, not simply chosen so that they might not conflict with public
+opinion, but imposed upon the governor by public opinion through its
+representatives in the House of Assembly.  They had for years protested
+against the Clergy Reserves monopoly, and although Baldwin seems always
+to have favoured the retention of some form of assistance to religion,
+the ordinary reformer was vehement for absolute secularization.
+Sydenham when he came, refused to admit that the British party names
+were anything but misnomers in Canada; and yet Hincks was not singular
+among the reformers when he said that he had been in favour of all the
+measures advocated by the British progressives&mdash;Catholic Emancipation,
+the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, Abolition of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P65"></A>65}</SPAN>
+Slavery,
+and Parliamentary Reform.[<A NAME="chap02fn64text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn64">64</A>]  Their relation to the French was
+curious.  Unlike the French, they were usually strong advocates of a
+union of the two provinces, and they sympathized neither with
+Papineau's doctrinaire republicanism, nor with the sullen negative
+hatred of things British which then possessed so many minds in Lower
+Canada.  But grievances still unredressed created a fellow-feeling with
+the French, and from 1839 until 1842 the gradual formation of an
+Anglo-French reforming <I>bloc</I>, under Baldwin and La Fontaine, was one
+of the most notable developments in Canadian political life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After the Union, as before it, the political life of Canada was
+characterized by a readiness to resort to violence, and a lack of
+political good manners, which contrasted painfully with the eloquent
+phrases and professions of the orators on either side.  The earliest
+impression which the first governor-general of the Union received of
+politics in his province was one of disorder and mismanagement.  "You
+can form no idea of the manner in which a Colonial Parliament transacts
+its business," Poulett Thomson wrote from Toronto, in 1839.  "When they
+came to their own affairs,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P66"></A>66}</SPAN>
+and, above all, to the money matters,
+there was a scene of confusion and riot of which no one in England can
+have any idea.  Every man proposes a vote for his own job, and bills
+are introduced without notice, and carried through all their stages in
+a quarter of an hour."[<A NAME="chap02fn65text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn65">65</A>]  The first efforts in the struggle for
+responsible government were rendered needlessly irritating by the
+absence of that spirit of courteous moderation which usually
+characterizes the proceedings of the Imperial Parliament.  The
+relations between the governor and his ministers, at the best
+difficult, were made impossible for a man like Metcalfe by the
+ill-mannered disdain with which, as all the citizens of his capital
+knew, the cabinet spoke of their official head; and in debate the
+personal element played far too prominent a part.  In all the early
+Union assemblies, too, the house betrayed its inexperience by passing
+rapidly from serious constitutional questions to petty jobs and
+quarrels, and as rapidly back again to first principles.  There was a
+general failure to see the risk run by too frequent discussions on
+fundamentals, and much of the bitterness of party strife would have
+been avoided if the rival parties could have prosecuted their
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P67"></A>67}</SPAN>
+adverse operations by slower and more scientific approaches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The warmth of feeling and the disorder exhibited in the councils of
+state and the assembly, met with a ready response in the country.  It
+is only fair to say that many of the gravest disturbances were caused
+by recent immigrants, more especially by the Irish labourers on the
+canals in the neighbourhood of Montreal.[<A NAME="chap02fn66text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn66">66</A>]  But the whole community
+must share in the discredit.  The days had not yet ceased when
+political bills called on adherents of one or other party to assemble
+"with music and good shillelaghs";[<A NAME="chap02fn67text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn67">67</A>] and indeed the decade from 1840
+to 1850 was distinctly one of political rioting.  The election of 1841
+was disgraced, more especially in Lower Canada, by very violent strife.
+In 1843 an Act was deemed necessary "to provide for the calling and
+orderly holding of public meetings in this province and for the better
+preservation of the public peace thereat."[<A NAME="chap02fn68text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn68">68</A>]  In the Montreal
+election of April, 1844, Metcalfe accused both his former
+inspector-general and the reform candidate of using inflammatory and
+reckless language, and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P68"></A>68}</SPAN>
+certainly both then and in November
+disgraceful riots made the elections no true register of public
+sentiment.  At the very end of the decade, the riots caused by the
+passing of the "Rebellion Losses" Act, organized, it must be
+remembered, by the so-called loyal party, endangered the life of a
+governor-general, and made Montreal no longer possible as the seat of
+government.  One may perhaps over-estimate the importance of these
+details; for, after all, the communal life of Canada was yet in its
+extreme youth, and in England itself there were still remnants of the
+old eighteenth century disorders, with hints of the newer
+revolutionism.  Their importance is rather that they complicated the
+task of adjusting imperial standards to suit Canadian self-government,
+and introduced unnecessary errors into the conduct of affairs by the
+provincial statesmen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was obvious then that the United Provinces of Canada had, in 1839,
+still some distance to travel before their social, religious, and
+political organization could be regarded as satisfactory.  Individually
+and collectively poor, the citizens of Canada required direct aid from
+the resources of the mother country.  Material improvements in roads
+and canals, the introduction of steam,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P69"></A>69}</SPAN>
+the organization of labour,
+were immediately necessary.  Education in all its stages must receive
+encouragement and recognition.  Religion must be freed from the
+encumbrance of a vexatious controversy.  Municipal institutions and
+local government had still to be introduced to teach the people the
+elements of self-government; and a broader system of colonial
+legislation and administration substituted for the discredited rule of
+assemblies and councils at Toronto and Quebec.  There was racial hate
+to be quenched; and petty party jealousies to be transmuted into more
+useful political energy.  A nation was at its birth.  The problem was
+whether in Great Britain there were minds acute and imaginative enough
+to see the actual dangers; generous enough not to be dissuaded from
+trying to avert them by any rudeness on the part of those who were
+being assisted; prophetic enough to recognize that Anglo-Saxon
+communities, whether at home or across the seas, will always claim the
+right to govern themselves, and that to such self-government none but
+the community actually affected may set a limit.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn4"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn5"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn1text">1</A>] Robinson, <I>Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson</I>, Bart., pp. 75-6.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn2text">2</A>] <I>Report of the Agent for Emigration</I>, Toronto, January, 1841.  "The
+passage extended to seven complete weeks," writes a Scottish settler,
+Robert Campbell, in 1840, "and to tell the truth we were weary enough
+of it."  MS. letter, <I>penes me</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn3text">3</A>] <I>Conditions and Prospects of Canada in 1854</I>, London, 1855.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn4text">4</A>] Poulett Scrope, <I>Life of Lord Sydenham</I>, pp. 141-2.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn5text">5</A>] Richardson, <I>Eight Years in Canada</I>, p. 117.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn6text">6</A>] See an interesting letter of January, 1838 in Christie, <I>History of
+Lower Canada</I>, v. 109.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn7text">7</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I>, Appendix B. (ed. by Lucas), iii. p. 84.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn8text">8</A>] Kaye, <I>Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe</I>, p. 453.
+Metcalfe undoubtedly overestimates the influence of these men, as
+compared with the church, over the habitant class.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn9text">9</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I> (ed. by Lucas), Appendix D, iii. p. 284.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn10text">10</A>] <I>Ibid</I>. p. 267.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn11text">11</A>] M'Taggart, <I>Three Years in Canada</I>, i. p. 249.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn12text">12</A>] Kaye, <I>op. cit.</I> p. 407.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn13text">13</A>] Mrs. Jameson, <I>States and Rambles in Canada</I>, vol. ii. p. 189.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn14text">14</A>] Strickland, <I>Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West</I>, vol. i. p. 135.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn15text">15</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I>, ii. pp. 242-59.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn16text">16</A>] M'Taggart, ii. pp. 242-5.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn17text">17</A>] See a despatch of Lord Metcalfe on the effect of Irish agitation
+on the tranquillity of Canada, Kaye, <I>op. cit.</I> pp. 432-4.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn18text">18</A>] Censuses of Canada (1665-1871), vol. iv.; <I>Appendix to the First
+Report of the Board of Registration and Statistics</I> (1849); <I>A
+Statement of the Population of Canada</I> (1848).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn19text">19</A>] M'Taggart, <I>op. cit.</I> i. p. 35.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn20text">20</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I>, Appendix A.  Sir Charles Lucas has not
+included this appendix in his edition.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn21text">21</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> (ed. Lucas), iii. p. 220.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn22text">22</A>] Mrs. Jameson, <I>Studies and Rambles in Canada</I>, i. p. 98.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn23text">23</A>] <I>A Long-treasured Letter</I>, from <I>Matthew Fowlds and Other Fenwick
+Worthies</I>, Kilmarnock, 1910, pp. 205-11.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn24text">24</A>] Strickland, <I>Twenty Seven Years in Canada West</I>, i. p. 35.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn25text">25</A>] M'Taggart, <I>op. cit.</I> i. p. 201.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn28"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn29"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn26text">26</A>] This statement I modify below in dealing with the violence which
+disfigured political life in Canada at this time.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn27text">27</A>] <I>Passim </I>in descriptions of the Canadian Indians, and the
+North-West.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn28text">28</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I>, ii. p. 125 n.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn29text">29</A>] See local news in the early volumes of <I>The Montreal Witness</I>.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn30"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn31"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn32"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn33"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn34"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn30text">30</A>] I have accepted Durham's, rather than Metcalfe's estimate of the
+influence of the Roman Catholic church in Canada.  The latter may be
+found in a despatch to Stanley, entitled by Kaye, "State of Parties in
+1845" (Kaye, <I>op. cit.</I> p. 449).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn31text">31</A>] Hodgins, <I>Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada</I>, iii.
+p. 298.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn32text">32</A>] MS. letter, 5 December, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn33text">33</A>] Bell, <I>Hints to Emigrants</I>, p. 125.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn34text">34</A>] Hodgins, <I>Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada</I>, iii.
+p. 266.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn35"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn36"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn37"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn38"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn39"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn35text">35</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> p. 249.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn36text">36</A>] <I>Memorials of the Rev. John Machar</I>, D.D., p. 62.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn37text">37</A>] Bagot Correspondence, in the Canadian Archives, <I>passim</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn38text">38</A>] <I>Montreal Gazette</I>, 8 October, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn39text">39</A>] <I>Memorials of the Rev. John Machar</I>, p. 77.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn40"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn41"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn40text">40</A>] A strong, probably exaggerated, opinion exists among the older
+members of the Canadian community that, while information and
+specialization have grown, culture has retreated from the standards set
+for it by the former school of English and Scottish college instructors.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn41text">41</A>] "The amount of postage paid by newspapers would be a fair
+indication of their circulation....  The postage on the <I>Christian
+Guardian</I> was Ł228, which exceeded by Ł6 the aggregate postage on the
+following newspapers: <I>Colonial Advocate</I>, Ł57; <I>The Courier</I>, Ł45;
+<I>Watchman</I>, Ł24; <I>Brockville Recorder</I>, Ł16; <I>Brockville Gazette</I>, Ł6;
+<I>Niagara Gleaner</I>, Ł17; <I>Hamilton Free Press</I>, Ł11; <I>Kingston Herald</I>,
+Ł11; <I>Kingston Chronicle</I>, Ł10; <I>Perth Examiner</I>, Ł10; <I>Patriot</I>, Ł6;
+<I>St. Catherine's Journal</I>, Ł6; <I>York Observer</I>, Ł3."&mdash;Egerton Ryerson,
+<I>Story of My Life</I>, p. 144.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn42"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn43"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn44"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn42text">42</A>] <I>The Montreal Witness</I>, December, 1845.  "We do not mean to
+criticize those prohibitory regulations, but, however good their
+motives, the effect has been to girdle the tree of knowledge in Canada,
+by shutting out the people from the only available supplies of books."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn43text">43</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I>, ii. p. 138.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn44text">44</A>] Strachan, <I>A Journal of Visitation to the Western Portion of his
+Diocese</I> (1842).  Third edition, London, 1846.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn45"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn46"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn47"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn48"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn49"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn45text">45</A>] <I>Memorial of the Rev. E. Black, D.D., to the Secretary of State
+for the Colonies</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn46text">46</A>] <I>Memorials of the Rev. J. Machar, D.D.</I>, p. 38.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn47text">47</A>] Bell, <I>Hints to Emigrants</I>, p. 86.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn48text">48</A>] Robinson, <I>Life of Sir J. B. Robinson</I>, p. 179.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn49text">49</A>] Dent, <I>The Last Forty Years</I>, i. p. 109.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn50"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn51"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn52"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn53"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn54"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn50text">50</A>] Sir G. Grey to the Rev. E. Black, 25 March, 1837, in
+<I>Correspondence relating to the Churches of England and Scotland in
+Canada</I> (15 April, 1840).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn51text">51</A>] Bell, <I>Hints to Emigrants</I>, p. 101.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn52text">52</A>] Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell, 22 January, 1840.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn53text">53</A>] Quoted from Dent, <I>The Last Forty Years</I>, ii. p. 192.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn54text">54</A>] That is, his bill for dividing the Reserves in certain proportions
+among the churches.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn55"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn56"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn57"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn58"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn59"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn55text">55</A>] Poulett Scrope, <I>Life of Lord Sydenham</I>, pp. 160-1.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn56text">56</A>] See the Elgin-Grey Correspondence (Canadian Archives) for the year
+1850.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn57text">57</A>] Christie, <I>History of Lower Canada</I>, v. pp. 113-14.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn58text">58</A>] <I>Faithful unto Death, a Memorial of John Anderson, late Janitor of
+Queen's College</I>, p. 26.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn59text">59</A>] Sir Charles Bagot to Lord Stanley, 26 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn60"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn61"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn62"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn63"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn64"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn60text">60</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Cartwright to Bagot, 16 May, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn61text">61</A>] Arthur to Normanby, 2 July, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn62text">62</A>] Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell, 23 February, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn63text">63</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: W. L. Mackenzie to Major Campbell, 14
+February, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn64text">64</A>] Hincks, <I>Reminiscences</I>, p. 15.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap02fn65"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn66"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn67"></A>
+<A NAME="chap02fn68"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn65text">65</A>] Poulett Scrope, <I>Life of Lord Sydenham</I>, p. 165.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn66text">66</A>] See, for example, a despatch&mdash;Metcalfe to Stanley, 24 June,
+1843&mdash;descriptive of troubles on the Beauharnois Canal.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn67text">67</A>] A bill of 1833, <I>penes me</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap02fn68text">68</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 December, 1843.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P70"></A>70}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Between 1839 and 1854, four governors-general exercised authority over
+Canada, the Right Honourable Charles Poulett Thomson, later Lord
+Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, Charles, Lord Metcalfe, and the Earl of
+Elgin.[<A NAME="chap03fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn1">1</A>]  Their statesmanship, their errors, the accidents which
+modified their policies, and the influence of their decisions and
+despatches on British cabinets, constitute on the whole the most
+important factor in the creation of the modern Canadian theory of
+government.  In consequence, their conduct with reference to colonial
+autonomy and all the questions therewith connected, demands the most
+careful and detailed treatment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Lord John Russell, then leader of the House of Commons, and
+Secretary of State for the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P71"></A>71}</SPAN>
+Colonies, selected a new
+governor-general of Canada to complete the work begun by Durham, he
+entrusted to him an elaborate system of government, most of it
+experimental and as yet untried.  He was to superintend the completion
+of that Union between Upper and Lower Canada, which Durham had so
+strenuously advocated; and the Union was to be the centre of a general
+administrative reconstruction.  The programme outlined in Russell's
+instructions proposed "a legislative union of the two provinces, a just
+regard to the claims of either province in adjusting the terms of that
+union, the maintenance of the three Estates of the Provincial
+Legislature, the settlement of a permanent Civil List for securing the
+independence of the judges, and, to the executive government, that
+freedom of action which is necessary for the public good, and the
+establishment of a system of local government by representative bodies,
+freely elected in the various cities and rural districts."[<A NAME="chap03fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn2">2</A>]  In
+attaining these ends, all of them obviously to the advantage of the
+colony, the Colonial Secretary desired to consult, and, as far as
+possible, to defer to Canadian public opinion.[<A NAME="chap03fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn3">3</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P72"></A>72}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless, Lord John Russell had no sooner entered upon his
+administrative reforms, than he found himself face to face with a
+fundamental constitutional difficulty.  He proposed to play the part of
+a reformer in Canada; but the majority of reformers in that province
+added to his programme the demand for executive councils, not merely
+sympathetic to popular claims, but responsible to the representatives
+of the people in a Canadian Parliament.  Now according to all the
+traditions of imperial government a demand so far-reaching involved the
+disruption of the empire, and ended the connection between Canada and
+England.  To this general objection the British minister added a
+subtler point in constitutional law.  To yield to colonial reforming
+ideas would be to contradict the existing conventions of the
+constitution.  "The power for which a minister is responsible in
+England," he wrote to his new governor, "is not his own power, but the
+power of the crown, of which he is for the time the organ.  It is
+obvious that the executive councillor of a colony is in a situation
+totally different....  Can the colonial council be the advisers of the
+crown of England?  Evidently not, for the crown has other advisers for
+the same functions, and with
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P73"></A>73}</SPAN>
+superior authority.  It may happen,
+therefore, that the governor receives, at one and the same time,
+instructions from the Queen and advice from his executive council
+totally at variance with each other.  If he is to obey his instructions
+from England, the parallel of constitutional responsibility entirely
+fails; if, on the other hand, he is to follow the advice of his
+council, he is no longer a subordinate officer, but an independent
+sovereign."[<A NAME="chap03fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn4">4</A>]  The governor-general, then, was in no way to concede to
+the Canadian assembly a responsibility and power which resided only in
+the British ministry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time large concessions, in spirit if not in letter, helped
+to modify the rigour of this constitutional doctrine.  "I have not
+drawn any specific line," Russell wrote at the end of the despatch
+already quoted, "beyond which the power of the governor on the one
+hand, and the privileges of the assembly on the other, ought not to
+extend....  The governor must only oppose the wishes of the assembly
+when the honour of the crown, or the interests of the empire, are
+deeply concerned; and the assembly must be ready to modify
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P74"></A>74}</SPAN>
+some of
+its measures for the sake of harmony, and from a reverent attachment to
+the authority of Great Britain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two days later, an even more important modification than was contained
+in this exhortation to charity and opportunism was proposed.  It had
+been the chief grievance in both provinces that the executive positions
+in Canada had been filled with men who held them as permanencies, and
+in spite of the clamour of public opinion against them.  Popular
+representative rights had been more than counterbalanced by entire
+executive irresponsibility.  A despatch, nominally of general
+application to British colonies, but, under the circumstances, of
+special importance to the United Provinces of Canada, changed the
+status of colonial executive offices: "You will understand, and will
+cause it to be generally known, that hereafter the tenure of colonial
+offices held during her Majesty's pleasure, will not be regarded as
+equivalent to a tenure during good behaviour, but that not only such
+officers will be called upon to retire from the public service as often
+as any sufficient motives of public policy may suggest the expediency
+of that measure, but that a change in the person of the governor will
+be considered as a sufficient reason for any
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P75"></A>75}</SPAN>
+alterations which his
+successor may deem it expedient to make in the list of public
+functionaries, subject of course to the future confirmation of the
+Sovereign.  These remarks do not apply to judicial offices, nor are
+they meant to apply to places which are altogether ministerial and
+which do not devolve upon the holders of them duties in the right
+discharge of which the character and policy of the government are
+directly involved.  They are intended to apply rather to the heads of
+departments, than to persons serving as clerks or in similar capacities
+under them; neither do they extend to officers in the service of the
+Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.  The functionaries who will be
+chiefly, though not exclusively, affected by them are the Colonial
+Secretary, the Treasurer or Receiver-General, the Surveyor-General, the
+Attorney and Solicitor-General, the Sheriff or Provost Marshal, and
+other officers who, under different designations from these, are
+entrusted with the same or similar duties.  To this list must also be
+added the Members of the Council, especially in those colonies in which
+the Executive and Legislative Councils are distinct bodies."[<A NAME="chap03fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn5">5</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P76"></A>76}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+The importance of this general circular of October 16th is that, at a
+time when the Colonial Secretary was exhorting the new governor-general
+to part with none of his prerogatives, and in a colony where public
+opinion was importuning with some persistence for a more popular
+executive, one of the best excuses for withholding from the people
+their desires was removed.  The representative of the crown in
+consequence found himself with a new and not altogether comfortable
+opportunity for exercising his freedom of choice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It fell to Charles Poulett Thomson, President of the Board of Trade in
+the Whig ministry, to carry out the Union of the two Canadian
+provinces, and to administer them in accordance with this doctrine of
+modified autonomy.  The choice of the government seemed both wise and
+foolish.  Poulett Thomson had had an admirable training for the work.
+In a colony where trade and commerce were almost everything, he brought
+not Durham's aristocratic detachment but a real knowledge of commerce,
+since his was a great mercantile family.  In Parliament, he had become
+a specialist in the financial and economic issues, which had already
+displaced the diplomatic or purely political questions of the last
+generation.
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P77"></A>77}</SPAN>
+His speeches on the revision of taxes, the corn laws,
+and British foreign trade, proved that, in a utilitarian age, he knew
+the science of utilities and had freed himself from bureaucratic red
+tape.  His parliamentary career too had taught him the secret of the
+management of assemblies, and Canada would under him be spared the
+friction which the rigid attitude of soldiers, trained in the school of
+Wellington, had been causing throughout the British colonies for many
+years.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were, however, many who doubted whether the man had a character
+and will powerful enough to dominate the turbulent forces of Canadian
+politics.  Physically he was far from strong, and almost the first
+comment made by Canadians on him was that their new governor-general
+came to them a valetudinarian.  There seemed to be other and more
+serious elements of weakness.  Charles Greville spoke of him with just
+a tinge of good-natured contempt as "very good humoured, pleasing and
+intelligent, but the greatest coxcomb I ever saw, and the vainest dog,
+though his vanity is not offensive or arrogant";[<A NAME="chap03fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn6">6</A>] and a writer in the
+<I>Colonial Gazette</I>, whose words reached Canada
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P78"></A>78}</SPAN>
+almost on the day
+when the new governor arrived, warned Canadians of the imbecility of
+character which the world attributed to him.  "While therefore," the
+article continues, "we repeat our full conviction that Mr. Thomson is
+gone to Canada with the opinions and objects which we have here
+enumerated, let it be distinctly understood that we have little hope of
+seeing them realised, except through the united and steadfast
+determination of the Colonists to make use of him as an instrument for
+accomplishing their own ends."[<A NAME="chap03fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn7">7</A>]  With such an introduction one of the
+most strongly marked personalities ever concerned with government in
+Canada entered on his work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Strange as it may seem in face of these disparaging comments, the new
+governor-general had already determined to make the assertion of his
+authority the fundamental thing in his policy, although with him
+authority always wore the velvet glove over the iron hand.  In Lower
+Canada the suspension of the constitution had already placed
+dictatorial powers in his hand; but, even in the Upper Province, he
+seemed to have expected that diplomacy would have to be supported by
+authority to compel it to come into
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P79"></A>79}</SPAN>
+the Union; and he had no
+intention of leaving the supremacy over all British North America,
+which had been conferred on him by his title, to lie unused.  The two
+strenuous years in which he remade Canada fall into natural
+divisions&mdash;the brief episode in Lower Canada of the first month after
+his arrival; his negotiations with Upper Canada, from November, 1839,
+to February, 1840; the interregnum of 1840 which preceded the actual
+proclamation of Union, during which he returned to Montreal, visited
+the Maritime Provinces, and toured through the Upper Province; and the
+decisive months, from February till September 19th, 1841, from which in
+some sort modern Canada took its beginnings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first month of his governorship, in which he settled the fate of
+French Canada, is of greater importance than appears on the surface.
+The problem of governing Canada was difficult, not simply because
+Britons in Canada demanded self-government, but because self-government
+must be shared with French-Canadians.  That section of the community,
+distinct as it was in traditions and political methods, might bring
+ruin on the Colony either by asserting a supremacy odious to the
+Anglo-Saxon elements of the population, or by
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P80"></A>80}</SPAN>
+resenting the
+efforts of the British to assimilate or dominate them.  When Poulett
+Thomson landed, on October 19th, 1839, at Quebec, he was brought at
+once face to face with the relation between French nationalism and the
+constitutional resettlement of Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Durham had had no doubt about the true solution.  It was to confer free
+institutions on the colony, and to trust to the natural energy and
+increase of the Anglo-Saxon element to swamp French <I>nationalité</I>.  "I
+have little doubt," he said, "that the French, when once placed, by the
+legitimate course of events and the working of natural causes, in a
+minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality."[<A NAME="chap03fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn8">8</A>]  It was in
+this spirit that his successor endeavoured to govern the French section
+in Canada.  Being both rationalist and utilitarian, like others of his
+school he minimized the strength of an irrational fact like racial
+pride, and, almost from the first he discounted the force of French
+opposition, while he let it, consciously or unconsciously, influence
+his behaviour towards his French subjects.  "If it were possible," he
+wrote in November, 1839, "the best thing for Lower Canada would be a
+despotism for ten years
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P81"></A>81}</SPAN>
+more; for, in truth, the people are not
+yet fit for the higher class of self-government, scarcely indeed, at
+present, for any description of it."[<A NAME="chap03fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn9">9</A>]  A few months later, his
+language had become even stronger:&mdash;"I have been back three weeks, and
+have set to work in earnest in this province.  It is a bad prospect,
+however, and presents a lamentable contrast to Upper Canada.  There
+great excitement existed; the people were quarrelling for realities,
+for political opinions and with a view to ulterior measures.  Here
+there is no such thing as a political opinion.  No man looks to a
+practical measure of improvement.  Talk to any one upon education, or
+public works, or better laws, let him be English or French, you might
+as well talk Greek to him.  Not a man cares for a single practical
+measure&mdash;the only end, one would suppose, of a better form of
+government.  They have only one feeling&mdash;a hatred of race."[<A NAME="chap03fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn10">10</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But at the outset his task was simple.  His powers in Lower Canada, as
+he confessed on his first arrival, were of an extraordinary nature; and
+indeed it lay with him, and his Special Council, to settle the fate of
+the province.  Pushing on
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P82"></A>82}</SPAN>
+from Quebec to Montreal, he lost no time
+in calling a meeting of the Special Council, whose members, eighteen in
+number, he purposely left unchanged from the regime of his predecessor
+On November 13th and 14th, after discussions in which the minority
+never exceeded three, that body accepted Union with the Upper Province
+in six propositions, affirming the principle of union, agreeing to the
+assimilation of the two provincial debts, and declaring it to be their
+opinion "that the present temporary legislature should, as soon as
+practicable, be succeeded by a permanent legislature, in which the
+people of these two provinces may be adequately represented, and their
+constitutional rights exercised and maintained."[<A NAME="chap03fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn11">11</A>]  Before he left
+Montreal, he assured the British ministry that the large majority of
+those with whom he had spoken, English and French, in the Lower
+Province were warm advocates of Union.[<A NAME="chap03fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn12">12</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet here lay his first mis judgment, and one of the most serious he
+made.  It was true and obvious that the British inhabitants of Eastern
+Canada earnestly desired a union which would promote
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P83"></A>83}</SPAN>
+their racial
+interests; true also that a group of Frenchmen took the same point of
+view.  But the governor was guilty of a grave political error, when he
+ignored the feeling generally prevalent among the French that Union
+must be fought.  Colborne's judgment in 1839, that French aversion to
+Union was growing less, seems to have been mistaken.[<A NAME="chap03fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn13">13</A>]  The British
+government, more especially in the person of Durham, had not disguised
+their intention&mdash;the destruction of French nationalism as it had
+hitherto existed.  They had taken, and were taking, the risk of
+conducting the experiment in the face of a grant of self-government to
+the doomed community; and the first governor-general of union and
+constitutionalism was now to find that French racial unity, combined
+with self-government, was too strong even for his masterful will,
+although he had all the weight of Imperial authority behind him.  But,
+for the time, Lower Canada had to be left to its council, and the
+centre of interest changed to Toronto and Upper Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There, although no racial troubles awaited him, the governor had to
+persuade a popular assembly before he could have his way; and there for
+the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P84"></A>84}</SPAN>
+first time he was made aware of the perplexing cross-currents
+and side eddies, and confusion of public opinion, which existed
+everywhere in Canadian politics.  So doubtful was the main issue that
+he debated with himself whether he should venture to meet the Assembly
+without a dissolution and election on the definite issue of the Union;
+but the need for haste, and his natural inclination to take risks, and
+to trust to his powers of management, decided him to face the existing
+local parliament.  By the end of November he had arrived at Toronto,
+and the Assembly met on December 3rd.  Two plain but difficult tasks
+lay before him: to persuade both houses of Parliament to accept his
+scheme of Union, and to arrange, on some moderate basis, the whole
+Clergy Reserve question.  To complicate these practical duties, the
+speculative problem of responsible government, long keenly canvassed in
+Toronto, and the peculiar conditions and methods of local politics, lay
+as dangerous obstacles in his path.  The manners and methods of the
+politicians of Upper Canada drew him even in his despatches into vivid
+criticism.  After a month's observation, he sent Russell a long and
+very able description of the prevailing disorders.  In spite of a
+general loyalty the people
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P85"></A>85}</SPAN>
+had been fretted into vexations and
+petty divisions, and for the most part felt deep-rooted animosity
+towards the executive authorities.  Indeed, apart from the party bias
+of the government, its inefficiency and uncertainty had destroyed all
+public confidence in it.  Under the executive government, the authority
+of the legislative council had been exercised by a very few
+individuals, representing a mere clique in the capital, frequently
+opposed both to the government and to the Assembly, and considered by
+the people hostile to their interests.  In the lower chamber, the loss
+of public influence by the ministry had introduced absolute legislative
+chaos, and even the control over expenditure, and the examination of
+accounts, were of the loosest and most irregular character.[<A NAME="chap03fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn14">14</A>]  In a
+private letter he allowed himself a freedom of expression which renders
+his description the <I>locus classicus</I> for political conditions before
+the Union:&mdash;"The state of things here is far worse than I had expected.
+The country is split into factions animated with the most deadly hatred
+to each other.  The people have got into the way of talking so much of
+<I>separation</I>,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P86"></A>86}</SPAN>
+that they begin to believe in it.  The
+Constitutional party is as bad or worse than the other, in spite of all
+their professions of loyalty.  The finances are more deranged than we
+believed even in England.  The deficit, Ł75,000 a year, more than equal
+to the income.  All public works suspended.  Emigration going on fast
+<I>from</I> the province.  Every man's property worth only half what it was.
+When I look to the state of government, and to the departmental
+administration of the province, instead of being surprised at the
+condition in which I find it, I am only astonished it has been endured
+so long.  I know that, much as I dislike Yankee institutions and rule,
+I would not have fought against them, which thousands of these poor
+fellows, whom the Compact call rebels, did, if it were only to keep up
+such a Government as they got....  Then the Assembly is such a House!
+Split into half a dozen parties.  The Government having <I>none&mdash;and no
+one man</I> to depend on!  Think of a house in which half the members hold
+places, yet in which the Government does not command a single vote; in
+which the place-men generally vote against the Executive; and where
+there is no one to defend the Government when attacked, or
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P87"></A>87}</SPAN>
+to
+state the opinion and views of the Governor."[<A NAME="chap03fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn15">15</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With the eye of a political strategist, Poulett Thomson prepared his
+alternative system, a curious kind of despotism, based, however, simply
+on his own powers of influencing opinion in the House.  It was plain to
+him that the previous governments had wantonly neglected public
+opinion.[<A NAME="chap03fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn16">16</A>]  It was also plain that the populace had regarded these
+governments as consisting not of the governor with his ministers under
+him, but of the Family Compact clique in place of the governor.[<A NAME="chap03fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn17">17</A>]
+The system which he proposed to substitute expressed very fully his
+working theory.  Responsible government in the sweeping sense of that
+term employed by the reforming party he resisted, holding that, whether
+against his ministers, or the electors, he must be personally
+responsible for all his administrative acts.  At the same time he
+assured parliament that "he had received her Majesty's commands to
+administer the government of these provinces in accordance with the
+well-understood wishes and interests of the people, and to pay to their
+feelings,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P88"></A>88}</SPAN>
+as expressed through their representatives, the
+deference that is justly due to them."[<A NAME="chap03fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn18">18</A>]  To secure this end, he
+called public attention to the despatch from Russell, definitely
+announcing the change of tenure of all save judicial and purely
+ministerial places, thereby making it clear that no man would be
+retained in office longer than he seemed acceptable to the governor and
+the community.  Then he set to work to build up, out of moderate men
+drawn from all groups, a party of compromise and good sense to support
+him and his ministry; and finally, he claimed for himself the central
+authority without any modifying conditions.  Concerning the ultimate
+seat of that authority he never hesitated.  Whatever power he had came
+from the Home Ministry as representing the Crown, and to them alone he
+acknowledged responsibility.  For the rest, he had to carry on the
+Queen's government; that is, to govern Canada so that peace and
+prosperity might remain unshaken; and as a first condition he had to
+defer to the wishes of the people.  But it cannot be too strongly
+re-asserted that he refused to surrender one iota of his
+responsibility, and that the ideal which he set for himself was a
+combination of governor and prime-minister.  The efficiency
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P89"></A>89}</SPAN>
+of his
+system was to depend on the honestly benevolent intentions which the
+governor-general cherished towards the people, and on the fidelity of
+both the ministry and the parliamentary majority established and
+secured through belief in those intentions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The new system met with an astounding success.  The scheme of Union was
+laid before both Houses.  On the thirteenth of December the Council,
+which had hitherto been the chief obstacle, approved of the scheme by
+fourteen votes to eight, the minority consisting of Toronto 'die-hards'
+with the Bishop, recalcitrant as usual, at their head.  Ten days later,
+the governor-general was able to assure Russell that the Lower House
+had, after some strenuous debates and divisions, assented also; the
+only change from his own outline being an amendment that "such part of
+the civil list as did not relate to the salaries of the judges, and the
+governor, and the administration of justice, which are made permanent,
+should be granted for the lifetime of the Queen, or for a period of not
+less than ten years."[<A NAME="chap03fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn19">19</A>]  On one point, not without its influence in
+embittering opinion among the French,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P90"></A>90}</SPAN>
+Parliament and Governor were
+agreed, that while the debates in the Union parliament might be
+conducted in either English or French, in the publication of all
+records of the Legislature the English language only should be
+adopted.[<A NAME="chap03fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn20">20</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Swept on by this great initial success, Poulett Thomson determined if
+possible to settle the Clergy Reserve trouble out of hand.  As has been
+shown above, this ecclesiastical difficulty affected the whole life of
+the community; and its settlement would mean peace, such as Upper
+Canada had not known for a generation.  The pacificator, however, had
+to face two groups of irreconcilables, the Bishop of Toronto with his
+extremist following, and the secularizing party resolute to have done
+with any form of subsidy to religion.  As he himself confessed, he had
+little hope of succeeding in the Assembly, but he trusted to his new
+popularity, then at its spring tide, and he won.  Before the end of
+January the question had been settled on a compromise, by a majority of
+28 to 20 in the Assembly, and of 14 to 4 in the Council.  It was even
+more satisfactory to know that out of 22 members of Assembly who were
+communicants of the Church of England, only 8
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P91"></A>91}</SPAN>
+voted in favour of
+the <I>status quo</I>.  There was but one set-back.  Legal opinion in
+England decided that the local assembly had not powers to change the
+original act of 1791; and in the Imperial legislation which this check
+made necessary, other influences crept in, and the governor-general
+bitterly complained that the monstrous proportion allotted to the
+Church of England, and the miserable proportion set apart for other
+churches, rendered the Act only less an evil than if the question had
+been left unsettled.[<A NAME="chap03fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn21">21</A>]  Still, the settlement retained existing
+reserves for religious purposes, ended the creation of fresh reserves,
+divided past sales of land between the Churches of England and of
+Scotland, and arranged for the distribution of the proceeds of future
+sales roughly in proportion to the numbers and importance of all the
+churches in Canada.  It was not an ideal arrangement, but quiet men
+were anxious to clear the obstacle from the way, and through such men
+Poulett Thomson worked his will.  It is the most striking testimony to
+the governor's power of management that, as a politician stated in
+1846, three-quarters of the people believed the arrangement unjust and
+partial, and acquiesced only because their political head desired it.
+But
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P92"></A>92}</SPAN>
+the end was not yet, and the uneasy ambition of the Bishop of
+Toronto was in a few years to bring on his head just retribution for
+the strife his policy continued to create.  Nothing now remained but to
+close this, the last parliament of Upper Canada under the old regime,
+and the governor, who never suffered from lack of self-appreciative
+optimism, wrote home in triumph: "Never was such unanimity.  When the
+speaker read my speech in the Commons, after the prorogation, they gave
+me three cheers, in which even the ultras joined."[<A NAME="chap03fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn22">22</A>]  It was perhaps
+the last remnant of this pardonable exultation which swept him over the
+360 miles between Toronto and Montreal in thirty-six hours, breaking
+all records for long-distance sleighing in the province.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The primary duty of the governor had now been accomplished, for he had
+persuaded both local governments to accept an Imperial Act of Union,
+and it might seem natural to pass over the intervening months, until
+Union had been officially proclaimed, and the first Union parliament
+had been elected and had met.  But the <I>interregnum</I> from February,
+1840, to February, 1841, must not be ignored.  In these twelve short
+months he turned
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P93"></A>93}</SPAN>
+once again to the problem of Lower Canada,
+hurried on a short visit to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to settle
+constitutional difficulties there, returned in a kind of triumphal
+procession through the English-speaking district of Lower Canada known
+as the Eastern Townships,[<A NAME="chap03fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn23">23</A>] and spent the autumn in a tour through
+the Western part of the newly united colony.  It was only fitting that
+a grateful Queen and Ministry should bestow on him a peerage;
+henceforward he must appear as Baron Sydenham of Sydenham and Toronto.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But apart from these mere physical activities, he was preparing for the
+culmination of his work in the new parliament.  It must be remembered
+not only that he distrusted the intelligence and initiative of colonial
+ministers too much to dream of giving place to them, but that his
+theory of his own position&mdash;the benevolent despot, secured in his
+supremacy through popular management&mdash;forced on him an elaborate
+programme of useful administration.  He must face the new Parliament
+with a good record, and definite promises.  The failure of the home
+ministry to include the local government clauses, which formed a
+fundamental
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P94"></A>94}</SPAN>
+part of the Union Bill, made such efforts even more
+necessary than before.  It had been plain to Durham and Charles Buller,
+as well as to Sydenham, that, if an Act of Union were to pass, it could
+only be made operative by joining to it an entirely new system of local
+government.  Accordingly, when opposition forced Russell to omit the
+essential clauses from his Act of Union, Sydenham penned one of his
+most vigorous despatches in reply.  "Owing to this (rejection), duties
+the most unfit to be discharged by the general legislature are thrown
+upon it; powers equally dangerous to the subject and to the Crown are
+assumed by the Assembly.  The people receive no training in those
+habits of self-government which are indispensable to enable them
+rightly to exercise the power of choosing representatives in
+parliament.  No field is open for the gratification of ambition in a
+narrow circle, and no opportunity given for testing the talents or
+integrity of those who are candidates for popular favour.  The people
+acquire no habits of self-dependence for the attainment of their own
+local objects.  Whatever uneasiness they may feel&mdash;whatever little
+improvement in their respective neighbourhoods may appear to be
+neglected, afford grounds for complaint against the executive.  All
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P95"></A>95}</SPAN>
+is charged upon the Government, and a host of discontented spirits
+are ever ready to excite these feelings.  On the other hand, whilst the
+Government is thus brought directly in contact with the people, it has
+neither any officer in its own confidence, in the different parts of
+these extended provinces, from whom it can seek information, nor is
+there any recognized body, enjoying the public confidence, with whom it
+can communicate, either to determine what are the real wants and wishes
+of the locality, or through whom it may afford explanation."[<A NAME="chap03fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn24">24</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing could be done to remedy the evil in Upper Canada, until the new
+parliament had met, but the temporary dictatorship still remained in
+French Canada, and at once Sydenham set to work to create all that he
+wanted there, recognizing shrewdly that what had been granted in the
+Lower Province to the French must prove a powerful argument for a
+similar grant to Upper Canada, when the time should come for action.
+About the same time, he established by ordinance a popular system of
+registry offices, to simplify the difficulties introduced into land
+transfers by the French law&mdash;"all
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P96"></A>96}</SPAN>
+the old French law of before the
+Revolution, <I>Hypothčques tacites et occultes</I>, Dowers' and Minors'
+rights, <I>Actes par devant notaires</I>, and all the horrible processes by
+which the unsuspecting are sure to be deluded, and the most wary are
+often taken in."[<A NAME="chap03fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn25">25</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Curiously enough, although his love of good government drove him to
+amend conditions among the French, Sydenham's relations with that
+people seem to have grown steadily worse.  He had made advances to the
+foremost French politician, La Fontaine, offering him the
+solicitor-generalship of Lower Canada; but La Fontaine, who never had
+any enthusiasm for British Whig statesmanship,[<A NAME="chap03fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn26">26</A>] regarded the offer
+as a bribe to draw him away from his countrymen and their national
+ideal, and declined it, thereby increasing the tension.  Thus, as the
+time for the election drew near, the French were still further
+hardening their hearts against the governor-general of United Canada,
+and Sydenham, his patience now exhausted, could but exclaim in baffled
+anger, "As for the French, nothing but time will do anything with them.
+They hate British rule&mdash;British connection&mdash;improvements of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P97"></A>97}</SPAN>
+all
+kinds, whether in their laws or their roads; so they will sulk, and
+will try, that is, their leaders, to do all the mischief they can."[<A NAME="chap03fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn27">27</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meantime he had prepared two other politic strokes before he called
+Parliament: the regulation of immigration, and a project for raising a
+British loan in aid of Canadian public works.  Immigration, more
+especially now that the current had set once more towards Canada, was
+one of the essential facts in the life of the colony; and yet the evils
+attendant on it were still as obvious as the gains.  Most of the
+defects so vividly portrayed by Durham and his commissioners still
+persisted&mdash;unsuitable immigrants, over-crowded ships, disease which
+spread from ship to land and overcrowded the local hospitals, wretched
+and poverty-stricken masses lingering impotently at Quebec, and a
+straggling line of westbound settlers, who obtained work and land with
+difficulty and after many sorrows.[<A NAME="chap03fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn28">28</A>]  Sydenham had none of Gibbon
+Wakefield's doctrinaire enthusiasm on the subject; and, as he said, the
+inducements, to parishes and landlords to send out their surplus
+population were already
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P98"></A>98}</SPAN>
+sufficiently strong.  But much could and
+must be done by way of remedy.  It was his plan to regulate more
+strictly the conditions on board emigrant ships, and to humanize the
+process of travelling.  Government agents must safeguard the rights of
+ignorant settlers; relief, medical and otherwise, should be in
+readiness for the destitute and afflicted when they arrived; sales of
+land were to be simplified and made easier; and a system of public
+works might enable the local authorities to solve two problems at one
+time, by giving the poorer settler steady employment, and by completing
+the great tasks, only half performed in days when money and labour
+alike were wanting.[<A NAME="chap03fn29text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn29">29</A>]  The final achievement of these objects
+Sydenham reserved until he should meet parliament, but he had laid his
+plans, and had primed the home authorities with facts long before that
+date.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the same way he had foreseen the need of Canada for Imperial
+assistance, both in her public works, and in her finance.  Assistance
+in the former of these matters was peculiarly important.  Colonists,
+more especially in the Upper Province, had undertaken the development
+of Canadian natural resources, but poverty had called a halt
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P99"></A>99}</SPAN>
+before the development was complete, or, by preventing necessary
+additions and improvements, had rendered useless what had already been
+done.  Conspicuous among such imperfect works were the canals; and
+Sydenham realized the strange dilemma into which provincial enterprise
+seemed doomed to run.  The province, he told Russell, was sinking under
+the weight of engagements which it could only meet by fresh outlay,
+whilst that outlay the condition of its credit preventing it from
+making.[<A NAME="chap03fn30text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn30">30</A>]  He was therefore prepared to come before the United
+Parliament with a proposal, backed by the British Ministry, for a great
+loan of Ł1,500,000 to be negotiated by the home government, and to be
+utilized, partly in redeeming the credit of the province, and partly in
+completing its public works.  "It will therefore be absolutely
+necessary that Her Majesty's government should enable the governor of
+the province of Canada to afford this relief when the Union is
+completed, and the financial statement takes place; and I know of no
+better means than those originally proposed&mdash;of guaranteeing a loan
+which would remove a considerable charge arising from the high rate of
+interest payable by the province on the debt already contracted, or
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P100"></A>100}</SPAN>
+which it would have to pay for raising fresh loans which may be
+required hereafter for great local improvements."[<A NAME="chap03fn31text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn31">31</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There remained now the last and greatest of Sydenham's labours before
+his stewardship could be honourably accounted for and surrendered, the
+summoning, meeting, and managing, of a parliament representative of
+that Canada, English and French, which he had restored and irritated.
+His reputation must depend the more on this political adventure,
+because he had already determined that 1841 should be his last year in
+Canada&mdash;he would not stay, he said, though they made him Duke of Canada
+and Prince of Regiopolis.  And indeed the Parliament of 1841, in all
+its circumstances, still remains one of the salient points in modern
+Canadian history.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Union came into force on the tenth of February, but long before
+that time all the diverse political interests in Canada had organized
+themselves for the fray.  Sydenham himself naturally occupied the
+foremost place.  He was acting now, not merely as governor-general, but
+as the prime minister of a new cabinet, and as a party manager,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P101"></A>101}</SPAN>
+whose main duty it was to secure parliamentary support for his men and
+his measures by the maintenance of a sound central group.  By the
+beginning of the year he thought he had evidence for believing that, in
+Upper Canada, a great majority of the members would be men who had at
+heart the welfare of the province, and the British connection, and who
+desired to make the Act of Union operate to the advantage of the
+country.[<A NAME="chap03fn32text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn32">32</A>]  But even in Upper Canada there were doubtful elements.
+The Family Compact men, few as they might be in number, were unlikely
+to leave their enemy, the governor-general, in peace; nor were all the
+Reformers prepared to acquiesce in Sydenham's very restrained and
+limited interpretation of responsible government.  Late in 1840, and
+early in 1841, the Upper Canadian progressives had organized their
+strength; and additional significance was given to their action by
+their communications with Lower Canada.[<A NAME="chap03fn33text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn33">33</A>]  There, indeed, was the
+crux of the experiment.  The French Canadians, already organized in
+sullen opposition, had just received what they counted a fresh insult.
+But Sydenham may be allowed to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P102"></A>102}</SPAN>
+explain his own action.  "There
+were," he wrote to Russell in March, 1841, "attached to the cities,
+both of Montreal and Quebec, very extensive suburbs, inhabited
+generally by a poor population, unconnected with the mercantile
+interests to which these cities owe their importance.  Had these cities
+been brought within the electoral limits, the number of their
+population would have enabled them to return one, if not both, of the
+members for each city.  But such a result would have been directly at
+variance with the grounds on which increased representation was given
+by Parliament to these cities.  On referring to the discussions which
+took place in both houses when the Union Bill was before them, I find
+that members on all sides laid great stress on the necessity of
+securing ample representation to the mercantile interests of Canada....
+Feeling myself, therefore, bound in duty to carry out the views of the
+British parliament in this matter, <I>I was compelled in fixing the
+limits of Quebec and Montreal to transfer to the county a large portion
+of the suburbs of each</I>."[<A NAME="chap03fn34text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn34">34</A>]  Whatever Sydenham's intentions may have
+been, the actual result of his action was to secure for his party four
+seats in the very heart of the enemy's country;
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P103"></A>103}</SPAN>
+and the French
+Canadians, naturally embittered, resented the governor's action as a
+piece of gerrymandering, which had practically disfranchised many
+French voters.  Already, in 1840, under the active leadership of
+Neilson of Quebec, a British supporter of French claims, an anti-union
+movement had been started.[<A NAME="chap03fn35text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn35">35</A>]  In July of the same year La Fontaine
+visited Toronto, to canvass, said scandal, for the speaker's chair in
+the united assembly; and in any case he was able to assure his
+compatriots that they had sympathizers among the British in the West.
+The Tory paper in Sydenham's new capital, Kingston, in a review and
+forecast of the situation, settled on this Anglo-French co-operation as
+one of the serious possibilities of the future;[<A NAME="chap03fn36text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn36">36</A>] and Sydenham as he
+watched developments in the Lower Province, found himself growing
+unwontedly pessimistic.  "In Lower Canada," he wrote, "the elections
+will be bad.  The French Canadians have forgotten nothing and learnt
+nothing by the Rebellion, and the suspension of the constitution, and
+are more unfit for representative government
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P104"></A>104}</SPAN>
+than they were in
+1791.  In most of the French counties, members, actuated by the old
+spirit of the Assembly, and without any principle except that of
+inveterate hostility to British rule and British connection, will be
+returned without a possibility of opposition."[<A NAME="chap03fn37text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn37">37</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The elections began on the 8th of March, and the date on which
+parliament was to meet was postponed, first from April 8th to May 26th,
+and then, in consequence of the continued lateness of the season,[<A NAME="chap03fn38text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn38">38</A>]
+from May 26th to June 14th.  The result of the elections, known early
+in April, gave matter for serious thought to many, Sydenham himself not
+excluded.  Absolute precision is difficult, but Sydenham's biographer
+has tabulated the groups as follows:
+</P>
+
+<PRE STYLE="margin-left: 10%">
+Government Members - - - -  24
+French Members - - - - - -  20
+Moderate Reformers - - - -  20
+Ultra Reformers  - - - - -   5
+Compact Party  - - - - - -   7
+Doubtful - - - - - - - - -   6
+Special Return - - - - - -   1
+Double Return  - - - - - -   1
+                            --
+                            84[<A NAME="chap03fn39text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn39">39</A>]
+</PRE>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P105"></A>105}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+In the confusion of groups, Sydenham still trusted to the centre&mdash;a
+party almost precisely similar to that which in 1867 was called
+Liberal-Conservative.  This centre he hoped to create out of moderate
+Conservatives who had enlarged their earlier views, and moderate
+Reformers who anxiously desired to see Sydenham's proposed improvements
+carried out.[<A NAME="chap03fn40text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn40">40</A>]  A shrewd observer, himself a member, and
+appreciatively critical of Sydenham's work, counted at least five
+parties in the new parliament.  Three of these groups came from Upper
+Canada&mdash;the Conservatives under Sir Allan MacNab; the Ministerialists,
+that is the Reformers and moderate Conservatives, under the
+Attorney-General Draper, and the Secretary Harrison, and the
+ultra-reformers who looked to Robert Baldwin for guidance.  From Lower
+Canada came the French nationalists, with some British supporters,
+under Morin, Neilson, and Aylwin, and the defenders of the Union
+policy, chiefly British, but with a few conservative French allies.
+"The division lists of the session 1841," writes the same observer,
+"cannot fail to strike anyone acquainted with the state of parties, as
+extraordinary.  Mr. Baldwin on several occasions voted with
+considerable
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P106"></A>106}</SPAN>
+majorities in opposition to the Government, while as
+frequently he was in insignificant minorities.  There was a decided
+tendency towards a coalition with the Reformers of French origin, on
+the part of Sir Allan MacNab and the Upper Canada Conservatives.  The
+Ministerial strength lay in the support which it received from the
+British party of Lower Canada, and from the majority of the Upper
+Canada Reformers."[<A NAME="chap03fn41text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn41">41</A>]  Well might Sydenham speak of the delusive
+nature of the party nicknames borrowed by his legislators from England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whatever were the characteristic faults of the parliament in 1841,
+sloth was not one of them.  All through the summer it worked with
+feverish energy.  Writing to his brother at the end of August, Sydenham
+boasted&mdash;"The five great works I aimed at have been got through&mdash;the
+establishment of a board of works with ample powers; the admission of
+aliens; a new system of county courts; the regulation of the public
+lands ceded by the Crown under the Union Act; and lastly the District
+Council Bill.  I think you will admit this to be pretty good work for
+one session, especially when superadded to half a dozen minor measures,
+as well
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P107"></A>107}</SPAN>
+as the fact of having set up a government, brought
+together two sets of people, who hated each other cordially, and
+silenced all the threatened attacks upon the Union, which were expected
+to be so formidable....  What do you think of this, you miserable
+people in England, who spend two years upon a single measure?"[<A NAME="chap03fn42text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn42">42</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the chief significance of the session lies in the persistent
+warfare waged between Sydenham and the advocates of a more extended
+system of autonomy.  The result, as will be shewn, was indecisive, but,
+under the circumstances a drawn battle was equivalent to defeat for the
+governor-general.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sydenham had never before flung himself so completely into the fight.
+"I actually breathe, eat, drink, and sleep nothing but government and
+politics," was his own description of life in Kingston.  He had
+accomplished with little resistance from others all that his opening
+speech had promised.  His ministry owned him as their actively
+directing head.  His power of managing individuals in spite of
+themselves passed into a jest.  Playing with men's vanity, tampering
+with their interests, their passions and their prejudices, placing
+himself in a position of familiarity with those from whom
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P108"></A>108}</SPAN>
+he
+might at once obtain assistance and information&mdash;such, according to an
+eccentric writer of the day, were the secrets of Sydenham's
+success.[<A NAME="chap03fn43text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn43">43</A>]  Few men ever played the part of benevolent despot more
+admirably, and his achievements were the more creditable because he
+could count on no allegiance except that which he induced by his
+persuasive arts, and by the proofs he had given of a sincere desire to
+promote Canadian prosperity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless, throughout the summer months, there occurred a series of
+sharp encounters with a half-organized party of reform; and the end of
+the session, while it saw Sydenham successful, saw also his adversaries
+as eager as ever, and much more learned than they had been in the ways
+of political opposition and agitation.  The opposition leaders massed
+their whole strength on one fundamental point&mdash;the claim to possess as
+fully as their fellow-citizens in Great Britain did, the cabinet and
+party system of government.  In other words, if any group, or coalition
+of groups, should succeed in establishing an ascendency in the popular
+assembly, that ascendency must receive acknowledgment by the creation
+of a cabinet, and the appointment of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P109"></A>109}</SPAN>
+a prime minister, approved
+by the parliamentary majority and responsible to them; and Sydenham's
+ingenious device of an eclectic ministry responsible to him alone was
+denounced as unconstitutional.  The first encounter came, two days
+before the session started, and Robert Baldwin of Toronto was the
+leader of the revolt.  In February, 1840, Sydenham had invited Robert
+Baldwin to be his Solicitor-General in the Upper Province.  Baldwin,
+although his powers were not those of a politician of the first rank,
+was perhaps the soundest constitutionalist in Western Canada.  He had
+been from the first a reformer, but he had never encouraged the wild
+ideas of the rebels of 1837.  Sir F. B. Head had called him to his
+councils in 1836, as a man "highly respected for his moral character,
+moderate in his politics and possessing the esteem and confidence of
+all parties,"[<A NAME="chap03fn44text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn44">44</A>] and only Head's impracticability had driven him from
+public service.  There is not a letter or official note from his pen,
+which does not bear the stamp of unusual conscientiousness, and a very
+earnest desire to serve his country.  So little was he a self-seeker,
+that he earned the lasting ill-will of his eldest son by passing a bill
+abolishing primogeniture, and thus
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P110"></A>110}</SPAN>
+ending any hopes that existed
+of founding a great colonial family.  The Earl of Elgin, who saw much
+of him after 1847, regarded him not merely as a great public servant,
+but as one who was worth "two regiments to the British connection," and
+perhaps the most truly conservative statesman in the province.[<A NAME="chap03fn45text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn45">45</A>]  In
+his quiet, determined way, he had made up his mind that responsible
+government, in the sense condemned by both Sydenham and Russell, must
+be secured for Canada, and Sydenham's benevolent plans did not disguise
+from him the insidious attempt to limit what he counted the legitimate
+constitutional liberty of the colony.  It cannot justly be objected
+that his acceptance of office misled the governor-general, either in
+1840 or in 1841.  "I distinctly avow," he wrote publicly in 1840,
+"that, in accepting office, I consider myself to have given a public
+pledge that I have a reasonably well-grounded confidence that the
+government of my country is to be carried on in accordance with the
+principles of Responsible Government which I have ever held....  I have
+not come into office by means of any coalition with the
+Attorney-General,[<A NAME="chap03fn46text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn46">46</A>] or with any others now in
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P111"></A>111}</SPAN>
+the public
+service, but have done so under the governor-general, and expressly
+from my confidence in him."[<A NAME="chap03fn47text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn47">47</A>]  In the same way, when Sydenham chose
+him for the Solicitor-Generalship of Upper Canada in the Union
+Ministry, Baldwin, who had no belief in Sydenham's cabinet of all the
+talents, wrote bluntly to say that he "had an entire want of political
+confidence in all of his colleagues except Mr. Dunn, Mr. Harrison, and
+Mr. Daly."[<A NAME="chap03fn48text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn48">48</A>]  In view of his later action, his critics charged him
+with error in thus accepting an office which placed him in an
+impossible position; but Baldwin's ready answer was: "The head of the
+government, the heads of departments in both provinces, and the country
+itself, were in a position almost anomalous.  That of the head of the
+government was one of great difficulty and embarrassment.  While he
+(Baldwin) felt bound to protect himself against misapprehensions as to
+his views and opinions, he also felt bound to avoid, as far as
+possible, throwing any difficulties in the way of the governor-general.
+At the time he was called to a seat in the Executive Council, he was
+already one of those public servants, the political character
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P112"></A>112}</SPAN>
+newly applied to whose office made it necessary for them to hold seats
+in that Council.  Had he, on being called to take that seat, refused to
+accept it, he must of course have left office altogether, or have been
+open to the imputation of objecting to an arrangement for the conduct
+of public affairs which had always met with his most decided
+approbation."[<A NAME="chap03fn49text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn49">49</A>]  At worst, the Solicitor-General can only be blamed
+for letting his abnormally sensitive conscience lead him into political
+casuistry, the logic of which might not appear so cogent to the
+governor as to himself, when the crisis should come.  How sensitive
+that conscience was, may be gathered from the fact that his acceptance
+of office in 1841 was accompanied with an avowal of want of confidence,
+made openly to those colleagues with whom he disagreed.  It was further
+illustrated when he made a difficulty with Sydenham over taking the
+Oath of Supremacy, which, in a country, many of whose inhabitants were
+Roman Catholics protected in their religion by treaty rights, declared
+that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or
+ought to have any jurisdiction,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P113"></A>113}</SPAN>
+power, superiority, pre-eminence
+of authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm."[<A NAME="chap03fn50text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn50">50</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The crisis came, as Baldwin expected it to come, when parliament met.
+Already, as has been seen, the French Canadians had organized their
+forces and formed the most compact group in the Assembly, while the
+little band of determined reformers from Upper Canada made up in
+decision and principle what they lacked in numbers.  Hincks, who was
+one of the latter group, says that, before parliament met, the two
+sections consulted together concerning the government, and although La
+Fontaine had lost his election through a display of physical force on
+the other side, Baldwin was able to lead the combined groups into
+action.  On June 12th, he wrote to Sydenham stating that the United
+Reform Party represented the political views of the vast majority of
+Canadians, that four ministers&mdash;Sullivan, Ogden, Draper, and Day&mdash;were
+hostile to popular sympathies and ideals, and that he thought the
+accession of Lower Canada Reformers absolutely essential to a sound
+popular administration.  It was a perfectly consistent, if somewhat
+unhappily executed, attempt to secure
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P114"></A>114}</SPAN>
+the absolute responsibility
+of the Executive Council to the representatives of the people; and a
+week later, in the Assembly, when no longer in office, he defended his
+action.  He believed that when the election had determined of what
+materials the House of Assembly was to be composed, it then became his
+duty to inform the head of the government that the administration did
+not possess the confidence of the House of Assembly, and to tender to
+the representative of his sovereign the resignation of the office which
+he held, having first, as he was bound to do, offered his advice to his
+Excellency that the administration of the country should be
+reconstructed.[<A NAME="chap03fn51text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn51">51</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was the directest possible challenge to Sydenham's system.
+Baldwin's claim was that, once the representatives of the people had
+made known the people's will, it was the duty of the ministry to
+reflect that will in their programme and actions, or to resign.  As for
+the governor-general, he must obviously adjust whatever theories he
+might have, to a situation where colonial ministers were content to
+hold office only where they had the confidence of the people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The action of the governor-general was
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P115"></A>115}</SPAN>
+characteristically
+summary.  His answer to Baldwin reproved him for a "proposal in the
+highest degree unconstitutional, as dictating to the crown who are the
+particular individuals whom it should include in the ministry";
+intimated the extreme displeasure of his Excellency, and assumed the
+letter to be equivalent to resignation.[<A NAME="chap03fn52text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn52">52</A>]  To the home government he
+spoke of the episode with anger and some contempt: "Acting upon some
+principle of conduct which I can reconcile neither with honour nor
+common sense, he strove to bring about this union (between Upper and
+Lower Canadian reformers), and at last, having as he thought effected
+it, coolly proposed to me, on the day before Parliament was to meet, to
+break up the Government altogether, dismiss several of his colleagues,
+and replace them by men whom I believe he had not known for 24
+hours&mdash;but who are most of them thoroughly well known in Lower Canada
+as the principal opponents of any measure for the improvement of the
+province."[<A NAME="chap03fn53text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn53">53</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The crisis once passed, Sydenham hoped, and not without justification,
+that Baldwin would carry few supporters over to the opposition, and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P116"></A>116}</SPAN>
+that the Assembly would settle quietly down to enact the measures
+so bountifully set out in the opening speech.  The first day of
+Assembly saw the party of responsible government make a smothered
+effort to state their views in the debate on the election of a speaker.
+On June 18th, an elaborate debate, nominally on the address, really on
+the fundamental point, found the attorney-general stating the case for
+the government, and Baldwin and Hincks pushing the logic of responsible
+government to its natural conclusion.  Baldwin once more grappled with
+the problem of the responsibility of the members of council, and the
+advice they should offer to the governor-general.  He admitted freely
+that unless the representative of the sovereign should acquiesce in the
+measures so recommended, there would be no means by which that advice
+could be made practically useful; but this consideration did not for a
+moment relieve a member of the council from the fulfilment of an
+imperative duty.  If his advice were accepted, well and good; if not,
+his course would be to tender his resignation.[<A NAME="chap03fn54text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn54">54</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P117"></A>117}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+The government came triumphantly out of the ordeal, and all amendments,
+whether affecting the Union, or responsible government, were defeated
+by majorities, usually of two to one.  "I have got the large majority
+of the House ready to support me upon any question that can arise,"
+Sydenham wrote at the end of June; "and, what is better, thoroughly
+convinced that their constituents, so far as the whole of Upper Canada
+and the British part of Lower Canada are concerned, will never forgive
+them if they do not."[<A NAME="chap03fn55text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn55">55</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the enemy was not so easily routed.  There had been much violence
+at the recent elections; and, among others, La Fontaine had a most just
+complaint to make, for disorder, and, as he thought, government
+trickery had ousted him from a safe seat at Terrebonne.  Unfortunately
+the protests were lodged too late, and a furious struggle sprang up, as
+to whether the legal period should, in the cases under consideration,
+be extended, or whether, as the government contended, an inquiry and
+amendments affecting only the future should suffice.  It was ominous
+for the cause of limited responsibility, that the government had to own
+defeat in the Lower House, and saved itself only
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P118"></A>118}</SPAN>
+by the veto of
+the Legislative Council.  Nor was that the end.  A mosaic work of
+opposition, old Tories, French Canadians, British anti-unionists, and
+Upper Canada Reformers, was gradually formed, and at any moment some
+chance issue might lure over a few from the centre to wreck the
+administration.  Most of the greater measures passed through the ordeal
+safely, including a bill reforming the common schools and another
+establishing a Board of Works.  The critical moment of the latter part
+of the session, however, came with the introduction of a bill to
+establish District Councils in Upper Canada, to complete the work
+already done in Lower Canada.  The forces in opposition rallied to the
+attack, Conservatives because the bill would increase the popular
+element in government, Radicals because the fourth clause enacted that
+the governor of the province might appoint, under the Great Seal of the
+province, fit and proper persons to hold during his pleasure the office
+of Warden of the various districts;[<A NAME="chap03fn56text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn56">56</A>] and, as Sydenham himself
+hinted, there were those who regretted the loss to members of Assembly
+of a great opportunity for jobbery.  One motion passed by the
+chairman's casting vote;
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P119"></A>119}</SPAN>
+and nothing, in the governor-general's
+judgment, saved the bill but the circumstance of his having already
+established such councils in Lower Canada.[<A NAME="chap03fn57text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn57">57</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was one more attack in force before the session ended.  On
+September 3rd, Baldwin, seconded by a French Canadian, moved "that the
+most important as well as the most undoubted of the political rights of
+the people of the province, is that of having a provincial parliament
+for the protection of their liberties, for the exercise of a
+constitutional influence over the executive departments of the
+government, and for legislation upon all matters, which do not on the
+ground of absolute necessity constitutionally belong to the
+jurisdiction of the Imperial parliament, as the paramount authority of
+the Empire."[<A NAME="chap03fn58text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn58">58</A>]  The issue was stated moderately but quite directly,
+and there are critics of Sydenham who hold that his answer&mdash;for it was
+his voice that spoke&mdash;surrendered the whole position.  That answer took
+the form of resolutions, moved by the most moderate reformer in the
+Assembly, S. B. Harrison:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+(i) That the head of the provincial executive
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P120"></A>120}</SPAN>
+government of the
+province, being within the limits of his government the representative
+of the Sovereign, is not constitutionally responsible to any other than
+the authority of the Empire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+(ii) That the representative of the Sovereign, for the proper conduct
+and efficient disposal of public business, is necessarily obliged to
+make use of the advice and assistance of subordinate officers in the
+administration of his government.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+(iii) That in order to preserve the harmony between the different
+branches of the Provincial Parliament which is essential to the happy
+conduct of public affairs, the principal of such subordinate officers,
+advisers of the representative of the Sovereign, and constituting as
+such the provincial administration under him ... ought always to be men
+possessed of the public confidence of the people, thus affording a
+guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests of the people,
+which our gracious Sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the
+Provincial Government, will on all occasions be faithfully represented
+and advocated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+(iv) That the house has the constitutional right of holding such
+advisers politically responsible for every act of the Provincial
+Government of a local
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P121"></A>121}</SPAN>
+character sanctioned by such government
+while such advisers continue in office."[<A NAME="chap03fn59text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn59">59</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of Sydenham's own doctrine of colonial government the outlines are
+unmistakeable.  A governor-general existed, responsible for his actions
+solely to the imperial authority.  Under that government the people had
+full liberty to elect their representatives, through whom their desires
+could be made known.  It was the duty of the governor-general to
+consult, on every possible detail, the popular will.  Sydenham
+therefore held it essential that the governor-general in Canada should
+be one trained in the Imperial Parliament to interpret and to guide
+popular expression of opinion; and he believed that in such
+parliamentary diplomacy the governor-general would have to make many
+minor surrenders.  But he never recoiled from a position, which was
+also that of Durham, that, as the proclamation of Union asserted, the
+grant of local autonomy was subject to certain limitations, and that
+these limitations no action of the Provincial Legislature could affect.
+Nor did he admit that his own responsibility to the Crown could be
+modified by the existence of a responsibility on the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P122"></A>122}</SPAN>
+part of his
+ministers to the Canadian people.  Moreover, his own imperious temper
+and sense of superior enlightenment made him act in the very spirit of
+his doctrine with a resolution which few imperial servants of his time
+could have surpassed.  It may be then that the final resolutions, and
+especially the last of them, were marked by a gentler mode of
+expression than before, but they were actually a reaffirmation of
+Sydenham's early views, and were quite consistent with the initial
+despatch of the colonial secretary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The end was now near.  Sydenham had already applied for and received
+permission, first to leave Canada, should his health require that step,
+and then, to resign.  He had delayed to act on this permission, until
+he should see the end of the session, and the accomplishment of his
+ambitions.  But, on September 4th, a fall from horseback inflicted
+injuries which grew more complicated through his generally enfeebled
+condition, and he died on Sunday, September 19th.  On the preceding
+day, one of the most useful and notable sessions in the history of the
+Canadian Parliament came to an end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both by his errors, and by his acts of statesmanship, Sydenham
+contributed more than any other
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P123"></A>123}</SPAN>
+man, except Elgin, to establish
+that autonomy in Canada which his theories rejected.  Before
+self-government could flourish in the colony, there must be some solid
+material progress, and two years of incessant legislation and
+administrative innovation, all of it suggested by Sydenham, had turned
+the tide of Canadian fortunes.  It was necessary, too, that some larger
+field than a trivial provincial assembly with its local jobs should be
+provided for the new adventure in self-government; and Sydenham not
+only engineered a difficult Act of Union past all preliminary
+obstacles, but, of his own initiative, gave Canada the local
+institutions through which alone the country could grow into
+disciplined self-dependence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But even his errors aided Canadian development.  Acting for a
+government in whose counsels there was no hesitation, Sydenham
+expounded in word and practice a perfectly self-consistent theory of
+colonial government.  It was he who, by the virility of his thought and
+action, forced those who demanded responsible government to test and
+think over again their own position.  The criticism which Elgin passed
+on him in 1847 is final: "I never cease to marvel what study of human
+nature, or of history, led him to the conclusion
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P124"></A>124}</SPAN>
+that it would be
+possible to concede to a pushing and enterprising people, unencumbered
+by an aristocracy, and dwelling in the immediate vicinity of the United
+States, such constitutional privileges as were conferred on Canada at
+the time of Union, and yet restrict in practice their powers of
+self-government as he proposed."[<A NAME="chap03fn60text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn60">60</A>]  Yet he had raised the question,
+for both sides, to a higher level, and his adversaries owed something
+of their triumph, when it came, to the man who had taught them a more
+spacious view of politics.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it may be urged that he roused the French, insulted them, excluded
+them, and almost precipitated a new French rising.  Undoubtedly he was
+an enemy to French claims, but, at the time, most of these claims were
+inadmissible.  The French had brought the existing system of local
+government to a standstill.  Few of those who took part in the
+Rebellion had any reasonable or adequate conception of a reformed
+constitution.  As a people they had set themselves to obstruct the
+statesmen who came to assist them, and to oppose a Union which was
+doubtless imperfect as an instrument of government, but which was a
+necessary stage in the construction of a
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P125"></A>125}</SPAN>
+better system.  Here
+again Sydenham aimed at carrying out a perfectly clear and consistent
+programme, the political blending of the French with the British
+colonists.  Unfortunately that programme was impossible.  It had been
+constructed by men who did not understand the racial problem, and who,
+even if they had understood it, would not have accepted the modern
+solution.  Yet French nationalism, between 1839 and 1841, had certain
+negative lessons still to learn.  As, in Upper Canada, Robert Baldwin
+discovered from his opposition to the governor-general the methods and
+limits of parliamentary opposition, so La Fontaine, the worthiest
+representative of French Canada, began in these years to substitute
+constitutional co-operation with the reformers of the West, for the old
+sullen negative nationalism which had failed so utterly in 1837, as the
+most suitable means for maintaining the rights of his people.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn4"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn5"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn1text">1</A>] I disregard Cathcart's tenure of office.  For all practical
+purposes it was merely that of an acting governor.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn2text">2</A>] Instructions to the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 7 September,
+1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn3text">3</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn4text">4</A>] Lord John Russell to the Rt. Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 14 October,
+1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn5text">5</A>] Lord John Russell to the Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, 16 October, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn6text">6</A>] Greville, <I>A Journal of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV.</I>,
+iii. p. 330.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn7text">7</A>] Quoted from <I>The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette</I>, 19 October, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn8text">8</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I> (Lucas), ii. p. 307.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn9text">9</A>] Poulett Scrope, <I>Life of Lord Sydenham</I>, p. 148.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn10text">10</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 168.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn11text">11</A>] <I>Journals of the Special Council of Lower Canada</I>, 13 November,
+1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn12text">12</A>] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 18 November,
+1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn13text">13</A>] Sir John Colborne to Lord Normanby, 19 August, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn14text">14</A>] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December
+1839.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn15text">15</A>] Poulett Scrope, pp. 148-9.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn16text">16</A>] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December,
+1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn17text">17</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn18text">18</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 163.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn19text">19</A>] <I>Correspondence relative to the Reunion of Upper and Lower Canada</I>
+(23rd March, 1840), p. 20.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn20text">20</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> p. 33.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn21text">21</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 13 January, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn22text">22</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 164.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn23text">23</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 183.  "I have done nothing for two days, but
+pass under triumphal arches, and receive addresses of thanks and
+praise."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn24text">24</A>] Correspondence relative to the Affairs of Canada (1841): The Right
+Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 16 September, 1840.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn28"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn29"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn25text">25</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 198.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn26text">26</A>] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845,
+"You know that I do not like the Whigs."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn27text">27</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 181.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn28text">28</A>] See a report from the agent for emigration at Toronto, made to
+Sydenham, 6 January, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn29text">29</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 26 January, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn30"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn31"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn32"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn33"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn34"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn30text">30</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 22 February, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn31text">31</A>] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 27 June, 1840.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn32text">32</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 26 February, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn33text">33</A>] Merritt, <I>Life of the Hon. W. H. Merritt, M.P.</I>  See under the
+years 1840 and 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn34text">34</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 6 March, 1841.  The italics are my own.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn35"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn36"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn37"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn38"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn39"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn35text">35</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 205.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn36text">36</A>] <I>The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette</I>, 12 February, 1841.  "A
+powerful struggle will be made at the next election to secure the
+return of representatives, who will coincide with the views of the
+French party in the Lower Province."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn37text">37</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 26 February, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn38text">38</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>, 1 June, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn39text">39</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 217.  As the Canadian portion of the biography
+was the work of Sydenham's secretary, Murdoch, it carries with it
+considerable authority.  Murdoch was, indeed, one of the most competent
+of the men round Sydenham.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn40"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn41"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn42"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn43"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn44"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn40text">40</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 26 June, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn41text">41</A>] Hincks, <I>Lecture on the Political History of Canada</I>, 1840-1855,
+pp. 22-23.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn42text">42</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 243.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn43text">43</A>] Richardson, in his curious characterization of the man in <I>Eight
+Years in Canada</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn44text">44</A>] Sir F. B. Head to Lord Glenelg, February, 1836.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn45"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn46"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn47"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn48"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn49"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn45text">45</A>] The references to Baldwin in the Elgin-Grey Correspondence are,
+without exception, most cordial, and usually complimentary.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn46text">46</A>] The Hon. W. H. Draper, a moderate Conservative.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn47text">47</A>] Quoted in Hincks, <I>Lecture on the Political History of Canada</I>, p.
+19.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn48text">48</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> pp. 18-19.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn49text">49</A>] Baldwin's own explanation, furnished to a volume <I>The Irishman in
+Canada</I>.  He was peculiarly fond of memoranda or declarations, written
+in the third person.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn50"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn51"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn52"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn53"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn54"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn50text">50</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 28 May, 1841.  Sydenham dispensed with the
+oath on the advice of his legal officials.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn51text">51</A>] <I>The Mirror of Parliament</I> (published in Kingston), 23 June, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn52text">52</A>] Sydenham to Baldwin, 13 June, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn53text">53</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>, 23 June, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn54text">54</A>] <I>The Mirror of Parliament</I>, reporting Baldwin's speech of 18th
+June.  I have chosen to give Baldwin's own language in all its
+awkwardness and stiffness.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap03fn55"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn56"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn57"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn58"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn59"></A>
+<A NAME="chap03fn60"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn55text">55</A>] Poulett Scrope, p. 233.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn56text">56</A>] District Municipal Council Act (1841), Cl. IV.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn57text">57</A>] Sydenham to Russell, 28 August, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn58text">58</A>] <I>Journals of the House of Assembly</I>, 3 September, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn59text">59</A>] I have used as my chief authority here the reports in <I>The Quebec
+Gazette</I>, more especially the issue of Friday, 10 September, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap03fn60text">60</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P126"></A>126}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles Bagot, the second governor-general of United Canada,
+contrasted strangely with his predecessor in character and political
+methods.  He was a man of the Regency, and of Canning's set.  Since
+1814 he had occupied positions of considerable importance in the
+diplomatic world, not because of transcendent parts, but because of his
+connections.  He had been ambassador at Washington, St. Petersburg, and
+the Hague; and in the United States, where, to the end, his friends
+remembered him with real affection, he had rendered service permanently
+beneficial both to Britain and to America by negotiating the Rush-Bagot
+treaty, which established the neutralization of the great lakes.  In
+Europe, he had been known to fame mainly as the recipient of George
+Canning's rhyming despatch; and for the rest, he allowed the great
+minister to make him, as he had made all
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P127"></A>127}</SPAN>
+his other agents, a pawn
+in the game where he alone was player.  In his correspondence he stands
+out as an old-fashioned, worldly, cultured, and unbusiness-like
+diplomatist, worthy perhaps of a satiric but kindly portraiture by
+Thackeray&mdash;a genuine citizen of Vanity Fair.  Apart from his
+correspondence, his friendships, and his American achievements, he
+might have passed through life, deserving nothing more than some few
+references in memoirs of the earlier nineteenth century.  But by one
+freak of fortune he found himself transported to Canada in 1842, and,
+by another, he became one of the foremost figures in the history of
+Canadian constitutional development.  There have been few better
+examples of the curious good-fortune which has attended on the growth
+of British greatness than the story of Bagot's short career in Canada.
+When a very eminent personage demanded from the existing government
+some explanation of their selection of Bagot, Stanley, who was then
+Secretary of State for the Colonies, pointed, not to administrative
+qualifications, but to his diplomatic services in the United States.
+Relations with the American Republic do not here concern us, but it may
+be remembered that the situation in 1841 and 1842, just before the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P128"></A>128}</SPAN>
+Ashburton Treaty, was full of peril; and Bagot was sent to Canada
+as a person not displeasing to the Americans, and a diplomatist of
+conciliatory temper.  But his work was to be concerned with domestic,
+not international, diplomacy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three factors must be carefully studied in the year of political
+turmoil which followed: the Imperial government, the Canadian political
+community, and the new governor-general.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During this and the following governor-generalship, the predominant
+influence at the Colonial Office was Lord Stanley, almost the most
+distinguished of the younger statesmen of the day.  Peel's judicial and
+scientific mind usually controlled those of his subordinates; but even
+Peel found it hard to check the brilliant individualism of his colonial
+secretary; and this most interesting of all the great failures in
+English politics exercised an influence in Canadian affairs, such as
+not even Lord John Russell attempted.  Judged from his colonial
+despatches, Stanley seems to have found it very hard to understand that
+there could be another side to any question on which he had made up his
+mind.  His party had consented to a modification of the old oligarchic
+rule in Canada; but they were intent upon limiting the scope of the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P129"></A>129}</SPAN>
+change, and upon conducting all their operations in a very
+conservative spirit.  Stanley's instructions to Bagot had been drawn up
+in no ungenerous fashion.  Bagot was to know no distinctions of
+national origin or religious creed, and in so far as it might be
+consistent with his duty to his Sovereign, he was to consult the wishes
+of the mass of the community.[<A NAME="chap04fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn1">1</A>]  Their happiness it was his main duty
+to secure.  In ecclesiastical matters, Stanley, who had changed his
+party rather than consent to weaken the Anglican Church in Ireland, was
+willing to acknowledge "that the habits and opinions of the people of
+Canada were, in the main, averse from the absolute predominance of any
+single church."[<A NAME="chap04fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn2">2</A>]  But the theory inspiring the instructions was one
+which denied to the colonists any but the most partial responsibility
+and independence, and which regarded their party divisions as factious
+and at times treasonable.  This disbelief in the reality of Canadian
+parties was, however, discounted, and yet at the same time rendered
+more insulting to the reformers, because the colonial secretary
+regarded the fragments of old Family Compact Toryism as still the best
+guarantee in Canada for the British connection.  "Although
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P130"></A>130}</SPAN>
+I am
+far from wishing to re-establish the old Family Compact of Upper
+Canada," he wrote, at a later date, "if you come into difficulties,
+that is the class of men to fall back upon, rather than the
+ultra-liberal party."[<A NAME="chap04fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn3">3</A>]  Confidence in political adventurers and the
+disaffected French seemed to him a kind of madness.  In addition to
+this attitude towards existing parties, Stanley held stiffly to every
+constitutional expedient which asserted the supremacy of the Imperial
+government.  The Union had, by fixing a Civil List, taken the power of
+the purse within certain limits from Canadian hands, and this Civil
+List Stanley regarded as quite essential to the maintenance of British
+authority.[<A NAME="chap04fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn4">4</A>]  In fact, any discussion of the subject seemed to him the
+"reopening of a chapter which has already led to such serious
+consequences, and in the prosecution of which I contemplate seriously
+the prospect of the dismemberment of the Empire."[<A NAME="chap04fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn5">5</A>]  Holding views so
+resolute, he could not, like Russell, trust his representative on the
+spot; and, from the first, the troubles of the new governor-general
+were multiplied by Stanley's
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P131"></A>131}</SPAN>
+determination to make the views of
+the Colonial Office prevail in Canada.  "I very much doubt," wrote
+Murdoch, Sydenham's former secretary, "how far Lord Stanley is really
+alive to the true state of Canada, and to the necessity of governing
+through the assembly."[<A NAME="chap04fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn6">6</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Local influences provide the second factor in the situation.  As has
+been seen, the Canadian political community was demanding both
+responsible government, and the admission of the French to a share in
+office.  Sydenham had exhibited the most wonderful skill in working an
+anomalous system of government, and he had found himself on the brink
+of failure.  His Council, which Bagot had inherited, "might be said to
+represent the Reform or popular party of Upper Canada, and the moderate
+Conservatives of both provinces, to the exclusion of the French and the
+ultra-conservatives of both provinces,"[<A NAME="chap04fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn7">7</A>] but the compromise
+represented less a popular demand for moderation, than Sydenham's own
+individual idea of what a Canadian Council should be.  There had been
+uneasiness in adjusting the opinions of individual members; there was a
+steady decline in the willingness of the Assembly
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P132"></A>132}</SPAN>
+and the country
+to support them; and a determined constitutional opposition found
+additional strength through the support of the French party, whom the
+governor had alienated not simply as a political division but as a
+race.  In a sense, there was no imminent danger, as there had been in
+1837, for Sydenham's sound administration had given the country peace
+and prosperity.  English money and immigrants were flowing in; the
+woods were ringing with the axes of settlers too busy in clearing the
+ground to trouble much with politics; the lines of communication were
+being improved and transportation simplified; and, thanks to Ashburton,
+the war-cloud to the south had vanished over the horizon.  Yet the
+politicians held the central position&mdash;everything depended on them; and
+the crisis for Bagot would arise, first, when he should be called on to
+fill certain places in the Executive Council, and then, when Parliament
+met.  It is often assumed that public opinion was seriously divided on
+the question of the responsibility of the ministry to the Assembly, and
+of the extent of the concessions to be made to the French; and that the
+opposition to reform was almost equal in the numbers of its supporters
+to the progressive party.  But this is to over-estimate the forces of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P133"></A>133}</SPAN>
+reaction.  The Family Compact men had fallen on evil days.
+Strachan with his church party, and MacNab with his tail of Tory
+irreconcilables, had really very little substantial backing; and honest
+Tory gentlemen, like J. S. Cartwright, who openly advocated an
+aristocratic administration, were unlikely to attract the crowd.  The
+work of Sydenham had contributed much to the political education of
+Canada; popular opinion was now firmer and more self-consistent, and
+that opinion went directly contrary to the views of Stanley and his
+supporters.  One may find evidence of this in the views of moderates on
+either side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Harrison, who represented the moderate reforming party in Sydenham's
+ministry, held that responsible government, in some form or other, was
+essential, and that French nationalism must also receive concessions.
+"Looking at the present position of parties," he wrote to Bagot in
+July, "it may, I think, be safely laid down that, to obtain a working
+majority in the House of Assembly, it is absolutely necessary that the
+government should be able to carry with it the bulk of the
+French-Canadian members....  There is no disguising the fact that the
+French members possess the power of the country; and he who directs
+that
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P134"></A>134}</SPAN>
+power, backed by the most efficient means of controlling it,
+is in a situation to govern the province best."[<A NAME="chap04fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn8">8</A>]  It was his opinion
+that Bagot should anticipate the coming crisis by calling in Baldwin
+and the French, before events forced that step on him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the Conservative side, a moderate man like W. H. Draper, the
+attorney-general for Upper Canada in Sydenham's ministry, argued in
+favour of a policy almost identical.  While his views tended to
+oscillate, now to this side, now to that, their general direction was
+clear.  He felt that the ideal condition was one of union between the
+parties of Western Canada, which would "render the position of the
+government safer in its dealings with the French-Canadians."  But no
+such union was possible, and Draper, with that honest opportunism which
+best expressed his mind and capacity, assured Bagot that action in the
+very teeth of his instructions was the only possible course.  "One
+thing I do not doubt at all," he wrote in July 1842, "and that is that,
+with the present House of Assembly, you cannot get on without the
+French, while it is necessary for me at the same time to declare
+frankly that I cannot sit at the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P135"></A>135}</SPAN>
+council-board with Mr.
+Baldwin."[<A NAME="chap04fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn9">9</A>]  In other words, since Draper admitted that the opposition
+leaders must receive office, and at the same time declared the
+impossibility of his holding office with them, he was consenting to
+Cabinet government, not in the restricted form permitted in Lord John
+Russell's despatches, but after the regular British fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outside the sphere of party politics moderate opinion took precisely
+the same stand.  Murdoch had been Sydenham's right-hand man, and was
+still the fairest critic of Canadian politics.  That he distrusted
+Stanley's methods is apparent in his letters to Bagot; and it was his
+suggestion that the Imperial position should be modified, and that some
+concession should be made to French national feeling.  "No half
+measures," he told Bagot, "can now be safely resorted to.  After the
+Rebellion, the government had the option, either of crushing the French
+and anglifying the province, or of pardoning them and making them
+friends.  And as the latter policy was adopted, it must be carried out
+to its legitimate consequences."[<A NAME="chap04fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn10">10</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P136"></A>136}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+The situation in Canada during the spring and summer of 1842 stood
+thus.  A governor-general, entirely new to the work of domestic
+administration, and to the province which had fallen to his lot, faced
+a curious dilemma.  The British cabinet, the minister responsible for
+the colonies, and all those in Canada who claimed to be the peculiar
+friends of the British connection, bade him govern for, but not by the
+people, and exclude from office almost all the French-Canadians, on the
+ground that they were devotedly French in sympathies.  Another group,
+at times aggressive, and very little accustomed to the orthodox methods
+of parliamentary opposition, bade him venture and trust; and warned him
+that no half measures would satisfy the claims of constitutional
+liberty and nationality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The administration of Bagot occupied a single year, and its more
+important episodes were crowded into a few weeks in the autumn of 1842.
+Yet there have been few years of equal significance in the history of
+Canadian political development.  There were intervals in which Bagot
+had time to reveal to Canada his genius for making friends; and the
+foundation of a provincial university in Toronto deeply interested one
+who had something of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P137"></A>137}</SPAN>
+Canning's wit and literary inclinations.
+But politics usually claimed all his attention.  The Union of the
+Provinces, and the Imperial supremacy, had to be defended against their
+assailants; the vacant places in the Executive Council had to be
+filled, as nearly as was possible in harmony with the wishes of the
+community; and whatever the character of that council might be, it
+would have to face the test of criticism from an Assembly, which had
+already striven not unsuccessfully with Sydenham.  In his attempt to
+answer these various problems, Bagot was at his worst in finance.  He
+had not the requisite business training, and entirely lacked Sydenham's
+knowledge, boldness, and precision.  In the correspondence over the
+mode in which the province should dispose of the British loan of
+Ł1,500,000, Stanley's views show a clearness and force, lacking in
+those of Bagot; and in the one really unfortunate episode of the year,
+his want of financial skill drew on the governor-general's head the
+remonstrances of both Stanley and the Treasury authorities.  To escape
+financial difficulties in Canada, Bagot had anticipated the loan, by
+drawing on British funds for Ł100,000, and the Treasury did not spare
+him.  "He ought," wrote the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "to have
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P138"></A>138}</SPAN>
+
+considered those (difficulties) which must arise here from the
+presentation of large drafts at the Treasury, for which Parliament had
+made no provision; and for which, as Parliament was not sitting, no
+regular provision could be made.  The situation to which the Treasury
+is reduced is this: either to protest the bills for want of funds, or
+to accept the bills, and find within thirty days the means of paying
+them."[<A NAME="chap04fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn11">11</A>]  This incident furnished to Stanley fresh proof, if any were
+needed, of Bagot's inexperience.  An anxious and mistrustful temper
+appears in all his despatches to Bagot; but, in fact, with little
+justification.  He never learned how completely the governor for whom
+he trembled was his master in the art of governing a half-autonomous
+colony.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As early as March, Bagot had begun to feel that the views of the
+Cabinet in Britain were impracticable: and that even the Civil List
+might not be so easily defended as Stanley imagined.  "I know well by
+what a slender thread the adhesion of the colony will hang whenever we
+consent to leave the matter entirely in its own hands....  But the
+present supply is not sufficient for its purposes.  We must always be
+dependent on the Legislature for provision to meet its excess; and I
+cannot but
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P139"></A>139}</SPAN>
+think that the sooner the Legislature succeeds, if
+they are to succeed, in carrying the point, the more generous they may
+possibly be in the use of their victory."[<A NAME="chap04fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn12">12</A>]  Bagot was already
+defining the policy which was to be peculiarly his own.  He had a
+singularly clear eye for facts, even when they contradicted his
+preconceived ideas; and, being a man of the world, he saw that
+compromise with the opposition was as natural in Canada as in Britain.
+But in answer to his despatches, proposing such a compromise, Stanley,
+with his dogmatic omniscience, and eloquent certainty, had nothing but
+regrets to express, and difficulties to suggest.  England, he thought,
+had dealt generously with Canada in the terms of the Act of Union, and
+sound statesmanship lay in resolute defence of that measure.  And,
+since there always seems to be in such imperialists a sense of
+political pathos&mdash;the <I>lacrymae rerum politicarum</I>&mdash;he began to have
+pessimistic views of the permanence of the connection: "I am very far
+from underrating the value to Great Britain of her extensive and
+rapidly improving North American possessions, but I cannot conceal from
+myself the fact that they are maintained to her at no light cost, and
+at no
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P140"></A>140}</SPAN>
+trifling risk.  To all this she willingly submits, so long
+as the bonds of union between herself and her colonies are strengthened
+by mutual harmony, good will, and confidence; and it would be indeed
+painful to me to contemplate the possibility that embarrassments,
+arising from uncalled for and unfounded jealousies on the part of
+Canada, might lead the people of England to entertain a doubt how far
+the balance of advantages preponderated in favour of the continuance of
+the present relations."[<A NAME="chap04fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn13">13</A>]  The Civil List raised the fundamental
+question, but it was a simple issue, and it lay still far in the
+future.  The constitution of the ministry, however, and its relation to
+the coming parliament, could be neither evaded nor delayed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Bagot's instructions gave him a certain scope, for he was permitted to
+avail himself of the advice and services of the ablest men, without
+reference to the distinction of local party.  In making use of this
+liberty, Bagot had to consider chiefly the need of finding a majority
+in the Lower House&mdash;happily he could postpone their meeting till
+September.  Of the probable tone of that Assembly the estimates varied,
+but Murdoch, who knew the situation as well as any man, calculated that
+while
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P141"></A>141}</SPAN>
+the government party would number thirty, the French, with
+their British Radical friends, would be thirty-six strong, the old
+Conservatives eight, and some ten or so would "wait on providence or
+rather on patronage."[<A NAME="chap04fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn14">14</A>]  In Sydenham's last days, the government
+majority, which he had so subtly, and by means so machiavellian, got
+together, had vanished.  Reformers, not all of them so scrupulous as
+Baldwin, were ready to ruin a government which kept them from a
+complete triumph.  Sir Allan MacNab with his old die-hards, fulminating
+against all enemies of the British tradition, was still willing to make
+an unholy alliance with the French, if only he could checkmate a
+governor-general who did not seem to appreciate his past services to
+Britain.  And the French themselves, alienated and insulted by
+Sydenham, sat gloomily alone, restless over the Union, seemingly on the
+threshold of some fresh racial conflict.  Everything was uncertain,
+save the coming government defeat.[<A NAME="chap04fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn15">15</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the very outset, Bagot had this question of French Canada thrust
+upon him.  From the moment of his arrival his council advised the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P142"></A>142}</SPAN>
+admission of the French Canadians to a share in power.  He refused, for
+Stanley had very carefully instructed him on that subject.  The
+Colonial Secretary had spoken of the wisdom of forgetting old
+divisions, but he never permitted himself to forget that the French
+leaders&mdash;La Fontaine, Viger, Girouard&mdash;had all been, in some fashion or
+other, involved in the troubles of 1837.  He believed that there still
+existed in Lower Canada a gloomy, rebellious, French Canadian party,
+which no responsible British statesman could afford to recognize.
+Sober-minded Canadian statesmen told him that it was useless to attempt
+to detach from the party individuals&mdash;<I>les Vendus</I> their compatriots
+called them.  He answered that he would like to multiply such <I>Vendus</I>;
+and he hoped for a day when the anglicising of the Lower Province
+should have been completed.  It was his intention to break down all
+forces tending in the opposite direction.  He was conscious of a
+repulsion, equally strong, in his feelings towards Baldwin, and the
+Reform party.  Whether it came by French racial hate, or Upper Canadian
+republicanism, which was the name he gave to all views of a reforming
+colour, the ruin of the Empire would follow hard on concession to
+agitation.  In his heart, he trusted only
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P143"></A>143}</SPAN>
+the old Tories, and not
+all his disgust at MacNab's interested advances could alter his
+conviction that one party alone cared for Britain&mdash;the former Family
+Compact men.  When he bade Bagot disregard party divisions in his
+choice of ministers, he was unconsciously limiting Bagot's choice to a
+very little circle, all of them most unmistakably displeasing to the
+populace, whose wishes he professed to be willing to consult.  He
+claimed to be a man of principle&mdash;mistaking the clearness of
+doctrinaire ignorance for the certainty of honest knowledge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Happily the governor-general of Canada was not in this sense a man of
+principle.  He observed, took counsel, and began to shape his own
+policy.  It is not easy to describe that policy in a sentence, or even
+to make it absolutely clear.  He had come out to Canada, forewarned
+against Baldwin and the school of constitutionalists associated with
+him; and the warning made him reluctant to consent to their ideas.  He
+had been advised to draw his councillors from all directions, and his
+naturally moderate spirit approved a policy of judicious selection.
+But the noteworthy feature in the line of action which he ultimately
+followed was that he allowed his diplomatic instincts to overbalance
+the advice imposed on him by the British ministry.
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P144"></A>144}</SPAN>
+In selecting
+individuals for his councils, he almost unconsciously followed the
+wishes of Baldwin and his party, until, at the end, he found himself in
+the hands of resolute advocates of responsible government, and did
+nothing to withstand their doctrine.  But this is to anticipate events,
+and to simplify what was actually a process involved in some confusion.
+He filled two vacant places&mdash;one with the most brilliant of reforming
+financiers, Francis Hincks, whose merits he saw at once; the other,
+after a gentlemanly refusal from Cartwright, with Sherwood, a sound but
+comparatively moderate Conservative from Upper Canada.  In an admirable
+letter to Stanley at the beginning of the summer, he outlined his
+policy.  Stanley, ever fearful of rash experiments, warned him that a
+combination of black and white does not necessarily produce grey.  To
+this he answered: "My hope is that, circumstanced as I am, I possibly
+may be able to do this, that is, to take from all sides the best and
+fittest men for the public service....  The attempt to produce such a
+grey, whether it succeed or not, must, I think, after all that has
+passed, and at this particular crisis in which I find myself here, be
+the safest line."[<A NAME="chap04fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn16">16</A>]  Stanley, then, limited his
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P145"></A>145}</SPAN>
+choice of men,
+and in the event of a crisis, was prepared that he should risk a defeat
+and the violent imposition of an alien ministry, on the chance that
+such a reverse might provoke a loyalist uprising to defend the British
+connection.  Baldwin dreamed of a consistently Radical cabinet.
+MacNab, with his eyes shut to the consequences, seems to have
+considered a leap in the dark&mdash;a coalition between his men and the
+French Canadians.  Bagot, as opportunist as the Tories, but opportunist
+for the sake of peace, and some kind of constitutional progress, laid
+aside lofty ideals, and said, as his most faithful advisers also said,
+that the future lay with <I>judicious selection</I>, no party being barred
+except where their conduct should have made recognition of them
+impossible to a self-respecting governor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is difficult to name all the influences which operated on Bagot's
+mind.  He corresponded largely and usefully with Draper, the soundest
+of his conservative advisers.  His own innate courtesy led him to end
+the social ostracism of the French, and taught him their good
+qualities.  Being quick-witted and observant, his political instincts
+began almost unconsciously to force a new programme upon him.  Before
+August, he had conciliated moderate reforming opinion through Hincks;
+he
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P146"></A>146}</SPAN>
+had proved to the French, by legal appointments, which met
+with a stiff and forced acquiescence in Stanley, that at least he was
+not their enemy.  He had begun to question the certainty of Stanley's
+wisdom on the Civil List, and various other subjects.  Then, between
+July 28th and September 26th, the date of two sets of despatches,
+which, if despatches ever deserve the term, must be called works of
+genius, he completed his plan, brought it to the test of practice, and
+challenged the home government to acquiesce, or recall him.  With his
+ministry constituted as it was in July, he had to face the certainty of
+a vote of no confidence as soon as parliament met.  Were he to do
+nothing, some unholy alliance of groups would defeat the government.
+In that case, his ministers, pledged as they were to constitutionalism
+by the resolutions of September, 1841, had warned him beforehand, that
+they would resign in a body.  All hold over the French would be lost,
+and responsible government, whether he and Stanley willed it or not,
+would be established in its most obnoxious form.  To fill the vacant
+places, or to reconstruct the ministry, the field of choice was very
+small, even if men of every connection were included.  "Out of the 84
+members of the House of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P147"></A>147}</SPAN>
+Assembly," he told Stanley, "not above
+30, as far as I can judge, are at all qualified for office, by the
+common advantages of intelligence and education, and of these, ten at
+least are not in a position to accept it."[<A NAME="chap04fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn17">17</A>]  In the case of the
+French he seemed to have reached an absolute deadlock.  He found offers
+to individual Frenchmen useless, for he did not gain the party, and he
+ruined the men whom he honoured.  The Assembly was to meet on the 8th
+of September, and as that date drew near, the excitement rose.  It was
+a crisis with many possibilities both for England and for Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As certainly as Stanley, with all the wisdom of Peel's cabinet behind
+him, was wrong, and fatally so, Bagot's conduct between September 10th
+and September 14th was precisely right.  In a correspondence with Peel,
+just before the crisis, Stanley sought to get his great leader to take
+his view.  Even Peel's genius proved incompetent to settle a problem of
+local politics, three thousand miles away from the scene of action.
+The wisdom of his answer lay, not in its suggestions, which were
+useless to Bagot, but in its hint "that much must be left to the
+judgment and discretion of those who have to act at a great distance
+from the supreme
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P148"></A>148}</SPAN>
+authority."[<A NAME="chap04fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn18">18</A>]  Stanley himself, from first to
+last, was for allowing Bagot to face defeat, although he always thought
+it possible that stubborn resistance to what he counted treason would
+rally a secure majority to Bagot and the Crown.  Time and again after
+assuring Bagot that he and the ministry acquiesced, which, to do them
+justice, they did like men, he harked back to the idea of allowing
+events to prove that the government was indeed powerless, before it
+made a definitive surrender.  Long before Parliament met, the situation
+had been discussed in all its bearings; and the only doubt that
+remained was concerning which out of three or four foreshadowed
+catastrophes would end the existence of the government.  The ministers
+themselves had their negative programme ready; for, having consented to
+the constitutional resolutions of September, 1841, they forewarned
+Bagot that if they were left in a minority, or in a very small
+majority, they should feel themselves compelled to resign, and they
+added that, if Bagot did not accept their recommendation to admit the
+French Canadians, they would insist upon his accepting their
+resignation.[<A NAME="chap04fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn19">19</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P149"></A>149}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+When the Assembly met, events moved very rapidly.  On the opening day,
+Neilson brought forward the exciting question of amnesty; and the air
+was filled with rumours and schemes, of which the most ominous for
+government was the project of coalition between Conservatives and
+French Canadians.  The time had come for action&mdash;if anything could
+really be done.  To understand the boldness of Bagot's tactics, it must
+be remembered that they went "in the teeth of an almost universal
+feeling at home ... certainly in opposition to Lord Durham's recorded
+sentiments, and as certainly to Lord Sydenham's avowed practice"&mdash;to
+say nothing of Stanley's own wishes.  La Fontaine was definitely
+approached on the tenth, and, seemingly, Bagot was not quite prepared
+for the greatness of his claims&mdash;"four places in the Council, with the
+admission of Mr. Baldwin into it."[<A NAME="chap04fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn20">20</A>]  But he had no alternative, for
+on the 12th he received a plain statement from his cabinet that, if he
+failed, they were not prepared to carry on the government.[<A NAME="chap04fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn21">21</A>]  To his
+dismay, the surrender, if one may so term it, which he signed next day,
+was not accepted, since Baldwin could not
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P150"></A>150}</SPAN>
+countenance the
+pensioning of the ministers, Ogden and Davidson, who had been
+compulsorily retired, and, although MacNab was at hand with the offer
+of sixteen Conservative stalwarts, the plan was useless, and, in view
+of MacNab's general conduct at this time, irritating.  When Bagot wrote
+that night to Stanley it was as a despairing man, for the attack had
+begun at 3 o'clock, Baldwin leading off with an address, as usual
+pledging the House to responsible government, and there was every
+chance that he would defeat the ministry.  At this point Bagot took the
+strange and daring plan of allowing Draper to read his letter to La
+Fontaine in the House, that the Lower Canadians might "learn how
+abundantly large an offer their leaders have rejected, and the honest
+spirit in which that offer was made."[<A NAME="chap04fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn22">22</A>]  His unconventionality won
+the day, by convincing the House that the governor-general was in
+earnest.  Successive adjournments staved off the debate on the address;
+and by September 16th, terms had been settled.  La Fontaine, Small,
+Aylwin, Baldwin, and Girouard if he cared to take office, were to
+enter, Draper, Davidson, Ogden and Sherwood passing out.
+Unfortunately, since neither Ogden nor Sherwood happened to be
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P151"></A>151}</SPAN>
+present, Bagot had to accept their resignations on his own initiative,
+and without previous consultation with them.  Not even that dexterous
+correspondent could quite disguise the awkwardness of his position when
+he wrote to tell both men that they had ceased to be his ministers.[<A NAME="chap04fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn23">23</A>]
+So the crisis ended.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The address was carried by fifty-five votes to five, the malcontents
+being MacNab, foiled once more in his ambitions; Moffat and Cartwright,
+representing inflexible Toryism; Neilson, whose position as a
+recognized opponent of the Union tied his hands, and Johnstone, a
+disappointed place man.  Peace ruled in the Assembly, and the battle
+passed to the province, the newspapers, and most ominous of all for the
+governor, to the cabinet and public in Britain.  A storm of abuse,
+criticism, and regrets broke over Bagot's devoted head.  The opposition
+press in Canada called him "a radical, a puppet, an old woman, an
+apostate, a renegade descendant of old Colonel Bagot who fell at Naseby
+fighting for his King."[<A NAME="chap04fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn24">24</A>]  MacNab, in the House, led a bitterly
+personal opposition.  At least one
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P152"></A>152}</SPAN>
+cabinet meeting in England was
+called specially to consider the incident, and for some months Stanley
+tempered assurances that he and the government would support their
+representative, with caustic expressions of regret.  The necessity of
+the change, he reiterated, had not been fully proven.  The French
+members and Baldwin were doubtful characters.  If the worst must be
+accepted, and a ministry constructed, containing both Baldwin and the
+French, then Bagot had better obtain from the new cabinet some
+assurance of "their intention of standing by the provisions of the Act
+of Union, including the Civil List, and every other debatable
+question."  Then, fearing lest the very citadel of responsibility and
+control should be surrendered, he set forth his theory of government in
+an elaborate letter which revealed distinct distrust of his
+correspondent's power of resistance.  "Your position is different from
+that of the Crown in England.  The Crown acts avowedly and exclusively
+on the advice of its ministers, and has no political opinions of its
+own.  You act in concert with your Executive Council, but the ultimate
+decision rests with yourself, and you are recognised, not only as
+having an opinion, but as supreme and irresponsible, except to the Home
+government, for
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P153"></A>153}</SPAN>
+your acts in your executive capacity.
+Practically you are (influenced) by the advice you receive, and by
+motives of prudence, in not running counter to the advice of those who
+command a majority in the Legislature; but you cannot throw on them the
+onus of your actions in the same sense that the Crown can in this
+country."[<A NAME="chap04fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn25">25</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet, so far as Canada was concerned, Bagot had reason to feel
+satisfied.  Threatened with half a dozen hostile combinations, he had
+forestalled them all, and found the Assembly filled with friends, not
+enemies.  He had approached a sullen French nation&mdash;and thereafter the
+French party formed as solid an accession to Canadian political
+stability as they had once been dangerous to Imperial peace; and their
+union with the moderate reformers in government, while it gave them all
+they asked, enabled the governor to exercise a natural restraint on
+them, should they again be tempted to nationalist excesses.  He had not
+explicitly surrendered to any sweeping doctrine of responsible
+government.  There was peace at last.  The Assembly which passed over
+thirty acts, reaffirmed the rights of the royal prerogative, and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P154"></A>154}</SPAN>
+was dismissed in the most amiable temper with itself, and the
+governor-general.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One may discern, however, a curious contradiction between the
+superficial consequences of the crisis, as described by Bagot, and the
+fundamental changes the beginnings of which he was able to trace in the
+months which followed.  On the face of it, Bagot's policy of frank
+expediency had saved Stanley and his party from a crushing defeat and a
+humiliating surrender to extreme views.  So far, he had assisted the
+cause of conservatism.  But the disaster and the humiliation would have
+come, not from the grant of responsible government, but from the misuse
+of it to which a victory, won against a more resolute governor, might
+have tempted Baldwin and La Fontaine, and from the false position in
+which the imperial government would have stood, towards the men who had
+challenged imperial authority and won.  It is interesting to follow the
+process by which Bagot came to see all that lay in his action.
+Yielding to Canadian autonomy, he went on to new surrenders.  He had
+already warned Stanley that the agitation over the Civil List would
+certainly reawaken; to the end he seems to have been considering the
+advisability of a complete surrender
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P155"></A>155}</SPAN>
+on that point.  When he
+wrote communicating to the minister the Assembly's acknowledgment of
+the royal prerogative, in recognizing the right of the Crown to name
+the capital, he pointed out that, prerogative or no prerogative, the
+possessor of the purse had the final voice.  He rebuked his new
+minister, Baldwin, for tacking on question-begging constitutional
+phrases to a legal opinion, but he told Stanley, quite frankly, that,
+"whether the doctrine of responsible government is openly acknowledged,
+or is only tacitly acquiesced in, <I>virtually it exists</I>."[<A NAME="chap04fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn26">26</A>]  During
+the remainder of his tenure of office, partly because of his own
+ill-health, but partly also, I think, from conviction, he gave his
+ministers the most perfect freedom of action.  And, although he did not
+gain the point, he was willing to make sweeping concessions in answer
+to the call for an amnesty for the rebels of 1837.  He recognized the
+force of trusting, in a self-governing community, even those who had
+once striven against the British rule with arms&mdash;the final proof in any
+man that he has come to understand the secrets, at once of Empire, and
+of constitutional government.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is little more to tell of Bagot's rule, for
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P156"></A>156}</SPAN>
+the last months
+of his life were spent in a struggle to overcome extreme bodily
+sickness in the interest of public duty; and Stanley himself, in the
+name of the Cabinet, expressed his admiration for the gallantry of his
+stand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To the end, he held himself justified in his political actions, and if
+there were moments when he questioned whether Stanley would see things
+in a reasonable light, he possessed the perfect confidence of his
+Canadian ministers, who did not neglect his injunction to them to
+defend his memory.[<A NAME="chap04fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn27">27</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless the irritation of the Colonial Secretary was neither
+unnatural nor unjustifiable.  He confidently expected that separation
+from England would be the immediate consequence of a surrender to the
+reform party in Canada; and he believed that Bagot had made that
+surrender.  In the latter opinion he was correct.  There are times when
+the party of reaction sees more clearly than their opponents the scope
+and consequences of innovation, however blind they may be to the
+developments which by their parallel advance check the obvious dangers;
+and Sir Charles Metcalfe, whom Stanley sent to Canada to stay the
+flowing tide, has furnished the most accurate negative criticism of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P157"></A>157}</SPAN>
+the Bagot incident: "The result of the struggle naturally
+increased the conviction that Responsible Government was effectually
+established, new Councillors were forced on the governor-general....
+The Council was no longer selected by the governor.  It was thrust on
+him by the Assembly of the people.  Some of the new members of the
+Council had entered it with extreme notions of the supremacy of the
+Council over the governor; and the illness of Sir Charles Bagot, after
+this change, threw the current business of administration almost
+entirely into their hands, which tended much to confirm these
+notions."[<A NAME="chap04fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn28">28</A>]  It fell to the lot of this critic to attempt to correct
+Bagot's mistakes.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn4"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn1text">1</A>] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn2text">2</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn3text">3</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 17 May, 1842.  The term
+<I>Bagot Correspondence</I> is used to denote the letters to and from Bagot,
+other than despatches, in the possession of the Canadian Archives.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn4text">4</A>] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap04fn5"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn5text">5</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn6text">6</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 18 October, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn7text">7</A>] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn8text">8</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Harrison to Bagot, 11 July, 1842
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn9text">9</A>] Bagot Correspondence: W. H. Draper to Bagot, 18 May, and 16 July,
+1842.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap04fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn10text">10</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 3 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn11text">11</A>] Goulburn to Stanley, 16 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn12text">12</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 26 March, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn13text">13</A>] Stanley to Bagot, 27 May, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn14text">14</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, describing an interview
+with Murdoch, 1 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap04fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn15text">15</A>] See Bagot's admirable analysis of French conditions in his public
+and confidential despatches, 26 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn16text">16</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 12 June, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn17text">17</A>] Bagot to Stanley: 26 September, 1842&mdash;confidential.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn18text">18</A>] Peel to Stanley, 28 August, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn19text">19</A>] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842&mdash;confidential.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap04fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn20text">20</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 July, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn21text">21</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 13 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn22text">22</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 13 September, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn23text">23</A>] Bagot Correspondence: letters to Sherwood 16 September, and to
+Ogden 19 September.  Dismissal is far too blunt a term in which to
+describe the transaction.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn24text">24</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 October, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap04fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap04fn28"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn25text">25</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 3 November and 3 December,
+1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn26text">26</A>] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 October, 1842.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn27text">27</A>] Hincks, <I>Reminiscences of his Public Life</I>, p. 89.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap04fn28text">28</A>] Kaye, <I>Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe</I>, p. 416.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P158"></A>158}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+A surrender of the official Imperial position so unexpected and so
+contrary to the intentions of the Colonial Office, as that which Bagot
+had made, provoked a natural reaction.  Bagot's successor was one of
+those men of principle who are continually revealing the flaws and
+limitations implicit in their principles by earnest over-insistence on
+them.  It is unfortunate that Sir Charles Metcalfe should appear in
+Canadian history as the man whose errors almost precipitated another
+rebellion, for among his predecessors and successors few have equalled
+him, none has outstripped him, in public virtue or experience.  He had
+earned, throughout thirty-seven years in India, a reputation for
+efficiency in every kind of administrative work.  As a lad of little
+more than twenty he had negotiated with Ranjit Singh the treaty which,
+for a generation, kept Sikhs and British at peace.  In the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P159"></A>159}</SPAN>
+residency at Hyderabad he had fought, in the face of the
+governor-general's displeasure, a hard but ultimately successful battle
+for incorrupt administration.  After Bentinck had resigned, Metcalfe
+had been appointed acting governor-general, and he might have risen
+even higher, had not the courageous act, by which he freed the press in
+India from its earlier disabilities, set the East India Company
+authorities against him.  He was something more than what Macaulay
+called him&mdash;"the ablest civil servant I ever knew in India"; his
+faculty for recommending himself to Anglo-Indian society on its lighter
+side, and the princely generosity which bound his friends to him by a
+curious union of reverence and affection, combined with his genius for
+administration to make him an unusual and outstanding figure in that
+generation of the company officials in India.  Led by the sense of duty
+which ever dominated him, he had passed from retirement in England to
+reconcile the warring elements in Jamaica to each other; and his
+success there had been as great as in India.  In English politics, in
+which he had naturally played little part, he identified himself with
+the more liberal wing of the Whigs, although his long absence from the
+centre of affairs, and the inclination natural to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P160"></A>160}</SPAN>
+an
+administrator, to think of liberalism rather as a thing of deeds and
+acts than of opinion, gave whatever radicalism he may have professed a
+bureaucratic character.  He described himself not inaptly to a friend
+thus: "A man who is for the abolition of the corn laws, Vote by Ballot,
+Extension of the Suffrage, Amelioration of the Poor-laws for the
+benefit of the poor, equal rights to all sects of Christians in matters
+of religion, and equal rights to all men in civil matters...; and (who)
+at the same time, is totally disqualified to be a demagogue&mdash;shrinks
+like a sensitive plant from public meetings; and cannot bear to be
+drawn from close retirement, except by what comes in the shape of real
+or fancied duty to his country."[<A NAME="chap05fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn1">1</A>]  Outside of the greater figures of
+the time, he was one of the first citizens of the Empire, and Bagot, as
+he thought of possible successors, only dismissed the suggestion of
+Metcalfe's appointment because it seemed too good news to be true.
+Nevertheless Sir Charles Metcalfe had one great initial disadvantage
+for work in Canada.  Distinguished as were his virtues, a very little
+discernment in the home government might have discovered the obstacles
+which must meet an absolutely efficient,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P161"></A>161}</SPAN>
+liberal administrator in
+a country where democracy, the only possible principle of government
+for Canada, was still in its crude and repulsive stage.  The
+delimitation of the frontier between Imperial control and Canadian
+self-government required a subtler and more flexible mind than
+Metcalfe's, and a longer practice than his in the ways of popular
+assemblies.  Between March, 1843, when he assumed office, and the end
+of 1845, when he returned to die in England, Metcalfe's entire energy
+was spent in grappling with the problem of holding the balance level
+between local autonomy and British supremacy.  His real contribution to
+the question was, in a sense, the confusion and failure with which his
+career ended; for his serious practical logic reduced to an absurdity,
+as nothing else could have done, the position stated so firmly by
+Russell in 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles Metcalfe came to Canada at a moment when responsible
+government in its most extended interpretation seemed to have
+triumphed.  In Upper and Lower Canada the reforming party had accepted
+Bagot's action as the concession of their principle, and the two chief
+ministers, Baldwin and La Fontaine, were men resolute to endure no
+diminution of their share of responsibility.  Bagot's
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P162"></A>162}</SPAN>
+illness had
+given additional strength to their authority, and Gibbon Wakefield, who
+was then a member of Assembly, believed that Baldwin had already taken
+too great a share of responsibility to be willing to occupy a secondary
+place under an energetic governor.[<A NAME="chap05fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn2">2</A>]  Indeed an unwillingness to allow
+the governor-general his former unlimited initiative becomes henceforth
+a mark of the leaders of the Reformers, and La Fontaine, who had
+resented Sydenham's activity as much as his anti-nationalist policy,
+protested against the suggestion that Charles Buller should be sent to
+Canada, because he "apprehended that Buller would be disposed to take
+an active part himself in our politics."[<A NAME="chap05fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn3">3</A>]  There seemed to be no
+obstacle in the way of a complete victory for reforming principles.
+The French remained as solidly as ever a unit, and under La Fontaine
+they were certain to continue to place their solidarity at the disposal
+of the Upper Canada reformers.  The latter, <I>ultras</I> and moderates
+alike, were too adequately represented, in all their shades and
+aspects, in the cabinet, to be willing to shake its power; and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P163"></A>163}</SPAN>
+the sympathetic co-operation between Irishmen in Canada, and those who
+at that time in Ireland were beginning another great democratic
+agitation, made the stream of Hibernian immigration a means of
+reinforcing the Canadian progressives.  One of the best evidences of
+the growth of Reform was the persistent agitation of the Civil List
+question.  Following up their action under Bagot, the reformers
+demanded the concession of a completer control than they seemed then to
+possess over their own finances, and a more economical administration
+of them.  The inspector-general, in a report characterized by all his
+admirable clearness, stated the issue thus: "It is impossible for any
+government to support a Civil List to which objections are raised, and
+with justice, by the people at large; first, on the ground that its
+establishment was a violation of their constitutional rights; second,
+that the services provided for are more than ought to be placed on the
+permanent Civil List; third, on the ground that the salaries provided
+are higher than the province can afford to pay with a due regard to the
+public interests, and more especially to the maintenance of the public
+credit."[<A NAME="chap05fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn4">4</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P164"></A>164}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Metcalfe, then, found in Canada a ministry not far from being
+unanimous, supported by a union of French and British reformers; and he
+ought to have realized how deeply the extended view of self-government
+had affected the minds of all, so that only by a serious struggle could
+Sydenham's position of 1839 be recovered.  But Metcalfe was an
+Anglo-Indian, trained in the school of politics most directly opposed
+to the democratic ways of North America.  He was entirely new to
+Canadian conditions; and one may watch him studying them
+conscientiously, but making just those mistakes, which a clever
+examination candidate would perpetrate, were he to be asked of a sudden
+to turn his studies to practical account.  The very robustness of his
+sense of duty led him naturally to the two most contentious questions
+in the field&mdash;those which concerned the responsibility of the colonial
+executive government, and the place of party in dictating to the
+governor-general his policy and the use to be made of his patronage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His study of Sydenham's despatches revealed to him the contradiction
+between that statesman's resolute proclamation of Russell's doctrine,
+and the course of practical surrender which his actions seemed to have
+followed in 1841.  "In adopting
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P165"></A>165}</SPAN>
+the very form and practice of the
+Home Government, by which the principal ministers of the Crown form a
+Cabinet, acknowledged by the nation as the executive administration,
+and themselves acknowledging responsibility to Parliament, he rendered
+it inevitable that the council here should obtain and ascribe to
+themselves, in at least some degree, the character of a cabinet of
+ministers."[<A NAME="chap05fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn5">5</A>]  In a later despatch, Metcalfe attempted to demonstrate
+the inapplicability of such a form of government to a colony: "a system
+of government which, however suitable it may be in an independent
+state, or in a country where it is qualified by the presence of a
+Sovereign and a powerful aristocracy, and by many circumstances in
+correspondence with which it has grown up and been gradually formed,
+does not appear to be well adapted for a colony, or for a country in
+which those qualifying circumstances do not exist, and in which there
+has not been that gradual progress, which tends to smooth away the
+difficulties, otherwise sure to follow the confounding of the
+legislative and executive powers, and the inconsistency of the practice
+with the theory of the Constitution."[<A NAME="chap05fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn6">6</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P166"></A>166}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+To his mind, what Durham had advocated was infinitely sounder&mdash;"that
+all officers of the government except the governor and his secretary
+should be responsible to the united Legislature; and that the governor
+should carry on his government by heads of departments, in whom the
+United Legislature repose confidence....  The general responsibility of
+heads of departments, acting under the orders of the Governor, each
+distinctly in his own department, might exist without the destruction
+of the former authority of her Majesty's Government."[<A NAME="chap05fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn7">7</A>]  So set was he
+in his opposition to cabinet government on British lines in Canada,
+that he prophesied separation as the obvious consequence of concession.
+It was natural that one so distrustful of cabinet machinery in a colony
+should altogether fail to see the place of party.  It must always be
+remembered that party, in Canada, had few of those sanctions of
+manners, tradition, and national service, which had given Burke his
+soundest arguments, when he wrote the apologetic of the eighteenth
+century Whigs.  Personal and sometimes corrupt interests, petty ideas,
+ignoble quarrels, a flavour of pretentiousness which came from the
+misapplication of British terms, and a
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P167"></A>167}</SPAN>
+lack of political
+good-manners&mdash;in such guise did party present itself to the British
+politician on his arrival in British North America.  Metcalfe, from his
+previous experience, had come to identify party divisions with
+factiousness, a political evil which the efficient governor must seek
+to extirpate.  His triumph in Jamaica had secured the death of party
+through the benevolent despotism of the governor, and there can be no
+doubt that he hoped in Canada to perform a precisely similar task.
+"The course which I intend to pursue with regard to all parties," he
+wrote to Stanley in April, 1843, "is to treat all alike, and to make no
+distinctions, as far as depends on my personal conduct."  But since
+parties did exist, and were unlikely to cease to exist, the
+governor-general's distaste for party in theory merely forced him to
+become in practice the unconscious leader of the Canadian
+conservatives, who, under men like MacNab and the leaders of the Orange
+Lodges, differed only from other parties in the loudness of their
+loyalist professions, and the paucity of their supporters among the
+people.  Metcalfe complained that at times the whole colony must be
+regarded as a party opposed to her Majesty's Government.[<A NAME="chap05fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn8">8</A>]  He might
+have
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P168"></A>168}</SPAN>
+seen that what he deplored proceeded naturally from the
+identification of himself with the smallest and least representative
+group of party politicians in the colony.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The radical opposition between the governor and the coalition which his
+executive council represented led naturally to the crisis of November
+26th, 1843.  For months the feeling of mutual alienation had been
+growing.  On several occasions, more notably in the appointment to the
+speakership of the legislative council, and in one to a vacant
+clerkship of the peace, the governor's use of patronage had caused
+offence to his ministers; and, towards the end of November, the entire
+Cabinet, with the exception of Daly, whose nickname "the perpetual
+secretary" betokened that he was either above party feeling or beneath
+it, handed in their resignations.  The motives of their action became,
+as will be shown, the subject of violent controversy; but the statement
+of Sir Charles Metcalfe seems in itself the fairest and most probable
+account of what took place.  "On Friday, Mr. La Fontaine and Mr.
+Baldwin came to the Government House, and after some irrelevant matters
+of business, and preliminary remarks as to the course of their
+proceedings, demanded of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P169"></A>169}</SPAN>
+the Governor-general that he should
+agree to make no appointment, and no offer of an appointment, without
+previously taking the advice of the Council; that the lists of
+candidates should in every instance be laid before the Council; that
+they should recommend any others at discretion; and that the
+Governor-general in deciding, after taking their advice, shall not make
+any appointment prejudicial to their influence."[<A NAME="chap05fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn9">9</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At a slightly later date the ministers attributed their resignation to
+a serious difference between themselves and the governor-general on the
+theory of responsible government.  To that statement Metcalfe took
+serious exception, but he admitted that "in the course of the
+conversations which both on Friday and Saturday followed the explicit
+demand made by the Council regarding the patronage of the Crown, that
+demand being based on the construction put by some of the gentlemen on
+the meaning of responsible government, different opinions were elicited
+on the abstract theory of that still undefined question as applicable
+to a colony."[<A NAME="chap05fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn10">10</A>]  There can be no doubt that the <I>casus belli</I> was an
+absolute assertion of the right of the council to control patronage,
+but it is, at the same time,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P170"></A>170}</SPAN>
+perfectly clear that in the opinion
+of the ministers the disposal of patronage formed part of the system of
+responsible government, and that they were quite explicit to Metcalfe
+in their statements on that point.  The incident, striking enough in
+itself, gave occasion for an extraordinary outburst of pamphleteering;
+and the reckless or incompetent statements of men on either side make
+it necessary to dispel one or two illusions created by the partizan
+excitement of the time.  On the side of the council, Hincks, the
+inspector-general, then and afterwards contended that the incident was
+only an occasion and a pretext; that Stanley had sent Metcalfe out to
+wreck the system of responsible government, so far conceded by Sydenham
+and Bagot; and that the episode of 1843 was part of a deeper plot to
+check the growth of Canadian freedom.[<A NAME="chap05fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn11">11</A>]  Apart from the absurdities
+contained in Hincks' statement of the case, the only answer which need
+be made to the charge is that, if Stanley could have descended to such
+ignoble plotting, Metcalfe was the last man in the world to act as his
+dishonoured instrument.  On the other side, Gibbon Wakefield believed
+that
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P171"></A>171}</SPAN>
+the council chose the occasion to escape from a defeat
+otherwise inevitable, in the hope that a renewed agitation for
+responsible government might reinstate them in public favour.  As
+Metcalfe gave the suggestion some authority by accepting it
+provisionally in a despatch,[<A NAME="chap05fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn12">12</A>] the details of Wakefield's charge may
+be given.  The ministry, he held, had been steadily weakening.  Two
+bills, advocated by them, had been abandoned owing to the opposition of
+their followers.  The French solidarity had begun to break up, and La
+Fontaine had found in Viger a rival in the affections of his adherents.
+The ministers, intoxicated by the possession of a little brief
+authority, had offended the sense of the House by their arrogance; and
+the debates concerning the change of the seat of government from
+Kingston to Montreal had been a cause of stumbling to many.  With their
+authority weakened in the House, doubtful in the country, and more than
+doubtful with the governor-general, the resignation of the ministers,
+in Wakefield's view of the case, "upon a ground which was sure to
+obtain for them much popular sympathy, was about the most politic of
+their ministerial acts."[<A NAME="chap05fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn13">13</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P172"></A>172}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+But the ministry possessed and continued to possess a great
+parliamentary majority; and a dissolution could not in any way have
+improved their position.  Besides this, the alienation of the
+councillors from the governor-general had developed far more deeply
+than was generally supposed; indeed it is difficult to see how common
+action between the opposing interests could have continued with any
+real benefit to the public.  On May 23rd, that is six months before the
+resignation, Captain Higginson, the Governor's civil secretary, had an
+interview with La Fontaine, to ascertain his views on the appointment
+of a provincial aide-de-camp, and on general topics.  The accuracy of
+Higginson's <I>précis</I> of the conversation was challenged by La Fontaine,
+but its terms seem moderate and probable, and do not misrepresent the
+actual position of the Executive Council in 1843&mdash;a determined
+opposition to the governor-general's attempt to destroy government by
+party: "Mr. La Fontaine said, 'Your attempts to carry on the government
+on principles of conciliation must fail.  Responsible government has
+been conceded, and when we lose our majority we are prepared to retire;
+to strengthen us we must have the entire confidence of the
+Governor-general exhibited most
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P173"></A>173}</SPAN>
+unequivocally&mdash;and also his
+patronage&mdash;to be bestowed exclusively on our political adherents.  We
+feel that His Excellency has kept aloof from us.  The opposition
+pronounce that his sentiments are with them.  There must be some acts
+of his, some public declaration in favour of responsible government,
+and of confidence in the Cabinet, to convince them of their error.
+This has been studiously avoided.'"[<A NAME="chap05fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn14">14</A>]  The truth is that the ministry
+felt the want of confidence, which, on the governor's own confession,
+existed in his mind towards them.  Believing, too, as all of them did
+more or less, in party, they must already have learned the views of
+Metcalfe on that subject, and they suspected him of taking counsel with
+the conservatives, whom Metcalfe declared to be the only true friends
+to Britain in Canada.  Matters of patronage Metcalfe had determined, as
+far as possible, to free from party dictation; and so he and his
+ministers naturally fell out on the most obvious issue which their
+mutual differences could have raised.  There was nothing disingenuous
+in the popular party claiming that the patronage question stood in this
+case for the broader issue.  Indeed Metcalfe's own statement that "he
+objected to the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P174"></A>174}</SPAN>
+exclusive distribution of patronage with party
+views and maintained the principle that office ought, in every
+instance, to be given to the man best qualified to render efficient
+service to the State" was actually a challenge to the predominance of
+the party-cabinet system, which no constitutionalist could have allowed
+to pass in silence.  Egerton Ryerson, to whom in this instance the
+maxim about the cobbler sticking to his last is applicable, erected a
+ridiculous defence for Metcalfe, holding that "according to British
+practice, the councillors ought to have resigned on what Metcalfe had
+done, and not on what he would not promise to do.  If the Crown
+intended to do just as they desired the governor-general to do, still
+the promise ought not to be given, nor ought it to have been asked.
+The moment a man promises to do a thing he ceases to be as free as he
+was before he made the promise."[<A NAME="chap05fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn15">15</A>]  The actual struggle lay between
+two schools directly opposed in their interpretation of responsible
+government; and since Sir Charles Metcalfe definitely and avowedly set
+himself against cabinet government, the party system, and the place of
+party in allocating patronage, the ministers were not free to allow him
+to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P175"></A>175}</SPAN>
+appoint men at his own discretion.  For the sake of a theory
+of government for which many of them had already sacrificed much, they
+were bound to defend what their opponents called the discreditable
+cause of party patronage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The line of action which the members of council followed had already
+been sketched out by Robert Baldwin in his encounter with Sydenham.  In
+the debate of June 18th, 1841, Baldwin had admitted that should the
+representative of the Crown be unwilling to accept the advice offered
+to him by his council, it would be impossible by any direct means to
+force that advice upon him.  But he also held that this did not relieve
+the members of council for a moment from the fulfilment of an
+imperative duty.  "If their advice," he said, "were accepted&mdash;well and
+good.  If not, their course would be to tender their resignations."[<A NAME="chap05fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn16">16</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This indeed was battle <I>ŕ outrance</I> between two conflicting theories of
+government.  Russell, Sydenham, and Metcalfe, had refused to admit
+self-government beyond a certain limit, and Metcalfe, in accepting the
+situation created by the resignation of his ministers, was battling
+very directly for his view.  On the other side, Baldwin and the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P176"></A>176}</SPAN>
+colonial politicians had claimed autonomy as far as it might be granted
+within the empire.  By resigning their offices, they called on their
+opponents to make the alternative system work.  For two years Metcalfe
+occupied himself with the task they set him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is not necessary to enter into all the details of those years.  The
+relevant facts group themselves round three centres of interest&mdash;the
+painful efforts put forth by Metcalfe to build up a new council, the
+general election through which he sought to find a party for his
+ministers, and the attitude of the colony towards the new ministers,
+and of both toward the representative of the Crown on the eve of his
+departure for England in 1845.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The struggle to reconstruct the ministry was peculiarly distressing,
+and ended in a very qualified success.  Daly, Metcalfe's one remaining
+councillor, carried no weight in the country.  Baldwin and his group
+could not be approached; and Harrison, the most moderate of the
+reformers, had previously resigned over the question of the removal of
+the seat of government from Kingston.  In Lower Canada, Metcalfe found
+himself almost as much the object of French hatred as Sydenham had
+been, and it was with great difficulty that he
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P177"></A>177}</SPAN>
+secured Viger to
+represent the French Canadians in his council&mdash;at the expense of
+Viger's influence among his compatriots.[<A NAME="chap05fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn17">17</A>]  By the end of 1843,
+Metcalfe had secured the services of three men, "Viger representing the
+French party, and Mr. Daly and Mr. Draper representing in some degree
+as to each both the British and moderate Reform parties."[<A NAME="chap05fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn18">18</A>]
+Officious supporters, of whom Egerton Ryerson was chief, did their best
+to introduce to the governor competent outsiders, and Draper used his
+reputation for moderation in the effort to secure suitable candidates.
+Even after the election of 1844 was over, Draper, and Caron, the
+Speaker in the Upper House, actually attempted an intrigue with La
+Fontaine; and although the episode brought little credit to any of the
+parties concerned, La Fontaine at least recognized how much was
+involved in acceptance or rejection of the proposals of
+government&mdash;when he said: "If under the system of accepting office at
+any price, there are persons, who, for a personal and momentary
+advantage, do not fear to break the only bond which constitutes our
+strength, union among ourselves, I do not wish to be, and I never will
+be, of the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P178"></A>178}</SPAN>
+number."[<A NAME="chap05fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn19">19</A>]  Eventually a patchwork ministry was
+constructed, but its pitiable weakness proved how difficult it was to
+create a council, except along orthodox British party lines.  It was a
+<I>reductio ad absurdum</I> of the eclectic principle of cabinet building.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The reconstruction of the council involved a dissolution of Parliament.
+The late councillors had a steady and decisive majority in the existing
+Assembly; and the governor-general found it necessary to face the risk
+of an appeal to the country.  The fate of Lower Canada he could imagine
+beforehand; nothing but accident could prevent the return of an
+overwhelming majority against his men.  Even among the western British
+settlers an unprejudiced observer reported early in 1844 that more than
+nine-tenths of the western voters were supporters of the late Executive
+Council.[<A NAME="chap05fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn20">20</A>]  Montreal, which, thanks to Sydenham's manoeuvres, counted
+among the British seats, returned an opponent of the new Ministers at a
+bye-election in April, 1844, although the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P179"></A>179}</SPAN>
+government party
+explained away the defeat by stories of Irish violence.  But Metcalfe's
+extraordinary persistence, and his belief that the battle was really
+one for the continuance of the British connection, gave him and his
+supporters renewed vigour, and, even to-day, the election of November,
+1844, is remembered as one of the fiercest in the history of the
+colony.  Politics in Canada still recognized force as one of the
+natural, if not quite legitimate, elements in the situation, and it was
+eminently characteristic of local conditions that, early in his term of
+office, Metcalfe should have reported that meetings had been held near
+Kingston at which large numbers of persons attended armed with
+bludgeons, and, in some cases, with firearms.[<A NAME="chap05fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn21">21</A>]  Montreal, with all
+its possibilities of conflict, and with its reputation for disorder to
+maintain, led the-way in election riots.  In April, 1844, according to
+the loyalists, the reformers had won through the use of Irish labourers
+brought in from the Lachine canal.  However that may be, the military
+had been called in, and at least one death had resulted from the
+confused rioting of the day.[<A NAME="chap05fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn22">22</A>]  In November, the loyalists in their
+turn organized
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P180"></A>180}</SPAN>
+a counter demonstration, and the success of the
+loyal party was not altogether disconnected with physical force.[<A NAME="chap05fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn23">23</A>]
+From the west came similar stories of violence and trickery.  In the
+West Riding of Halton, the Tories were said to have delayed voting,
+which seemed to be setting against them, by various stratagems,
+including the swearing in of old grey-headed men as of 21 years of age,
+and among the accusations made by the defeated candidate was one that
+certain deputy returning officers had allowed seven women to vote for
+the sitting member.[<A NAME="chap05fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn24">24</A>]  On the whole the election went in favour of
+the governor-general, although Metcalfe took too favourable a view of
+the situation when he reported the avowed supporters of government as
+46, as against 28 avowed adversaries.  At best his majority could not
+rise above six.  Yet even so, the decision of the country still seems
+astonishing.  There was the unflinching Tory element at the centre; and
+the British members from Lower Canada.  Ryerson had used his great
+influence among the Methodists, and, since the cry was one of loyalty
+to the Crown, many waverers
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P181"></A>181}</SPAN>
+may have voted on patriotic grounds
+for the government candidates.  Metcalfe's reputation, too, counted for
+him, for he had already become known as more than generous, and one of
+his successors estimated that he spent Ł6,000 a year in excess of his
+official income.  "It must be admitted," he himself wrote to Stanley,
+"that this majority has been elected by the loyalty of the majority of
+the people of Upper Canada, and of those of the Eastern townships in
+Lower Canada."[<A NAME="chap05fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn25">25</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The government, and presumably also the governor-general, were accused
+of having secured their victory by doubtful tactics, and Elgin reported
+in 1847 that his Assembly, which was that of the 1844 election, had had
+much discredit thrown on it on the ground that the late
+governor-general had interfered unduly in the elections.[<A NAME="chap05fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn26">26</A>]  Neither
+side had been perfectly scrupulous in its methods of warfare, and it is
+not necessary to blame Metcalfe for the misguided zeal and cunning of
+his Ministers and his country supporters.  Be that as it may, the
+governor-general had won a hard-fought victory&mdash;Pyrrhic as it proved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Throughout this political warfare, Metcalfe had
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P182"></A>182}</SPAN>
+been sustained by
+the strong support of the home government.  The cabinet announced
+itself ready to give him every possible support in maintaining the
+authority of the Queen, and of her representative, against unreasonable
+and exorbitant pretensions.[<A NAME="chap05fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn27">27</A>]  In the debate on the troubles, which
+Roebuck introduced on May 30th, 1844, all the leading men on either
+side, Stanley, Peel, Russell, and Buller, warmly supported the
+governor, Russell and Buller being as strong in their reprobation of
+the demands of the council as Stanley himself.[<A NAME="chap05fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn28">28</A>]  And the chorus of
+approval culminated in the letters from Peel and Stanley, which
+announced the conferring of a peerage on Metcalfe "as a public mark of
+her Majesty's cordial approbation of the judgment, ability, and
+fidelity, with which he had discharged the important trust confided to
+him by her Majesty."[<A NAME="chap05fn29text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn29">29</A>]  In a sense the honours and praise were not
+altogether out of place.  Metcalfe had been sent out to conduct the
+administration of Canada on what we now regard as an impossible system;
+and unlike his immediate predecessors he had conceded not one point to
+the other side.  In spite of all that his enemies could say, his
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P183"></A>183}</SPAN>
+personal honour and dignity remained untarnished.  The nicknames and
+cruel taunts flung at him, in the earlier months, apparently by his own
+ministers, recoil now on their heads, as the petty insults of
+unmannerly politicians; indeed, the accusations which they made of
+simplicity and honesty, simply reinforce the impression of quixotic
+high-mindedness, which was not the least noble feature in Metcalfe's
+character.  His generosity had been unaffected by his difficulties; and
+there are few finer things in the history of British administration
+than the sense of duty exhibited throughout 1845 by Lord Metcalfe,
+when, dying of cancer in the cheek, almost blind, and altogether unable
+to write his despatches, he still clung to his post "to secure the
+preservation of this colony and the supremacy of the mother country."
+It is easy to separate the man from the official, and to praise the
+former as one of the noblest of early Victorian administrators.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But even before Lord Metcalfe's departure at the end of 1845, the
+inadequacy of his system stood revealed.  He had indeed a majority in
+the Assembly, but a small and doubtful majority; and since its members
+had been elected rather to support Metcalfe than to co-operate with his
+ill-assorted
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P184"></A>184}</SPAN>
+ministry, difficulties very soon revealed
+themselves.  There were causes of dissension, chief among them the
+University question in Upper Canada, which threatened to wreck the
+government party.  But the most ominous sign of coming defeat was the
+incompatibility of temper which rapidly developed between loyal
+ministers and loyal Assembly.  "It is remarkable," Metcalfe wrote in
+May, 1845, "that none of the Executive Council, although all are
+estimable and respectable, exercise any great influence over the party
+which supports the government.  Mr. Draper is universally admitted to
+be the most talented man in either House of the Legislature, and his
+presence in the Legislative Assembly was deemed to be so essential,
+that he resigned his seat in the Upper House, sacrificing his own
+opinions in order that he might take the lead in the Assembly;
+nevertheless he is not popular with the party that supports the
+government, nor with any other, and I do not know that, strictly
+speaking, he can be said to have a single follower.  The same may be
+remarked of every other member of the Executive Council; and although I
+have much reason to be satisfied with them, and have no expectation of
+finding others who would serve her Majesty better, still I do not
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P185"></A>185}</SPAN>
+perceive that any of them individually have brought much support to the
+government."[<A NAME="chap05fn30text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn30">30</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That is the confession of a man who has attempted the impossible, and
+who is being forced reluctantly to witness his own defeat.  The
+ministry which he had created lacked the authority which can come only
+from the best political talent of a people acting in sympathy with the
+opinions of that people.  He had, with great difficulty, found a House
+of Assembly willing by a narrow majority to support him, but personal
+support is not in itself a political programme, and the fallacy of his
+calculations appeared when work in detail had to be accomplished.  He
+had reprobated party, and he found in a party&mdash;narrower in practice
+even than that which he had displaced&mdash;the only possible foundation for
+his authority.  He had come to Canada to complete the reconciliation of
+opposing races within the colony, and, when he left, the French seemed
+once more about to retreat into their old position of invincible
+hostility to all things British.  The governor-generalship of Lord
+Metcalfe is almost the clearest illustration in the nineteenth century
+of the weakness of the doctrinaire in practical politics.
+Unfortunately, the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P186"></A>186}</SPAN>
+doctrine which Metcalfe had strenuously
+enforced was backed by the highest of imperial authorities, and
+sanctioned by monarchy itself.  In less than ten years after the
+Rebellion, the renovated theory of colonial autonomy had produced a new
+dilemma.  It remained with Metcalfe's successor to decide whether
+Britain preferred a second rebellion and probable separation to a
+radical change of system.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn4"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn1text">1</A>] Kaye, <I>Life of Lord Metcalfe</I>, revised edition, ii. p. 313.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn2text">2</A>] <I>A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada</I>, by a
+member of the Provincial Parliament, p. 29.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn3text">3</A>] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn4text">4</A>] <I>Parliamentary Paper concerning the Canadian Civil List</I> (1 April,
+1844), p. 5.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap05fn5"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn5text">5</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 5 August, 1843.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn6text">6</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn7text">7</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 6 August, 1843.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn8text">8</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn9text">9</A>] Kaye, <I>Life of Lord Metcalfe</I>, ii. pp. 367-8.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap05fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn10text">10</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> ii. p. 369.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn11text">11</A>] See Hincks, <I>Lecture on the Political History of Canada</I>; and
+Dent, <I>The Last Forty Years</I>.  The latter work was written under the
+influence of Sir Francis Hincks, whose comments on it are contained in
+the inter-leaved copy in the possession of the Canadian archives.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn12text">12</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 26 December, 1843.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn13text">13</A>] <I>A Letter on the Ministerial Crisis, by the old Montreal
+Correspondent of the Colonial Gazette</I>, Kingston, 1843.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn14text">14</A>] Quoted from Ryerson, <I>Story of my Life</I>, pp. 332-3.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap05fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn15text">15</A>] Ryerson, <I>op. cit.</I> p. 323.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn16text">16</A>] See above, p. 116.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn17text">17</A>] Viger was defeated in the election of 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn18text">18</A>] Kaye, <I>Papers and Correspondence of Lord Melcalfe</I>, p. 426.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn19text">19</A>] See, for the whole intrigue, <I>Correspondence between the Hon. W.
+H. Draper and the Hon. B. E. Garon; and, between the Honbles. L. H. La
+Fontaine and A. N. Morin</I>, Montreal, 1840.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap05fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn20text">20</A>] The Rev. John Ryerson to Egerton Ryerson, February, 1844, in <I>The
+Story of my Life</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn21text">21</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 December, 1843.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn22text">22</A>] Montreal Gazette, 23 April, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn23text">23</A>] <I>Montreal Daily Witness</I>, 7 March, 1896, containing reminiscences
+by Dr. William Kingsford.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn24text">24</A>] Young, <I>Early History of Galt and Dumfries</I>, p. 193.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap05fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn28"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn29"></A>
+<A NAME="chap05fn30"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn25text">25</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 November, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn26text">26</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 9 December, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn27text">27</A>] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 May, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn28text">28</A>] <I>Hansard</I>, 30 May, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn29text">29</A>] Kaye, <I>Life of Lord Metcalfe</I>, ii. pp. 405-9.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap05fn30text">30</A>] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P187"></A>187}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The year which intervened between Metcalfe's departure and the arrival
+of Lord Elgin at the beginning of 1847, may be disregarded in this
+inquiry.  Earl Cathcart, who held office in the interval, was chosen
+because relations with the United States at that time were serious
+enough to make it desirable to combine the civil and the military
+headship in Canada in one person.  In domestic politics the
+governor-general was a negligible quantity, as his successor confessed:
+"Lord Cathcart, not very unreasonably perhaps, has allowed everything
+that required thought to lie over for me."[<A NAME="chap06fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn1">1</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the arrival of Elgin changed the whole aspect of affairs, and
+introduced the most
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P188"></A>188}</SPAN>
+important modification that was made in
+Canadian government between 1791 and the year of Confederation.  Since
+1839, governors-general who took their instructions from Britain, and
+who seldom allowed the Canadian point of view to have more than an
+indirect influence on their administration, had introduced the most
+unhappy complications into politics.  Both they and the home government
+were now reduced to the gloomiest speculations concerning the
+permanence of the British connection.  In place of the academic or
+official view of colonial dependence which had hitherto dominated
+Canadian administration, Elgin came to substitute a policy which
+frankly accepted the Canadian position, and which as frankly trusted to
+a loyalty dependent for none of its sanctions upon external coercion or
+encouragement.  With 1846, Great Britain entered on an era of which the
+predominating principle was <I>laissez faire</I>, and within twelve months
+of the concession of that principle in commerce, Elgin applied it with
+even more astonishing results in the region of colonial Parliamentary
+institutions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Canadian episode in Elgin's career furnishes the most perfect and
+permanently useful service rendered by him to the Empire.  Although he
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P189"></A>189}</SPAN>
+gathered laurels in China and India, and earned a notable place
+among diplomatists, nothing that he did is so representative of the
+whole man, so valuable, and so completely rounded and finished, as the
+seven years of his work in Canada.  Elsewhere he accomplished tasks,
+which others had done, or might have done as well.  But in the history
+of the self-governing dominions of Britain, his name is almost the
+first of those who assisted in creating an Empire, the secret of whose
+strength was to be local autonomy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He belonged to the most distinguished group of nineteenth century
+politicians, for with Gladstone, Canning, Dalhousie, Herbert, and
+others, he served his apprenticeship under Sir Robert Peel.  All of
+that younger generation reflected the sobriety, the love of hard fact,
+the sound but progressive conservatism, and the high administrative
+faculty of their great master.  It was an epoch when changes were
+inevitable; but the soundest minds tended, in spite of a powerful party
+tradition, to view the work in front of them in a non-partizan spirit.
+Gladstone himself, for long, seemed fated to repeat the party-breaking
+record of Peel; and three great proconsuls of the group, Dalhousie,
+Canning, and Elgin, found in imperial administration a more
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P190"></A>190}</SPAN>
+congenial task than Westminster could offer them.  Elgin occupies a
+mediate position between the administrative careers of Dalhousie and
+Canning, and the parliamentary and constitutional labours of Gladstone.
+He was that strange being, a constitutionalist proconsul; and his chief
+work in administration lay in so altering the relation of his office to
+Canadian popular government, as to take from the governor-generalship
+much of its initiative, and to make a great surrender to popular
+opinion.  Between his arrival in Montreal at the end of January, 1847,
+and the writing of his last official despatch on December 18th, 1854,
+he had established on sure foundations the system of democratic
+government in Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Never was man better fitted for his work.  He came, a Scotsman, to a
+colony one-third Scottish, and the name of Bruce was itself soporific
+to the opposition of a perfervid section of the reformers.  His wife
+was the daughter of Lord Durham, whom Canadians regarded as the
+beginner of a new age of Canadian constitutionalism.  He had been
+appointed by a Whig Government, and Earl Grey, the new Colonial
+Secretary, was already learned in liberal theory, both in politics and
+economics, and understood that Britons, abroad as at home,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P191"></A>191}</SPAN>
+must
+have liberty to misgovern themselves.  Elgin's personal qualities were
+precisely those best fitted to control a self-governing community.  Not
+only was he saved from extreme views by his caution and sense of
+humour, but he had, to an extraordinary degree, the power of seeing
+both sides, and more especially the other side, of any question.  In
+Canada too, as later in China and India, he exhibited qualities of
+humanity which some might term quixotic;[<A NAME="chap06fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn2">2</A>] and, as will be illustrated
+very fully below, his gifts of tact and <I>bonhomie</I> made him a
+singularly persuasive force in international affairs, and secured for
+Britain at least one clear diplomatic victory over America.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Following on a succession of short-lived and troubled governorships,
+under which, while the principle of government had remained constant,
+nothing else had done so, Elgin had practically to begin Durham's work
+afresh, and build without much regard for the foundations laid since
+1841.  The alternatives before him were a grant of really responsible
+government, or a rebellion, with annexation to the United States as its
+probable end.  The
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P192"></A>192}</SPAN>
+new Governor saw very clearly the dangers of
+his predecessor's policy.  "The distinction," he wrote at a later date,
+"between Lord Metcalfe's policy and mine is twofold.  In the first
+place he profoundly distrusted the whole Liberal party in the
+province&mdash;that great party which, excepting at extraordinary
+conjunctures, has always carried with it the mass of the
+constituencies.  He believed its designs to be revolutionary, just as
+the Tory party in England believed those of the Whigs and Reformers to
+be in 1832.  And, secondly, he imagined that when circumstances forced
+the party upon him, he could check these revolutionary tendencies by
+manifesting his distrust of them, more especially in the matter of the
+distribution of patronage, thereby relieving them in a great measure
+from that responsibility, which is in all free countries the most
+effectual security against the abuse of power, and tempting them to
+endeavour to combine the role of popular tribunes with the prestige of
+ministers of the crown."[<A NAME="chap06fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn3">3</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The danger of a crisis was the greater because, as has been shown,
+Metcalfe's anti-democratic policy had been more than the expression of
+a personal
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P193"></A>193}</SPAN>
+mood.  It was the policy of the British government.
+After Metcalfe's departure, and Stanley's resignation of the Colonial
+office, Gladstone, then for a few months Colonial Secretary, assured
+Cathcart that "the favour of his Sovereign and the acknowledgment of
+his country, have marked (Metcalfe's) administration as one which,
+under the peculiar circumstances of the task he had to perform, <I>may
+justly be regarded as a model for his successors</I>."[<A NAME="chap06fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn4">4</A>]  In truth, the
+British Colonial office was not only wrong in its working theory, but
+ignorant of the boiling tumult of Canadian opinion in those days;
+ignorant of the steadily increasing vehemence of the demand for true
+home rule, and of the possibility that French nationalism, Irish
+nationalism, and American aggression, might unite in a great upheaval,
+and the political tragedy find its consummation in another Declaration
+of Independence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Elgin was allowed little leisure for general reflections; the
+concrete details of the actual situation absorbed all his energies.
+Since Metcalfe's resignation, matters had not improved.  There was
+still an uncertain majority in the House of Assembly, although, in the
+eyes of probably a
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P194"></A>194}</SPAN>
+majority of voters, the disorders of the late
+election had discredited the whole Assembly.  But the ministry had gone
+on from weakness to further weakness.  Draper, who did his best to
+preserve the political decencies, had been forced to ask Cathcart to
+assist him in removing certain of his colleagues.  Viger had been a
+complete failure as President of the Council, and performed none of the
+duties of his department except that of signing his name to reports
+prepared by others.  Daly was of little use to him; and, as for the
+solicitor-general for Upper Canada, Sherwood, "his repeated absence on
+important divisions, his lukewarm support, and occasional (almost)
+opposition, his habit of speaking of the Members of your Excellency's
+Government and of the policy pursued by them, his more than suspected
+intrigues to effect the removal of some members of the council, have
+altogether destroyed all confidence in him."[<A NAME="chap06fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn5">5</A>]  Draper himself had
+seemingly grown tired of the dust and heat of the struggle, and, soon
+after Elgin's assumption of authority, resigned his premiership for a
+legal position as honourable and more peaceful.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P195"></A>195}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Elgin, then, found a distracted ministry, a doubtful Assembly, and an
+irritated country.  His ministers he thought lacking in pluck, and far
+too willing to appeal to selfish and sordid motives in possible
+supporters.[<A NAME="chap06fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn6">6</A>]  He was irritated by what seemed to him the petty and
+inconsistent divisions of Canadian party life: "In a community like
+this, where there is little, if anything, of public principle to divide
+men, political parties will shape themselves under the influence of
+circumstances, and of a great variety of affections and antipathies,
+national, sectarian, and personal....  It is not even pretended that
+the divisions of party represent corresponding divisions of sentiment
+on questions which occupy the public mind, such as voluntaryism, Free
+Trade, etc., etc.  Responsible Government is the one subject on which
+this coincidence is alleged to exist."[<A NAME="chap06fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn7">7</A>]  The French problem he found
+peculiarly difficult.  Metcalfe's policy had had results disconcerting
+to the British authorities.  Banishing, as he thought, sectarianism or
+racial views, he had yet practically shut out French statesmen from
+office so successfully, that, when Elgin, acting through Colonel Taché,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P196"></A>196}</SPAN>
+attempted to approach them, he found in none of them any
+disposition to enter into alliance with the existing ministry.[<A NAME="chap06fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn8">8</A>]
+Elgin, who was willing enough to give fair play to every political
+section, could not but see the obvious fault of French Canadian
+nationalism.  "They seem incapable of comprehending that the principles
+of constitutional government must be applied against them, as well as
+for them," he wrote to Grey.  "Whenever there appears to be a chance of
+things taking this turn they revive the ancient cry of nationality, and
+insist on their right to have a share in the administration, not
+because the party with which they have chosen to connect themselves is
+in the ascendant, but because they represent a people of distinct
+origin."[<A NAME="chap06fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn9">9</A>]  Most serious of all, because it hampered his initiative,
+he found every party except that in office suspicious of the governor's
+authority, and newspapers like Hincks' <I>Pilot</I> grumbling over Imperial
+interference.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One sweeping remedy, he had, within a few months of his arrival, laid
+aside as impossible.  Lord John Russell and Grey had discussed with
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P197"></A>197}</SPAN>
+him
+the possibility of raising Canadian politics out of their pettiness by
+a federal union of all the British North American colonies.  But as
+early as May 1847, Elgin had come to doubt whether the free and
+independent legislatures of the colonies would be willing to delegate
+any of their authority to please a British ministry.[<A NAME="chap06fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn10">10</A>]  It was
+necessary then to fall back on the unromantic alternative of modifying
+the constitution of the ministry; and here French solidarity had made
+his task difficult.  Yet the amazing thing in Elgin was the speed, the
+ease, and the accuracy, with which he saw what none of his predecessors
+had seen&mdash;the need to concede, and the harmlessness of conceding,
+responsible government in Baldwin's sense of the term.  Within two
+months of his accession to power, he declared, "I am determined to do
+nothing which will put it out of my power to act with the opposite
+party, if it is forced upon me by the representatives of the
+people."[<A NAME="chap06fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn11">11</A>]  Two months later, sick of the struggles by which his
+ministers were trying to gain here and there some trivial vote to keep
+them in office, he recurred to the same idea as not merely harmless but
+sound.  That ministers
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P198"></A>198}</SPAN>
+and opposition should occasionally change
+places struck him not merely as constitutional, but as the most
+conservative convention in the constitution; and in answer to the older
+school to whom a change of ministers at the dictation of a majority in
+the Assembly meant the degradation of the governor-generalship, he
+hoped "to establish a moral influence in the province, which will go
+far to compensate for the loss of power consequent on the surrender of
+patronage to an executive responsible to the local parliament."[<A NAME="chap06fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn12">12</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To give his ministers a last fair chance of holding on to office, he
+dissolved parliament at the end of 1847, recognizing that, in the event
+of a victory, their credit would be immensely increased.  The struggle
+of December 1847, to January 1848, was decisive.  While the French
+constituencies maintained their former position, even in Upper Canada
+the discredited ministry found few supporters.  The only element in the
+situation which disturbed Elgin was the news that Papineau, the
+arch-rebel of 1837, had come back to public life with a flourish of
+agitating declarations; and that the French people had not condemned
+with sufficient decisiveness his seditious utterances.  Yet he need
+have
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P199"></A>199}</SPAN>
+had no qualms.  <I>La Revue Canadienne</I> in reviewing the
+situation certainly refused to condemn Papineau's extravagances, but
+its conclusion took the ground from under the agitator's feet, for it
+declared that "cette modération de nos chefs politiques a puissamment
+contribué ŕ placer notre parti dans la position avantageuse qu'il
+occupe maintenant."[<A NAME="chap06fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn13">13</A>]  Now Papineau was incapable of political
+moderation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fate of the ministry was quickly settled.  Their candidate for the
+speakership of the Lower House was defeated by 54 votes to 19; a vote
+of no confidence was carried by 54 to 20; on March 23rd parliament was
+prorogued and a new administration, the first truly popular ministry in
+the history of Canada, accepted office, and the country, satisfied at
+last, was promised "various measures for developing the resources of
+the province, and promoting the social well-being of its
+inhabitants."[<A NAME="chap06fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn14">14</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The change was the more decisive because it was made with the approval
+of the Whig government in England.  "I can have no doubt," Grey wrote
+to Elgin on February 22nd, "that you must accept
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P200"></A>200}</SPAN>
+such a council
+as the newly elected parliament will support, and that however unwise
+as relates to the real interests of Canada their measures may be, they
+must be acquiesced in, until it shall pretty clearly appear that public
+opinion will support a resistance to them.  There is no middle course
+between this line of policy, and that which involves in the last resort
+an appeal to parliament to overrule the wishes of the Canadians, and
+this I agree with Gladstone and Stanley in thinking impracticable."[<A NAME="chap06fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn15">15</A>]
+The only precaution he bade Elgin take was to register his dissent
+carefully in cases of disagreement.  Having conceded the essential, it
+mattered little that Grey could not quite rid himself of doubts as to
+the consequences of his previous daring.  The concession had come most
+opportunely, for Elgin, who feared greatly the disturbing influences of
+European revolutionism, Irish discontent, and American democracy in its
+cruder forms, believed that, had the change not taken place, "we should
+by this hour (November 30th, 1848) either have been ignominiously
+expelled from Canada, or our relations with the United States would
+have been in a most precarious condition."
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P201"></A>201}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+It is not necessary to follow Elgin through all the details of more
+than seven busy years.  It will suffice to watch him at work on the
+three great allied problems which combined to form the constitutional
+question in Canada; the character of the government to be conceded to,
+and worked along with, the colonists; the recognition to be given to
+French nationalist feeling; and the nature of the connection between
+Britain and Canada which would exist after concessions had been made on
+these points.  The significance of his policy is the greater, because
+the example of Canada was certain, <I>mutatis mutandis</I>, to be followed
+by the other greater colonies.  Elgin's solution of the question of
+responsible government was so natural and easy that the reader of his
+despatches forgets how completely his task had baffled all his
+predecessors, and that several generations of colonial secretaries had
+refused to admit what in his hands seemed a self-evident truth.  At the
+outset Elgin's own mind had not been free from serious doubt.  He had
+come to Canada with a traditional suspicion of the French Canadians and
+the progressives of Upper Canada; yet within a year, since the country
+so willed it, he had accepted a cabinet, composed entirely of these two
+sections.  On his
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P202"></A>202}</SPAN>
+way to the formation of that cabinet he not
+only brushed aside old suspicions, but he refused to surrender to the
+seductions of the eclectic principle, which allowed his predecessors to
+evade the force of popular opinion by selecting representatives of all
+shades of that opinion.  He saw the danger of allowing responsible
+government to remain a party cry, and he removed "that most delicate
+and debatable subject" from party politics by conceding the whole
+position.  The defects of the Canadian party system never found a
+severer critic than Elgin, but he saw that by party Canada would be
+ruled, and he could not, as Metcalfe had done, deceive himself into
+thinking he had abolished it by governing in accordance with the least
+popular party in the state.  With the candour and the discriminating
+judgment which so distinguished all his doings in Canada, he admitted
+that, notwithstanding the high ground Lord Metcalfe had taken against
+party patronage, the ministers favoured by that governor-general had
+"used patronage for party purposes with quite as little scruple as his
+first council."[<A NAME="chap06fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn16">16</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Since the first general election had proved beyond a doubt that
+Canadians desired a
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P203"></A>203}</SPAN>
+progressive ministry, he made the change with
+perfect success, and remained a consistent guide and friend to his new
+ministers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was something dramatic in the contrast between the possibilities
+of trouble in the year when the concession was made, and the peace
+which actually ensued.  It was the year of revolution, and the men whom
+he called to his assistance were "persons denounced very lately by the
+Secretary of State to the Governor-General as impracticable and
+disloyal";[<A NAME="chap06fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn17">17</A>] but before the year was out he was able to boast that
+when so many thrones were tottering and the allegiance of so many
+people was waxing faint, there is less political disaffection in Canada
+than there ever had been before.  From 1848 until the year of his
+recall, he remained in complete accord with his liberal administration,
+and never was constitutional monarch more intimately and usefully
+connected with his ministers than was Elgin, first with Baldwin and La
+Fontaine, and then with Hincks and Morin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elgin gave a rarer example of what fidelity to colonial
+constitutionalism meant.  In these years of liberal success, "Old
+Toryism" faced a new strain, and faced it badly.  The party had
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P204"></A>204}</SPAN>
+supported the empire, when that empire meant their supremacy.  They had
+befriended the representative of the Crown, when they had all the
+places and profits.  When the British connection took a liberal colour,
+when the governor-general acted constitutionally towards the
+undoubtedly progressive tone of popular opinion, some of the tories
+became annexationists.  Many of them, as will be shown later,
+encouraged a dastardly assault on the person of their official head;
+and all of them, supported by gentlemen of Her Majesty's army, treated
+the representative of the Crown with the most obvious discourtesy.[<A NAME="chap06fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn18">18</A>]
+Nevertheless, when opinion changed, and when a coalition attacked and
+unseated the Progressive ministry of 1848-1854, Elgin, without a
+moment's hesitation, turned to the men who had insulted him.  "To the
+great astonishment of the public, as well as to his own," wrote
+Laurence Oliphant, who was then on Elgin's staff, "Sir Allan MacNab,
+who had been one of his bitterest opponents ever since the Montreal
+events, was sent for to form a ministry&mdash;Lord Elgin by this act
+satisfactorily disproving the charges of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P205"></A>205}</SPAN>
+having either personal
+or political partialities in the selection of his ministers."[<A NAME="chap06fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn19">19</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the first great constitutional governor-general of Canada had to
+interpret constitutionalism as something more than mere obedience to
+public dictation with regard to his councillors.  He had to educate
+these councillors, and the public, into the niceties of British
+constitutional manners; and he had to create a new vocation for the
+governor-general, and to exchange dictation for rational influence.  He
+had to teach his ministers moderation in their measures, and,
+indirectly, to show the opposition how to avoid crude and extreme
+methods in their fight for office.  When his high political courage, in
+consenting to a bill very obnoxious to the opposition, forced them into
+violence, he kept his temper and his head, and the opposition leaders
+learned, not from punishment, but from quiet contempt, to express
+dissent in modes other than those of arson and sticks and stones.  For
+seven years, by methods so restrained as to be hardly perceptible even
+in his private letters to Grey, he guided the first experimental
+cabinets into smooth water, and when he resigned, he left behind him
+politicians
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P206"></A>206}</SPAN>
+trained by his efforts to govern Canada according to
+British usage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time his influence on the British Cabinet was as quiet and
+certain.  He was still responsible to the British Crown and Cabinet,
+and a weaker man would have forgotten the problems which the new
+Canadian constitutionalism was bound to create at the centre of
+authority.  Two instances will illustrate the point, and Elgin's clear
+perception of his duty.  They are both taken from the episode of the
+Rebellion Losses Bill, and the Montreal riots of 1849.  The Bill which
+caused the trouble had been introduced to complete a scheme of
+compensation for all those who had suffered loss in the late Rebellion,
+whether French or English, and had been passed by majorities in both
+houses; but while there seemed no valid reason for disallowing it,
+Elgin suspected trouble&mdash;indeed, at first, he viewed the measure with
+personal disapproval.[<A NAME="chap06fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn20">20</A>]  He might have refused permission to bring in
+the bill; but the practical consequences of such a refusal were too
+serious to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P207"></A>207}</SPAN>
+be accepted.  "Only imagine," he wrote, "how difficult
+it would have been to discover a justification for my conduct, if at a
+moment when America was boiling over with bandits and desperadoes, and
+when the leaders of every faction in the Union, with the view of
+securing the Irish vote for the presidential election, were vying with
+each other in abuse of England, and subscribing funds for the Irish
+Republican Union, I had brought on such a crisis in Canada by refusing
+to allow my administration to bring in a bill to carry out the
+recommendation of Lord Metcalfe's commissioners."[<A NAME="chap06fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn21">21</A>]  He might have
+dissolved Parliament, but, as he rightly pointed out, "it would be
+rather a strong measure to have recourse to dissolution because a
+Parliament, elected one year ago under the auspices of the present
+opposition, passed by a majority of more than two to one a measure
+introduced by the Government."  There remained only the possibility of
+reserving the bill for approval or rejection at home.  A weaker man
+would have taken this easy and fatal way of evading responsibility; but
+Elgin rose to the height of his vocation, when he explained his reason
+for acting on his own
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P208"></A>208}</SPAN>
+initiative.  "I should only throw upon her
+Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the popular eye here)
+on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which rests, and ought I think
+to rest, on my own shoulders."[<A NAME="chap06fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn22">22</A>]  He gave his assent to the bill,
+suffered personal violence at the hands of the Montreal crowd and the
+opposition, but, since he stood firm, he triumphed, and saved both the
+dignity of the Crown and the friendship of the French for his
+government.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other instance of his skill in combining Canadian autonomy with
+British supremacy is less important, but, in a way, more extraordinary
+in its subtlety.  As a servant of the Crown, he had to furnish
+despatches, which were liable to be published as parliamentary papers,
+and so to be perused by Canadian politicians.  Elgin had therefore to
+reckon with two publics&mdash;the British Parliament, which desired
+information, and the Canadian Parliament, which desired to maintain its
+dignity and freedom.  Before the Montreal outrage, and when it was
+extremely desirable to leave matters as vague as possible, Elgin simply
+refrained from giving details to the Colonial Office.  "I could not
+have made my official communication to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P209"></A>209}</SPAN>
+you in reference to this
+Bill, which you could have laid before Parliament, without stating or
+implying an irrevocable decision on this point.  To this circumstance
+you must ascribe the fact that you have not heard from me
+officially."[<A NAME="chap06fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn23">23</A>]  With even greater shrewdness, at a later date, he
+made Grey expunge, in his book on Colonial Policy, details of the
+outrage which followed the passing of the Act; for, said he, "I am
+strongly of opinion that nothing but evil can result from the
+publication, at this period, of a detailed and circumstantial statement
+of the disgraceful proceedings which took place after the Bill
+passed....  <I>The surest way to arrest a process of conversion is to
+dwell on the errors of the past, and to place in a broad light the
+contrast between present sentiments and those of an earlier date</I>."[<A NAME="chap06fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn24">24</A>]
+In constitutional affairs manners make, not merely the statesman, but
+the possibility of government; and Elgin's highest quality as a
+constitutionalist was, not so much his understanding of the machinery
+of government, as his knowledge of the constitutional temper, and the
+need within it of humanity and common-sense.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P210"></A>210}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Great as was Elgin's achievement in rectifying Canadian constitutional
+practice, his solution of the nationalist difficulty in Lower Canada
+was possibly a greater triumph of statesmanship; for the present <I>modus
+vivendi</I>, which still shows no signs of breaking down, dates from the
+years of Elgin's governorship.  The decade which included his rule in
+Canada was pre-eminently the epoch of nationalism.  Italy, Germany, and
+Hungary, with Mazzini as their prophet, were all struggling for the
+acknowledgment of their national claims, and within the British Islands
+themselves, the Irish nationalists furnished, in Davis and the writers
+to <I>The Nation</I>, disciples and apostles of the new gospel.  It is
+always dangerous to trace European influences across the Atlantic; but
+there is little doubt that as the French rebellion of 1837 owed
+something to Europe, so the arch-rebel Papineau's paper, <I>L'Avenir</I>,
+echoed in an empty blustering fashion, the cries of the nationalist
+revolution of 1848.[<A NAME="chap06fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn25">25</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elgin found on his arrival that British administration had thrown every
+element in French-Canadian politics into headlong opposition to itself.
+How dangerous the situation was, one may infer from
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P211"></A>211}</SPAN>
+the
+disquieting rumours of the ambitions of the American Union, and from
+the passions and memories of injustice which floods of unkempt and
+wretched Irish immigrants were bringing with them to their new homes in
+America.  In Elgin's second year of office, 1848, he had to face the
+possibility of a rising under the old leaders of 1837.  His solution of
+the difficulty proceeded <I>pari passu</I> with his constitutional work.  In
+the latter he had seen that he must remove the disquieting subject of
+"responsible government" from the party programme of the progressives,
+and the politic surrender of 1847 had gained his end.  Towards French
+nationalism he acted in the same spirit.  As has already been seen, he
+was conscious of the political shortcomings of the French.  Yet there
+was nothing penal in his attitude towards them, and he saw, with a
+clearness to which Durham never attained, how idle all talk of
+anglicizing French Canada must be.  "I for one," he said, "am deeply
+convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to denationalize the
+French.  Generally speaking, they produce the opposite effect from that
+intended, causing the flame of national prejudice and animosity to burn
+more fiercely."[<A NAME="chap06fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn26">26</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P212"></A>212}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+But how could the pathological phase of nationalism be ended?  His
+first Tory advisers suggested the old trick of making converts, but the
+practice had long since been found useless.  His next speculation was
+whether the French could be made to take sides as Liberals or Tories,
+apart altogether from nationalist considerations.  But the political
+solidarity of the French had been a kind of trades-unionism, claiming
+to guard French interests against an actual menace to their very
+existence as a nation within the empire; and they were certain to act
+only with Baldwin and his friends, the one party which had regarded
+them as other than traitors or suspects, or at best tools.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No complete solution of the problem was possible; but when Elgin
+surrendered to the progressives, he was making concessions also to the
+French&mdash;by admitting them to a recognized place within the
+constitution, and doing so without reservation.  The joint ministry of
+La Fontaine and Baldwin was, in a sense, the most satisfactory answer
+that could be made to the difficulty.  From the moment of its creation
+Elgin and Canada were safe.  He remained doubtful during part of 1848,
+for Papineau had been elected by acclamation to the Parliament which
+held its first session that year; and he "had
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P213"></A>213}</SPAN>
+searched in vain
+... through the French organs of public opinion for a frank and decided
+expression of hostility to the anti-British sentiments propounded in
+Papineau's address."[<A NAME="chap06fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn27">27</A>]  He did not at first understand that La
+Fontaine, not Papineau, was the French leader, and that the latter
+represented only himself and a few <I>Rouges</I> of violent but
+unsubstantial revolutionary opinions.  Nevertheless, he gave his French
+ministers his confidence, and he applied his singular powers of winning
+men to appeasing French discontent.  As early as May, 1848, he saw how
+the land lay&mdash;that French Canada was fundamentally conservative, and
+that discontent was mainly a consequence of sheer stupidity and error
+on the part of England.  "Who will venture to say," he asked, "that the
+last hand which waves the British flag on American ground may not be
+that of a French Canadian?"[<A NAME="chap06fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn28">28</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His final settlement of the question came in 1849, and the introduction
+of that Rebellion Losses Bill which has been already mentioned.  The
+measure was, in the main, an act of justice to French sufferers from
+the disturbances created by the Rebellion; for they had naturally
+shared but slightly
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P214"></A>214}</SPAN>
+in earlier and partial schemes of
+compensation; and the opposition to the bill was directed quite frankly
+against the French inhabitants of Canada as traitors, who deserved, not
+recompense, but punishment.  Now there were many cases of real
+hardship, like that of the inhabitants of St. Benoit, a village which
+Sir John Colborne had pledged himself to protect when he occupied it
+for military purposes, but which, in his absence, the loyalist
+volunteers had set on fire and destroyed.  The inhabitants might be
+disloyal, but in the eyes of an equal justice a wrong had been done,
+and must be righted.  The idea of the bill was not new&mdash;it was not
+Elgin's bill; and if his predecessors had been right, then the French
+politicians were justified in claiming that the system of compensation
+already initiated must be followed till all legitimate claims had been
+met.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would be disingenuous to deny that Elgin calculated on the pacific
+influence which his support of the bill would exert in Lower Canada.
+"I was aware of two facts," he told Grey in 1852: "Firstly, that M. La
+Fontaine would be unable to retain the support of his countrymen if he
+failed to introduce a measure of this description; and secondly, that
+my refusal would be taken by him and his friends
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P215"></A>215}</SPAN>
+as a proof that
+they had not my confidence."  But his chief concern was to hold the
+balance level, to redress an actual grievance, and to repress the fury
+of Canadian Tories whose unrestrained action would have flung Canada
+into a new and complicated struggle of races and parties.  "I am firmly
+convinced," he told Grey in June, speaking of American election
+movements at this time, "that the only thing which prevented an
+invasion of Canada was the political contentment prevailing among the
+French Canadians and Irish Catholics"; and that political contentment
+was the result of Elgin's action in supporting his ministers.  A happy
+chance, utilized to the full by Elgin's cautious wisdom, had enabled
+him to do the French what they counted a considerable service; and the
+rage and disorder of the opposition only played the more surely into
+the hands of the governor-general, and established, beyond any risk of
+alteration, French loyalty to him personally.[<A NAME="chap06fn29text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn29">29</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From that day, with trivial intervals or incidents of misunderstanding,
+the British and the French in Canada have played the political game
+together.  It was in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry that
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P216"></A>216}</SPAN>
+the
+joint action, within the Canadian parties, of the two races had its
+real beginning; and while the traditions and idiosyncrasies of Quebec
+were too ingrained and fundamental to admit of modification beyond a
+certain point, Canadian parliamentary life was henceforth based on the
+free co-operation of French and English, in a party system which tried
+to forget the distinction of race.  From this time, too, Elgin began to
+discern the conservative genius of the French people, and to prophesy
+that, when Baldwin's moderate reforming influence should have been
+withdrawn, the French would naturally incline to unite with the
+moderate Conservatives&mdash;the combination on which, in actual fact, John
+A. Macdonald based his long control of power in Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The nationalist question is so intermingled with the constitutional
+that it is not always easy to separate the two issues.  The same
+qualities which settled the latter difficulty ended also French
+grievances&mdash;saving common-sense which did not refuse to do the obvious
+thing; <I>bonhomie</I> which understood that a well-mannered people may be
+wooed from its isolation by a little humouring; a mind resolute to
+administer to every British subject equal rights; and an austere
+refusal to let an
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P217"></A>217}</SPAN>
+arrogant and narrow-minded minority claim to
+itself a kind of oligarchic glory at the expense of citizens who did
+not belong to the Anglo-Saxon stock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is a third aspect of Elgin's work in Canada of wider scope than
+either of those already mentioned, and one in which his claims to
+distinction have been almost forgotten&mdash;his contribution to the working
+theory of the British Empire.  Elgin was one of those earlier sane
+imperialists whose achievements it is very easy to forget.  It is not
+too much to say that, when Elgin came to Canada, the future of the
+British colonial empire was at best gloomy.  Politicians at home had
+placed in front of themselves an awkward dilemma.  According to the
+stiffer Tories, the colonies must be held in with a firm hand&mdash;how
+firm, Stanley had illustrated in his administration of Canada.  Yet
+Tory stiffness produced colonial discontent, and colonial discontent
+bred very natural doubts at home as to the possibility of holding the
+colonies by the old methods.  On the other hand, there were those, like
+Cobden, who, while they believed with the Tories that colonial
+home-rule was certain to result in colonial independence, were
+nevertheless too loyal to their doctrine of political liberty to resist
+colonial claims.  They looked to an immediate but
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P218"></A>218}</SPAN>
+peaceful
+dissolution of the empire.  It seemed never to strike anyone but a few
+radicals, like Durham and Buller, that Britons still held British
+sentiments, even across the seas, and that they desired to combine a
+continuance of the British connection with the retention of all those
+popular rights in government which they had possessed at home.  A
+Canadian governor-general, then, had to deal with British Cabinets
+which alternated between foolish rigour and foolish slackness, and with
+politicians who reflected little on the responsibilities of empire,
+when they flung before careless British audiences irresponsible
+discussions on colonial independence&mdash;as if it were an academic subject
+and not a critical issue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elgin had imperial difficulties, all his own, to make his task more
+complicated.  Not only were there French and Irish nationalists ready
+for agitation, but the United States lay across the southern border;
+and annexation to that mighty and flourishing republic seemed to many
+the natural euthanasia of British rule in North America.  Peel's
+sweeping reforms in the tariff had rekindled annexationist talk; for
+while Lord Stanley's bill of 1843 had attracted all the produce of the
+west to the St. Lawrence by its grant of preference to the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P219"></A>219}</SPAN>
+colony, "Peel's bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the
+New York channels of communication ... ruining at once mill-owners,
+forwarders and merchants."[<A NAME="chap06fn30text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn30">30</A>]  And every petty and personal
+disappointment, every error in colonial office administration, raised a
+new group to cry down the British system, and to call for a peaceful
+junction with the United States.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elgin had not been long in Canada before he saw one important
+fact&mdash;that the real annexationist feeling had commercial, not political
+roots.  Without diminishing the seriousness of the situation, the
+discovery made it more susceptible of rational treatment.  A colony
+suffering a severe set-back in trade found the precise remedy it looked
+for in transference of its allegiance.  "The remedy offered them,"
+wrote Elgin, "is perfectly definite and intelligible.  They are invited
+to form part of a community which is neither suffering nor free-trading
+... a community, the members of which have been within the last few
+weeks pouring into their multifarious places of worship, to thank God
+that they are exempt from the ills which affect other men, from those
+more especially which affect their despised neighbours, the inhabitants
+of North
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P220"></A>220}</SPAN>
+America, who have remained faithful to the country which
+planted them."[<A NAME="chap06fn31text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn31">31</A>]  With free-trade in the ascendant, and, to the
+maturest minds of the time, unanswerably sound in theory, Elgin had to
+dismiss schemes of British preference from his mind; and, towards the
+end of his rule, when American policy was irritating Canada, he had
+even to restrict the scope within which Canadian retaliation might be
+practised.  There could be no imperial Zollverein.  But he saw that a
+measure of reciprocity might give the Canadians all the economic
+benefits they sought, and yet leave to them the allegiance and the
+government which, in their hearts, they preferred.  The annexationist
+clamour fell and rose, mounting highest in Montreal, and reaching a
+crisis in the year of the Rebellion Losses disturbance; but Elgin,
+while sometimes he grew despondent, always kept his head, and never
+ceased to hope for the reciprocity which would at once bring back
+prosperity and still the disloyal murmurs.  Once or twice, when the
+annexationists were at their worst, and when his Tory opponents chose
+support of that disloyal movement as the means of insulting their
+governor, he took stern measures for repressing an unnatural evil.  "We
+intend,"
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P221"></A>221}</SPAN>
+he wrote in November, 1849, after an annexation meeting
+at which servants of the State had been present, "to dismiss the
+militia officers and magistrates who have taken part in these affairs,
+and to deprive the two Queen's Counsels of their silk gowns."  But he
+relied mainly on the positive side of his policy, and few statesmen
+have given Canada a more substantial boon than did Elgin when, just
+before his recall, he went to Washington on that mission which Laurence
+Oliphant has made classic by his description, and concluded by far the
+most favourable commercial treaty ever negotiated by Britain with the
+United States.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is perhaps a tendency to underestimate the work of his
+predecessors and assistants in preparing the way, but no one can doubt
+that it was Elgin's persistence in urging the treaty on the home
+Cabinet, and his wonderful diplomatic gifts, which ultimately won the
+day.  Oliphant, certainly, had no doubt as to his chief's share in the
+matter.  "He is the most thorough diplomat possible&mdash;never loses sight
+for a moment of his object, and while he is chaffing Yankees, and
+slapping them on the back, he is systematically pursuing that
+object";[<A NAME="chap06fn32text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn32">32</A>] and again, "There was concluded in
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P222"></A>222}</SPAN>
+exactly a
+fortnight a treaty, to negotiate which had taxed the inventive genius
+of the Foreign Office, and all the conventional methods of diplomacy,
+for the previous seven years."[<A NAME="chap06fn33text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn33">33</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a long, slow process by which Elgin restored the tone of
+Canadian loyalty.  Frenchmen who had dreamed of renouncing allegiance
+he won by his obvious fairness, and the recognition accorded by him to
+their leaders.  He took the heart out of Irish disaffection by his
+popular methods and love of liberty.  Tory dissentients fell slowly in
+to heel, as they found their governor no lath painted to look like
+iron, but very steel.  To desponding Montreal merchants his reciprocity
+treaty yielded naturally all they had expected from a more drastic
+change.  It is true that, owing to untoward circumstances, the treaty
+lasted only for the limited period prescribed by Elgin; but it tided
+over an awkward interval of disaffection and disappointment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He did more, however, than cure definite phases of Canadian
+disaffection; his influence through Earl Grey told powerfully for a
+fuller and more optimistic conception of empire.  With all its virtues,
+the bureaucracy of the Colonial Office did not understand the
+government of colonies such
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P223"></A>223}</SPAN>
+as Canada; and where colonial
+secretaries had the ability and will, they had not knowledge sufficient
+to lead them into paths at once democratic and imperial.  Even Grey
+relapsed on occasion from the optimism which empire demands of its
+statesmen.  It was not simply that he emphasized the wrong
+points&mdash;military and diplomatic issues, which in Canada were minor and
+even negligible matters; but at times he seemed prepared to believe
+that the days of the connection were numbered.[<A NAME="chap06fn34text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn34">34</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In 1848 he had impaled himself on the horns of one of those dilemmas
+which present themselves so frequently to absentee governments and
+secretaries of state&mdash;either reciprocity and an Americanized colony, or
+a new rebellion as the consequence of a refusal in Britain to consent
+to a reciprocity treaty.[<A NAME="chap06fn35text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn35">35</A>]  In 1849, "looking at these indications of
+the state of feeling in Canada, and at the equally significant
+indications as to the feeling of the House of Commons respecting the
+value of our colonies," he had begun to despair of their retention.[<A NAME="chap06fn36text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn36">36</A>]
+But there were greater sinners than those of the Colonial Office.
+While Elgin
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P224"></A>224}</SPAN>
+was painfully removing all the causes of trouble in
+Canada, and proving without argument, but in deeds, that the British
+connection represented normal conditions for both England and Canada,
+politicians insisted on making foolish speeches.  At last, an offence
+by the Prime Minister himself drove Elgin into a passion unusual in so
+equable a mind, and which, happily, he expressed in the best of all his
+letters.  "I have never been able to comprehend why, elastic as our
+constitutional system is, we should not be able, now more especially
+when we have ceased to control the trade of our colonies, to render the
+links which bind them to the British Crown at least as lasting as those
+which unite the component parts of the Union....  You must renounce the
+habit of telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional
+existence....  Is the Queen of England to be the sovereign of an
+empire, growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age,
+striking its roots deep into fresh earth and drawing new supplies of
+vitality from virgin soils?  Or is she to be for all essential purposes
+of might and power monarch of Great Britain and Ireland merely, her
+place and that of her land in the world's history determined by the
+productiveness of 12,000 square miles of a coal
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P225"></A>225}</SPAN>
+formation which
+is being rapidly exhausted, and the duration of the social and
+political organization over which she presides dependent on the annual
+expatriation, with a view to its eventual alienization, of the surplus
+swarm of her born subjects?"[<A NAME="chap06fn37text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn37">37</A>]  That is the final question of
+imperialism; and Elgin had earned the right not only to put it to the
+home government with emphasis, but also to answer it in an affirmative
+and constructive sense.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The argument forbids any mention of the less public episodes in Elgin's
+Canadian adventure; his whimsical capacity for getting on with men,
+French, British, and American; the sly humour of his correspondence
+with his official chief; the searching comments made by him on men and
+manners in America; the charm of such social and diplomatic incidents
+as Laurence Oliphant has related in his letters and his <I>Episodes in a
+Life of Adventure</I>.  But it may be permitted to sum up his qualities as
+governor, and to connect his work with the general movement towards
+self-government which had been proceeding so rapidly since 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was too human, easy, unclassical, and, on
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P226"></A>226}</SPAN>
+the other hand, too
+little touched with Byronic or revolutionary feeling, even to suggest
+the age of Pitt, Napoleon, Canning; he was too sensible, too orthodox,
+too firmly based on fact and on the past, to have any affinity with our
+own transitionary politics.  Like Peel, although in a less degree, he
+had at once a firm body of opinions, a keen eye for new facts, and a
+sure, slow capacity for bringing the new material to bear on old
+opinion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was able, as few have been, to set the personal equation aside in
+his political plans, holding the balance between friends and foes with
+almost uncanny fairness, and astonishing his petty enemies by his
+moderation.  His mind could regard not merely Canada but also Britain,
+as it reflected on future policy; and, in his letters, he sometimes
+seems the one man in the empire at the time who understood the true
+relation of colonial autonomy to British supremacy.  Not even his most
+foolish eulogist will attribute anything romantic to his character.
+There was nothing of Disraeli's "glitter of dubious gems" about the
+honest phrases in which he bade Russell think imperially.  Unlike
+Mazzini, it was his business to destroy false nationalism, not to exalt
+that which was true, and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P227"></A>227}</SPAN>
+for that cool business the glow and
+fervour of prophecy were not required.  We like to see our leaders
+standing rampant, and with sulphurous, or at least thundery,
+backgrounds.  But Elgin's ironic Scottish humour forbade any pose, and
+it was his business to keep the cannon quiet, and to draw the lightning
+harmless to the ground.  The most heroic thing he did in Canada was to
+refrain from entering Montreal at a time when his entrance must have
+meant insult, resistance, and bloodshed, and he bore quietly the taunts
+of cowardice which his enemies flung at his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was far too clear-sighted to think that statesmanship consists in
+decisions between very definitely stated alternatives of right and
+wrong.  "My choice," he wrote in characteristic words, "was not between
+a clearly right and clearly wrong course&mdash;<I>how easy is it to deal with
+such cases, and how rare are they in life</I>&mdash;but between several
+difficulties.  I think I chose the least."[<A NAME="chap06fn38text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn38">38</A>]  His kindly, shrewd, and
+honest countenance looks at us from his portraits with no appeal of
+sentiment or pathos.  He asked of men that which they find it most
+difficult to give&mdash;moderation, common-sense, a willingness to look at
+both sides, and to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P228"></A>228}</SPAN>
+subordinate their egoisms to a wider good; and
+he was content to do without their worship.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is now possible to summarize the movement towards autonomy so far as
+it was affected by the governors-general of the transition period.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The characteristic note in the earlier stages had been the domination
+of the governor-general's mind by a clear-cut theory&mdash;that of Lord John
+Russell.  That theory was in itself consistent, and of a piece with the
+rest of the constitution; and its merits stood out more clearly because
+Canadian progressives had an unfortunate faculty for setting themselves
+in the wrong&mdash;making party really appear as faction, investing
+self-government with something of the menace of independence, and
+treating the responsibility they sought in the most irresponsible way.
+The British theory, too, as guaranteeing a definitely British
+predominance in Canada, brought into rather lurid relief the mistaken
+fervour of French-Canadian nationalism.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet Sydenham, who never consciously, or at least openly, surrendered
+one detail of the system entrusted to him by Russell, found events too
+much for him; and that which conquered Sydenham's resolution made short
+work of any resistance Bagot may have dreamed of offering.  Metcalfe
+was wrong
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P229"></A>229}</SPAN>
+in suspecting a conscious intention in Sydenham's later
+measures, but he was absolutely right when he wrote, "Lord Sydenham,
+whether intending it or not, did concede Responsible Government
+practically, by the arrangements which he adopted, although the full
+extent of the concession was not so glaringly manifested during his
+administration as in that of his successor."[<A NAME="chap06fn39text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn39">39</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Canadian conditions were, in fact, evolving for themselves a new
+system&mdash;Home Rule with its limits and conditions left as vague as
+possible&mdash;and that new system contradicted the very postulates of
+Russell's doctrine.  It was only when the system of Russell became
+incarnate in a governor, Lord Metcalfe, and when the opposing facts
+also took personal form in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry, that both
+in Canada and Britain men came to see that two contradictory policies
+faced each other, and that one or other alternative must be chosen.  To
+Elgin fell the honour not merely of seeing the need to choose the
+Canadian alternative, but also of recognizing the conditions under
+which the new plan would bring a deeper loyalty, and a more lasting
+union with Britain, as well as political content to Canada.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn4"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn1text">1</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.  It
+would be wrong to call Cathcart the "acting governor-general"; yet
+apart from military matters that term describes his position in civil
+matters not inadequately.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn2text">2</A>] Walrond, <I>Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin</I>, p. 424.  "During a
+public service of twenty-five years I have always sided with the weaker
+party."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn3text">3</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey on Grey's Colonial Policy,
+8 October, 1852.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn4text">4</A>] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.  The italics are my own.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn5"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn5text">5</A>] W. H. Draper to the Earl Cathcart, in Pope, <I>Life of Sir John
+Macdonald</I>, i. pp. 43-4.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn6text">6</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn7text">7</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn8text">8</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, enclosing a note from
+Col. Taché, 27 February, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn9text">9</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>: Elgin to Grey, 28 June, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn10text">10</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 7 May, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn11text">11</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>: Elgin to Grey, 27 March, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn12text">12</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn13text">13</A>] <I>La Revue Canadienne</I>, 21 December, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn14text">14</A>] The speech of the governor-general in proroguing Parliament, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn15text">15</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn16text">16</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 17 March, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn17text">17</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 5 February, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn18text">18</A>] Elgin refers (11 June, 1849) to "military men, most of whom, I
+regret to say, consider my ministers and myself little better than
+rebels."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn19text">19</A>] <I>Episodes in a Life of Adventure</I>, p. 57.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn20text">20</A>] The obvious point, made by the Tories in Canada, and by Gladstone
+in England, was that the new scheme of compensation was certain to
+recompense many who had actually been in arms in the Rebellion,
+although their guilt might not be provable in a court of law.  See
+Gladstone in <I>Hansard</I>, 14 June, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn21text">21</A>] Elgin to Grey, concerning Grey's <I>Colonial Policy</I>, 8 October,
+1852.  Metcalfe's policy in the matter had really forced Elgin's hand.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn22text">22</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 14 March, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn23text">23</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 12 April, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn24text">24</A>] Elgin's letter of 8 October, 1852, criticizing Grey's book.  The
+italics are my own.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn28"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn29"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn25text">25</A>] Elgin kept very closely in touch with the sentiments of the
+Canadian press, French and English.  See his letters <I>passim</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn26text">26</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 4 May, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn27text">27</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 7 January, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn28text">28</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>: Elgin to Grey, 4 May, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn29text">29</A>] See an interesting reference in a letter to Sir Charles Wood,
+written from India.  Walrond, <I>op. cit.</I> pp. 419-20.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn30"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn31"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn32"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn33"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn34"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn30text">30</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 16 November, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn31text">31</A>] Walrond, p. 105.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn32text">32</A>] Mrs. Oliphant, <I>Life of Laurence Oliphant</I>, i. p. 120.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn33text">33</A>] L. Oliphant, <I>Episodes in a Life of Adventure</I>, p. 56.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn34text">34</A>] For Grey's mature position, see below, in Chapter VII.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap06fn35"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn36"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn37"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn38"></A>
+<A NAME="chap06fn39"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn35text">35</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 27 July, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn36text">36</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>: Grey to Elgin, 20 July, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn37text">37</A>] The letter, which may be found in Walrond's <I>Life of Lord Elgin</I>,
+pp. 115-20, ought to be read from its first word to its last.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn38text">38</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 7 October, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap06fn39text">39</A>] Kaye, <I>Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe</I>, p. 414.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P230"></A>230}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+While these great modifications were being made in the form and spirit
+of Canadian provincial government, corresponding changes were taking
+place in British opinion.  In the present chapter, it is proposed to
+examine these as they operated during the first two decades of the
+Victorian era.  But an examination of early Victorian imperialism
+demands, as a first condition, the dismissal of such prejudices and
+misjudgments as are implicit in recent terms like "Little-Englander"
+and "Imperialist."  It is, indeed, one of the objects of this chapter
+to show how little modern party cries correspond to the ideas prevalent
+from 1840 to 1860, and to exhibit as the central movement in imperial
+matters the gradual development of a doctrine for the colonies, and
+more especially for Canada, not dissimilar to that which dominated the
+economic theory of the day under the title of <I>laissez faire</I>.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P231"></A>231}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+It is important to limit the scope of the inquiry, for the problem of
+Canadian autonomy was strictly practical and very pressing.  There is
+little need to exhibit the otiose or irresponsible opinions of men or
+groups of men, which had no direct influence on events.  Little, for
+example, need be said of the views of the British populace.  No doubt
+Joseph Hume expressed views in which he had many sympathizers
+throughout the country; but his constituents were too ill-informed on
+Canadian politics to make their opinions worthy of study; and their
+heated debates, carried on in mutual improvement societies, had even
+less influence in controlling the actions of government than had the
+speeches of their leader in Parliament.[<A NAME="chap07fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn1">1</A>]  After the sensational
+beginning of the reign in Canada, public opinion directed its attention
+to Canadian affairs only when fresh sensations offered themselves, and
+usually exhibited an indifference which was not without its advantages
+to the authorities.  "People here are beginning to forget Canada, which
+is the best thing they can do," wrote Grey
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P232"></A>232}</SPAN>
+to Elgin after the
+Rebellion Losses troubles had fallen quiet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The British press, too, need claim little attention.  On the confession
+of those mainly concerned, it was wonderfully ignorant and misleading
+on Canadian subjects.  Elgin, who was not indifferent to newspaper
+criticism, complained bitterly of the unfairness and haphazard methods
+of the British papers, neglecting, as they did, the real issues, and
+emphasizing irritating but unimportant troubles.  "The English press,"
+he wrote, after an important viceregal visit to Boston in 1851, "wholly
+ignores our proceedings both at Boston and Montreal, and yet one would
+think it was worth while to get the Queen of England as much cheered in
+New England as she can be in any part of Old England."[<A NAME="chap07fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn2">2</A>]  Grey in turn
+had to complain, not merely of indifference, but of misrepresentation,
+and that too in a crisis in Canadian politics, the Rebellion Losses
+agitation; "I am misrepresented in <I>The Times</I> in a manner which I fear
+may do much mischief in Canada.  I am reported as having said that the
+connexion between Canada and this country was drawing rapidly to a
+close.  This is
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P233"></A>233}</SPAN>
+the very opposite of what I really said."[<A NAME="chap07fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn3">3</A>]  How
+irresponsible and inconsistent a great newspaper could be may be
+gathered from the treatment by <I>The Times</I> of the Annexationist
+movement in 1849.  Professing at first a calm resignation, it refused
+for the country "the sterile honour of maintaining a reluctant colony
+in galling subjection"; yet, shortly afterwards, it took the high
+imperial line of argument and predicted that "the destined future of
+Canada, and the disposition of her people" would prevent so unfortunate
+an ending to the connection.[<A NAME="chap07fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn4">4</A>]  The fact is that in all political
+questions demanding expert knowledge, newspaper opinion is practically
+worthless; except in cases where the services of some specialist are
+called in, and there the expert exercises influence, not through his
+articles, but because, elsewhere, he has made good his claims to be
+heard.  Canadian problems owed nothing of their solution to the British
+press.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another factor, irresponsible and indirect, yet closer to the scene of
+political action than the press, was assumed in those years to have a
+great
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P234"></A>234}</SPAN>
+influence on events&mdash;the permanent element in the Colonial
+Office, and more especially the permanent under-secretary, James
+Stephen.  Charles Buller's pamphlet on <I>Responsible Government for the
+Colonies</I> formulates the charge against the permanent men in a famous
+satiric passage.  Buller had been speaking of the incessant change of
+ministers in the Colonial Office&mdash;ten secretaries of state in little
+more than so many years.  "Perplexed with the vast variety of subjects
+presented to him&mdash;alike appalled by the important and unimportant
+matters forced on his attention&mdash;every Secretary of State is obliged at
+the outset to rely on the aid of some better informed member of his
+office.  His Parliamentary Under-Secretary is generally as new to the
+business as himself: and even if they had not been brought in together,
+the tenure of office by the Under-Secretary having on the average been
+quite as short as that of the Secretary of State, he has never during
+the period of his official career obtained sufficient information to
+make him independent of the aid on which he must have been thrown at
+the outset.  Thus we find both these marked and responsible
+functionaries dependent on the advice and guidance of another; and that
+other person must of course be one of the permanent
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P235"></A>235}</SPAN>
+members of
+the office....  That mother-country which has been narrowed from the
+British Isles into the Parliament, from the Parliament into the
+executive government, from the executive government into the Colonial
+Office, is not to be sought in the apartments of the Secretary of
+State, or his Parliamentary Under-Secretary.  Where you are to look for
+it, it is impossible to say.  In some back-room&mdash;whether in the attic,
+or in what storey we know not&mdash;you will find all the mother-country
+which really exercises supremacy, and really maintains connexion with
+the vast and widely-scattered colonies of Britain."[<A NAME="chap07fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn5">5</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The directness and strength of the influence which men like Sir Henry
+Taylor and Sir James Stephen exercised, both on opinion and events, may
+be inferred from Taylor's confessions with regard to the slave question
+in the West Indies, and the extent to which even Peel himself had to
+depend for information, and occasionally for direction, on the
+permanent men.[<A NAME="chap07fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn6">6</A>]  It seems clear, too, that up till the year when Lord
+John Russell took over the Colonial Office, Stephen had a great
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P236"></A>236}</SPAN>
+
+say in Canadian affairs, especially under Glenelg's regime.  "As to his
+views upon other Colonial questions," says Taylor, "they were perhaps
+more liberal than those of most of his chiefs; and at one important
+conjuncture he miscalculated the effect of a liberal confidence placed
+in a Canadian Assembly, and threw more power into their hands than he
+intended them to possess."[<A NAME="chap07fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn7">7</A>]  On the assumption that he was
+responsible for Glenelg's benevolent view of Canadian local rights, one
+might attribute something of Lord John Russell's over logical and
+casuistical declarations concerning responsible government to Buller's
+"Mr. Mother-country."  But it is absurd to suppose that Russell's
+independent mind operated long under any sub-secretarial influence;
+more especially since the rapid succession of startling events in
+Canada made his daring and unconventional statesmanship a fitter means
+of government than the plodding methods of the bureaucrat.  After 1841,
+Stanley and Stephen were too little sympathetic towards each other's
+methods and ideas, and Gladstone too strongly fortified in his own
+opinions, for Stephen's influence to creep in; while the Whig
+government which entered as he left the Colonial Office, had,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P237"></A>237}</SPAN>
+in
+Grey, a Secretary of State too learned in the affairs of his department
+to reflect the last influences of his retiring under-secretary.
+Whatever, then, Mr. Over-Secretary Stephen did to dominate Lord
+Glenelg, and to initiate the concession of responsible government to
+Canada, his influence must speedily have sunk to a very secondary
+position, and the independent and conscious intentions of the
+responsible ministers held complete sway.  It is interesting to note
+that, according to his son, he seems to have come to share "the
+opinions prevalent among the liberal party that the colonies would soon
+be detached from the mother-country."[<A NAME="chap07fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn8">8</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The actual starting-point of the development of British opinion with
+regard to Canadian institutions is perfectly definite.  It dates from
+the co-operation and mutual influence of a little group of experts in
+colonial matters, of whom Charles Buller and Gibbon Wakefield were the
+moving spirits, and the Earl of Durham the illustrious mouthpiece.  The
+end of the Rebellion furnished the occasion for their propaganda.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The situation was one peculiarly susceptible to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P238"></A>238}</SPAN>
+the treatment
+likely to be proposed by these radical and unconventional spirits.  It
+was difficult to describe the constitutional position of Canada without
+establishing a contradiction in terms, and neither abstract and logical
+minds like that of Cornewall Lewis, nor bureaucratic intelligences like
+Stephen's, could do more than intensify the difficulty and emphasize
+it.  The <I>deus ex machina</I> must appear and solve the preliminary or
+theoretic difficulties by overriding them.  There are some who describe
+the pioneers of Canadian self-government as philosophic radicals; but
+they were really not of that school.  It was through the absence of any
+philosophy or rigid logic that they succeeded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Foremost in the group came Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of those
+erratic but creative spirits whose errors are often as profitable to
+all (save themselves) as their sober acts.  It is not here necessary to
+enter on the details of his emigration system; in that he was, after
+all, a pioneer in the south and east rather than in the west.  But in
+the stirring years of colonial development, in which Canada, Australia,
+and New Zealand took their modern form, Wakefield was a leader in
+constitutional as well as in economic matters, and Canada was favoured
+not only with his opinions, but with
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P239"></A>239}</SPAN>
+his presence.  In the <I>Art
+of Colonization</I> he entered into some detail on these matters.  There
+was a certain breezy informality about his views, which carried him
+directly to the heart of the matter.  He understood, as few of his
+contemporaries did, that in all discussions concerning the "connexion,"
+the final argument was sentimental rather than constitutional; and he
+accepted without further argument the incapacity of Englishmen for
+being other than English in the politics of their colony.  "There would
+still be hostile parties in a colony," he wrote as he planned reforms,
+"yes, parties instead of factions: for every colony would have its
+'ins' and 'outs,' and would be governed as we are&mdash;as every free
+community must be in the present state of the human mind&mdash;by the
+emulation and rivalries, the bidding against each other for public
+favour, of the party in power and the party in opposition.  Government
+by party, with all its passions and corruptions, is the price that a
+free country pays for freedom.  But the colonies would be free
+communities: their internal differences, their very blunders, and their
+methods of correcting them, would be all their own; and the colonists
+who possessed capacity for public business would govern in turns far
+better on the whole than
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P240"></A>240}</SPAN>
+it would be possible for any other set
+of beings on earth to govern that particular community."[<A NAME="chap07fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn9">9</A>]  He was,
+then, for a most entire and whole-hearted control by colonists, and
+especially Canadians, of their own affairs.  But when he came to define
+what these affairs included, he had limits to suggest, and although he
+was aware of the dangers implicit in such a limitation, he was very
+emphatic on the need of imperial control in diplomacy and war, and more
+especially in the administration of land.[<A NAME="chap07fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn10">10</A>]  How practical and
+sincere were his views on the supremacy of the home government, he
+proved by supporting, in person and with his pen, Sir Charles Metcalfe
+in his struggle to limit the claims of local autonomy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Powerful and suggestive as Wakefield's mind was, he had, nevertheless,
+to own a master in colonial theory; for the most distinguished, and by
+far the clearest, view of the whole matter is contained in Charles
+Buller's <I>Responsible Government for the Colonies</I>, which he published
+anonymously in 1840.  Buller was indeed the ablest of the whole group,
+and his early death was one of the greatest losses which English
+politics sustained in the nineteenth
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P241"></A>241}</SPAN>
+century&mdash;"an intelligent,
+clear, honest, most kindly vivacious creature; the genialist Radical I
+have ever met,"[<A NAME="chap07fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn11">11</A>] said Carlyle.  The ease of his writing and his gift
+for light satire must not be permitted to obscure the consistency and
+penetration of his views.  Even if Durham contributed more to his
+Report than seems probable, the view there propounded of the scope of
+Responsible Government is not nearly so cogent as that of the later
+pamphlet.  Buller, like the other members of his group, believed in the
+acknowledgment of a supremacy, vested in the mother country, and
+expressed in control of foreign affairs, inter-colonial affairs, land,
+trade, immigration, and the like; but outside the few occasions on
+which these matters called for imperial interference, he was for
+absolute non-interference, and protested that "that constant reference
+to the authorities in England, which some persons call responsibility
+to the mother country, is by no means necessary to insure the
+maintenance of a beneficial colonial connexion."[<A NAME="chap07fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn12">12</A>]  His originality
+indeed is best tested by the vigour and truth of his criticisms of the
+existing administration.  First of all representation had been given
+without
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P242"></A>242}</SPAN>
+executive responsibility.  Then for practical purposes
+the colonists were allowed to make many of their own laws, without the
+liberty to choose those who would administer them.  Then a colonial
+party, self-styled the party of the connexion, or the loyal party,
+monopolized office.  To Buller the idea of combining a popular
+representation with an unpopular executive seemed the height of
+constitutional folly; and, like Wakefield, he understood, as perhaps
+not five others in England did, the place of party government and
+popular dictation in colonial constitutional development.  "The whole
+direction of affairs," he said, "and the whole patronage of the
+Executive practically are at present in the hands of a colonial party.
+Now when <I>this is the case, it can be of no importance to the mother
+country in the ordinary course of things, which of these local parties
+possesses the powers and emoluments of office</I>."[<A NAME="chap07fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn13">13</A>]  Unlike the
+majority of his contemporaries, he believed in assuming the colonists
+to be inspired with love for their mother country, common sense, and a
+regard for their own welfare; and it seemed obvious that men so
+disposed were infinitely better qualified than the Colonial Office to
+manage their own affairs.  Nothing but evil
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P243"></A>243}</SPAN>
+could result "from
+the attempt to conduct the internal affairs of the colonies in
+accordance with the public opinion, not of those colonies themselves,
+but of the mother country."[<A NAME="chap07fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn14">14</A>]  It may seem a work of supererogation
+to complete the sketch of this group with an examination of the
+opinions expressed in Lord Durham's Report; yet that Report is so
+fundamental a document in the development of British imperial opinion
+that time must be found to dispel one or two popular illusions.[<A NAME="chap07fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn15">15</A>]  It
+is a mistake to hold that Durham advocated the fullest concession of
+local autonomy to Canada.  Sir Francis Hincks, a protagonist of
+Responsible Government, once quoted from the Report sentences which
+seemed to justify all his claims: "The crown must submit to the
+necessary consequences of representative institutions, and if it has to
+carry on the government in union with a representative body, it must
+consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that representative
+body has confidence"; and again, "I admit that the system which I
+propose would in fact place the internal government of the colony in
+the hands of the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P244"></A>244}</SPAN>
+colonists themselves, and that we should thus
+leave to them the execution of the laws of which we have long entrusted
+the making solely to them."[<A NAME="chap07fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn16">16</A>]  Public opinion in Canada also put this
+extreme interpretation on the language of the Report.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet, as a first modification, it was Lord Metcalfe's confident opinion
+that the responsibility of ministers to the Assembly for which Durham
+pled, was not that of a united Cabinet, but rather of departmental
+heads in individual isolation,[<A NAME="chap07fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn17">17</A>] and certainly one sentence in the
+Report can hardly be interpreted otherwise: "This (the change) would
+induce responsibility for every act of the Government, and, as a
+natural consequence, it would necessitate <I>the substitution of a system
+of administration by means of competent heads of departments, for the
+present rude machinery of an executive council</I>."[<A NAME="chap07fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn18">18</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the second place, while Durham did indeed speak of making the
+colonial executive responsible to a colonial Assembly, he discriminated
+between the internal government of the colony and its
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P245"></A>245}</SPAN>
+imperial
+aspect.[<A NAME="chap07fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn19">19</A>]  In practice he modified his gift of home rule, by placing,
+like Wakefield and Buller, many things beyond the scope of colonial
+responsibility, for example, "the constitution of the form of
+government, the regulation of foreign relations, and of trade with the
+mother country, the other British colonies, and foreign nations, and
+the disposal of the public lands."[<A NAME="chap07fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn20">20</A>]  There is too remarkable a
+consensus of opinion on this point within the group to leave any doubt
+as to the intention of Durham and his assistants; that an extensive
+region should be left subject to strictly imperial supervision.
+Durham's career ended before his actions could furnish a practical test
+of his theories, but Buller, like Wakefield, gave a plain statement of
+what he meant by supporting Metcalfe against his council, at a time
+when the colonial Assembly seemed to be infringing on imperial rights.
+"No man," said Buller, of the Metcalfe affair, "could seriously think
+of saying that in the appointment of every subordinate officer in every
+county in Canada, the opinion of the Executive Council was to be
+taken."[<A NAME="chap07fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn21">21</A>]
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P246"></A>246}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+To pass from controversy to certainty, there was one aspect of the
+Report which made it the most notable deliverance of its authors, and
+which set that group apart from every other political section in
+Britain, whether Radical, Whig, or Tory&mdash;I mean its robust and
+unhesitating imperialism.  How deeply pessimism concerning the Empire
+had pervaded all minds at that time, it will be the duty of this
+chapter to prove, but, in the Report at least, there is no doubt of its
+authors' desire, "to perpetuate and strengthen the connexion between
+this Empire and the North American Colonies, which would then form one
+of the brightest ornaments in your Majesty's Imperial Crown."  This
+confident imperial note, then, was the most striking contribution of
+the Durham Radicals to colonial development; and the originality and
+unexpectedness of their confidence gains impressiveness when contrasted
+with general contemporary opinion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They contributed, too, in another and less simple fashion, to the
+constitutional question.  Nowhere so clearly as in their writings are
+both sides of the theoretic contradiction&mdash;British supremacy and
+Canadian autonomy&mdash;so boldly stated, and, in spite of the
+contradiction, so confidently accepted.  They would trust implicitly to
+the sense and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P247"></A>247}</SPAN>
+feelings, however crude, of the colony: they would
+surrender the entire control of domestic affairs: they would sanction,
+as at home, party with all its faults, popular control of the
+executive, and apparently the decisive influence of that executive in
+advising the governor in internal affairs.  Yet, in the great imperial
+federation of which they dreamed, they never doubted the right of the
+mother country to act with overmastering authority in certain crises.
+That right, and the unquenchable affection of exiles for the land
+whence they came, constituted for them "the connexion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These were the views which came to dominate political opinion in
+Britain, for Molesworth was right when he declared that to Buller and
+Wakefield, more than to any other persons, was the country indebted for
+sound views on colonial policy.  The interest of the present inquiry
+lies in tracing the development of these views into something unlike,
+and distinctly bolder than, anything which these rash and
+unconventional thinkers had planned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whatever might be the shortcomings of the Radical group, the daring of
+their trust in the colonists stands out in high relief against a
+background of conservative restriction and distrust.  It was natural
+for the Tories to think of colonies as
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P248"></A>248}</SPAN>
+they did.  Under the
+leadership of North and George III. they had experienced what might
+well seem to them the natural consequences of the old constitutional
+system of colonial administration.  After 1782 they were disinclined to
+experiment in Assemblies as free as those of Massachusetts and
+Connecticut had been.  The reaction caused by the French Revolution
+deepened their distrust of popular institutions; and the war of 1812
+quickened their hatred of the United States&mdash;the zone of political no
+less than military danger for Canada.  The conquests which they made
+had given them a second colonial empire, and they had administered that
+empire with financial generosity and constitutional parsimony, hoping
+against hope that a fabric so unexpected and difficult as colonial
+empire might after all disappoint their fears by remaining true to
+Britain.  Developing in spite of themselves, and with the times, they
+had still learned little and forgotten little.  So it was that Sir
+George Arthur, a Tory governor <I>in partibus infidelium</I>, was driven
+into panic by Durham's frank criticisms, and expounded to Normanby, his
+Whig chief, fears not altogether baseless: "The bait of responsible
+government has been eagerly taken, and its poison is working most
+mischievously....
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P249"></A>249}</SPAN>
+The measure recommended by such high authority
+is the worst evil that has yet befallen Upper Canada":[<A NAME="chap07fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn22">22</A>] and again,
+"since the Earl of Durham's Report was published, the reform party, as
+I have already stated, have come out in greater force&mdash;not in favour of
+the Union, nor of the other measures contemplated by the Bill, that has
+been sent out to this country, but for the daring object so strenuously
+advocated by Mackenzie, familiarly denominated responsible
+government."[<A NAME="chap07fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn23">23</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The distrust and timidity of Arthur's despatches are shared in by
+practically the entire Tory party in its dealings with Canada, after
+the Rebellion.  The Duke of Wellington opposed the Union of the
+provinces, because, among other consequences, "the union into one
+Legislature of the discontented spirits heretofore existing in two
+separate Legislatures will not diminish, but will tend to augment, the
+difficulties attending the administration of the government;
+particularly under the circumstances of the encouragement given to
+expect the establishment in the united province of a local responsible
+administration of government."[<A NAME="chap07fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn24">24</A>]  He
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P250"></A>250}</SPAN>
+was greatly excited when
+the news of Bagot's concessions arrived.  Arbuthnot describes his
+chief's mood as one of anger and indignation.  "What a fool the man
+must have been," he kept exclaiming, "to act as he has done! and what
+stuff and nonsense he has written! and what a bother he makes about his
+policy and his measures, when there are no measures but rolling himself
+and his country in the mire."[<A NAME="chap07fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn25">25</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During these years, and until late in 1845, Lord Stanley presided at
+the Colonial Office.  Naturally of an arrogant and unyielding temper,
+and with something of the convert's fanatic devotion to the political
+creed of his adoption, he administered Canada avowedly on the lines of
+Lord John Russell's despatch to Poulett Thomson, but with all the
+emphasis on the limitations prescribed in that despatch, and in a
+spirit singularly irritating.  His conduct towards Bagot exhibited a
+consistent distrust of Canadian self-government; and the fundamental
+defects of his advice to Bagot's successor cannot be better exhibited
+than in the letter warning Metcalfe of "the extreme risk which would
+attend any disruption of the present Conservative party of Canada.
+Their own steadiness
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P251"></A>251}</SPAN>
+and your own firmness and discretion have
+gone far towards consolidating them as a party and securing a stable
+administration of the colony."[<A NAME="chap07fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn26">26</A>]  In spite of the warnings of Durham
+and Buller, Stanley was aiming at restoring all the ancient
+landmarks&mdash;an unpopular executive, a small privileged party "of the
+connexion," and a colony quickly and surely passing from the control of
+Britain.  Even after Stanley's resignation, and the accession of an
+avowed Peelite and free-trader, Gladstone, to his office, the change in
+commercial theory did not at first effect any change in the Colonial
+Office interpretation of the Canadian constitution.  No doubt Gladstone
+recommended Cathcart to ascertain the deliberate sense of the Canadian
+community at large, and pay respect to the House of Assembly as the
+organ of that sense, but he committed himself and the new
+governor-general to a strong support of Metcalfe's system, and put him
+on his guard against "dishonourable abstract declarations on the
+subject of what has been termed responsible government."[<A NAME="chap07fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn27">27</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would be tedious to follow the subject into every detail of Canadian
+administration; but all
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P252"></A>252}</SPAN>
+existing evidence tends to prove that the
+representative men of the British Tory party opposed the new
+interpretation of Canadian rights at every crisis in the period.  In
+the Rebellion Losses debate in 1849, Gladstone, taking in this matter a
+view more restricted than that of his leader Peel, held that Elgin
+should have referred to the Home Government at the very first moment,
+and before public opinion had been appealed to in the colony.[<A NAME="chap07fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn28">28</A>]  The
+fall of the Whig ministry in 1851 was followed by the first of three
+brief Derby administrations: and the Earl of Derby proved himself to be
+more wedded than he had been as Lord Stanley to the old restrictive
+system.  The Clergy Reserve dispute was nearing its end, but Derby and
+Sir John Pakington, his colonial secretary, intervened to introduce one
+last delay, and to give the Bishop of Toronto his last gleam of hope.
+The appointment of Pakington, which, according to Taylor, was treated
+with very general ridicule, was in itself significant: even an ignorant
+and retrograde politician was adequate for his task when that task was
+obstruction.  After the short-lived Derby administration was over,
+Pakington continued his defence of Anglican rights in Canada, and
+although
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P253"></A>253}</SPAN>
+Canadian opinion had declared itself overwhelmingly on
+the other side, he refused to admit that "the argument of
+self-government was so paramount that it ought to over-rule the sacred
+dedication of this property."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So far nothing unexpected has been revealed in the early Victorian
+colonial policy of the Tories.  The party naturally and logically
+opposed all forms of democratic control; they stood for the strict
+subordination of the outlying regions to the centre in the
+administration of dependencies; they were, as they had always and
+everywhere been, the party of the Church, and of church endowment.  But
+it is surprising to find that the party of Wellington and of British
+supremacy varied their doctrine of central authority with very
+pessimistic prophecies concerning the connection between mother country
+and colonies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Stanley has already been exhibited, during the Bagot and Metcalfe
+incidents, as a prophet of pessimism; and at the same period, Peel
+seems to have shared in the views of his Colonial Secretary.  "Let us
+keep Nova Scotia and New Brunswick," he said, "but the connection with
+the Canadas <I>against their wills</I>, nay without the cordial co-operation
+of the predominant party in Canada, is
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P254"></A>254}</SPAN>
+a very onerous one.  The
+sooner we have a distinct understanding on that head the better.  The
+advantage of commercial intercourse is all on the side of the colony,
+or at least is not in favour of the mother country.  Why should we go
+on fighting not our own battle (I speak now of a civil battle) but
+theirs&mdash;in a minority in the Legislature, the progress of the contest
+widening daily old differences and begetting new ones!  But above all,
+if the people are not cordially with us, why should we contract the
+tremendous obligation of having to defend, on a <I>point of honour</I>,
+their territory against American aggression?"[<A NAME="chap07fn29text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn29">29</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ten years later, Tory pessimists still talked of separation.  Lord John
+Manners, in an oration which showed as much rhetorical effort as it did
+little sense and information, was prepared for disaster over no more
+tragic an issue than the Clergy Reserves.  Concession to local demands
+on that point for him involved something not far from disruption of the
+Empire.  "Far better than this, if you really believe it to be
+necessary to acknowledge the virtual independence of Canada, recall
+your Governor-General, call back your army, call home your fleet, and
+let Canada, if she be so
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P255"></A>255}</SPAN>
+minded, establish her independence and
+cast off her character as a colony, or seek refuge in the extended arms
+of the United States."[<A NAME="chap07fn30text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn30">30</A>]  But perhaps it is not fair to confront a
+man with his perorations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The most remarkable confession of Tory doubt still remains to be told.
+It is not usually noticed that Disraeli's famous phrase "these wretched
+colonies will all be independent too in a few years, and are a
+mill-stone round our necks,"[<A NAME="chap07fn31text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn31">31</A>] was used in connection with Canadian
+fishery troubles, and belongs to this same region of imperial
+pessimism.  There is, however, another less notorious but perfectly
+explicit piece of evidence betraying the fears which at this time
+disturbed the equanimity of the founder of modern imperialism.  He had
+been speaking of the attempts of liberalism to effect the
+disintegration of the Empire; but the speech, which contained his
+counter-scheme of imperial consolidation, was itself an evidence of
+doubt deeper than that harboured by his opponents.  "When those subtle
+views were adopted by the country, under the plausible plea of granting
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P256"></A>256}</SPAN>
+self-government to the Colonies, <I>I confess that I myself thought
+that the tie was broken</I>.  Not that I for one object to
+self-government.  I cannot conceive how our distant colonies can have
+their affairs administered except by self-government.  But
+self-government, in my opinion, when it is conceded, ought to have been
+conceded as part of a great policy of Imperial consolidation."[<A NAME="chap07fn32text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn32">32</A>]
+Disraeli was speaking of the views on colonial government, which he had
+held, apparently at the time when Grey and Elgin introduced their new
+system.  That system had since been developed under Gladstone's
+supervision; and, in 1872, the date of Disraeli's speech, it presented
+not fewer, but more decided signs of colonial independence.  Yet the
+statesman who accused the Whigs and Liberals of planning the disruption
+of the Empire, never attempted, when in office, to stay the decline of
+imperial unity by any practical scheme of federation, and must be
+counted either singularly indifferent to the interests of the empire,
+or sceptical as to its future.  A few years later, when the Imperial
+Titles Bill was under discussion, Disraeli again revealed a curious
+disbelief in, or misunderstanding of, the character of the
+self-governing colonies.  He had been
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P257"></A>257}</SPAN>
+challenged to defend his
+differentiation of the royal title in India from that authorized in the
+rest of the British Empire.  It would have been easy to confess that an
+imperial dignity, appropriate to the East, would have been singularly
+out of place in communities more democratic than Britain herself.  But
+he chose to argue from the unsubstantiality of separate colonial
+existence, and the natural inclination of prosperous colonists to make
+for England, the moment their fortunes had been made.  "The condition
+of colonial society," he said, "is of a fluctuating character....
+There is no similarity between the circumstances of our colonial
+fellow-subjects and those of our fellow-subjects in India.  Our
+colonists are English; they come and go, they are careful to make
+fortunes, to invest their money in England; their interests are
+immense, ramified, complicated, and they have constant opportunities of
+improving and enjoying the relations which exist between themselves and
+their countrymen in the metropolis.  Their relations to their Sovereign
+are ample, they satisfy them.  The colonists are proud of those
+relations, they are interested in the titles of the Queen, they look
+forward to return when they
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P258"></A>258}</SPAN>
+leave England, they do return&mdash;in
+short they are Englishmen."[<A NAME="chap07fn33text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn33">33</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It seems fair to argue from these instances that Disraeli, with all his
+imagination and insight, did not, even in 1876, understand the
+constitutional and social self-sufficiency of the greater colonies; or
+the nature of the bond which held them fast to the mother country.  His
+consummate rhetorical skill persuaded the nation to be imperial, while
+he himself doubted the very possibility of permanence in an empire
+organized on the only lines&mdash;those of strict autonomy&mdash;which the
+colonists were willing to sanction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the party of the earlier British Empire distrusted the foundations
+laid by Durham and his group for a new structure; and behind all their
+proclamations of authority, there were ill-concealed fears of another
+declaration or succession of declarations of independence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is now time to turn to the central body of imperial opinion&mdash;that
+which used Durham's views as the foundation of a new working theory of
+colonial development.  Its chief exponents were the Whigs of the more
+liberal school, who counted
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P259"></A>259}</SPAN>
+Lord John Russell their
+representative and leader.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was only at the end of a period dominated by other interests that
+Lord John Russell was able to turn his attention to colonies, and more
+particularly to Canada.  Even in 1839, the leader of the House of
+Commons, and the politician on whom, after all, the fate of the Whig
+party depended, had many other claims on his attention.  He was no
+theorist at general on the subject, and his interest in Canada was
+largely the product of events, not of his own will.  But he came at a
+decisive moment in Canadian history; his tenure of the Colonial Office
+coincided with the period in which Durham's Report exercised its
+greatest influence, and Russell, who had the politician's faculty for
+flinging himself with all his force into the issue dominating the
+present, inaugurated what proved to be a new regime in colonial
+administration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In attributing so decisive a part to Russell's work at the Colonial
+Office, one need not estimate very highly his powers of initiative or
+imagination.  It was Lord John Russell's lot, here as in Parliamentary
+Reform, to read with honest eyes the defects of the existing system, to
+initiate a great and useful change, and then to predicate finality
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P260"></A>260}</SPAN>
+of an act, which was really only the beginning of greater
+changes.  But in Canadian politics as in British, he must be credited
+with being better than his words, and with doing nothing to hinder a
+movement which he only partially understood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His ideas have in part been criticized in relation to Lord Sydenham's
+governor-generalship: in a sense, Sydenham was simply the Russell
+system incarnate.  But it is well to examine these ideas as a whole.
+Russell was a Durhamite "with a difference."  Like Durham he planned a
+generous measure of self-government, but he was a stricter
+constitutional thinker than Durham.  He reduced to a far finer point
+the difficulty which Durham only slightly felt, about the seat of
+ultimate authority and responsibility; and his instructions to Sydenham
+left no doubt as to the constitutional superior in Canada.  With
+infinitely shrewder practical insight than his prompter, he refused to
+simplify the problem of executive responsibility, by making the council
+subject to the Assembly in purely domestic matters, and to the Crown
+and its representative in external matters.  "Supposing," he said,
+"that you could lay down this broad principle, and say that all
+external matters
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P261"></A>261}</SPAN>
+should be subject to the home government, and
+all internal matters should be governed according to the majority of
+the Assembly, could you carry that principle into effect?  I say, we
+cannot abandon the responsibility which is cast upon us as Ministers of
+the Executive of this great Empire."[<A NAME="chap07fn34text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn34">34</A>]  Ultimately the surrender had
+to be made, but it was well that Russell should have refused to consent
+to what was really a fallacy in Durham's reasoning.  In consequence of
+this position, the Whig leader regarded Bagot's surrender as one,
+difficult perhaps to avoid, but unfortunate in its results, and he was
+an unflinching supporter of Metcalfe.  He further declared that he
+thought Metcalfe's council had an exaggerated view of their power, and
+that to yield to them would involve dangers to the connection.[<A NAME="chap07fn35text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn35">35</A>]  The
+novelty involved in his policy lay, however, outside this point of
+constitutional logic: it was a matter of practice, not of theory.  Not
+only did he support Sydenham in those practical reforms in which the
+new political life of Canada began, but in spite of his theory he
+really granted all save the form of full responsibility.  So completely
+had he, and his agent Sydenham, undermined their own imperial
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P262"></A>262}</SPAN>
+position, that when Peel's ministry fell in 1846, it was one of the
+first acts of Lord John Russell, now prime minister, to consent to the
+demolition of his own old theories.  If he may not dispute with Grey
+the credit of having conceded genuine responsibility to Canada, at
+least he did not exercise his authority to forbid the grant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It seems to me, indeed, that Russell definitely modified his position
+between 1841 and 1847.  At the earlier date he had been a stout
+upholder of the supremacy of Britain in Canada, for he believed in the
+connection, and the connection depended on the retention of British
+supremacy.  In the debate of January 16th, 1838, he argued thus for the
+Empire: "On the preservation of our colonies depends the continuance of
+our commercial marine; and on our commercial marine mainly depends our
+naval power; and on our naval power mainly depends the strength and
+supremacy of our arms."[<A NAME="chap07fn36text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn36">36</A>]  It is worthy of note that Charles Buller
+took occasion to challenge this description of the pillars of
+empire&mdash;it seemed a poor theory to him to make the empire a
+stalking-horse for the commerce and interests of the mother country.
+But as events taught Russell surely that the casuistry of 1839
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P263"></A>263}</SPAN>
+was false, and that Responsible Government was both a deeper and a
+broader thing than he had counted it, and yet inevitable, he accepted
+the more radical position.  At the same time, he either came to lay
+less stress on the unity of Empire, or he was forced to acknowledge
+that, since Home Rule must be granted, and since with Home Rule
+separation seemed natural, Britain had better practise resignation in
+view of a possible disruption.  The best known expression of this phase
+in Russell's thought is his speech on Colonial Administration in 1850:
+"I anticipate, indeed, with others that some of the colonies may so
+grow in population and wealth that they may say, 'Our strength is
+sufficient to enable us to be independent of England.  The link is now
+become onerous to us; the time is come when we think we can, in amity
+and alliance with England, maintain our independence.'  I do not think
+that that time is yet approaching.  But let us make them as far as
+possible fit to govern themselves ... let them increase in wealth and
+population; and whatever may happen, we of this great empire shall have
+the consolation of saying that we have contributed to the happiness of
+the world."[<A NAME="chap07fn37text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn37">37</A>]  It is possible to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P264"></A>264}</SPAN>
+argue that because Russell
+admitted that the time for separation was not yet approaching he was
+therefore an optimist.  But the evidence leans rather to the less
+glorious side.  It was this speech which kindled Elgin into a passion
+and made him bid Grey renounce for himself and his leader the habit of
+telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional existence.  The
+same speech, too, extorted complaints from Robert Baldwin, the man whom
+Sydenham and Russell had once counted half a traitor.  "I never saw him
+so much moved," wrote Elgin, to whom Baldwin had frankly said about a
+recent meeting.  "My audience was disposed to regard a prediction of
+this nature proceeding from a Prime Minister, less as a speculative
+abstraction than as one of that class of prophecies which work their
+own fulfilment."[<A NAME="chap07fn38text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn38">38</A>]  The speech was not an accidental or occasional
+flash of rhetoric.  The mind of the Whig leader, acquiescing now in the
+completeness of Canadian local powers, and reading with disquiet the
+signs of the times in the form of Canadian turbulence, seems to have
+turned to speculate on the least harmful form which separation might
+take.  Of this there is direct evidence in a private letter from Grey
+to Elgin: "Lord
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P265"></A>265}</SPAN>
+John in a letter I had from him yesterday,
+expresses a good deal of anxiety as to the prospects of Canada, and
+reverts to the old idea of forming a federal union of all the British
+provinces, in order to give them something more to think of than their
+mere local squabbles;[<A NAME="chap07fn39text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn39">39</A>] and he says that if to effect this a
+separation of the two Canadas were necessary he should see no objection
+to it.  His wish in forming such a union would be to bring about such a
+state of things, that, <I>if you should lose our North American
+provinces, they might be likely to become an independent state, instead
+of being merged in the Union</I>."[<A NAME="chap07fn40text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn40">40</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Russell moved then at this period through a most interesting
+development of views.  His initial position was a blend of firm
+imperialism and generous liberal concession, the latter more especially
+inspired by Durham.  As his genuine sympathies with liberty and
+democracy operated on his political views, these steadily changed in
+the direction of a more complete surrender to Canadian demands.  But,
+since, in spite of his sympathies, he still remained logical, and since
+he had believed the connection to depend on
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P266"></A>266}</SPAN>
+the
+governor-general's supremacy, the modification of that supremacy
+involved the weakening of his hopes of empire.  If the change seem
+somewhat to his discredit, his best defence lies in the fact that Peel,
+who made a very similar modification of his mind on Canadian politics,
+was also contemplating in these years a similar separation.  "The
+utility of our connexion with Canada," he said in 1844, "must depend
+upon its being continued with perfect goodwill by the majority of the
+population.  It would be infinitely better that that connexion should
+be discontinued, rather than that it should be continued by force and
+against the general feeling and conviction of the people."[<A NAME="chap07fn41text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn41">41</A>]  Indeed,
+Russell seems to have been accompanied on his dolorous journey by all
+the Peelites and not a few of the Whigs.  "There begins to prevail in
+the House of Commons," wrote Grey to Elgin in 1849, "and I am sorry to
+say in the highest quarters, an opinion (which I believe to be utterly
+erroneous) that we have no interest in preserving our colonies and
+ought therefore to make no sacrifice for that purpose.  Peel, Graham,
+and Gladstone, if they do not avow this opinion as openly as Cobden and
+his friends, yet betray very clearly that they
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P267"></A>267}</SPAN>
+entertain it, nor
+do I find some members of the Cabinet free from it."[<A NAME="chap07fn42text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn42">42</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile, the direction of colonial affairs had fallen to the writer
+of the letter just quoted: from the formation of the Russell ministry
+in 1846 until its fall, Earl Grey was the dominant force in British
+colonial policy.  Unlike Russell, Grey was not so much a politician
+interested in the great parliamentary game, as an expert who had
+devoted most of his attention to colonial and economic subjects.
+Consciously or unconsciously, he had imbibed many of Wakefield's ideas,
+and in that period of triumphant free trade, he came to office resolute
+to administer the colonies on free-trade principles.  It said much for
+the fixity and consistency of his ideas of colonial administration
+that, unlike Russell, Buller, and others, he had not been misled by the
+Metcalfe incident.  "The truth is," he said of Metcalfe, "he did not
+comprehend responsible government at all, nor from his Indian
+experience is this wonderful."[<A NAME="chap07fn43text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn43">43</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The most comprehensive description of the Grey regime is that it
+practised <I>laissez faire</I> principles in colonial administration as they
+never had been
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P268"></A>268}</SPAN>
+practised before.  Under him Canada first enjoyed
+the advantages or disadvantages of free trade, and escaped from the
+shackles of the Navigation Laws.  Grey and Elgin co-operated to bring
+the Clergy Reserve troubles to an end, although the Whigs fell before
+the final steps could be taken.  Grey secured imperial sanction for
+changes in the Union Act of 1840, granting the French new privileges
+for their language, and the colony free control of its own finances.
+But all these were subordinate in importance to the attitude of the new
+minister towards the whole question of Canadian autonomy, and its
+relation to the Imperial Parliament.  That attitude may be examined in
+relation to the responsibility of the Canadian executive, the powers of
+the Imperial Parliament, the occasions on which these powers might be
+fitly used, and the bearing of all the innovations on the position of
+Canada within the British Empire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Grey's policy with regard to Responsible Government was simple.  As
+Canadians viewed the term, and within the very modest limits set to it
+by them, he surrendered the whole position.  So much has already been
+said on this point in connection with Elgin, that it need not be
+further elaborated.  Yet, since there might linger a suspicion that the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P269"></A>269}</SPAN>
+policy was that rather of the governor than of the minister,
+Grey's position may be given in a despatch written to Sir John Harvey
+in Nova Scotia, before Elgin went to Canada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The object," wrote Grey, "with which I recommend to you this course is
+that of making it apparent that any transfer, which may take place, of
+political power from the hands of one party to those of another is the
+result, not of an act of yours, but of the wishes of the people
+themselves, as shown by the difficulty experienced by the retiring
+party in carrying on the government of the Province according to the
+forms of the Constitution.  To this I attach great importance; I have
+therefore to instruct you to abstain from changing your Executive
+Council until it shall become perfectly clear that they are unable with
+such fair support from yourself as they have a right to expect, to
+carry on the government of the province satisfactorily, and command the
+confidence of the Legislature....  In giving all fair and proper
+support to your Council for the time being, you will carefully avoid
+any acts which can possibly be supposed to imply the slightest personal
+objection to their opponents, and also refuse to assent to any measures
+which may be
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P270"></A>270}</SPAN>
+proposed to you by your Council, which may appear to
+you to involve an improper exercise of the authority of the Crown for
+party rather than for public objects.  In exercising however this power
+of refusing to sanction measures which may be submitted to you by your
+Council, you must recollect that this power of opposing a check upon
+extreme measures, proposed by the party for the time in the Government,
+depends entirely for its efficacy upon its being used sparingly and
+with the greatest possible discretion.  A refusal to accept advice
+tendered to you by your Council is a legitimate ground for its members
+to tender to you their resignation&mdash;a course they would doubtless
+adopt, should they feel that the subject on which a difference had
+arisen between you and themselves was one upon which public opinion
+would be in their favour.  Should it prove to be so, concession to
+their views must sooner or later become inevitable, since it cannot be
+too distinctly acknowledged that it is neither possible nor desirable
+to carry on the government of any of the British Provinces in North
+America, in opposition to the opinion of the inhabitants."[<A NAME="chap07fn44text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn44">44</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In strict accordance with this plan, Grey gave
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P271"></A>271}</SPAN>
+Elgin the most
+loyal support in introducing responsible government into Canada, and,
+in a note written not long after Papineau had once more awakened the
+political echoes with a distinctly disloyal address, he expressed his
+willingness to include even the old rebel in the ministerial
+arrangement, should that be insisted on by the leaders of a party which
+could command a majority.[<A NAME="chap07fn45text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn45">45</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Complete as was the concession made by Grey to local claims, it would,
+nevertheless, be a grave error to think that he left no space for the
+assertion of imperial authority.  No doubt it was part of his system to
+reduce to a minimum the occasions on which interference should be
+necessary, but that such occasions might occur, and demand sudden and
+powerful action from Britain, he ever held.  Even in matters of a
+character purely domestic, he believed, with Lord John Russell, that
+intervention might be necessary, and he desired to prevent danger, not
+by minimizing the powers of the imperial authority, but by exercising
+them with great discretion.[<A NAME="chap07fn46text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn46">46</A>]  It was perhaps with this conservation
+of central power in view that
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P272"></A>272}</SPAN>
+he was willing to transfer to the
+British treasury the responsibility of paying the salary of the
+governor-general, provided the colonists would take over some part of
+the expenses and difficulties of Canadian defence.  But the extent to
+which he was prepared to exalt the supremacy is best illustrated in the
+control of imperial commerce.  A great change had just been made in the
+economic system of Britain.  Free trade was then to its adherents not
+an arguable position, but a kind of gospel; and men like Grey, who had
+something of the propagandist about them, were inclined to compel
+others to come in.  Now, unfortunately for Canada, free trade appeared
+there first rather as foe than as friend.  As has already been seen,
+the measures of 1846 overturned the arrangement made by Stanley in
+1843, whereby a preference given to Canadian flour had stimulated a
+great activity in the milling and allied industries; and the removal of
+the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Acts did not take place till
+1849.  At the same time the United States, the natural market for
+Canadian products, showed little inclination to listen to talk of
+reciprocity; and the Canadians, seemingly deprived of pre-existing
+advantages by Peel's action, talked of retaliation as a means of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P273"></A>273}</SPAN>
+bettering their position, at least in relation to the United States.
+Grey, however, was an absolute believer in the magic powers of free
+trade.  "When we rejected all considerations of what is called
+reciprocity," he wrote to Elgin, "and boldly got rid of our protective
+duties without inquiring whether other nations would meet us or not,
+the effect was immediately seen in the increase of our exports, and the
+prosperity of our manufactures."[<A NAME="chap07fn47text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn47">47</A>]  Canada, then, in his opinion
+could retaliate most effectively, not by setting up a tariff against
+the United States, but by opening her ports more freely then before.
+He had a vision, comparable although in contrast, to that of believers
+in an imperial tariff, of an empire with its separate parts bound to
+each other by a general freedom of trade.  Besides all this, he had a
+firm trust that the evils which other nations less free than Britain
+might for a time inflict on her trade by their prohibitions, would
+shortly end, since all would be convinced by the example of Britain and
+would follow it.  Under these circumstances he set imperial policy
+against local prejudice, and wrote to his governor-general: "I do trust
+you will be able to prevent the attempt to enter upon that silliest of
+all silly policies, the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P274"></A>274}</SPAN>
+meeting of commercial restrictions by
+counter restrictions; <I>indeed it is a matter to be very seriously
+considered, whether we can avoid disallowing any acts of this kind
+which may be passed</I>."[<A NAME="chap07fn48text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn48">48</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In spite, then, of the present thoroughness of Grey's conversion to the
+Canadian position with regard to Home Rule, there was for him still an
+empire operating through the Houses at Westminster and the Crown
+ministers, and striking in, possibly on rare occasions, but, when
+necessary, with a heavy hand.  To such a man, too, belief in the
+permanence of empire was natural.  There are fewer waverings on the
+point in Grey's writings than in those of any of his contemporaries,
+Durham, Buller, and Elgin alone excepted.  He had, indeed, as his
+private correspondence shows, moments of gloom.  Under the strain of
+the Montreal riots, and the insults to Elgin in 1849, he wrote: "I
+confess that looking at these indications of the state of feeling
+there, and at the equally significant indications to the feelings in
+the House of Commons, respecting the value of our colonies, I begin
+almost to despair of our long retaining those in North America; while I
+am persuaded that to both parties a hasty separation will be a very
+serious
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P275"></A>275}</SPAN>
+evil."[<A NAME="chap07fn49text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn49">49</A>]  Elgin's robust faith, and perfect knowledge,
+however, set him right.  Indeed, in tracing the growth of Grey's
+colonial policy, it is impossible for anyone to mistake the evidences
+of Elgin's influence; and the chapter on Canada in his <I>Colonial
+Policy</I> owes almost more to Elgin than it does to the avowed author.
+His final position may be stated thus.  The empire was to the advantage
+of England, for, apart from other reasons, her place among the nations
+depended on the colonies, and the act of separation would also be one
+of degradation.  The empire was an unspeakable benefit to the colonies:
+"To us," he once wrote in a moment of doubt, "except the loss of
+prestige (no slight one I admit) the loss of Canada would be the loss
+of little but a source of heavy expense and great anxiety, while to the
+Canadians, the loss of our protection, and of our moderating influence
+to restrain the excesses of their own factions, would be one of the
+greatest that can be conceived."[<A NAME="chap07fn50text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn50">50</A>]  But, apart from these lower loss
+and gain calculations, to Grey the British Empire was a potent
+instrument, essential to the peace and soundness of the world, and he
+expected the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P276"></A>276}</SPAN>
+provinces to which he had conceded British rights,
+to rally to uphold British standards through a united and loyal
+imperial federation.  Those were still days when Britain counted
+herself, and not without justification, a means of grace to the less
+fortunate remainder of mankind.  "The authority of the British Crown is
+at this moment the most powerful instrument, under Providence, of
+maintaining peace and order in many extensive regions of the earth, and
+thereby assists in diffusing among millions of the human race, the
+blessings of Christianity and civilization.  Supposing it were clear
+(which I am far from admitting) that a reduction of our national
+expenditure (otherwise impracticable) to the extent of a few hundred
+thousands a year, could be effected by withdrawing our authority and
+protection from our numerous Colonies, would we be justified, for the
+sake of such a saving, in taking this step, and thus abandoning the
+duty which seems to have been cast upon us?"[<A NAME="chap07fn51text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn51">51</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such, then, was the imperial policy of Britain under the man who
+carried it farthest forward, before the great renaissance at the end of
+Queen Victoria's reign.  To Grey, Canada was all that it had meant to
+Durham&mdash;a province peopled by
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P277"></A>277}</SPAN>
+subjects of the Queen, and one
+destined by providence to have a great future&mdash;a fundamental part of
+the Empire, and one without which the imperial whole must be something
+meaner and less glorious.  Like Durham he planned for it a constitution
+on the most generous lines, and conferred great gifts upon it.  And, in
+exchange, he claimed a loyalty proportionate to the generosity of the
+Crown, and a propriety of political behaviour worthy of citizens of so
+great a state.  In the last resort he held that in abnormal crises, or
+in response to great and beneficial policies, Canadians must forget
+their provincial outlook, or, if they could not, at least accept the
+ruling of an imperial parliament and a crown more enlightened and
+authoritative on these matters than a colonial ministry or people could
+be.  Having conceded all the rights essential to a free existence, he
+mentioned duties, and called the sum of these duties Empire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The concluding stage in the evolution of mid-Victorian opinion
+concerning Canada, which must now be described, differs essentially
+from the earlier stages, although, as it seems to me, the chief factor
+in the development is still Durham and his group.  It is the period of
+separatism.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One thing has appeared very prominently in the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P278"></A>278}</SPAN>
+foregoing
+argument&mdash;the prevalence of a fear, or even a fixed belief, that the
+connection between Britain and Canada must soon cease.  Excluding, for
+the present, the entire group of extreme radicals, there was hardly a
+statesman of the earlier years of Victoria, who had not confessed that
+Canada must soon leave England, or be left.  Many instances have been
+already cited.  Among the Tories, Stanley thought that Bagot had
+already begun the process of separation, and that Metcalfe's failure
+would involve the end of the connection.  Peel, ever judicial, gave his
+verdict in favour of separation, should Canadians persist in resenting
+imperial action.  As Lord John Russell's view of autonomy expanded, his
+hopes for continued British supremacy contracted; and, on the evidence
+of a letter from Grey quoted above, Russell was not alone among the
+Whigs in his opinion, nor Peel among his immediate followers.  The
+reckless and partizan use of the term Little-Englander has largely
+concealed the fact that apart from Durham, whose faith was not called
+upon to bear the test of experience, and Buller, Grey, and Elgin, who
+had special grounds for their confidence, all the responsible
+politicians of the years between 1840 and 1860 moved steadily towards a
+"Little England" position.
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P279"></A>279}</SPAN>
+The reasons for that movement are
+worthy of examination.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So far as the Tories were concerned, the change, already traced in
+detail, was not unnatural.  In the eighteenth century, the colonies,
+possessed of just that responsible government for which Canadian
+reformers were clamouring, had with one accord left the Empire.  The
+earlier nineteenth century had witnessed in the British American
+colonies a steadily increasing demand for the liberties, formerly
+possessed by the New England states.  Representative assemblies had
+been granted; then a modified form of responsibility of the executive
+to these assemblies; then the complete surrender of executive to
+legislature.  Attempts had been made to gain some countervailing powers
+by bargain; but, in Canada, the civil list had now been surrendered to
+local control, the endowment of the Church of England was practically
+at an end, patronage was in the hands of the provincial ministry, and
+all the exceptions which the central authority had claimed as essential
+to its continued existence followed in the wake of the lost executive
+supremacy.  Neither Whigs nor Tories quite understood how an Empire was
+possible, in which there was no definite federating principle; or, if
+there
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P280"></A>280}</SPAN>
+were, where the federating principle existed only to be
+neutralized as, one by one, the restrictions imposed by it were felt by
+the colonists to be annoying to their sense of freedom.  Empire on
+these terms seemed to mean simply a capacity in the mother country for
+indefinite surrender.  The accomplishment of the purpose proclaimed by
+Durham, Russell, and Grey, would, to a Tory even less peremptory than
+the Duke of Wellington, mean the end of the connection; and as they
+felt, so they spoke and acted.  They were separatists, not of
+good-will, but from necessity and the nature of things.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the Whigs, an even more important process was at work.  By 1850
+the disintegration of the Whig party was already far advanced.
+Finality in reform had already been found impossible, and Russell and
+the advanced men were slowly drawing ahead of conservatives like
+Melbourne and Palmerston.  After 1846, the liberalizing power of Peel's
+steady scientific intelligence was at work, transforming the ideas of
+his allies, as he had formerly shattered those of his old friends, and,
+of Peel's followers, Gladstone at least seemed to be looking in the
+same direction as his master&mdash;towards administrative liberalism.  The
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P281"></A>281}</SPAN>
+Whig creed and programme were in the melting pot.  Now, what made
+the final product not Whig, but Liberal, was on the whole the
+increasing influence of the parliamentary Radicals; and in colonial
+matters the Radicals, who told on the revived and quickened Whig party,
+were pronouncedly in favour of separation.  It is too often assumed
+that the imperial creed of Durham and Buller was shared in by their
+fellow Radicals.  That is a grave mistake.  One may trace a descent
+towards separatism from Molesworth to Roebuck and Brougham.  In
+Molesworth, the tendency was comparatively slight.  No doubt in 1837,
+under the stress of the news of rebellion, he had proclaimed the end of
+the British dominion in America as his sincere desire.[<A NAME="chap07fn52text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn52">52</A>]  But he
+believed in a colonial empire, if England would only guarantee good
+government.  "The emancipation of colonies," he said, in a cooler mood,
+"must be a question of time and a question, in each case, of special
+expediency ... a question which would seldom or never arise between a
+colony and its mother country if all colonies were well governed"; and
+he explained his language about Canada on grounds of bad government.
+"I hope that the people of
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P282"></A>282}</SPAN>
+that country (Lower Canada) will
+either recover the constitution which we have violated, or become
+wholly independent of us."[<A NAME="chap07fn53text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn53">53</A>]  It is not necessary to quote Hume's
+confused but well-intentioned wanderings&mdash;views sharing with those of
+the people whom Hume represented, their crude philanthropy and
+imperfect clearness.  But Roebuck marked a definite stage in advance;
+for, while he was willing to keep "the connexion," where it could be
+kept with honour, he seems to have regarded separation as
+inevitable&mdash;"come it must," he said&mdash;and his best hopes were that the
+separation might take place in amity and that a British North American
+federation might counterbalance the Union to the south.[<A NAME="chap07fn54text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn54">54</A>]  Grote's
+placid and facile radicalism accepted the growing breach with Canada as
+the most desirable thing which could happen both to the mother country
+and the colony; and Brougham directed all his eccentric and ill-ordered
+energy and eloquence, not only to denounce the Whig leaders, but to
+proclaim the necessity of the new Canadian republic.  "Not only do I
+consider the possession as worth no breach of the Constitution ... but
+in a national view I really hold those colonies to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P283"></A>283}</SPAN>
+be worth
+nothing.  I am well assured that we shall find them very little worth
+the cost they have entailed on us, in men, in money, and in injuries to
+our trade; nay, that their separation will be even now a positive gain,
+so it be effected on friendly terms, and succeeded by an amicable
+intercourse."[<A NAME="chap07fn55text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn55">55</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Separation was indubitably a dogma of philosophic radicalism; and yet
+it was not so much the influence of this metaphysical and doctrinaire
+belief which moved Whig opinion.  It was rather the plain business-like
+and matter-of-fact radicalism of the economist statesmen, led by Bright
+and Cobden.  Of the two forces represented by Peel and by Cobden, which
+completed the formation of a modern Liberal party, the latter was on
+the whole the stronger; and Bright and Cobden took the views of their
+Radical predecessors, and out of airy and ineffectual longings created
+solid political facts.  "I cannot disguise from myself," wrote Grey to
+Elgin in 1850, "that opinion in this country is tending more and more
+to the rejection of any burden whatever, on account of our colonies";
+and the reason for the tendency was certainly the purely economic views
+to which
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P284"></A>284}</SPAN>
+Cobden was accustoming Britain, and the cogency of the
+arguments by which he was driving amateur politicians from their
+earlier indefensible positions.  That trade was all-important, and that
+the operations of trade disregarded the irrelevant facts of nationality
+and race; that no one community could interfere in the social and
+political life of another without disaster to both; that the defence of
+colonies was not only dangerous to peace as provoking suspicious
+neighbours, but needless expense to the mother country; in short that
+<I>laissez-faire</I> was the dominating principle in politics, and that
+<I>laissez-faire</I> shattered the earlier dreams of imperial supremacy and
+colonial dependency&mdash;these were the views introduced by Cobden and
+Bright into a newly awakened and imperfectly educated England; and they
+played just such havoc with earlier political ideas, as Darwin and
+evolution did with pre-existing theological orthodoxy.[<A NAME="chap07fn56text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn56">56</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was hardly wonderful then that the Whigs moved steadily onward until
+they almost acquiesced in the idea of imperial disruption; and, since
+Peel
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P285"></A>285}</SPAN>
+had left his party moved almost wholly by Cobden's economic
+propaganda, it was not unnatural that the Peelites should share the
+views of their Whig allies.  It is indeed possible to find some cold
+consolation in Gladstone's Chester speech in 1855, when he predicted
+that if only the colonies were left freedom of judgment, it would be
+hard to say when the day of separation might come.[<A NAME="chap07fn57text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn57">57</A>]  But Grey had
+already suspected Gladstone of pessimism on the point, and we now know
+that as an imperialist Gladstone's course from 1855 had a downward
+tendency.  He could not resist the arguments of his Radical friends and
+teachers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Almost all the important relevant facts and events which concerned the
+connection after 1846 assisted these party movements towards belief in
+separation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Grey, whose confidence in the beneficial results of free trade
+challenged that of Cobden himself, believed that with Protection there
+vanished an awkward enemy of the connection between Canada and
+Britain.[<A NAME="chap07fn58text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn58">58</A>]  But Grey was unmistakably doctrinaire on the point.
+Elgin warned him, again and again, of "the uneasy feeling which the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P286"></A>286}</SPAN>
+free-trade policy of the mother country ... has tended to produce
+in the colonial mind,"[<A NAME="chap07fn59text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn59">59</A>] and that uneasiness passed gradually over to
+Britain.  It would be to trespass unduly beyond the limits prescribed
+in this essay to deal with the introduction of the Canadian tariff in
+1858 and 1859; yet the statements of Galt who introduced the budget in
+the latter year strike the reader now, as they must have struck the
+British reader then, with a sense that the connection was practically
+at an end: "The government of Canada cannot, through those feelings of
+deference which they owe to the Imperial authorities, in any measure
+waive or diminish the right of the people of Canada to decide for
+themselves both as to the mode and extent to which taxation shall be
+imposed....  The Imperial government are not responsible for the debts
+and engagements of Canada.  They do not maintain its judicial,
+educational, or civil service.  They contribute nothing to the internal
+government of the country; and the Provincial Legislature, acting
+through a ministry directly responsible to it, has to make provision
+for all these wants.  They must necessarily claim and exercise the
+widest latitude, as to the nature, and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P287"></A>287}</SPAN>
+the extent of the burdens,
+to be placed upon the industry of the people."[<A NAME="chap07fn60text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn60">60</A>]  There was almost
+everything to be said in favour of this enlightened selfishness; and
+yet a growing coolness on the part of British legislators was, under
+the circumstances, very comprehensible.  It was all the more so,
+because the innovations in Canada influenced British diplomacy in its
+relations with the United States; and between 1854, the date of Elgin's
+Reciprocity Treaty, and 1867, British statesmen learned some of the
+curious ramifications of their original gift of autonomy to Canada.  In
+diplomacy as in economic relations, their appreciation of the value of
+the connection did not increase.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Parallel with this disruptive tendency in the new economic policy,
+another in military matters began to make itself felt.  As Canada
+received her successive grants of liberties, and ever new liberties,
+the imperial authorities began to consider the advisability of
+withdrawing imperial troops by degrees, and of leaving Canada to meet
+the ordinary demands of her own defence.  Grey and Elgin had
+corresponded largely on the point; and the result had been a very
+general reduction of British troops
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P288"></A>288}</SPAN>
+in Canada, the assumption
+being that Canada would look to her own protection.  To discover the
+character of the change thus introduced, and its bearing on imperial
+politics, it again becomes necessary to travel beyond the limit set,
+and to examine its results between 1860 and 1867.  In these years the
+military situation developed new and alarming possibilities for Canada.
+The re-organization of the Canadian tariff excited much ill-feeling in
+the United States, for it seemed an infringement of the arrangements
+made by Elgin in 1854.[<A NAME="chap07fn61text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn61">61</A>]  Then followed the <I>Trent</I> episode, the
+destruction created by the <I>Alabama</I>, the questionable policy both of
+England and of Canada in taking sides, no matter how informally, in the
+war.  In addition, the Irish-American section of the population, which
+had furnished its share, both of rank and file, and of leaders, to the
+war, was in those years bitterly hostile to the British Empire, and
+plotted incessantly some secret stroke which should wound Britain
+through Canada.  The gravest danger threatening British peace and
+supremacy at that time lay, not in Europe, but along the Canadian
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P289"></A>289}</SPAN>
+frontier, nor would it be fair to say that Britain alone, not Canada,
+had helped to provoke the threatened American attack.  Under these
+circumstances, partly because of the expense, but partly also through
+factiousness and provincial shortsightedness, the Canadian assembly
+rejected a scheme for providing an adequate militia, and left a
+situation quite impossible from the military point of view.  Instantly
+a storm of criticism broke over the heads of the colonies, so bitter
+and unqualified that there are those who believe that to this day the
+mutual relations of Britain and Canada have never quite recovered their
+old sincerity.[<A NAME="chap07fn62text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn62">62</A>]  A member of the Canadian parliament, who was
+travelling at the time in England, found the country in arms against
+his province: "You have no idea of the feeling that exists here about
+the Militia Bill, and the defences of Canada generally.  No one will
+believe that there is not a want of loyalty among the Canadians, and
+whenever I try to defend Canada, the answer is always the same, that
+'the English look for actions not assertions'; many hard and unjust
+things are now said about the country, all of which add strength to the
+Goldwin Smith party, which, after
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P290"></A>290}</SPAN>
+all, is not a very small one;
+and the Derbyites make no secret of what they would do if they were in
+power,&mdash;let Canada take her chance."[<A NAME="chap07fn63text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn63">63</A>]  Even Earl Grey was prepared,
+at that crisis, to submit to the British and Canadian parliaments a
+clear issue, calling on the latter to afford adequate support to the
+British forces left in British North America, or to permit the last of
+them to leave a country heedless of its own safety.[<A NAME="chap07fn64text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn64">64</A>]  From that time
+forth, more especially after Lee, Jackson, Grant, and Sherman had
+revealed the military possibilities of the American Republic, even
+military men began to accept the strategic arguments against the
+retention of Canada as unanswerable, and joined the ranks of those who
+called for separation.  Richard Cartwright, who had opportunities for
+testing British opinion, more especially among military officers, found
+a universal agreement that Canada was indefensible, and that separation
+had better take place, before rather than after war.[<A NAME="chap07fn65text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn65">65</A>]  So John
+Bright and the leaders of the British army had at last found a point in
+diplomacy and strategy on which they might agree.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P291"></A>291}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+A considerable portion of authoritative British opinion has now been
+traversed; and beneath all its contradictions and varieties a deep
+general tendency has been discovered.  That tendency made for the
+separation of Canada from England and the Empire.  It is strange to see
+how resolutely writers have evaded the conclusion, and yet, if the
+views discussed above have been fairly stated, only four men of note
+and authority, Durham, Buller, Elgin, and Grey remained unaffected by
+the growing pessimism of the time, and of these, the last seemed at the
+end to find it difficult to maintain the confidence of 1853 under the
+trials of 1862.  Britain was, in fact, undergoing a great secular
+change of policy.  She had been driven, step by step, from the old
+position of supremacy and authority.  As in commerce the security of
+protection had been abandoned for the still doubtful advantages of free
+trade, so, in the colonies, the former cast-iron system of imperial
+control had been abandoned for one of <I>laissez-faire</I> and
+self-government.  It would have been impossible for British statesmen
+to follow any other course than that which they actually chose.
+Self-government, and self-government to the last detail and corollary
+of the argument they must perforce concede.  But
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P292"></A>292}</SPAN>
+in the stress of
+their imperial necessities, it was not strange that they should discern
+all the signs of disruption, rather than the gleams of hope; and men
+like Disraeli who claimed at a later date that they had never despaired
+of the Empire, did so at the expense of their sincerity, and could do
+so only because the false remedies they prescribed were happily
+incapable of application.  Little Englandism, if that unfortunate term
+may be used to describe an essential and inevitable phase of imperial
+expansion, was the creed of all but one or two of the most capable and
+daring statesmen of the mid-Victorian age.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Strangely enough, while they had exhausted the materials for their
+argument so far as these lay in Britain, they had all failed to regard
+the one really important factor in the situation&mdash;the inclinations of
+the Canadian people.  For the connection of Britain with Canada
+depended less on what the ministers of the Crown thought of Canada than
+on what the Canadians thought of their mother country.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn4"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn1text">1</A>] In Fenwick (Scotland), the Improvement of Knowledge Society
+discussed Canadian affairs on 1 January, 1839, when James Taylor
+proposed the sentiment, "The speedy success of the Canadian struggle
+for emancipation from British thraldom."  The toast, according to the
+minute book, was enthusiastically honoured.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn2text">2</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 1 November, 1851.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn3text">3</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 11 May, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn4text">4</A>] Allin and Jones, <I>Annexation, Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity</I>,
+Chap. IX.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn5"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn5text">5</A>] <I>Responsible Government for the Colonies, London</I>, 1840.  See the
+extract made by Wakefield in his <I>View of the Art of Colonization</I>, p.
+279.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn6text">6</A>] <I>The Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor, passim.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn7text">7</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> ii. pp. 302-3.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn8text">8</A>] Leslie Stephen, <I>Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen</I>, p. 49.  "On
+the appointment of a Governor-general of Canada, shortly before his
+resignation of office, he observes in a diary, that it is not unlikely
+to be the last that will ever be made."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn9text">9</A>] Wakefield, <I>Art of Colonization</I>, p. 317.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn10text">10</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> pp. 312-3.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn11text">11</A>] Froude, <I>Early Life of Carlyle</I>, ii. p. 446.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn12text">12</A>] <I>Responsible Government for the Colonies</I>, p. 65.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn13text">13</A>] <I>Responsible Government for the Colonies</I>, p. 37.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn14text">14</A>] <I>Responsible Government for the Colonies</I>, p. 98.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn15text">15</A>] I am inclined to accept John Stuart Mill's account of the
+authorship&mdash;"written by Charles Buller, partly under the influence of
+Wakefield."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn16text">16</A>] Quoted by Hincks in <I>A Lecture on the Political History of
+Canada</I>, p. 9.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn17text">17</A>] Kaye, <I>Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe</I>, pp. 414-15.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn18text">18</A>] <I>Lord Durham's Report</I> (Lucas), ii. p. 280.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn19text">19</A>] See an admirable discussion of the point in Lucas's edition of the
+<I>Report</I>, i. p. 146 and ii. p. 281.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn20text">20</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> ii.  p. 282.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn21text">21</A>] A speech by Charles Buller in <I>Hansard</I>, 30 May, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn22text">22</A>] Arthur to Normanby, 21 August, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn23text">23</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> 15 October, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn24text">24</A>] Protest of the Duke of Wellington against the Third Reading of a
+bill, etc., 13 July, 1840.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn28"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn29"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn25text">25</A>] Parker, <I>Life of Sir Robert Peel</I>, iii. pp. 382-3.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn26text">26</A>] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 June, 1845.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn27text">27</A>] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn28text">28</A>] Gladstone's speech in Hansard, 14 June, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn29text">29</A>] Parker, <I>Life of Sir Robert Peel</I>, iii. p. 389.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn30"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn31"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn32"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn33"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn34"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn30text">30</A>] <I>Hansard</I>, 4 March, 1853.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn31text">31</A>] <I>Memoirs of an Ex-Minister</I>, i. p. 344: Disraeli to Malmesbury, 13
+August, 1852.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn32text">32</A>] <I>The Speeches of the Earl of Beaconsfield</I>, ii. p. 530.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn33text">33</A>] <I>Hansard</I>, 9 March, 1876.  The whole speech is an admirable
+example of Disraeli's gift of irresponsible paradox.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn34text">34</A>] <I>Hansard</I>, 3 June, 1839.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn35"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn36"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn37"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn38"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn39"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn35text">35</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> 30 May, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn36text">36</A>] <I>Hansard</I>, 16 January, 1838.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn37text">37</A>] Walpole, <I>Life of Lord John Russell</I>, pp. 339-40.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn38text">38</A>] Walpole, <I>Life of Lord John Russell</I>, pp. 339-40.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn39text">39</A>] The reference is to the Rebellion Losses Act riots.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn40"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn41"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn42"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn43"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn44"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn40text">40</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 8 August, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn41text">41</A>] <I>Hansard</I>, 30 May, 1844.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn42text">42</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 18 May, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn43text">43</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>: Grey to Elgin, 6 April, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn44text">44</A>] Earl Grey to Sir John Harvey, 3 November, 1846.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn45"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn46"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn47"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn48"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn49"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn45text">45</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn46text">46</A>] Grey, <I>Colonial Policy</I>, i. p. 25.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn47text">47</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 5 December, 1850.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn48text">48</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 25 October, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn49text">49</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 20 July, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn50"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn51"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn52"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn53"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn54"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn50text">50</A>] <I>Ibid.</I>: Grey to Elgin, 22 March, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn51text">51</A>] Grey, <I>Colonial Policy</I>, i. pp. 13-14.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn52text">52</A>] Molesworth in <I>Hansard</I>, 22 December, 1837.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn53text">53</A>] Molesworth in <I>Hansard</I>, 6 March, 1838.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn54text">54</A>] Roebuck before the House of Commons, 22 January, 1838.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn55"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn56"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn57"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn58"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn59"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn55text">55</A>] Brougham in <I>Hansard</I>, 18 January, 1838.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn56text">56</A>] See, for a very complete statement of Bright's views on the point,
+his speech on <I>Canadian Fortifications</I>, 23 March, 1865.  Cobden's
+colonial policy is scattered broadcast through his speeches.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn57text">57</A>] Morley, <I>Life of Gladstone</I>, i. p. 269.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn58text">58</A>] See the preliminary chapter in his <I>Colonial Policy</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn59text">59</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 6 December, 1848.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap07fn60"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn61"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn62"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn63"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn64"></A>
+<A NAME="chap07fn65"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn60text">60</A>] See Galt, <I>Canada from</I> 1849 <I>to</I> 1859, and his memorandum of 25
+October, 1859.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn61text">61</A>] See a despatch from Lord Lyons respecting the Reciprocity Treaty,
+Washington, 28 February, 1862: enclosing a copy of the report of the
+committee of the House of Representatives on the Reciprocity Treaty.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn62text">62</A>] See Dent, <I>The Last Forty Years</I>, ii. p. 426.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn63text">63</A>] Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, i. p. 242.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn64text">64</A>] Earl Grey, in <I>Hansard</I>, 18 July, 1862.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap07fn65text">65</A>] Sir Richard Cartwright, <I>Reminiscences</I>, p. 55.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P293"></A>293}</SPAN>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII.
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY.
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+A change so informally achieved, and yet so decisive, as the completion
+of a system of self-government in Canada could not but have
+far-reaching and unexpected secondary consequences.  It is the object
+of this chapter to trace the more important of these as they appeared
+in the institutions and public life of Canada, and in the modification
+of Canadian sentiment towards Great Britain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The most obvious and natural effect of Elgin's concessions was a
+revolution in the programmes of the provincial parties, and in their
+relations to each other and to government.  It may be remembered that
+all the governors of the period agreed in reprobating the factiousness
+and pettiness of Canadian party politics.  Even Elgin had been unable
+to see very much rationality in their methods.  There was, he held,
+little of public principle to divide
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P294"></A>294}</SPAN>
+men, apart from the
+fundamental question of responsible government.[<A NAME="chap08fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn1">1</A>]  But it is possible
+to underestimate the reality and importance of the party system as it
+existed down to 1847.  To have admitted that men differed on the
+principle of responsible government, was to have admitted that party
+strife had some justification; and all the other details&mdash;affections
+and antipathies, national, sectarian, and personal&mdash;were the
+circumstances natural to party life as that life has everywhere come
+into existence.  Burke himself sought no higher ground for the grouping
+of men into parties than that of family connection, and common
+friendships and enmities.  No doubt the squalor and pettiness of early
+Canadian party life contrasted meanly with the glories of the
+eighteenth century Whigs, and the struggles of Fox and Pitt.  But a
+nation must begin somewhere, and these trivial divisions received a
+kind of consecration when they centred round the discussion of colonial
+self-government.  After all, so long as autonomy was only partially
+conceded, and so long as men felt impelled to take opposite sides on
+that subject, it was foolish to deny that there were Canadian parties,
+and that their differences were of some importance.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P295"></A>295}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+Moreover, before 1847 there were other good reasons for the existence
+of two distinct parties.  It was true, as Sydenham had said, that the
+British party names were not quite appropriate to the parties in Canada
+who had adopted them.  Yet there were some links between British and
+Canadian parties.  The British and the Canadian Tories had, in 1840,
+many views in common.  In a time of change both stood for a pronounced
+distrust of democracy; both regarded the creation of responsible
+government in Canada as disastrous to the connection; both were the
+defenders of Church and State.  On the other hand, it was not
+unnatural, as Elgin came to see, to compare the party led by Baldwin
+and La Fontaine with the Reformers in England who looked to Lord John
+Russell as their true leader.  Until the political traditions, which
+most of the recent immigrants had brought with them from Britain, had
+disappeared or been transformed into a new Canadian tradition, and so
+long as certain grave constitutional defects which cried for remedy
+remained unaltered, Canadian Tories and Reformers must exist, and
+government, as Metcalfe discovered, was impossible, unless it
+recognized in these provincial divisions the motive power of local
+administration.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P296"></A>296}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+But between 1847 and 1854 the foundations of these earlier parties had
+been, not so much undermined, as entirely removed.  "The continuance of
+agitation on these intensely exciting questions," wrote Elgin in his
+latest despatch from Canada, "was greatly to be deprecated, and their
+settlement, on terms which command the general acquiescence of those
+who are most deeply interested, can hardly fail to be attended with
+results in a high degree beneficial."[<A NAME="chap08fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn2">2</A>]  Elgin had removed the reason
+for existence of both parties by settling the issues which divided
+them.  At the same time, the growth of a political life different from
+that of Britain, had, year by year, made the British names more
+inappropriate.  John A. Macdonald, the leader of those who had once
+called themselves Tories, was confessing the change when he wrote, in
+1860, "While I have always been a member of what is called the
+Conservative party, I could never have been called a Tory, although
+there is no man who more respects what is called old-fogey Toryism than
+I do, so long as it is based upon principle."[<A NAME="chap08fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn3">3</A>]  The fierce battles
+over constitutional theories,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P297"></A>297}</SPAN>
+which a series of British governors
+and governments had so long deprecated, had at last been eliminated by
+the natural development of Canadian political life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The same natural development provided a substitute for the older party
+system.  Elgin, as has been seen, belonged to the group of Peelites,
+who, during the lifetime of their leader and long after it, endeavoured
+to solve the new administrative problems of the nineteenth century
+without too strict an adherence to party programmes and lines of
+division.  Curiously enough, he was the chief agent in stimulating a
+similar political movement in Canada.  There was, however, this
+difference, that while in Peel's case, and still more in that of his
+followers, the British party tradition proved overwhelmingly powerful,
+in Canada, where tradition was weaker, and the need for sound
+administration far more vital, the movement became dominant in the form
+of Liberal-conservatism.  In other words, in place of small violently
+antagonistic parties, moderate men inclined to come together to carry
+out a broad, non-controversial, national programme.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There are few more remarkable developments in Canada between 1840 and
+1867 than this tendency
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P298"></A>298}</SPAN>
+towards government by a single party.  It
+was Sydenham's shrewd insight into the Canadian political situation,
+even more than his desire to rule, which led him to govern Canada by a
+coalition of moderate men.  His only mistake lay in trying to force on
+the province what should have come by nature.  The Baldwin-La Fontaine
+compact, which really dominated Canadian politics from 1841, was a
+partial experiment in government by an alliance of groups; and when the
+great exciting questions, Responsible Government and Church
+Establishment, had been settled, and the end in view seemed simply to
+be the carrying on of the Queen's government, Liberal-conservatism
+entered gradually into possession.  When Baldwin and La Fontaine made
+way for Hincks and Morin in 1851, the change was recognized as a step
+towards the re-union of the moderates.  For, in the face of George
+Brown, and his advocacy of a more provocative radical programme,
+Francis Hincks declared for some kind of coalition: "I regret to say
+there have been indications given by a section of the party to which I
+belong, that it will be difficult indeed, unless they change their
+policy, to preserve the Union.  I will tell these persons (the
+anti-state church reformers of Upper Canada)
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P299"></A>299}</SPAN>
+that if the Union is
+not preserved by them, as a necessary consequence, other combinations
+must be formed by which the Union may be preserved.  <I>I am ready to
+give my cordial support to any combination of parties by which the
+Union shall be maintained</I>."[<A NAME="chap08fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn4">4</A>]  Three years later, the party of
+moderate reform which had co-operated with Elgin in creating a system
+of truly responsible government, and which had done so much to restore
+Canadian political equanimity, fell before a factious combination of
+hostile groups.  But the succeeding administration, nominally
+Conservative, was actually Liberal-Conservative, and it remained in
+power chiefly because Francis Hincks, who had led the Reformers,
+desired his followers to assist it, as Peel and his immediate disciples
+kept the British Whigs in office after 1846.  Robert Baldwin had been
+the leader of opposition during Sydenham's rule, and before it; indeed,
+he may be called the organizer of party division in the days before the
+grant of responsible government.  Yet when the opponents of the compact
+of 1854 quoted his precedent of party division against Hincks'
+principle of union, Baldwin disowned his would-be supporters: "However
+disinclined myself to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P300"></A>300}</SPAN>
+adventure upon such combinations, they are
+unquestionably, in my opinion, under certain circumstances, not only
+justifiable, but expedient, and even necessary.  The government of the
+country <I>must</I> be carried on.  It ought to be carried on with vigour.
+If that can be done in no other way than by mutual concessions and a
+coalition of parties, they become necessary."[<A NAME="chap08fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn5">5</A>]  In consequence, the
+autumn of 1854 witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a Tory government,
+headed by Sir Allan MacNab, carrying a bill to end the Clergy Reserve
+troubles, in alliance with Francis Hincks and their late opponents.
+The chief dissentients were the extreme radicals, who were now
+nicknamed the Clear-Grits.[<A NAME="chap08fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn6">6</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After 1854, and for ten years, the political history of Canada is a
+<I>reductio ad absurdum</I> of the older party system.  Government succeeded
+government, only to fall a prey to its own lack of a sufficient
+majority, and the unprincipled use by its various opponents of casual
+combinations and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P301"></A>301}</SPAN>
+alliances.  Apart from a little group of
+Radicals, British and French, who advocated reforms with an absence of
+moderation which made them impossible as ministers of state, there were
+not sufficient differences to justify two parties, and hardly
+sufficient programme even for one.  The old Tories disappeared from
+power with their leader, Sir Allan MacNab, in 1856.  The Baldwin-Hincks
+reformers had distributed themselves through all the parties&mdash;Canadian
+Peelites they may be called.  The great majority of the representatives
+of the French followed moderate counsels, and were usually sought as
+allies by whatever government held office.  The broader principles of
+party warfare were proclaimed only by the Clear-Grits of Upper Canada
+and the <I>Rouges</I> of Lower Canada.  The latter group was distinct enough
+in its views to be impossible as allies for any but like-minded
+extremists: "Le parti rouge," says <I>La Minerve</I>, "s'est formé ŕ
+Montreal sous les auspices de M. Papineau, en haine des institutions
+anglaises, de notre constitution déclarée vicieuse, et surtout du
+gouvernement responsable regardé comme une duperie, avec des idées
+d'innovation en religion et en politique, accompagnées d'une haine
+profond pour le clergé, et avec l'intention
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P302"></A>302}</SPAN>
+bien formelle, et
+bien prononcée d'annexer le Canada aux Etats-Unis."[<A NAME="chap08fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn7">7</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As for the original Clear-Grits, their distinguishing features were the
+advocacy of reforming ideas in so extreme a form as to make them
+useless for practical purposes, an anti-clerical or extreme Protestant
+outlook in religion, and a moral superiority, partly real, but more
+largely the Pharisaism so inevitably connected with all forms of
+radical propaganda.  They proved their futility in 1858, when George
+Brown and A. A. Dorion formed their two-days' administration, and
+extinguished the credit of their parties, and themselves, as
+politicians capable of existence apart from moderate allies.  Until
+Canadian politics could have their scope enlarged, and the issues at
+stake made more vital, and therefore more controversial, it was obvious
+that the grant of responsible government had rendered the existing
+party system useless.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The significant moment in this period of Canadian history came in 1864,
+when all the responsible politicians in the country, and more
+especially the two great personal enemies, John A. Macdonald and George
+Brown, came together to carry out a scheme of confederation, which was
+too great to
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P303"></A>303}</SPAN>
+be the object of petty party strife, and which
+required the support of all parties to make it successful.  Both
+political parties, as George Brown confessed, had tried to govern the
+country, and each in turn had failed from lack of steady adequate
+support.  A general election was unlikely to effect any improvement in
+the situation, and the one hope seemed to lie in a frank combination
+between opponents to solve the constitutional difficulties which
+threatened to ruin the province.  "After much discussion on both
+sides," ran the official declaration, "it was found that a compromise
+might probably be had in the adoption either of the federal principle
+for the British North American provinces, as the larger question, or
+for Canada alone, with provisions for the admission of the Maritime
+Provinces and the North-Western Territory, when they should express the
+desire": and to secure the most perfect unanimity the ministers, Sir E.
+P. Taché and Mr. Macdonald, "thereon stated that, after the
+prorogation, they would be prepared to place three seats in the Cabinet
+at the disposal of Mr. Brown."[<A NAME="chap08fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn8">8</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is not within the scope of this essay to discuss
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P304"></A>304}</SPAN>
+developments
+after Confederation, yet it is an interesting speculation whether, up
+to a date quite recent, the grant of responsible government did not
+continue to make a two-party system on the British basis unnatural to
+Canada.  Between 1847 and 1867, the destruction of the dual system, and
+the creation of government by coalition, were certainly the dominant
+facts in Canadian politics, and both were the products of the gift of
+autonomy.  Since 1867, it is possible to contend that, while two sets
+of politicians offer themselves as alternative governments to the
+electors, their differentiation has reference rather to the holding of
+office than to a real distinction in programme.  Alike in trade,
+imperial policy, and domestic progress, the inclination has been
+towards compromise, and either side inclines, or is forced, to steal
+the programme of the other.  Responsible government was the last issue
+which arrayed men in parties, neither of which could quite accept a
+compromise with the other.  It remains to be seen whether questions of
+freer trade, imperial organization, and provincial rights, will once
+more create parties with something deeper in their differences than
+mere rival claims to hold office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If the creation of a Liberal-Conservative party
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P305"></A>305}</SPAN>
+was a direct
+result of the grant of autonomy, so also was the policy which led to
+Confederation.  It is no part of the present volume to trace the growth
+of the idea of Confederation, or to determine who the actual fathers of
+Confederation were.  The connection between Autonomy and Confederation
+in the province of Canada was that the former made the latter
+inevitable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Earlier chapters have dealt with the French Canadian problem, and the
+difficulty of combining French <I>nationalité</I> with the Anglo-Saxon
+elements of the West.  In one sense, Elgin's regime saw nationalism
+lose all its awkward features.  Papineau's return to public life in
+1848, and the revolutionary stir of that year had left Lower Canada
+untouched, save in the negligible section represented by the <I>Rouges</I>.
+The inclusion of La Fontaine and his friends in the ministry had proved
+the <I>bona fides</I> of the governor, and the French, being, as Elgin said,
+"quiet sort of people," stood fast by their friend.  "Candour compels
+me to state," he wrote after a year of annexationist agitation, "that
+the conduct of the Anglo-Saxon portion of our M.P.Ps contrasts most
+unfavourably with that of the Gallican....  The French have been
+rescued from the false position into which they
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P306"></A>306}</SPAN>
+have been driven,
+and in which they must perforce have remained, so long as they believed
+that it was the object of the British government, as avowed by Lord
+Sydenham and others, to break them down, and to ensure to the British
+race, not by trusting to the natural course of events, but by dint of
+management and state craft, predominance in the province."[<A NAME="chap08fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn9">9</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But while French nationalism had assumed a perfectly normal phase, the
+operations of autonomy after 1847 made steadily towards the creation of
+a new nationalist difficulty.  That difficulty had two phases.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the first place, while the Union of Upper and Lower Canada had been
+based on the assumption that from it a single nationality with common
+ideals and objects would emerge, experience proved that both the French
+and the British sections remained aggressively true to their own ways;
+and the independence bred by self-government only quickened the sense
+of racial distinction.  Now there were questions, such as that of the
+Clergy Reserves, which chiefly concerned the British section; and
+others, like the settlement of the seigniorial tenure, of purely
+French-Canadian
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P307"></A>307}</SPAN>
+character.  Others again, chief among them the
+problem of separate schools, in Lower Canada for Protestants, in Upper
+Canada for Catholics, seemed to set the two sections in direct
+opposition.  Under the circumstances, a series of conventions was
+created to meet a situation very involved and dangerous.  The happy
+accident of the dual leadership of La Fontaine and Baldwin furnished a
+precedent for successive ministries, each of which took its name from a
+similar partnership of French and English.  Further, although the
+principle never received official sanction, it became usual to expect
+that, in questions affecting the French, a majority from Lower Canada
+should be obtained, and in English matters, one from Upper Canada.  It
+was also the custom to expect a government to prove its stability by
+maintaining a majority from both Upper and Lower Canada.  Nothing, for
+example, so strengthened Elgin's hands in the Rebellion Losses fight as
+the fact that the majority which passed the bill was one in both
+sections of the Assembly.  Yet nearly all cabinet ministers, and all
+the governors-general, strongly opposed the acknowledgment of "the
+double majority" as an accepted constitutional principle.  "I have told
+Colonel Taché," wrote Head, in 1856, "that I
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P308"></A>308}</SPAN>
+expect the
+government formed by him to disavow the principle of a double
+majority";[<A NAME="chap08fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn10">10</A>] and both Baldwin, and, after him, John A. Macdonald
+refused to countenance the practice.  Unfortunately, while the idea was
+a constitutional anomaly, threatening all manner of complications to
+the government of Canada, there were occasions when it had to receive a
+partial sanction from use.  When the Tories were sustained by a
+majority of 4 in 1856, government suffered reconstruction because there
+had been a minority of votes from Upper Canada.  As the new Tory leader
+explained, "I did not, and I do not think that the double majority
+system should be adopted as a rule.  I feel that so long as we are one
+province and one Parliament, the fact of a measure being carried by a
+working majority is sufficient evidence that the Government of the day
+is in power to conduct the affairs of the country.  But I could not
+disguise from myself that it (the recent vote) was not a vote on a
+measure, but a distinct vote of confidence, or want of confidence; and
+there having been a vote against us from Upper Canada, expressing a
+want of confidence in the government, I felt that it was a sufficient
+indication that the measures of the government
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P309"></A>309}</SPAN>
+would be met with
+the opposition of those honorable gentlemen who had by their solemn
+vote withdrawn their confidence from the government."[<A NAME="chap08fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn11">11</A>]  The practice
+continued in this state of discredit varied by occasional forced use,
+until a government&mdash;that of J. S. Macdonald and Sicotte&mdash;which had
+definitely made the double majority one of the planks in its platform,
+found that its principal measure, the Separate Schools Act of R. W.
+Scott, had to be carried by a French majority, although the matter was
+one of deep concern to Upper Canada.  It was becoming obvious that
+local interests must receive some securer protection than could be
+afforded by what was after all an evasion of constitutional practice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile complications were arising from another movement, the
+agitation for a revision of parliamentary representation.  The twelfth
+section of the Union Act had enacted that "the parts of the said
+Province which now constitute the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada
+respectively, shall be represented by an equal number of
+representatives."  At the time of Union the balance of population had
+inclined decisively towards
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P310"></A>310}</SPAN>
+Lower Canada; indeed that part of the
+province might fairly claim to have a constitutional grievance.  But
+between 1830 and 1860 the balance had altered.  In Lower Canada a
+population, which in 1831 had been 511,922, had increased by 1844 to
+almost 700,000; while in Upper Canada the numbers had increased from
+334,681 to well over 700,000 in 1848;[<A NAME="chap08fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn12">12</A>] and each year saw the west
+increase in comparison with the east, until George Brown, speaking no
+doubt with forensic rather than scientific ends in view, estimated that
+in 1857 Upper Canada possessed a population of over 1,400,000, as
+against a bare 1,100,000 in Lower Canada.[<A NAME="chap08fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn13">13</A>]  These changes produced a
+most interesting complication.  The representation after 1840 stood
+guaranteed by a solemn act&mdash;the more solemn because it had been the
+result of a bargain between Sydenham and the provincial authorities in
+Upper and Lower Canada.  It had the appearance rather of a treaty than
+of an ordinary Act of Parliament.  On the other hand, since
+self-government had been secured, and since self-government seemed to
+involve the principle of representation in proportion
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P311"></A>311}</SPAN>
+to the
+numbers of the population, it was, according to the Upper Canadian
+politicians, absurd to give to 1,100,000 the same representation as to
+1,400,000.  So George Brown, speaking from his place in Parliament, and
+using, at the same time, his extraordinary and unequalled influence as
+editor of <I>The Globe</I>, flung himself into the fray, seeking, as his
+motion of 1857 ran, "that the representation of the people in
+Parliament should be based upon population, without regard to a
+separating line between Upper and Lower Canada."[<A NAME="chap08fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn14">14</A>]  His thesis was
+too cogent, and appealed too powerfully to all classes of the Upper
+Canada community, to be anything but irresistible.  Even Macdonald,
+whose political existence depended on his alliance with the French,
+knew that his rival had made many converts among the British
+Conservatives.  "It is an open question," he wrote of representation by
+population, in 1861, "and you know two of my colleagues voted in its
+favour."[<A NAME="chap08fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn15">15</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet nothing was better calculated to rouse into wild agitation the
+quiescent feeling of French nationalism.  The attempt of Durham and his
+successors to end, by natural operation, the separate
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P312"></A>312}</SPAN>
+existence
+of French nationality was now being renewed with far greater vigour,
+and with all the weight of a normal constitutional reform.  If George
+Brown was hateful to the French electorate because of his Protestant
+and anti-clerical agitation, he was even more odious as the statesman
+who threatened, in the name of Canadian autonomy, the existence of old
+French tradition, custom, and right.  It was in answer to this twofold
+difficulty that Canadian statesmen definitely thought of Confederation.
+There were many roads leading to that event&mdash;the desire of Britain for
+a more compact and defensible colony; the movement in the maritime
+provinces for a local federation; the dream, or vague aspiration,
+cherished by a few Canadians, of a vaster dominion, and one free from
+petty local divisions and strifes.  But it was no dream or imperial
+ideal which forced Canadian statesmen into action; it was simply the
+desire, on the one hand, to give to the progressive west the increased
+weight it claimed as due to its numbers; and on the other, to safeguard
+the ancient ways and rights of the French community.  From this point
+of view, it was George Brown, the man who preached representation by
+population in season and out of season, who actually forced
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P313"></A>313}</SPAN>
+
+Canadian statesmen to have resort to a measure, the details of which he
+himself did not at first approve; and the argument used to drive the
+point home was not imperial, but a bitter criticism of existing
+conditions.  After the great Reform convention of 1859, Brown moved in
+Parliament "that the existing legislative union between Upper and Lower
+Canada has failed to realize the anticipations of its promoters: has
+resulted in a heavy debt, burdensome taxation, great political abuses,
+and universal dissatisfaction; and it is the matured conviction of this
+Assembly, from the antagonisms developed through difference of origin,
+local interests, and other causes, that the union in its present form
+can be no longer continued with advantage to the people."[<A NAME="chap08fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn16">16</A>]  In 1864
+a distracted province found itself at the end of its resources.  Its
+futile efforts at the game of political party had resulted in the
+defeat of four ministries within three years; its attempt to balance
+majorities in Upper and Lower Canada had hopelessly broken down; and
+the moment in which the stronger British west obtained the increased
+representation it sought, the French feeling for nationality would
+probably once more produce rebellion.
+</P>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P314"></A>314}</SPAN>
+
+<P>
+So Confederation came&mdash;to satisfy George Brown, because in the Dominion
+Assembly his province would receive adequate representation&mdash;to
+satisfy, on the other hand, a loyal Frenchman like Joseph Cauchon,
+because, as he said, "La confédération des deux Canadas, ou de toutes
+les provinces, en nous donnant une constitution locale, qui sauverait,
+cependant, les priviléges, les droits acquis et les institutions des
+minorités, nous offrirait certainement une mesure de protection, comme
+Catholiques et comme Français, autrement grand que l'Union actuelle,
+puisque de minorité nous deviendrons et resterons, ŕ toujours, la
+majorité nationale et la majorité religieuse."[<A NAME="chap08fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn17">17</A>]  That was the
+second, and perhaps the greatest of all the results of self-government.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before passing to inquire into the influence of autonomy on Canadian
+loyalty, it may prove interesting to note the political manners and
+morals of the statesmen who worked the system in its earlier stages.
+In passing judgment, however, one must bear in mind the newness of the
+country and the novelty of the experiment; the fact that a democratic
+constitution far more daring than
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P315"></A>315}</SPAN>
+Britain allowed herself at
+home, was being tested; and the severity of the struggle for existence,
+which left Canadians little time and money to devote to disinterested
+service of their country.  In view of all these facts, and in spite of
+some ugly defects, the verdict must be on the whole favourable to the
+colony.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of direct malversation, or actual sordid dishonesty, there was, thanks
+probably to a vigorous opposition, far less than might have been
+expected.  The <I>cause célčbre</I> was that of Francis Hincks, premier from
+1851 to 1854, who was accused, among other things, of having profited
+through buying shares in concerns with which government had dealings&mdash;a
+fault not unknown in Britain; of having induced government to improve
+the facilities of regions in which he had holdings, and generally of
+having used his position as minister to make great private gains.  A
+most minute inquiry cleared him on all scores, but the committee of the
+Legislative Council, without entering further into the questions,
+mentioned as points worthy of consideration by Parliament, "whether it
+is beneficial to the due administration of the affairs of this country
+for its ministers to purchase lands sold at public competition, and
+Municipal Debentures, also
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P316"></A>316}</SPAN>
+offered in open market or otherwise;
+whether the public interests require an expression of the opinions of
+the Two Houses of Parliament in that respect; and whether it would be
+advisable to increase the salaries of the Members of the Executive
+Council to such a figure, as would relieve them from the necessity of
+engaging in private dealings, to enable them to support their families
+and maintain the dignity of their position, without resorting to any
+kind of business transactions while in the service of the crown."[<A NAME="chap08fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn18">18</A>]
+Canada was passing through an ordeal, which, sooner or later, Britain
+too must face.  Her answer, in this case, to the dilemma between
+service of the community and self-aggrandisement was not unworthy of
+the mother country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, in spite of the acquittal of Hincks, there were cases of
+complicated corruption, and a multitude of little squalid sins.  Men
+like Sir Allan MacNab, who had been bred in a system of preferments and
+petty political gains, found it difficult to avoid small jobbery.  "He
+has such an infernal lot of hangers on to provide for," wrote one
+minister to another, concerning the gallant knight, "that he finds it
+difficult to do the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P317"></A>317}</SPAN>
+needful for them all."[<A NAME="chap08fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn19">19</A>]  It is clear, too,
+that when John A. Macdonald succeeded MacNab as Tory leader, purity did
+not increase.  It was no doubt easy for George Brown to criticize
+Macdonald's methods from a position of untempted rectitude, and no
+doubt also Brown had personal reasons for criticism; but he was
+speaking well within the truth, when he attacked the Tory government of
+1858, not only for grave corruption in the late general election, but
+for other weightier offences.  It was elicited, he said, by the Public
+Accounts Committee that Ł500,000 of provincial debentures had been sold
+in England by government at 99Ľ, when the quotation of the Stock
+Exchange was 105 @ 107, by which the province was wronged to the extent
+of Ł50,000.  It was elicited that a member of Parliament, supporting
+the government, sold to the government Ł20,000 of Hamilton debentures
+at 97Ľ which were worth only 80 in the market....  It was elicited that
+large sums were habitually drawn from the public chest, and lent to
+railway companies, or spent on services for which no previous sanction
+of Parliament had been obtained.[<A NAME="chap08fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn20">20</A>]  It is, perhaps, the gravest
+charge
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P318"></A>318}</SPAN>
+against Macdonald that, at the entrance of Canada into the
+region of modern finance and speculation, he never understood that
+incorrupt administration was the greatest gift a man could give to the
+future of his country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a young and not yet civilized community it was natural that the
+early days of self-government should witness some corruption among the
+voters, the more so because, at election times "there were no less than
+four days, the nomination, two days' polling, and declaration day, on
+all of which, by a sort of unwritten law, the candidates in many
+constituencies were compelled to keep open house for their supporters,"
+while direct money bribes were often resorted to, especially on the
+second day's polling in a close contest.[<A NAME="chap08fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn21">21</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Apart from jobbery and frank corruption, Canadian politicians
+condescended at times to ignoble trickery, and to evasions of the truth
+which came perilously near breaches of honour.  The most notorious
+breach of the constitutional decencies was the celebrated episode
+nicknamed the "Double Shuffle."  Whatever apologists may say, John A.
+Macdonald sinned in the very first essentials of political fair-play.
+He had already
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P319"></A>319}</SPAN>
+led George Brown into a trap by forcing government
+into his hands.  When Brown, too late to save his reputation,
+discovered the sheer futility of his attempt to make and keep together
+a government, and when it once more fell to the Conservatives to take
+office, Macdonald saved himself and his colleagues the trouble of
+standing for re-election by a most shameful constitutional quibble.
+According to a recent act, if a member of Legislative Council or
+Assembly "shall resign his office, and within one month after his
+resignation, accept any other of the said offices (enumerated above),
+he shall not vacate his seat in the said Assembly or Council."[<A NAME="chap08fn22text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn22">22</A>]  It
+was a simple, and a disgraceful thing, for the ministers, once more in
+power, to accept offices other than those which they had held before
+resignation, and then, at once, to pass on to the reacceptance of the
+old appropriate positions.  They saved their seats at the expense of
+their honour.  In spite of Macdonald's availability, there was too much
+of the village Machiavelli about his political tactics to please the
+educated and honest judgment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was very natural too that, in these early struggles towards
+independence and national
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P320"></A>320}</SPAN>
+self-consciousness, the crudities
+inseparable from early colonial existence should be painfully apparent.
+In Canada at least, vice could not boast that it had lost half its evil
+by losing all its grossness.  According to Sir Richard Cartwright, the
+prolonged absence from domestic associations, led to a considerable
+amount of dissipation among members of parliament.  The minister who
+dominated Canadian politics for so many years before and after
+Confederation set an unfortunate example to his flock; and many of the
+debates read as though they drew their heat, if not their light, from
+material rather than intellectual sources.  Apart from offences against
+sobriety and the decalogue, there can be no doubt that something of the
+early ferocity of politics still continued, and the disgrace of the
+Montreal riots which followed Elgin's sanction of the Rebellion Losses
+bill was rendered tenfold more disgraceful by the participation in them
+of gentlemen and politicians of position.  Half the success of
+democratic institutions lies in the capacity of the legislators for
+some public dignity, and a certain chivalrous good nature towards each
+other.  But that is perhaps too high a standard to set for the first
+colonial Assembly which had exercised full
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P321"></A>321}</SPAN>
+powers of
+self-government since 1776.  After all, there were great stretches of
+honesty and high purpose to counterbalance the squalid jobs and tricks.
+If Macdonald sinned in one direction, Alexander Mackenzie had already
+begun his course of almost too austere rectitude in another.
+Opposition kept a keen eye on governmental misdoings, and George Brown,
+impulsive, imprudent, often lacking in sane statesmanship, and, once or
+twice, in nice honour, still raised himself, the readers of his
+newspaper, and the Assembly which he often led in morals, if not in
+politics, to a plane not far below that of the imperial Parliament.
+But the highest level of feeling and statesmanship reached by Canadian
+politicians before 1867 was attained in those days of difficulty in
+1864, when the whole future of Canada was at stake, and when none but
+Canadians could guide their country into safety.  There were many
+obstacles in the way of united action between the leaders on both
+sides; the attempt to create a federal constitution was no light task
+even for statesmen of genius; and the adaptation of means to end, of
+public utilities to local jealousies, demanded temper, honesty, breadth
+of view.  George Brown, who with all his impracticability and lack of
+restraint, behaved with
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P322"></A>322}</SPAN>
+notable public spirit at this time, spoke
+for the community when he said, "The whole feeling in my mind is one of
+joy and thankfulness that there were found men of position and
+influence in Canada, who, at a moment of serious crisis, had nerve and
+patriotism enough to cast aside political partizanship, to banish
+personal considerations, and unite for the accomplishment of a measure
+so fraught with advantage to their common country."[<A NAME="chap08fn23text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn23">23</A>]  In the debate
+from which these words are taken, Canadian statesmen excelled
+themselves, and it is not too much to say that whether in attack or
+defence, the speakers exhibited a capacity and a public spirit not
+unworthy of the imperial Parliament at its best.[<A NAME="chap08fn24text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn24">24</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would, however, be a mistake to exhibit the Canadian Assembly of
+early Victorian days as characterized for long by so sublime and
+Miltonic a spirit as is suggested by the Confederation debates.  After
+all, they were mainly provincial lawyers and shrewd uncultured business
+men who guided the destinies of Canada, guilty of many lapses from
+dignity in their public behaviour, and exhibiting
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P323"></A>323}</SPAN>
+not
+infrequently a democratic vulgarity learned from the neighbouring
+republic.  That was a less elevated, but altogether living and real
+picture of the Canadian politician, which Sir John Macdonald's
+biographer gave of his hero, and the great opposition leader, as they
+returned, while on an imperial mission, from a day at the Derby:
+"Coming home, we had lots of fun: even George Brown, a covenanting old
+chap, caught its spirit.  I bought him a pea-shooter and a bag of peas,
+and the old fellow actually took aim at people on the tops of busses,
+and shot lots of peas on the way home."[<A NAME="chap08fn25text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn25">25</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It now becomes necessary to answer the question which, for twenty
+years, English politicians had been putting to those who argued in
+favour of Canadian self-government.  Given a system of local
+government, really autonomous, what will become of the connection with
+Great Britain?  So far as the issue is one purely constitutional and
+legal, it may be answered very shortly.  Responsible government in
+Canada seriously diminished the formal bonds which united that province
+to the mother country.  For long the pessimists in Britain had been
+proclaiming that the diminution of the governor-general's authority and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P324"></A>324}</SPAN>
+responsibility would end the connection.  After the retirement of
+Lord Elgin, that diminution had taken place.  It is a revelation of
+constitutional change to pass from the full, interesting, and
+many-sided despatches and letters of Sydenham, Bagot, and Elgin, to the
+perfunctory reports of Head and Monck.  Elgin had contended that a
+governor might hope to establish a moral influence, which would
+compensate for the loss of power, consequent on the surrender of
+patronage to an executive responsible to the local parliament;[<A NAME="chap08fn26text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn26">26</A>] but
+it was not certain that either Head or Monck possessed this indirect
+control.  In 1858 Sir Edmund Head acted with great apparent
+independence, when he refused to allow George Brown and his new
+administration the privilege of a dissolution; and the columns of <I>The
+Globe</I> resounded with denunciations which recalled the days of Metcalfe
+and tyranny.  But, even if Head were independent, it was not with an
+authority useful to the dignity of his position; and the whole affair
+has a suspicious resemblance to one of John A. Macdonald's tricks.  The
+voice is Macdonald's voice, if the hands are the hands of Head.  Under
+Monck, the most conspicuous assertion of independence was the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P325"></A>325}</SPAN>
+governor's selection of J. S. Macdonald to lead the ministry of 1862,
+instead of Foley, the more natural alternative for premier.
+Nevertheless Monck's despatches, concerned as they are with diplomatic
+and military details, present a striking contrast to those of Sydenham
+and Elgin, who proved how active was the part they played in the life
+of the community by the vividness of their sketches of Canadian
+politics and society.  So sparing, indeed, was Monck in his
+information, that Newcastle had to reprove him, in 1863, for sending so
+little news that the Colonial Office could have furnished no
+information on Canada to the Houses of Parliament had they called for
+papers.[<A NAME="chap08fn27text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn27">27</A>]  During the confederation negotiations, the governor made
+an admirable referee, or impartial centre, round whom the diverse
+interests might group themselves: but no one could say that events were
+shaped or changed by his action.  The warmest language used concerning
+Her Majesty's representative in Canada may be found in the speech of
+Macdonald in the confederation debate: "We place no restriction on Her
+Majesty's prerogative in the selection of her representative.  The
+Sovereign has unrestricted freedom of choice.  Whether in making
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P326"></A>326}</SPAN>
+her selection she may send us one of her own family, a Royal Prince, as
+a Viceroy to rule us, or one of the great statesmen of England to
+represent her, we know not....  But we may be permitted to hope that
+when the union takes place, and we become the great country which
+British North America is certain to be, it will be an object worthy the
+ambition of the statesmen of England to be charged with presiding over
+our destinies."[<A NAME="chap08fn28text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn28">28</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Apart from the viceregal operations of the governor, the direct action
+of the Crown was called for by the province in one notable but
+unfortunate incident, the choice of a new capital.  Torn asunder by the
+strife of French and English, Canada was unable, or at least unwilling,
+to commit herself to the choice of a definitive capital, after Montreal
+had been rendered impossible by the turbulence of its mobs.  So the
+Queen's personal initiative was invited.  But the awkwardness of the
+step was revealed in 1858, when a division in the House practically
+flung her decision contemptuously aside&mdash;happily only for the moment,
+and informally.  George Brown was absolutely right when he said: "I
+yield to no man for a single
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P327"></A>327}</SPAN>
+moment in loyalty to the Crown of
+England, and in humble respect and admiration of Her Majesty.  But what
+has this purely Canadian question to do with loyalty?  It is a most
+dangerous and ungracious thing to couple the name of Her Majesty with
+an affair so entirely local, and one as to which the sectional feelings
+of the people are so excited."[<A NAME="chap08fn29text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn29">29</A>]  It had become apparent, long before
+1867, that while the loyalty of the province to the Sovereign, and the
+personal influence of her representative were bonds of union, real, if
+hard to describe in set terms, the headship over the Canadian people
+was assumed to be official, ornamental, and symbolical, rather than
+utilitarian.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In other directions, the formal and legal elements of the connection
+were loosening&mdash;-more especially in the departments of commerce and
+defence.[<A NAME="chap08fn30text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn30">30</A>]  The careers of men like Buchanan and Galt, through whom
+the Canadian tariff received a complete revision, illustrate how little
+the former links to Britain were allowed to remain in trade relations.
+There was a day when, as Chatham himself would have contended, the
+regulation of trade was an indefeasible right of the Crown.  That
+contention
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P328"></A>328}</SPAN>
+received a rude check not only in the elaboration of a
+Canadian tariff in 1859, but in the claims made by the minister of
+finance: "It is therefore the duty of the present government,
+distinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian Legislature to adjust
+the taxation of the people in the way they judge best, even if it
+should meet the disapproval of the Imperial ministry.  Her Majesty
+cannot be advised to disallow such acts, unless her advisers are
+prepared to assume the administration of the affairs of the colony,
+irrespective of the views of the inhabitants."[<A NAME="chap08fn31text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn31">31</A>]  Similarly, the
+adverse vote on the militia proposals of 1862, which so exercised
+opinion in Britain, was but another result of the spirit of
+self-government operating naturally in the province.  It was not that
+Canadians desired consciously to check the military plans of the
+empire.  It was only that the grant of autonomy had permitted
+provincial rather than imperial counsels to prevail, and that a new
+laxity, or even slipshodness, had begun to appear in Canadian military
+affairs, weakening the formal military connection between Britain and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P329"></A>329}</SPAN>
+Canada.  Canadian defence, from being part of imperial policy,
+had become a detail in the strife of domestic politics.  "There can be
+no doubt," Monck reported, "that the proposed militia arrangements were
+of a magnitude far beyond anything which had, up to that time, been
+proposed, and this circumstance caused many members, especially from
+Lower Canada, to vote against it; but I think there was also, on the
+part of a portion of the general supporters of government, an intention
+to intimate by their vote the withdrawal of their confidence from the
+administration."[<A NAME="chap08fn32text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn32">32</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even before 1867, then, it had become apparent that the imperial system
+administered on Home Rule principles was something entirely different
+from a federation like that of the United States, with carefully
+defined State and Federal rights.  All the presumption, in the new
+British state, was in favour of the so-called dependency, and the
+British Tories were correct, when they prophesied a steady
+retrogression in the legal rights possessed by the mother country.  But
+the element which they had ignored was that of opinion.  Public feeling
+rather than constitutional law was to be the new foundation of empire.
+How did the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P330"></A>330}</SPAN>
+development of Canadian political independence affect
+public sentiment towards Britain?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The new regime began under gloomy auspices.  In 1849 Lord Elgin gave
+the most decisive proof of his allegiance to Canadian autonomy; and in
+1849 a violent agitation for annexation to the United States began.[<A NAME="chap08fn33text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn33">33</A>]
+Many forces assisted in the creation of the movement, and many groups,
+of the most diverse elements, combined to constitute the party of
+annexation.  There was real commercial distress, in part the result of
+the commercial revolution in Britain, and Montreal more especially felt
+the strain acutely.  "Property," wrote Elgin to Grey in 1849,[<A NAME="chap08fn34text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn34">34</A>] "in
+most of the Canadian towns, and more especially in the Capital, has
+fallen 50 per cent. in value within the last three years.
+Three-fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt.  Owing to free trade
+a large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada is obliged to
+seek a market in the States.  It pays a duty of 20 per cent. on the
+frontier.  If free navigation, and reciprocal trade with the Union be
+not secured for us, the worst, I fear, will come,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P331"></A>331}</SPAN>
+and at no
+distant day."  Now, for that distress there seemed to be one natural
+remedy.  Across the border were prosperity and markets.  A change in
+allegiance would open the doors, and bring trade and wealth flowing
+into the bankrupt province.  Consequently many of the notable names
+among the Montreal business men may be found attached to annexation
+proclamations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again, in spite of the great change in French opinion wrought by
+Elgin's acceptance of French ministers, there was a little band of
+French extremists, the <I>Rouges</I>, entirely disaffected towards England.
+At their head, at first, was Papineau.  Papineau's predilections,
+according to one who knew him well, were avowedly democratic and
+republican,[<A NAME="chap08fn35text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn35">35</A>] and his years in Europe, at the time when revolution
+was in the air, had not served to moderate his opinions.  The election
+address with which he once more entered public life, at the end of
+1847, betrays everywhere hatred of the British government, a decided
+inclination for things American, and a strong dash of European
+revolutionary sentiment, revealed in declamations over <I>patriotes</I> and
+<I>oppresseurs</I>.[<A NAME="chap08fn36text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn36">36</A>]  Round him gathered a little band
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P332"></A>332}</SPAN>
+of
+anti-clericals and ultra-radicals, as strongly drawn to the United
+States as they were repelled by Britain.  Even after Papineau had
+reduced himself to public insignificance, the group remained, and in
+1865 Cartier, the true representative of French-Canadian feeling, spoke
+of the <I>Institut Canadien</I> of Montreal as an advocate, not of
+confederation, but of annexation.[<A NAME="chap08fn37text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn37">37</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After the years of famine in Ireland, there was more than a possibility
+that, in Canada, as in the United States, the main body of Irish
+immigrants would be hostile to Britain, and Elgin watched with anxious
+eyes for symptoms of a rising, sympathetic with that in Ireland, and
+fostered by Irish-American hatred of England.  Throughout the province
+the Irish community was large and often organized&mdash;in 1866 D'Arcy M'Gee
+counted thirty counties in which the Irish-Catholic votes ranged from a
+third to a fifth of the whole constituency.[<A NAME="chap08fn38text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn38">38</A>]  Now while,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P333"></A>333}</SPAN>
+in
+1866, M'Gee spoke with boldness of the loyalty of his countrymen, it is
+undoubtedly true that, in 1848 and 1849, there were hostile spirits,
+and an army of Irish patriots across the border, only too willing to
+precipitate hostilities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the rest, there were Americans in the province who still thought
+their former country the perfect state, and who did not hesitate to use
+British liberty to promote republican ends; there were radicals and
+grumblers of half a hundred shades and colours, who connected their
+sufferings with the errors of British rule, and who spoke loosely of
+annexation as a kind of general remedy for all their public ills.  For
+it cannot be too distinctly asserted that, from that day to this, there
+has always been a section of discontented triflers to whom annexation,
+a word often on their lips, means nothing more than their fashion of
+damning a government too strong for them to assail by rational
+processes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The annexation cry found echoes throughout the province, both in the
+press and on the platform, and it continued to reassert its existence
+long after the outburst of 1849 had ended.  Cartwright declares that,
+even after 1856, he discovered in Western Ontario a sentiment both
+strong and
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P334"></A>334}</SPAN>
+widespread in favour of union with the United States.
+But the actual movement, which at first seemed to have a real threat
+implicit in it, came to a head in 1849, and found its chief supporters
+within the city of Montreal.  "You find in this city," wrote Elgin in
+September, 1849, "the most anti-British specimens of each class of
+which our community consists.  The Montreal French are the most
+Yankeefied French in the province; the British, though furiously
+anti-Gallican, are with some exceptions the least loyal; and the
+commercial men the most zealous annexationists which Canada
+furnishes."[<A NAME="chap08fn39text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn39">39</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two circumstances, apparently unconnected with annexationism,
+intensified that movement, the <I>laissez faire</I> attitude of British
+politicians towards their colonies, and the behaviour of the defeated
+Tory party in Canada.  Of the first enough has already been said; but
+it is interesting to note that <I>The Independent</I>, which was the organ
+of the annexationists, justified its views by references to "English
+statesmen and writers of eminence," and that the Second Annexation
+Manifesto quoted largely from British papers.[<A NAME="chap08fn40text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn40">40</A>]  The second fact
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P335"></A>335}</SPAN>
+demands some examination.  The Tories had been from the first the
+party of the connection, and had been recognized as such in Britain.
+But the loss of their supremacy had put too severe a strain on their
+loyalty, and it has already been seen that when Elgin, obeying
+constitutional usage, recognized the French as citizens, equally
+entitled to office with the Tories, and passed the Rebellion Losses
+Bill in accordance with La Fontaine's wishes, the Tory sense of decency
+gave way.  Many of them, not content with abusing the governor-general,
+and petitioning for his recall, actually declared themselves in favour
+of independence, or joined the ranks of the annexation party.  In an
+extraordinary issue of the <I>Montreal Gazette</I>, a recognized Tory
+journal, the editor, after speaking of Elgin as the last governor of
+Canada, proclaimed that "the end has begun.  Anglo-Saxons!  You must
+live for the future.  Your blood and race will now be supreme, if true
+to yourselves.  You will be English at the expense of not being
+British."[<A NAME="chap08fn41text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn41">41</A>]  But other journals and politicians were not content with
+the half-way house of independence, and the majority of those who
+signed the first annexation manifesto belonged to the Tory party.[<A NAME="chap08fn42text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn42">42</A>]
+John
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P336"></A>336}</SPAN>
+A. Macdonald, who was shrewd and cool-headed enough to
+refuse to sign the manifesto, admitted that "our fellows lost their
+heads"; but he cannot be allowed to claim credit for having advocated
+the formation of another organization, the British-American League, as
+a safety-valve for Tory feeling.[<A NAME="chap08fn43text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn43">43</A>]  Unfortunately for his accuracy,
+the League was formed in the spring of 1849; it held its first
+convention in July; and the manifesto did not appear till late autumn.
+Still, it is true that the meetings of the League provided some
+occupation for minds which, in their irritable condition, might have
+done more foolish things, and Mr. Holland MacDonald described the
+feelings of the wiser of his fellow-leaguers when he said at Kingston:
+"I maintain that there is not an individual in this Assembly, at this
+moment, prepared to go for annexation, although some may be suspected
+of having leanings that way."[<A NAME="chap08fn44text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn44">44</A>]  It was a violent but passing fit of
+petulance which for the moment obscured Tory loyalty.  When it had
+ended, chiefly because Elgin acted not only with prudence, but with
+great insight, in pressing for a reciprocity treaty with the United
+States, the British American
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P337"></A>337}</SPAN>
+League and the Annexation Manifesto
+vanished into the limbo of broken causes and political indiscretions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The truth was that every great respectable section of the Canadian
+people was almost wholly sound in its allegiance.  Regarded even
+racially, it is hard to find any important group which was not
+substantially loyal.  The Celtic and Gallic sections of the populace
+might have been expected to furnish recruits for annexation; and
+disaffection undoubtedly existed among the Canadian Irish.  Yet Elgin
+was much more troubled over possible Irish disaffection in 1848 than he
+was in 1849; the Orange societies round Toronto seem to have refused to
+follow their fellow Tories into an alliance with annexationists; and,
+as has been already seen, D'Arcy M'Gee was able, in 1866, to speak of
+the Irish community as wholly loyal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The great mass of the French-Canadians stood by the governor and
+Britain.  Whatever influence the French priesthood possessed was
+exerted on the side of the connection; from Durham to Monck there is
+unanimity concerning the consistent loyalty of the Catholic Church in
+Canada.  Apart from the church, the French-Canadians, when once their
+just rights had been conceded,
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P338"></A>338}</SPAN>
+furnished a stable, conservative,
+and loyal body of citizens.  Doubtless they had their points of
+divergence from the ideals of the Anglo-Saxon west.  It was they who
+ensured the defeat of the militia proposals of 1862, and there were
+always sufficient <I>Rouges</I> to raise a cry of nationality or annexation.
+But the national leaders, La Fontaine and Cartier, were absolutely true
+to the empire, and journalists like Cauchon flung their influence on
+the same side, even if they hinted at "jours qui doivent nécessairement
+venir, que nous le voulions ou que nous ne le voulions pas"&mdash;to wit, of
+independence.[<A NAME="chap08fn45text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn45">45</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of the English and Scottish elements in the population it is hardly
+necessary to say that their loyalty had increased rather than
+diminished since they had crossed the Atlantic; but at least one
+instance of Highland loyalty may be given.  It was when Elgin had been
+insulted, and when the annexation cause was at its height.  Loyal
+addresses had begun to pour in, but there was one whose words still
+ring with a certain martial loyalty, and which Elgin answered with
+genuine emotion.  The Highlanders of Glengarry county, after assuring
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P339"></A>339}</SPAN>
+their governor of their personal allegiance to him, passed to
+more general sentiments: "Our highest aspirations for Canada are that
+she may continue to flourish under the kindly protection of the British
+flag, enjoying the full privilege of that constitution, under which the
+parent land has risen to so lofty an eminence; with this, United Canada
+has nothing to covet in other lands; with less than this, no true
+Briton would rest satisfied."[<A NAME="chap08fn46text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn46">46</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As all the distinctive elements in the population remained true to
+Britain, so too did all the statesmen of eminence.  It would be easy to
+prove the fact by a political census of Upper and Lower Canada; but let
+three representative men stand for those groups which they led&mdash;Robert
+Baldwin for the constitutional reformers, George Brown for the
+Clear-Grits and progressives, John A. Macdonald for the conservatives.
+Robert Baldwin was the man whom Elgin counted worth two regiments to
+the connection, and who had expressed dismay at Lord John Russell's
+treason to the Empire.  When the annexation troubles came on, he made
+it perfectly clear to one of his followers, who had trifled with
+annexation, that he must change his views, or remain outside the
+Baldwin connection.
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P340"></A>340}</SPAN>
+"I felt it right to write to Mr. Perry,
+expressing my decided opinions in respect of the annexation question,
+and that I could look upon those only who are in favour of the
+continuance of the connection with the mother country as political
+friends; those who are against it as political opponents....  I believe
+that our party are hostile to annexation.  I am at all events hostile
+to it myself, and if I and my party differ upon it, it is necessary we
+should part company.  It is not a question upon which a compromise is
+possible."[<A NAME="chap08fn47text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn47">47</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Loyalty so strong as this seems natural in a Whig like Baldwin, but one
+associates agitation and radicalism with other views.  The progressive,
+when he is not engaged in decrying his own state, often exhibits a
+philosophic indifference to all national prejudice&mdash;he is a
+cosmopolitan whose charity begins away from home.  There were those
+among the Canadian Radicals who were as bad friends to Britain as they
+were good friends to the United States, but the Clear-Grit party up to
+confederation was true to Britain, largely because their leader, after
+1850, was George Brown, and because Brown was the loyalest Scot in
+Canada.  Brown was in a sense the most remarkable figure of the time in
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P341"></A>341}</SPAN>
+his province.  Fierce in his opinions, a vehement speaker, an
+agitator whose best qualities unfitted him for the steadier work of
+government, he committed just those mistakes which make the true
+agitator's public life something of a tragedy, or at least a
+disappointment.  But Brown's work was done out of office.  His
+passionate advocacy of the policy of Abraham Lincoln and the abolition
+of slavery kept relations with the United States calm through a
+diplomatic crisis.  He it was who made confederation not possible, but
+necessary, by his agitation for a sounder representation.  His work as
+opposition leader, and as the greatest editor known to Canadian
+journalism, saved Canadian politics from becoming the nest of jobs and
+corruption which&mdash;with all allowance for his good qualities&mdash;John A.
+Macdonald would have made them.  Never before, and certainly never
+since his day, has any Canadian influenced the community as Brown did
+through <I>The Globe</I>.  "There were probably many thousand voters in
+Ontario," says Cartwright,[<A NAME="chap08fn48text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn48">48</A>] "especially among the Scotch settlers,
+who hardly read anything except their <I>Globe</I> and their Bible, and
+whose whole political creed was practically dictated to them
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P342"></A>342}</SPAN>
+by
+the former."  Now that influence was exerted, from first to last, in
+favour of Britain.  In his maiden speech in parliament Brown protested
+against a reduction of the governor's salary, and on the highest
+ground: "The appointment of that high authority is the only power which
+Great Britain still retains.  Frankly and generously she has one by one
+surrendered all the rights which were once held necessary to the
+condition of a colony&mdash;the patronage of the Crown, the right over the
+public domain, the civil list, the customs, the post office have all
+been relinquished ... she guards our coasts, she maintains our troops,
+she builds our forts, she spends hundreds of thousands among us yearly;
+and yet the paltry payment to her representative is made a topic of
+grumbling and popular agitation."[<A NAME="chap08fn49text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn49">49</A>]  In the same spirit he fought
+annexation, and killed it, among his followers; and, when confederation
+came, he helped to make the new dominion not only Canadian, but
+British.  In that age when British faith in the Empire was on the wane,
+it was not English statesmanship which tried to inspire Canadian
+loyalty, but the loyalty of men like Brown which called to England to
+be of better heart.  "I am much concerned
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P343"></A>343}</SPAN>
+to observe," he wrote
+to Macdonald in 1864, "that there is a manifest desire in almost every
+quarter that ere long, the British American colonies should shift for
+themselves, and in some quarters, evident regret that we did not
+declare at once for independence.  I am very sorry to observe this, but
+it arises, I hope, from the fear of invasion of Canada by the United
+States, and will soon pass away with the cause that excites it."[<A NAME="chap08fn50text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn50">50</A>]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of Sir John Macdonald's loyalty it would be a work of supererogation to
+speak.  His first political address proclaimed the need in Canada of a
+permanent connection with the mother country,[<A NAME="chap08fn51text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn51">51</A>] and his most famous
+utterance declared his intention of dying a British subject.  But
+Macdonald's patriotism struck a note all its own, and one due mainly to
+the influence of Canadian autonomy working on a susceptible
+imagination.  He was British, but always from the standpoint of Canada.
+He had no desire to exalt the Empire through the diminution of Canadian
+rights.  For the old British Tory, British supremacy had necessarily
+involved colonial dependence; for Macdonald, the Canadian Conservative,
+the glory of the Empire lay in the
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P344"></A>344}</SPAN>
+fullest autonomous development
+of each part.  "The colonies," he said in one of his highest flights,
+"are now in a transition stage.  Gradually a different colonial system
+is being developed&mdash;and it will become, year by year, less a case of
+dependence on our part, and of over-ruling protection on the part of
+the Mother Country, and more a case of healthy and cordial alliance.
+Instead of looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England will
+have in us a friendly nation&mdash;a subordinate but still a powerful
+people&mdash;to stand by her in North America in peace or in war.  The
+people of Australia will be such another subordinate nation.  And
+England will have this advantage, if her colonies progress under the
+new colonial system, as I believe they will, that though at war with
+all the rest of the world, she will be able to look to the subordinate
+nations in alliance with her, and owning allegiance to the same
+Sovereign, who will assist in enabling her again to meet the whole
+world in arms, as she has done before."[<A NAME="chap08fn52text"></A><A HREF="#chap08fn52">52</A>]
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+These words serve as a fitting close to the argument and story of
+Canadian autonomy.  A review of the years in which it attained its full
+strength
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P345"></A>345}</SPAN>
+gives the student of history but a poor impression of
+political foresight.  British and Canadian Tories had predicted
+dissolution of the Empire, should self-government be granted, and they
+described the probable stages of dissolution.  But all the events they
+had predicted had happened, and the Empire still stood, and stood more
+firmly united than before.  British progressives had advocated the
+grant, while they had denied that autonomy need mean more than a very
+limited and circumscribed independence.  But the floods had spread and
+overwhelmed their trivial limitations, and the Liberals found
+themselves triumphant in spite of their fears, and the restrictions
+which these fears had recommended.  Canadian history from 1839 to 1867
+furnishes certain simple and direct political lessons: that communities
+of the British stock can be governed only according to the strictest
+principles of autonomy; that autonomy, once granted, may not be
+limited, guided, or recalled; that, in the grant, all distinctions
+between internal and imperial, domestic and diplomatic, civil authority
+and military authority, made to save the face of British supremacy,
+will speedily disappear; and that, up to the present time, the measure
+of local independence has also been the measure of local loyalty
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P346"></A>346}</SPAN>
+to the mother country.  It may well be that, as traditions grow
+shadowy, as the old stock is imperceptibly changed into a new
+nationality, and as, among men of the new nationality, the pride in
+being British is no longer a natural incident of life, the autonomy of
+the future may prove disruptive, not cohesive.  Nothing, however, is so
+futile as prophecy, unless it be pessimism.  The precedents of
+three-quarters of a century do not lend themselves to support counsels
+of despair.  The Canadian community has, after its own fashion, stood
+by the mother country in war; it may be that, in the future, the
+attempt to seek peace and ensue it will prove a more lasting, as it
+must certainly be a loftier, reason for continued union.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn1"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn2"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn3"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn4"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn1text">1</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn2text">2</A>] He was reporting (18 December, 1854) the passing of acts dealing
+with the Clergy Reserves, and Seigniorial Tenure.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn3text">3</A>] Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, i. p. 151.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn4text">4</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, pp. 47-48.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn5"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn6"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn7"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn8"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn9"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn5text">5</A>] Baldwin to Hincks, 22 September, 1854: in Hincks, <I>Lecture on the
+Political History of Canada</I>, pp. 80-81.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn6text">6</A>] The Clear-Grits are thus described in <I>The Globe</I>, 8 October, 1850:
+"disappointed ministerialists, ultra English radicals, republicans and
+annexationists....  As a party on their own footing, they are powerless
+except to do mischief."  Brown had not yet transferred his allegiance.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn7text">7</A>] Quoted from Dent, <I>The Last Forty Years</I>, ii. p. 190.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn8text">8</A>] Ministerial explanations read to the House of Assembly, by the Hon.
+John A. Macdonald, on Wednesday, 22 June, 1864.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn9text">9</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 2 August, 1850.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn10"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn11"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn12"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn13"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn14"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn10text">10</A>] Head to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 May, 1856.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn11text">11</A>] Statement of the Hon. John A. Macdonald in the Assembly, 26 May,
+1856.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn12text">12</A>] See <I>Appendix to the First Report of the Board of Registration and
+Statistics</I>, Montreal, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn13text">13</A>] <I>Life of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 263.  This is undoubtedly an
+overestimate&mdash;prophetic rather than truthful.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn14text">14</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 267.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn15"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn16"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn17"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn18"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn19"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn15text">15</A>] Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, p. 234.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn16text">16</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 72.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn17text">17</A>] Cauchon, L'Union des provinces de l'Amerique Britannique du Nord,
+p. 45.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn18text">18</A>] <I>Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council</I>, p.
+xiv., Quebec, 1855.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn19text">19</A>] Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, p. 149.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn20"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn21"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn22"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn23"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn24"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn20text">20</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 271.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn21text">21</A>] Sir Richard Cartwright, <I>Reminiscences</I>, pp. 20-21.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn22text">22</A>] The Independence of Parliament Act&mdash;20 Victoria, c. 22.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn23text">23</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 299.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn24text">24</A>] See the volume containing the Parliamentary Debates on
+confederation, in 1865.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn25"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn26"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn27"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn28"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn29"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn25text">25</A>] Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, i. p. 283.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn26text">26</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn27text">27</A>] The Secretary of State for the Colonies to Monck, 10 July, 1863.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn28text">28</A>] <I>Confederation Debates</I> (1865), p. 34.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn29text">29</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 272.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn30"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn31"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn32"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn33"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn34"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn30text">30</A>] See the previous chapter, pp. 283-290.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn31text">31</A>] See the most important statement by Galt, dated 25 October, 1859,
+and contained in <I>Sessional Papers of the Canadian Parliament</I>, vol.
+xviii., No. 4.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn32text">32</A>] Monck to Newcastle, 28 July, 1863.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn33text">33</A>] See, on the Annexation movement, Allin and Jones, <I>Annexation,
+Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity</I>, a useful summary of Canadian
+opinion in 1849 and 1850.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn34text">34</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 23 April, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn35"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn36"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn37"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn38"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn39"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn35text">35</A>] Christie, <I>History of Lower Canada</I>, iv. p. 539.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn36text">36</A>] See <I>La Revue Canadienne</I>, 21 December, 1847.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn37text">37</A>] <I>Confederation Debates</I>, p. 56.  In answer to Cartier, "the Hon.
+Mr. Dorion said that was not the case.  The honorable gentleman had
+misquoted what had passed there (<I>i.e.</I> at the <I>Institut</I>).  The Hon.
+Mr. Cartier said he was right.  If resolutions were not passed,
+sentiments were expressed to that effect.  Then the organ of the
+Institute&mdash;<I>L'Ordre</I> he thought&mdash;had set forth that the interests of
+Lower Canada would be better secured by annexation to the United States
+than by entering into a Confederation with the British American
+Provinces."
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn38text">38</A>] <I>The Irish Position in British, and in Republican North
+America</I>&mdash;a lecture, p. 13.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn39text">39</A>] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 3 September, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn40"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn41"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn42"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn43"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn44"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn40text">40</A>] Allin and Jones, <I>op. cit.</I> pp. 91 and 164.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn41text">41</A>] <I>Montreal Gazette</I>, 25 April, 1849.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn42text">42</A>] Allin and Jones, <I>op. cit.</I> p. 115.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn43text">43</A>] Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, i. p. 71.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn44text">44</A>] <I>Convention of the British American League</I>, 1849, p. li.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn45"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn46"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn47"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn48"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn49"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn45text">45</A>] Joseph Cauchon, <I>L'Union des provinces de L'Amerique Britannique
+du Nord</I>, p. 51.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn46text">46</A>] <I>Further Papers relative to the Affairs of Canada</I> (7 June, 1849),
+p. 25.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn47text">47</A>] Quoted from Dent, <I>The Last Forty Years</I>, ii. pp. 181-2.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn48text">48</A>] Sir Richard Cartwright, <I>Reminiscences</I>, pp. 9-10.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn49text">49</A>] <I>Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown</I>, p. 50.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="chap08fn50"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn51"></A>
+<A NAME="chap08fn52"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn50text">50</A>] Written from England.  Pope, <I>Life of Sir John Macdonald</I>, ii. p.
+274.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn51text">51</A>] <I>Ibid.</I> p. 32.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="footnote">
+[<A HREF="#chap08fn52text">52</A>] <I>Confederation Debates</I>, p. 44.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="index"></A>
+
+<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P347"></A>347}</SPAN>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+INDEX
+</H4>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+A
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Agriculture of the <I>Habitants</I>, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Alabama" affair, the, <A HREF="#P288">288</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Alien Admission Bill, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+America, United States of, Bagot's diplomatic services in, <A HREF="#P126">126</A>, <A HREF="#P127">127-8</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Canadian Annexation, <A HREF="#P204">204</A>, <A HREF="#P218">218</A>, <A HREF="#P219">219</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Canada, Federation in, differences between, <A HREF="#P329">329</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Elgin's skilful Diplomacy with, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Politics in, as affecting Canadian (1852), <A HREF="#P200">200</A>, <A HREF="#P207">207</A>, <A HREF="#P215">215</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Relations with Great Britain as affected by Canadian Autonomy, <A HREF="#P287">287</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Tory feeling to, after 1812, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Trade of, with Canada as affected by Free Trade, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>, Grey's views on, <A HREF="#P273">273</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+American Aggression, and the Defence of Canada, Peel on, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Education, Burke on, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Immigrants, Annexation views of, <A HREF="#P333">333</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+War, the, attitude to, of Canada and Great Britain, <A HREF="#P288">288</A>;
+Military power shown by, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Amnesty, Bagot's attitude to, <A HREF="#P155">155</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Anderson, John, political indifference of, <A HREF="#P55">55-6</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Anglicanism (<I>see also</I> Clergy Reserves), in Canada, <A HREF="#P43">43-4</A>, <A HREF="#P47">47</A>;
+Imperial support to, <A HREF="#P48">48</A>, <A HREF="#P49">49</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Anglicization of French Canada, views on, of various Governors,
+<A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, <A HREF="#P83">83</A>, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>, <A HREF="#P211">211</A>, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>, <A HREF="#P311">311-12</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Anglo-French Reforming <I>bloc</I>, evolution of, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P161">161</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Attitude of, on Metcalfe's arrival, <A HREF="#P161">161</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Annexation, Federation as alternative to, Russell on, <A HREF="#P265">265</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Manifestoes on, <A HREF="#P334">334</A>, <A HREF="#P337">337</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Movement in favour of, activity in 1849, <A HREF="#P330">330</A>;
+Inconsistencies on, of <I>The Times</I>, <A HREF="#P233">233</A>; Opposition to, of
+Brown, <A HREF="#P342">342</A>; Supporters of, <A HREF="#P204">204</A>, <A HREF="#P330">330</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; <I>Rouges</I>
+views on, <A HREF="#P302">302</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Risk of, on Elgin's arrival, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Tory views on, <A HREF="#P204">204</A>, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>, <A HREF="#P255">255</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Anti-Union attitude of French Canadians, <A HREF="#P124">124</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ashburton Treaty, the, Difficulties solved by, <A HREF="#P127">127-8</A>, <A HREF="#P132">132</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Armstrong, Peter, Typical Squatter, <A HREF="#P29">29</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Art of Colonization</I>, by Wakefield, <A HREF="#P239">239</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Arthur, Sir George, Governor-General, Timid despatches of, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Colonial Disloyalty, <A HREF="#P60">60-1</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on the Durham Report and its effect, <A HREF="#P248">248-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Autonomy, Canadian, the Struggle for, <I>passim</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+British opinion on, changes in, <A HREF="#P230">230</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Conditions demanded by, <A HREF="#P277">277</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Limitations on, views of Durham and Sydenham on, <A HREF="#P119">119-21</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Macdonald's views on, <A HREF="#P344">344</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Movement towards, as affected by Successive Governors, <A HREF="#P122">122-5</A>,
+<A HREF="#P138">138</A>, <A HREF="#P228">228</A>, by Elgin, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>, and by Grey, <A HREF="#P268">268-71</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Natural outcome of <I>Laissez-faire</I>, <A HREF="#P291">291</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Results, as affecting Anglo-American relations, <A HREF="#P287">287</A>;
+Confederation, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>; Connexion of Canada and Great Britain,
+<A HREF="#P323">323</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Party system, <A HREF="#P302">302-5</A>; Summary of, <A HREF="#P345">345-6</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Aylwin, T. C., in office, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+B
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Bagot, Sir Charles, Governor-General, <A HREF="#P70">70</A>, <A HREF="#P126">126</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P156">156</A>, <A HREF="#P163">163</A>;
+as Financier, <A HREF="#P237">237-8</A>; and King's College, Toronto, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>; Political
+antecedents of, <A HREF="#P126">126-7</A>; Political opportunism of, <A HREF="#P138">138</A> <I>et sqq.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P143">143-6</A>, wisdom of his methods, <A HREF="#P147">147</A>; the practical surrender of
+Responsible Government by, <A HREF="#P158">158</A>, <A HREF="#P161">161</A>, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>; Russell's view on,
+<A HREF="#P261">261</A>, Stanley's view on, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>; Relations with French-Canadians,
+<A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P146">146-7</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149-50</A>; Stanley's instructions to, <A HREF="#P129">129</A>, and relations
+with, <A HREF="#P127">127</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Work of his period of office, three factors of, <A HREF="#P128">128</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Autonomy, Separation, and Loyalty, <A HREF="#P138">138</A>; on the Crown's right
+to name the Capital, <A HREF="#P155">155</A>; on the French Canadians after the
+Union, <A HREF="#P57">57-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Baldwin, Robert, Leader of Reforming Loyalists, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P125">125</A>, <A HREF="#P197">197</A>,
+<A HREF="#P295">295</A>; Anti-annexation actions of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>; Averse to the "Double
+majority," <A HREF="#P308">308</A>; Bagot and, <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P144">144</A>; Challenge by, to Sydenham's
+system, <A HREF="#P143">143-6</A>; Character and Politics of, <A HREF="#P109">109</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P141">141</A>;
+Check to, <A HREF="#P155">155</A>; and the Clergy Reserve question, <A HREF="#P52">52</A>; and Elgin,
+<A HREF="#P203">203</A>; Harrison's views on, and Draper's, <A HREF="#P134">134</A>; Insistence by, on
+Responsible Government, <A HREF="#P113">113-5</A>, <A HREF="#P116">116</A>, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>, <A HREF="#P161">161-2</A>, <A HREF="#P176">176</A>; Loyalty
+of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>; Motion by, demanding a Provincial Parliament, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>;
+Office claimed for, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>; and the Patronage crisis, <A HREF="#P168">168</A>; as
+Solicitor-General of Upper Canada, <A HREF="#P109">109</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Stanley's
+attitude to, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>.
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Coalition government, <A HREF="#P299">299-300</A>; on Patronage, and the position of
+the Council, <A HREF="#P175">175</A>; on Russell's Colonial Administration Speech
+(1850), <A HREF="#P264">264</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Baldwin-Hincks Reformers, in Politics, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Baldwin-La Fontaine Ministry, the, <A HREF="#P161">161</A>, <A HREF="#P212">212</A>, and the origin of
+Anglo-French Solidarity, <A HREF="#P215">215-6</A>, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>, <A HREF="#P298">298</A>; Precedent provided
+by, <A HREF="#P307">307</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Belleville, Population (1846), <A HREF="#P24">24</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Bentinck, Lord William, Governor-General of India, <A HREF="#P159">159</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Black, Dr., and the Clergy Reserve question, <A HREF="#P48">48</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Board of Works for Canada set up, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Boston, Elgin's official visit to (1851), <A HREF="#P232">232</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Bridges, Lack of, <A HREF="#P12">12</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Bright, John, and Separation, <A HREF="#P283">283</A>, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+British aid to Canada, need of (1839), and Sydenham's Loan Scheme,
+<A HREF="#P68">68-9</A>, <A HREF="#P97">97</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Approval of Metcalfe's methods, and those of earlier Governors,
+<A HREF="#P170">170</A>, <A HREF="#P175">175</A>, <A HREF="#P180">180</A>, <A HREF="#P182">182</A>, <A HREF="#P186">186</A>, <A HREF="#P193">193</A>
+Colonial Empire, maintenance of, views on, <A HREF="#P275">275</A>, <A HREF="#P277">277</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Communities, Government of, Lesson on, from Canadian history, <A HREF="#P345">345</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Community, attempted absorption in, of French-Canadians, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>,
+<A HREF="#P83">83</A>, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>, <A HREF="#P211">211</A>, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>, <A HREF="#P311">311-12</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Empire, permanence of, some firm believers in, <A HREF="#P274">274</A>; World-value of,
+Grey's view on, <A HREF="#P275">275-6</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+British Half-pay Officers as Colonists, <A HREF="#P18">18-20</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Opinion on Canadian Autonomy, changes in, <A HREF="#P235">235</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Predominance, passim; Russell's theory of, effects of, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Universities, relations of, with Canadian College Education, <A HREF="#P37">37-8</A>
+<I>&amp;n.</I>1
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index">
+Views on Imperialism, early Victorian, <A HREF="#P230">230</A>, gradual change in, <A HREF="#P230">230</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+British-American League, aims of, <A HREF="#P336">336-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+British-Canadian connexion, on what chiefly dependent, <A HREF="#P292">292</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Brockville, Population (1846), <A HREF="#P25">25</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Brougham, Lord, and Separation, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>, <A HREF="#P282">282-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Brown, George, pioneer of Political journalism, Scottish origin of,
+<A HREF="#P23">23</A>; Characteristics of, <A HREF="#P323">323</A>, <A HREF="#P340">340-3</A>; and the Clear-Grits, <A HREF="#P300">300</A>
+<I>&amp;n.</I>2, <A HREF="#P340">340-1</A>; and Confederation, <A HREF="#P312">312-14</A>, <A HREF="#P341">341</A>, <A HREF="#P342">342</A>; as Editor,
+and Leader, <A HREF="#P341">341</A>; Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>; and Macdonald's federation
+scheme, <A HREF="#P302">302</A> <I>&amp;n.</I> <I>et sqq.</I>; Macdonald's unfairness to, <A HREF="#P319">319</A>;
+Political rectitude of, <A HREF="#P321">321</A>; Political views of, <A HREF="#P298">298</A>; Why
+disliked by the French, <A HREF="#P312">312</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Canadian loyalty, <A HREF="#P326">326-7</A>; on Canadian population distribution
+(1857), <A HREF="#P310">310-11</A>, and Parliamentary representation, <A HREF="#P310">310-11</A>; on
+Political corruption, <A HREF="#P317">317</A>; on Public spirit connected with
+Confederation, <A HREF="#P322">322</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Brown-Dorion two days' administration, the, <A HREF="#P302">302</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Buchanan, Isaac, and Canadian Tariff, <A HREF="#P327">327</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Buller, Arthur, on the Illiteracy of the <I>Habitants</I>, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Buller, Charles, characteristics of, <A HREF="#P241">241</A>; as Educator in sound
+Colonial policy, <A HREF="#P247">247</A>, <A HREF="#P251">251</A>; Imperialism of, <A HREF="#P162">162</A>, <A HREF="#P245">245</A>; La Fontaine's
+objection to, <A HREF="#P162">162</A>; and Local Government, <A HREF="#P94">94</A>; Non-belief of, in
+Separation, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>; Views of, on Colonial affairs, <A HREF="#P94">94</A>, <A HREF="#P162">162</A>, <A HREF="#P234">234-5</A>,
+<A HREF="#P236">236</A>, <A HREF="#P237">237</A>, <A HREF="#P240">240-3</A>, <A HREF="#P247">247</A>, <A HREF="#P251">251</A>, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>, <A HREF="#P291">291</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+famous pamphlet by, <A HREF="#P234">234-5</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>, <A HREF="#P240">240-3</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Permanent Officials and Changing Heads at the Colonial Office,
+<A HREF="#P234">234-5</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>; on Russell's Imperialism, <A HREF="#P262">262</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Burke, Edmund, on American Education and Book-reading, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>; on
+Colonial Independence and Imperial Unity, <A HREF="#P2">2</A>, <A HREF="#P3">3</A>; on Party, <A HREF="#P294">294</A>;
+on the Whigs, <A HREF="#P166">166</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Bytown (Ottawa), and the Immigrants, <A HREF="#P21">21</A>; Population (1846), <A HREF="#P24">24</A>;
+Social conditions at, <A HREF="#P30">30</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+C
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Campbell, Robert, as School-master, <A HREF="#P33">33</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Canada, Autonomy of, <I>see</I> Autonomy.
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index">
+Communications in, and to, in early days, <A HREF="#P9">9</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Disaffection in, how cured by Elgin, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+as Envisaged by Grey and by Durham, <A HREF="#P276">276-7</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+History of, Political lessons from, <A HREF="#P345">345-6</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Loyalty of, as affected by Autonomy, <A HREF="#P203">203</A>, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>, <A HREF="#P314">314</A>, <A HREF="#P323">323</A> <I>et sqq.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P342">342</A>; Mistrust of, over Militia Bill, <A HREF="#P289">289</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Relations of, with Great Britain, as affected by Autonomy, in
+anticipation (Stanley's), <A HREF="#P139">139-40</A>, <A HREF="#P156">156</A>, and in fact, <A HREF="#P156">156</A>, <A HREF="#P323">323</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>; true basis of, <A HREF="#P239">239</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Social and Physical conditions in (<I>circa</I> 1839), <A HREF="#P8">8</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Tariff reorganisation in, difficulties created by, with U.S.A., <A HREF="#P288">288</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Canal-works, condition in 1841, <A HREF="#P99">99</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Canning, George, <A HREF="#P189">189</A>; and Bagot, <A HREF="#P126">126</A>, <A HREF="#P137">137</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Capital, the, Crown's right to name, Bagot on, <A HREF="#P155">155</A>; Brown on, <A HREF="#P326">326-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Carlyle, Thomas, on Buller, <A HREF="#P241">241</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Caron, Réné Edouard, Speaker of Upper House, and La Fontaine, <A HREF="#P177">177</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cartier, Sir George Étienne, French-Canadian Leader, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>; and
+French-Canadian feeling, <A HREF="#P332">332</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>; Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cartwright, J. S., <A HREF="#P144">144</A>; Political views of, <A HREF="#P60">60</A>, <A HREF="#P133">133</A>, <A HREF="#P151">151</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cartwright, Sir Richard, and British views on Separation, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Annexation views after 1856, <A HREF="#P333">333-4</A>; on Personal Morals of Members
+of Canadian Assemblies, <A HREF="#P320">320</A>; on the Political influence of <I>The
+Globe</I>, <A HREF="#P341">341-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cathcart, Earl of, as interim Governor-General, <A HREF="#P7">7</A> <I>n.</I>, <A HREF="#P70">70</A> <I>n.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P187">187</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cauchon, Joseph, and Confederation, <A HREF="#P314">314</A>; Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Chatham, Earl of, <A HREF="#P4">4</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+China, Elgin's work in, <A HREF="#P189">189</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Christian Guardian, The</I>, <A HREF="#P38">38</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>2
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Church of England in Canada (<I>see also</I> Clergy Reserves), <A HREF="#P43">43-4</A>, <A HREF="#P47">47</A>, <A HREF="#P49">49</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Church Support, Voluntary principle of, Rolph on, <A HREF="#P51">51-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Civil List difficulties, <A HREF="#P138">138</A>, <A HREF="#P140">140</A>, <A HREF="#P146">146</A>, <A HREF="#P154">154</A>, <A HREF="#P155">155</A>, <A HREF="#P163">163</A>; Grey's
+attitude as to, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>; Stanley's views on, <A HREF="#P130">130</A>; the Surrender,
+<A HREF="#P154">154-5</A>, <A HREF="#P163">163</A>, <A HREF="#P279">279</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Clear-Grit party, Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>; Politics of, <A HREF="#P300">300</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>2, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>, <A HREF="#P302">302</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Clericalism in French Canada, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P15">15</A>, <A HREF="#P17">17</A>; and School Control, <A HREF="#P31">31-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Clergy Reserve Question, dispute on, <A HREF="#P47">47-54</A>, <A HREF="#P62">62</A>, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>, <A HREF="#P252">252-3</A>, <A HREF="#P254">254-5</A>,
+<A HREF="#P268">268</A>; Settlement of, by compromise, <A HREF="#P90">90-2</A>, <A HREF="#P279">279</A>, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Coalition Governments in Canada (<I>see</I> Baldwin-Hincks <I>& others</I>),
+<A HREF="#P298">298-9</A>, <A HREF="#P304">304</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cobden, Richard, and Separation, <A HREF="#P217">217</A>, <A HREF="#P283">283</A>, <A HREF="#P284">284</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Coburg, Population (1846), <A HREF="#P25">25</A>; Social conditions and prices at
+(1845), <A HREF="#P27">27-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Colborne, Sir John, Acting Governor, and the Anglican Church, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>;
+French risings quelled by, <A HREF="#P5">5</A>, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P214">214</A>; on the French and the
+Union, <A HREF="#P83">83</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Colleges and Universities, Canadian, <A HREF="#P35">35-8</A>, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Colonial Administration, Russell's speech on, 1850, <A HREF="#P263">263</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Autonomy (<I>see also</I> Autonomy, Canadian), MacDonald's views on, <A HREF="#P344">344</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Connexion with the Empire, Continuance of, various views on (<I>see
+also</I> Annexation, Separation, <I>&amp;c.</I>), <A HREF="#P2">2</A>, <A HREF="#P3">3</A>, <A HREF="#P277">277</A> <I>et sqq.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P323">323</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Government, Conflicting views on, <I>passim</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Independence, Burke's view on, <A HREF="#P2">2</A>, <A HREF="#P3">3</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Parliaments, Defects of, <A HREF="#P65">65-6</A>, <A HREF="#P289">289</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Unity, Conditions adverse to, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Colonial Office, the, Elgin's influence on, <A HREF="#P222">222-5</A>; Permanent officials
+of, Buller on, <A HREF="#P234">234-5</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Colonial Advocate</I>, The, <A HREF="#P38">38</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Colonial Gazette</I>, on Poulett Thomson, <A HREF="#P77">77-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Colonial Policy</I>, by Earl Grey, Canada chapter in, inspired by
+Elgin, <A HREF="#P275">275</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Colonies, Responsible Government for</I>, Buller's famous pamphlet,
+<A HREF="#P234">234-5</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>, <A HREF="#P240">240</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Colonies, Secretaries of State for, <I>see also under</I> Names
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Lord J. Russell, 1839
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Lord Stanley, 1841
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Gladstone, 1846
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Earl Grey, 1846
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Sir J. Pakington, 1852
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Duke of Newcastle, 1852
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Sir George Gray, 1854
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Views on, of British Politicians, <A HREF="#P2">2</A>, <A HREF="#P3">3</A>, <A HREF="#P217">217</A>, <A HREF="#P230">230</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P255">255-8</A>,
+<A HREF="#P262">262</A>, <A HREF="#P264">264</A>, <A HREF="#P283">283</A>, <A HREF="#P284">284</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285</A>, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>, <A HREF="#P292">292</A> <I>et alibi</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Colonists, Buller's views on, <A HREF="#P242">242</A>; Cartwright's opinion of, <A HREF="#P60">60</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Colonization, The Art of</I>, by Wakefield, <A HREF="#P239">239</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Commercial crisis, Canadian, in 1849, Elgin on, <A HREF="#P331">331</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Marine, as a pillar of Empire, <A HREF="#P262">262</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Relations, Peel on, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Treaty, <I>see</I> Reciprocity Treaty
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Compromise, Bagot's views on, and Stanley's, <A HREF="#P139">139-40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Confederation of British North American Colonies, various Schemes
+for, <A HREF="#P196">196-7</A>; the result of Autonomy, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>; Difficulties connected
+with, <A HREF="#P279">279-80</A>, <A HREF="#P312">312</A>; Russell's aim in furthering, <A HREF="#P265">265</A>; Scheme of
+Brown and Macdonald for, <A HREF="#P302">302</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P312">312-14</A>, <A HREF="#P341">341</A>, <A HREF="#P342">342</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Connexion," the Basis of, sentimental rather than practical, <A HREF="#P239">239</A>;
+Effect on, of Autonomy, <A HREF="#P323">323</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Conservative Party, Canadian (see also Family Compact, & Tory Party),
+in 1841, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>; Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Conservatism of the French Canadians, <A HREF="#P15">15</A>, <A HREF="#P17">17</A>, <A HREF="#P32">32</A>, <A HREF="#P41">41</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+United Empire Loyalists, <A HREF="#P18">18</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Constitutional Act of 1791, and the Clergy Reserve question, <A HREF="#P48">48-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Constitutional Question in Canada, three allied problems forming,
+Elgin's mode of dealing with, <A HREF="#P201">201</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Convent Education of Women, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>, <A HREF="#P31">31</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Copyright prohibition, effect on Reading habits, <A HREF="#P39">39</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Corduroy Roads, <A HREF="#P12">12</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Cornwall, Strachan's School at, <A HREF="#P35">35</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Corruption, political, in Canada, <A HREF="#P315">315</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Brown's salutary
+counteraction of, <A HREF="#P341">341</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+County Courts, Canadian, new system set up, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Crime, in early days, <A HREF="#P29">29</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>2, <A HREF="#P30">30</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Crown, the, and the Case of a Governor-General, compared by
+Stanley, <A HREF="#P152">152-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Crown Colony administration, period of, <A HREF="#P4">4-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+D
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Dalhousie, Earl of, Governor-General, <A HREF="#P189">189-90</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Daly, Sir Dominick, the "perpetual secretary," <A HREF="#P168">168</A>, <A HREF="#P176">176</A>, <A HREF="#P177">177</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Darwin, and Bright & Cobden, parallel between, <A HREF="#P284">284</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Davidson, John, retirement of, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Day, Charles Dewey, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Debate in House of Commons on Canadian affairs (1844), <A HREF="#P182">182</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Defence of Canada (<I>see also</I> Militia Bill), British views on, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>,
+<A HREF="#P272">272</A>, <A HREF="#P287">287</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Democracy, attitude to, of the Family Compact, <A HREF="#P60">60</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Democratic Government in Canada, established by Elgin, <A HREF="#P190">190</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Institutions, Elements of Success in, <A HREF="#P320">320</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index">
+Derby, Earl of (<I>see</I> for earlier references, Stanley, Lord), <A HREF="#P252">252</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Derbyites, and Separation, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Despatches of Elgin and later Governors, <A HREF="#P208">208-9</A>, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Diplomacy, and Separation, <A HREF="#P287">287</A> War, and Land as matters for
+Imperial Control, in Wakefield's view, <A HREF="#P240">240</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+District Councils for French Canada set up, <A HREF="#P98">98</A>, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Draper, Hon. H. W., Attorney-General, leader of Ministerialists,
+<A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P111">111</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>, <A HREF="#P177">177</A>; Metcalfe on, <A HREF="#P184">184</A>; Resignation
+of, <A HREF="#P194">194</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on the Political crisis of 1842, <A HREF="#P134">134-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Disraeli, Benjamin (Earl of Beaconsfield), Imperialism of,
+misgivings in, <A HREF="#P255">255-8</A>, <A HREF="#P292">292</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+District Council Bill (Canadian), passed, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Doctrinaire, the, in Practical Politics, position of Metcalfe as
+illustrating, <A HREF="#P185">185</A>,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Domestic Colonial affairs, Imperial Intervention in, views of
+Russell, and of Grey, <A HREF="#P271">271-2</A>, <A HREF="#P274">274</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Dorchester, Earl of, and Colonial affairs, <A HREF="#P4">4</A>; and the French
+Canadians, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Dorion, A. A., <I>see</I> Brown-Dorion ministry
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Double majority," evolution of, <A HREF="#P307">307-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Double Shuffle" episode, <A HREF="#P318">318-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Dougalls, the, and the <I>Montreal Witness</I>, <A HREF="#P38">38-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Drunkenness, among Whites and Indians, <A HREF="#P30">30</A>; among Members of
+Parliament, <A HREF="#P320">320</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Durham, Earl of, Governor-General, <A HREF="#P6">6</A>, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P71">71</A>, <A HREF="#P76">76</A>, <A HREF="#P190">190</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>, <A HREF="#P251">251</A>;
+Canadian views on, <A HREF="#P190">190</A>; and the Change in British views on
+Canadian affairs, <A HREF="#P237">237</A>; and the Destruction of French Nationalism,
+<A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, <A HREF="#P83">83</A>, <A HREF="#P211">211</A>, <A HREF="#P311">311-2</A>; and Immigration, <A HREF="#P97">97</A>; Responsible Colonial
+government as advocated by, <A HREF="#P61">61</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>, <A HREF="#P166">166</A>, <A HREF="#P244">244-5</A>; non-Separationist
+views, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>; Visit of, to Canada, <A HREF="#P31">31</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on the Catholic clergy of Lower Canada, <A HREF="#P41">41-2</A>; on Local Government, <A HREF="#P94">94</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Durham's Report</I>, <A HREF="#P4">4</A> <I>n.</I>, <A HREF="#P5">5</A> <I>n.</I>, <A HREF="#P6">6</A>, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>; Effects of, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>; Fallacy in,
+<A HREF="#P260">260-1</A>; Illusions on, dispelled, <A HREF="#P243">243-4</A>; Imperial note of, <A HREF="#P246">246-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+E
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Economics, and Separation, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285-6</A>, <A HREF="#P330">330-1</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Education, French-Canadian, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P15">15</A>, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+by Newspaper, <A HREF="#P38">38-9</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+School and College, <A HREF="#P31">31</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+of Scottish immigrants, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ekfried, Early Education at, <A HREF="#P33">33</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Elgin, Countess of, <A HREF="#P190">190</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Elgin, Earl of, Governor-Generalship of, <A HREF="#P7">7</A>, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P70">70</A>, <A HREF="#P187">187</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Character and Politics of, <A HREF="#P188">188</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P190">190</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>, <A HREF="#P209">209</A>, <A HREF="#P221">221</A>, <A HREF="#P225">225</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P256">256</A>, <A HREF="#P297">297</A>; Chief result of his rule, <A HREF="#P190">190</A>, <A HREF="#P268">268-71</A>;
+Despatches of, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>, Influence of, on Autonomy movement, <A HREF="#P188">188</A> <I>et
+sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>, and on Grey's Colonial policy, <A HREF="#P275">275</A>; Insult to, <A HREF="#P204">204</A>,
+<A HREF="#P208">208-9</A>, <A HREF="#P227">227</A>, <A HREF="#P320">320</A>, Scottish loyal address on, <A HREF="#P328">328-9</A>; and Irish
+disaffection, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>, <A HREF="#P337">337</A>; Non-Separationist views of, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>;
+Relations with French Canada, <A HREF="#P193">193</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195-6</A>, <A HREF="#P198">198</A>, <A HREF="#P210">210</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Later career of, <A HREF="#P188">188-9</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Baldwin, <A HREF="#P110">110</A>, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>; on British Press methods, <A HREF="#P232">232</A>; on Canadian
+attitude to Free Trade, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285-6</A>; on Canadian Party Politics,
+<A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195</A>, <A HREF="#P293">293</A>, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>; on the elections of 1844, <A HREF="#P181">181</A>; on French
+Canadian Nationalism, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>, and Loyalty (1850), <A HREF="#P305">305-6</A>; on
+Metcalfe's policy, <A HREF="#P192">192</A>, <A HREF="#P202">202</A>; on Montreal, its inhabitants and
+Annexation views at (1849), <A HREF="#P334">334</A>; on Moral influence of
+Governors, <A HREF="#P324">324</A>; on Sydenham's attitude to Autonomy, <A HREF="#P123">123-4</A>; on
+True and False Imperialism, <A HREF="#P224">224-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Emigration and its horrors, <A HREF="#P20">20-1</A>; Wakefield's system of, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+English Canadians, loyalty of, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+English character of Colonists, Disraeli's views on, <A HREF="#P257">257-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+English tone in Canadian Society (<I>circ.</I> 1846), <A HREF="#P26">26-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Episodes in a Life of Adventure</I>, by Oliphant, referred to, <A HREF="#P225">225</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Examiner, The</I>, Politics of, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Executive Council, British and Canadian views on, <A HREF="#P71">71</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Sydenham's, inherited by Bagot, <A HREF="#P131">131</A>; Stanley's advice on, <A HREF="#P129">129</A>,
+<A HREF="#P136">136</A>, <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P144">144-5</A>, actual Composition of, <A HREF="#P144">144</A>; La Fontaine's
+demands and the upshot, <A HREF="#P149">149</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Stanley's sarcasm, <A HREF="#P152">152-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Executive Responsibility, as conceived by Durham, <A HREF="#P244">244-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+F
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Family Compact," the, Political views, and position of, <A HREF="#P18">18</A>, <A HREF="#P60">60</A> <I>et
+sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P101">101</A>, <A HREF="#P129">129-30</A>, <A HREF="#P133">133</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Farmers, Life and work of (<I>circa</I> 1845), <A HREF="#P28">28-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Federation, <I>see</I> Confederation
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Finance, Canadian (see also Civil List, Clergy Reserves, Tariffs,
+Taxation), in 1839, <A HREF="#P86">86</A>; Bagot's action concerning, <A HREF="#P137">137-8</A>; Grey on,
+in 1846, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Foley, &mdash;&mdash;, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Forests, difficulties due to, <A HREF="#P9">9</A>, <A HREF="#P12">12-13</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Fowlds, Matthew, on Life at Coburg (1845), <A HREF="#P27">27-8</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>1
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Franchise conditions (1832), <A HREF="#P22">22</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Free-Trade, effects of, in Canada, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285-6</A>, <A HREF="#P330">330</A>; Views on, of
+Elgin, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285-6</A>, and of Grey, <A HREF="#P267">267</A>, <A HREF="#P272">272-4</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+French, the, in Canada, <I>see</I> French-Canadians
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+French-British Political solidarity (<I>see also</I> Anglo-French
+<I>bloc</I>), birth of, <A HREF="#P215">215</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+French Canadians of Lower Canada (<I>see also</I> Papineau, Rebellions,
+<I>&amp;c.</I>), <A HREF="#P13">13-17</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Anti-Union movement among, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+District Councils set up for, <A HREF="#P95">95</A>, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Fate settled by Poulett-Thomson, <A HREF="#P79">79-90</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Importance of, in 1842, <A HREF="#P131">131</A>, <A HREF="#P132">132</A>, <A HREF="#P133">133-6</A>, <A HREF="#P141">141</A>, <A HREF="#P148">148</A>, need for
+Conciliating, Harrison on, <A HREF="#P133">133-4</A>; Admission of, to Office,
+problem of, and struggle for, <A HREF="#P133">133</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, the climax, <A HREF="#P148">148-51</A>,
+the aftermath, <A HREF="#P151">151</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Influence of the Roman Catholic clergy in, <A HREF="#P15">15</A>, <A HREF="#P32">32-3</A>, <A HREF="#P337">337</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Language question and, <A HREF="#P90">90</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P337">337-8</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Nationalism, and the Nationalist Party among, Anglicization of,
+efforts towards, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, <A HREF="#P83">83</A>, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>, <A HREF="#P211">211</A>, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>, <A HREF="#P311">311-12</A>; Obvious
+fault of, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>; Problem of, on Elgin's arrival, <A HREF="#P193">193</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195-6</A>, <A HREF="#P198">198</A>,
+Elgin's solution of the difficulties, <A HREF="#P210">210</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>;
+Irritation of, over Parliamentary Representation, <A HREF="#P311">311-13</A>;
+Confederation favoured by, <A HREF="#P314">314</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Political views of (<I>see also</I> Conservatism, Nationalism <I>supra</I>,
+Rouges), <A HREF="#P15">15-17</A>, <A HREF="#P32">32</A>, <A HREF="#P41">41</A>, <A HREF="#P57">57-9</A>, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>, <A HREF="#P210">210</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>,
+<A HREF="#P302">302</A>, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>, <A HREF="#P331">331</A>, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Privileges accorded to, by Grey, <A HREF="#P268">268</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Relations with Bagot, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P146">146-7</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149-50</A>; with Elgin, <A HREF="#P193">193</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195-6</A>,
+<A HREF="#P198">198</A>, <A HREF="#P215">215</A>, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>, <A HREF="#P305">305-6</A>; with Metcalfe, <A HREF="#P176">176-7</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195-6</A>; with
+Sydenham, <A HREF="#P79">79</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P125">125</A>, <A HREF="#P132">132-5</A>, <A HREF="#P176">176</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+French Revolution, the, Effects of, <A HREF="#P4">4</A>, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Fur-trade, Social drawbacks of, <A HREF="#P29">29-30</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+G
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Galt, Alexander Tilloch, and Canadian Tariffs, <A HREF="#P327">327</A>; on Separation,
+<A HREF="#P286">286-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+George III., and the Colonies, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Girouard, John Joseph, and the rebellion, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>; Office open to, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., trained by Peel, <A HREF="#P189">189-90</A>, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>; and
+Administrative Liberalism, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>; as Colonial Secretary, <A HREF="#P251">251</A>, <A HREF="#P256">256</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on British approval of Metcalfe's methods, <A HREF="#P193">193</A>; on Rebellion
+Losses Bill, <A HREF="#P206">206</A> <I>n.</I>; on Separation, <A HREF="#P266">266-7</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Glenelg, Lord, at the Colonial Office, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>; and the Clergy Reserve
+question, <A HREF="#P49">49</A>; on Canadian local rights, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Globe, The</I>, Brown's newspaper, on the Clear-Grits, <A HREF="#P300">300</A> <I>n.</I>2;
+Influence of, <A HREF="#P311">311</A>, <A HREF="#P341">341-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Good Government essential to Colonial Empire, Molesworth on, <A HREF="#P281">281-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Gourlay, Robert, agitator, Scottish origin of, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Governor-General and Assembly, Russell's instructions concerning,
+<A HREF="#P72">72</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Colonial Executive, relations between, as sketched by Grey, <A HREF="#P269">269</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+in relation to Confederation, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Diminution of importance of, after Autonomy, <A HREF="#P324">324</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Duties of, Sydenham's views on, <A HREF="#P119">119-21</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Salary of (<I>see also</I> Civil List), Brown's attitude on, <A HREF="#P342">342</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Governors-General referred to, in order of date, <I>see also
+under</I> Names
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Dalhousie, Earl of, 1820
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Colborne, Sir John (acting), 1830
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Thomson, C. Poulett, 1833; <I>later</I> Lord Sydenham, 1841
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Durham, Earl of, 1838
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Colborne, Sir John, 1838
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Bagot, Sir Charles, 1842
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Metcalfe, Lord, 1843
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Cathcart, Earl of, 1846
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Elgin, Earl of, 1847
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Head, Sir Edmund W., 1854
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Monck, Viscount, 1861
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Grant, General Ulysses, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Great Britain (<I>see also</I> British), and the Colonies, future
+relations between, MacDonald on, <A HREF="#P344">344</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Imperial policy of, under Grey, <A HREF="#P275">275-6</A> <I>et proevi</I>; Change in,
+process and progress of, <A HREF="#P291">291</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Relations with Canada as affected by Autonomy, <A HREF="#P323">323</A> <I>et sqq.</I>;
+Basis of, <A HREF="#P239">239</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Greville, Charles, on Poulett Thomson, <A HREF="#P77">77</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Grey, Earl, as Colonial Secretary, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>, <A HREF="#P237">237</A>; Characteristics
+of the man and his ideas, <A HREF="#P267">267</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Events of his term of
+office, <A HREF="#P268">268</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Colonial policy of, <A HREF="#P190">190-1</A>, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>, <A HREF="#P199">199</A>, <A HREF="#P256">256</A>, <A HREF="#P267">267-8</A> <I>et sqq.</I>;
+Elgin's influence on, <A HREF="#P209">209</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>2, <A HREF="#P275">275</A>; and Federation, <A HREF="#P196">196-7</A>;
+Free Trade with Canada urged by, <A HREF="#P267">267-8</A>, <A HREF="#P272">272-4</A>; and the Militia
+Bill crisis, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>; Views of, on Separation, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>, occasional
+misgivings, <A HREF="#P223">223</A>, <A HREF="#P283">283</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Attitude of a Governor of a Self-governing Colony, <A HREF="#P269">269-70</A>; on
+British indifference to Canada (1851), <A HREF="#P232">232</A>; on Elgin's best
+attitude to the Canadian Executive of 1848, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>; on Newspaper
+misrepresentation, <A HREF="#P232">232</A>; on Separationist views at Westminster,
+<A HREF="#P260">260-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Grey, Sir George, on the Clergy Grants, <A HREF="#P48">48</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>1
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Grote, George, and Separation, <A HREF="#P282">282</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+H
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Habitants</I>, the, Characteristics of, <A HREF="#P15">15-17</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Hamilton, Population (1846), <A HREF="#P24">24</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Harrison, S. B., Secretary, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, Moderate Reform views of, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>,
+<A HREF="#P176">176</A>; Resolutions moved by, on Provincial Parliaments, <A HREF="#P119">119-20</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on the Need for Responsible Government, and for Conciliation of
+the French Canadians, <A HREF="#P133">133-4</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Harvey, Sir John, Grey's letter to, on attitude of Governors of
+Self-Governing Colonies, <A HREF="#P269">269-70</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Head, Sir Edmund W., as Governor-General, <A HREF="#P324">324</A>; Averse to the "Double
+majority," <A HREF="#P307">307-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Head, Sir F. B., on Baldwin, <A HREF="#P109">109</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Herbert, Sydney (Lord Herbert of Lea), <A HREF="#P189">189</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Higginson, Captain, and La Fontaine, <A HREF="#P172">172</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Hincks, Sir Francis, Advocate of Responsible Government, <A HREF="#P38">38</A>; Press
+exponent of Reforming Loyalist views, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>; in Bagot's
+Executive, <A HREF="#P144">144</A>; Interpretation by, of Durham's Report, <A HREF="#P243">243-4</A>;
+Political morality of, attacked, <A HREF="#P315">315</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on the Civil List difficulty, <A HREF="#P163">163</A>; on Coalitions, <A HREF="#P298">298-9</A>; on the
+Patronage Crisis, <A HREF="#P170">170</A>; on the Reformers, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Hincks-Morin Ministry, the, and Moderate re-union, <A HREF="#P298">298</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Home Rule (<I>see also</I> Autonomy), Evolution of, in Canada,
+antithesis of, to Russell's theory, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Hume, Joseph, and Canadian politics, <A HREF="#P231">231</A>, <A HREF="#P282">282</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Hyderabad, Metcalfe at, <A HREF="#P159">159</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+I
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Immigration and its Problems, <A HREF="#P20">20</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P97">97-8</A>, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Imperial Aid to Religious bodies in Canada, <I>see</I> Anglican Church,
+<I>and</I> Clergy Reserve question
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Control, Struggle for, <A HREF="#P1">1-229</A>, <I>et passim</I>; Views of various
+British politicians, <A HREF="#P230">230</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Creed of Durham and Buller, not that of their party, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Government, and the French Canadians, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Note of Durham's Report, <A HREF="#P246">246-7</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Solidarity, some staunch believers in, <A HREF="#P274">274</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Sentiment, and Bagot's action, antagonism between, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Tariff, <A HREF="#P273">273</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Unity, Burke's view on, <A HREF="#P2">2</A>, <A HREF="#P3">3</A>, <A HREF="#P6">6</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Imperial Parliament, Courtesies of, <A HREF="#P66">66</A>; Over-ruling by, of
+Canadian wishes, various views on, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>; as Training school for
+Colonial Governors, <A HREF="#P121">121</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Imperial Titles Bill, Disraeli's speech on, <A HREF="#P255">255-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Imperialism, British, Early Victorian, <A HREF="#P230">230</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Disraeli's, the gaps in, <A HREF="#P253">253</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Durham's, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Elgin's, <A HREF="#P217">217</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+True basis of, Feeling rather than Laws, <A HREF="#P329">329</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Independence, Colonial, Russell on, <A HREF="#P263">263</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Loyalty, ratio between, <A HREF="#P345">345-6</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Independence of Parliament Act, as affecting Resignations, <A HREF="#P319">319</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Independency, as moulding New England Character, <A HREF="#P41">41</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Indian Career of Elgin, <A HREF="#P189">189</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>, and of Metcalfe, <A HREF="#P158">158-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Indians, Canadian, Trade and Drink as affecting, <A HREF="#P29">29-30</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Institut Canadien</I>, Annexationist advocate, <A HREF="#P332">332</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>1
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Internal government, and Imperial matters, Durham's distinction
+concerning, <A HREF="#P244">244-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Irish Agitation, as affecting Canada, <A HREF="#P22">22</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>2, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>, <A HREF="#P337">337</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Immigrants; as Colonists, <A HREF="#P21">21</A>, <A HREF="#P22">22</A>, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>; Political trend of, <A HREF="#P163">163</A>;
+Turbulence of, <A HREF="#P22">22</A>, <A HREF="#P67">67</A>, <A HREF="#P179">179</A>; won by Elgin, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>; Arriving after
+the Famine, anxieties caused by, <A HREF="#P332">332-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Irish-American hostility to Great Britain as affecting Canada,
+<A HREF="#P288">288-9</A>, <A HREF="#P332">332</A>, <A HREF="#P333">333</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Irish Republican Union, <A HREF="#P207">207</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+J
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Jackson, General ("Stonewall"), <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Jamaica, Metcalfe's success in, <A HREF="#P159">159</A>, <A HREF="#P167">167</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Jameson, Mrs., on Colonel Talbot as Colonist, <A HREF="#P19">19</A>; on Toronto and
+its Conventionalism, <A HREF="#P26">26</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+K
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+King's College, Toronto, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Kingston, Anglicanism in, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>, <A HREF="#P44">44</A>; as Capital, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>; Educational
+efforts at, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>; Election riots near (1844), <A HREF="#P179">179</A>; Population
+of (1839-46), <A HREF="#P13">13</A>, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>; Presbyterianism in, <A HREF="#P44">44</A>; Removal from,
+of the Seat of Government, <A HREF="#P171">171</A>, <A HREF="#P176">176</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Kingston Chronicle and Gazette</I>, on the Anglo-French Anti-Union
+Movement, <A HREF="#P103">103</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>2
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Knox, John, & Melville, Canadian followers of, <A HREF="#P44">44</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+L
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lachine, portage to, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lachine Canal, <A HREF="#P179">179</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+La Fontaine, Sir Louis, Leader of French Canadians, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P32">32</A>, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>,
+<A HREF="#P295">295</A>; and Anglo-French cooperation, <A HREF="#P125">125</A>, <A HREF="#P162">162</A>; and the Anti-Union
+movement, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>; Claims of, as to Office, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>, Bagot's action,
+<A HREF="#P150">150-1</A>; and the Clergy Reserve troubles, <A HREF="#P52">52-3</A>; Loss of Election
+by, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>, <A HREF="#P117">117</A>; Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>; Office refused by (1845), <A HREF="#P96">96</A>;
+accepted (1848), effects of, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>; and the Patronage Crisis,
+<A HREF="#P168">168</A>, <A HREF="#P171">171</A>; and the Rebellion of 1837, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>; and the Rebellion
+Losses Bill, <A HREF="#P214">214</A>; Restrictive attitude to Governors-General,
+<A HREF="#P162">162</A>; on the Importance of the Anglo-French Union, <A HREF="#P177">177</A>; on
+Patronage, <A HREF="#P172">172-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+La Fontaine-Baldwin Ministries, <A HREF="#P161">161</A>, <A HREF="#P212">212</A>, <A HREF="#P215">215-16</A>, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>, <A HREF="#P298">298</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Laissez faire</I> doctrine, in British colonial politics, <A HREF="#P188">188</A>, <A HREF="#P230">230</A>;
+Autonomy the natural result of, <A HREF="#P291">291</A>; and Home Control, in
+Colonial affairs, Grey's views on, <A HREF="#P267">267</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; as
+Influencing Annexationism, <A HREF="#P334">334</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lake Ontario, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lake-neutralization Treaty, <I>see</I> Rush-Bagot Treaty
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lanark, Scottish and Canadian, ties between, <A HREF="#P45">45</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Land transfers, under French law, Sydenham's efforts to simplify,
+<A HREF="#P95">95-6</A>, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Languages for Debates and Records, <A HREF="#P90">90</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lee, General, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Legislative and Executive powers of Canadian Government, views on,
+of Russell, and of the Canadians, <A HREF="#P71">71</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lewis, Cornewall, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Liberal-Conservatism Canadian, evolution of, <A HREF="#P297">297</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Liddell, Dr., and Queen's College, <A HREF="#P37">37</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lincoln, President, Brown's support of, <A HREF="#P341">341</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Literary Inactivity, Canadian, some causes, <A HREF="#P39">39</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Little Englanders," Early Victorian, <A HREF="#P278">278</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P292">292</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Local government, Absence of Provision for, in Act of Union, <A HREF="#P93">93-5</A>;
+in French Canada, Bagot on, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>; as Training for higher politics,
+<A HREF="#P94">94</A>; Sydenham's views on, <A HREF="#P94">94</A>, and efforts for, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+London, and Early Canadian Society, <A HREF="#P27">27</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+London (Ontario), in early days, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>; population of (1846), <A HREF="#P24">24</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lower Canada, French-Canadians of (<I>q.v.</I>), Clericalism, Politics
+and Society among, <A HREF="#P14">14-17</A>; Priestly control of Schools in, <A HREF="#P31">31-2</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Municipal Franchise limitations in; results, <A HREF="#P25">25</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Union with Upper, difficulties in, <A HREF="#P82">82</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lowland Scots, as Settlers, <A HREF="#P21">21</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Loyalist electioneering practices (1844), <A HREF="#P179">179-80</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Loyalty, Canadian, as affected by Autonomy, <A HREF="#P203">203</A>, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>, <A HREF="#P314">314</A>, <A HREF="#P323">323</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Inspiration given to, by Brown and such men, <A HREF="#P342">342-3</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Mistrust of, begotten over the Militia Bill, <A HREF="#P289">289</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lyons, Lord, on Elgin's Reciprocity Treaty, <A HREF="#P288">288</A> <I>n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lucas, Sir C. P. <I>cited</I>, <A HREF="#P4">4</A> <I>n.</I>, <A HREF="#P5">5</A> <I>n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Lumberers, Wild life among, <A HREF="#P30">30</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+M
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Macaulay, Lord, on Metcalfe, <A HREF="#P159">159</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+MacDonald, Rolland, on Annexation, <A HREF="#P336">336</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Macdonald-Sicotte Ministry, and the "Double majority," <A HREF="#P309">309</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Macdonald, Sir John A., and Annexation, <A HREF="#P336">336</A>; Averse to the "Double
+majority," <A HREF="#P308">308-9</A>; Basis of his control of power, <A HREF="#P216">216</A>; and
+Brown's scheme of Confederation, <A HREF="#P302">302</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Imperialism
+of, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>; Leadership of, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>; Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>, <A HREF="#P343">343-4</A>; Political
+Morality of, <A HREF="#P317">317-19</A>, <A HREF="#P321">321</A>, <A HREF="#P324">324</A>, <A HREF="#P341">341</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Representation by Population, <A HREF="#P316">316</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Canada's Governors-General, <A HREF="#P325">325-6</A>; on Change of Political
+views, <A HREF="#P296">296</A>
+
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index">
+M'Gee, D'Arcy, on the Irish-Catholic vote in Canada (1866), <A HREF="#P332">332-3</A>;
+on Loyalty of Irish Canadians, <A HREF="#P333">333</A>, <A HREF="#P337">337</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+M'Gill University, <A HREF="#P37">37</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Mackenzie, Alexander, Liberal leader, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>; Political rectitude of, <A HREF="#P321">321</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Mackenzie, William Lyon, Press organ of, <A HREF="#P38">38</A>; Rebellion under, <A HREF="#P5">5</A>, <A HREF="#P11">11</A>,
+<A HREF="#P55">55</A>, recognition by, of its error, <A HREF="#P63">63</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+MacNab-Hincks Ministry, the, <A HREF="#P300">300</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+MacNab, Sir Allan Napier, Tory leader, <A HREF="#P62">62</A>, <A HREF="#P63">63</A>, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P133">133</A>, <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P167">167</A>,
+<A HREF="#P300">300</A>, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>; and Bagot, <A HREF="#P141">141</A>, <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>, <A HREF="#P151">151</A>; Defender of the Clergy
+Reserves, <A HREF="#P62">62</A>, <A HREF="#P63">63</A>; Invited by Elgin to form a Ministry, <A HREF="#P204">204</A>; and
+Political jobbery, <A HREF="#P316">316-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+M'Taggart, &mdash;, on French Canadians, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>; on Irish settlers, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>, <A HREF="#P21">21</A>;
+on Quebec as Social Centre, <A HREF="#P25">25</A>; on Squatter life, <A HREF="#P29">29</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Manners, Lord John, on the Future of Canada, <A HREF="#P254">254-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Marriage and the Squatter, <A HREF="#P29">29</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Melbourne, Earl of, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Metcalfe, Lord (Sir Charles Metcalfe), as Governor-General, <A HREF="#P7">7</A> <I>n.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P70">70</A>, <A HREF="#P158">158</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Character and qualifications of, <A HREF="#P158">158-61</A>, <A HREF="#P164">164</A>,
+<A HREF="#P181">181</A>, <A HREF="#P183">183</A>; earlier career, <A HREF="#P159">159-60</A>, <A HREF="#P267">267</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Attitude of his Cabinet, <A HREF="#P66">66</A>; Despatches <I>cited</I>, <A HREF="#P164">164-5</A>; Dislike
+or party, results of, <A HREF="#P167">167-8</A>; and the La Fontaine-Baldwin
+Ministry, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>; Last days in harness, <A HREF="#P183">183</A>; and Local
+administration, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>; and the Patronage crisis of 1843, <A HREF="#P168">168-70</A>,
+<A HREF="#P202">202</A>; Policy of, Elgin on, <A HREF="#P192">192</A>, <A HREF="#P202">202</A>, Grey on, <A HREF="#P267">267</A>; Struggles of,
+to balance Autonomy and Supremacy, <A HREF="#P161">161</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Supporters of,
+<A HREF="#P182">182</A>, <A HREF="#P240">240</A>, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>, <A HREF="#P261">261</A>; and the United Empire Loyalists, <A HREF="#P17">17-18</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index">
+on Demagogues in Lower Canada, <A HREF="#P14">14-15</A>; on Durham's view of
+Executive Responsibility, <A HREF="#P244">244</A>; on Electioneering Language, <A HREF="#P67">67</A>;
+on the Influence of the Roman Church in Canada, <A HREF="#P32">32</A> <I>n.</I>; on
+Irish agitation and its effects on Canada, <A HREF="#P21">21</A> <I>n.</I>2; on the
+Parliament of 1844, <A HREF="#P181">181</A>; on Results of Bagot's administration,
+<A HREF="#P157">157</A>; on Sydenham's concession of Responsible Government, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Methodism in Canada, <A HREF="#P15">15-17</A>; and Education, <A HREF="#P46">46</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Military attitude to Elgin, <A HREF="#P204">204</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Prominence in Canadian Society, <A HREF="#P26">26</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Settlers, <A HREF="#P18">18</A>, <A HREF="#P20">20</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Views on Separation, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Militia Bill, Canadian rejection of, and the effects, <A HREF="#P289">289-90</A>; True
+inwardness of the affair, <A HREF="#P328">328-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Mill, John Stuart, on the Authorship of Durham's Report, <A HREF="#P243">243</A> <I>n.</I>2
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Minerve, La</I>, on the <I>Rouges</I>, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ministerial Responsibility to the Crown, and to a Governor, Stanley
+on, <A HREF="#P152">152-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ministerialist Party (1841), <A HREF="#P105">105</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ministers, Loyal, and the Assembly, difficulties between (1845), <A HREF="#P184">184</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Moffat, George, Politics of, <A HREF="#P151">151</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Molesworth, &mdash;&mdash;, on Separation, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Monck, Viscount, as Governor, <A HREF="#P324">324</A>; scanty Despatches of, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>; on
+the Militia Bill, <A HREF="#P329">329</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Montreal, British and French views in, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>; and the Election of
+1844, <A HREF="#P178">178</A>, <A HREF="#P179">179-80</A>; Merchants of, and the Reciprocity Treaty,
+<A HREF="#P222">222</A>; zealous Annexationists, <A HREF="#P334">334</A>; Population of, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>; Riots
+at, <A HREF="#P67">67</A>, <A HREF="#P68">68</A>, <A HREF="#P179">179-80</A>, <A HREF="#P206">206</A>, <A HREF="#P208">208</A>, <A HREF="#P227">227</A>, <A HREF="#P320">320</A>, <A HREF="#P326">326</A>; Roads near (1840),
+<A HREF="#P11">11</A>; as Seat of Government, <A HREF="#P68">68</A>, <A HREF="#P171">171</A>; Social conditions at (1840),
+<A HREF="#P26">26</A>; Suburbs of, <A HREF="#P102">102</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Montreal Gazette</I>, on Independence, <A HREF="#P335">335</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Montreal Witness</I>, The, characteristics and value of, <A HREF="#P38">38-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Moral Influence of Governors, <I>versus</I> Political Patronage, Elgin
+on, <A HREF="#P198">198</A>, and as exercised by him, <A HREF="#P205">205</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Morin, Augustin Norbert, French Canadian politician, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, and the
+Nationalists, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Mowat, Oliver, Liberal leader, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Murdoch, T. W. C., <A HREF="#P104">104</A> <I>n.</I>, <A HREF="#P140">140-1</A>; the Need for Conciliating the
+French, <A HREF="#P135">135</A>; on Stanley's view of Canadian autonomy, <A HREF="#P131">131</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+N
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Nation Canadienne, La</I>, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>; as represented in the Union Assembly, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Navigation Acts, Restrictions of, abolished by Grey, <A HREF="#P267">267</A>, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Neilson, &mdash;&mdash;, and the Anti-Union movement, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P151">151</A>; and
+the Amnesty question, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Newcastle, Duke of, and Monck's scanty Despatches, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Newspaper Opinion, real value of, <A HREF="#P233">233</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Newspapers, Educational and Political influence of, <A HREF="#P38">38-9</A> <I>&amp;nn.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P311">311</A>, <A HREF="#P341">341-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Non-Separationists, the four, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, 491
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Normanby, Earl of, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+North, Lord, and the Colonies, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Nova Scotia, <A HREF="#P269">269</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+O
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Oath of Supremacy, Baldwin's difficulty concerning, <A HREF="#P112">112</A>; Dispensed
+with, by Sydenham, <A HREF="#P113">113</A> <I>n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+O'Connell, Daniel, <A HREF="#P22">22</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Office, Colonial, Change in Tenure of, <A HREF="#P74">74-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ogden, &mdash;&mdash;, Political views of, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>; retirement of, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+"Old Toryism" after concession of Responsible Government, <A HREF="#P203">203</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Oliphant, Laurence, on Elgin in Canada, <A HREF="#P204">204-5</A>, <A HREF="#P221">221</A>, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>, <A HREF="#P225">225</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Orange Lodge, the, Politics of, <A HREF="#P167">167</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ottawa, <I>see</I> Bytown
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ottawa River route, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+P
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Pakington, Sir John, and the Clergy Reserves dispute, <A HREF="#P252">252-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Palmerston, Viscount, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Papineau, Louis, French-Canadian Leader, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>, <A HREF="#P331">331</A>; Rebellion
+led by, <A HREF="#P3">3</A>; Republicanism of, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P271">271</A>; Return of, to Public Life
+(1847-8), <A HREF="#P198">198-9</A>, <A HREF="#P212">212-13</A>, <A HREF="#P271">271</A>, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>, <A HREF="#P331">331-2</A>; as Leader of the
+<I>Rouges</I>, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>, <A HREF="#P331">331</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Parliament, British, <I>see</I> Imperial Parliament
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Canadian characteristics of, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P289">289</A>; First Union, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, composing
+group, <A HREF="#P104">104</A>, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>, Crisis in, on Responsible Government, <A HREF="#P113">113-22</A>,
+Five great measures carried by, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Parliamentary Representation after the Union, Proportionalism in,
+<A HREF="#P309">309-11</A>, attempted reform, <A HREF="#P311">311</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Party Government, and Colonial Constitutional development, views
+on, of Wakefield, <A HREF="#P239">239-40</A>, and of Buller, <A HREF="#P242">242</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Names, as used in Canada, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195</A>, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Politics in Canada, before and after Autonomy, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P166">166-7</A>,
+<A HREF="#P173">173</A>, <A HREF="#P185">185</A>, <A HREF="#P195">195</A>, <A HREF="#P293">293</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P302">302-5</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Patronage, Crisis concerning, <A HREF="#P168">168-70</A>; Surrender of, by Elgin,
+<A HREF="#P198">198</A>, <A HREF="#P279">279</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Peel, Sir Robert, <A HREF="#P262">262</A>, <A HREF="#P283">283</A>; and Elgin, a comparison, <A HREF="#P226">226</A>; and "the
+Man on the spot," <A HREF="#P147">147-8</A>; and the Permanent Staff of the Colonial
+Office, <A HREF="#P235">235</A>; Political pupils of, <A HREF="#P189">189</A>; and Stanley, <A HREF="#P128">128</A>;
+Transforming influence of, on the Whigs, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>; Views of, on
+Separation, <A HREF="#P253">253-4</A>, <A HREF="#P266">266-7</A>, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Peelites, the, and Party ties, <A HREF="#P297">297</A>; Views of, on Separation, <A HREF="#P266">266</A>, <A HREF="#P285">285</A>
+Canadian, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Permanent Officials, and Transitory Chiefs, <A HREF="#P234">234-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Perry, Peter, Baldwin's letter to, on Annexation, <A HREF="#P340">340</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Personalities and Politics, <A HREF="#P66">66</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Perth (Canada), Early Educational efforts at, <A HREF="#P33">33-4</A>; and its
+Minister, <A HREF="#P48">48</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Pessimism of British opinion on the Colonies <I>circa</I> 1844, <A HREF="#P246">246</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Pilot, The</I>, <A HREF="#P196">196</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Pioneers, the, of Canadian Self-government, <A HREF="#P237">237-8</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Political Groups, Canadian&mdash;British Early days, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>; (<I>a</I>)
+United Empire Loyalists, <A HREF="#P17">17</A>, <A HREF="#P20">20</A>; (<I>b</I>) Half-Pay Officers, <A HREF="#P18">18</A>;
+(<I>c</I>) Immigrants, <A HREF="#P20">20</A>, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index3">
+Later days&mdash;Anglo-French bloc, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P161">161</A>; Liberal-Conservatives,
+<A HREF="#P297">297</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+French-Canadian, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P15">15</A>, <A HREF="#P20">20</A>; importance of, <A HREF="#P56">56-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Political Manners and Morals, after Autonomy, <A HREF="#P314">314</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Political and Material conditions and Needs of Canada in 1839, <A HREF="#P68">68-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Politics in early days, <A HREF="#P13">13</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P64">64</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; <I>per</I> Newspaper,
+<A HREF="#P38">38</A>; Questions of chief concern, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>; Turbulence in (<I>see</I>
+Montreal riots), <A HREF="#P65">65-8</A> <I>et alibi</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Population, Canadian, Composition of, and Problems of, <A HREF="#P13">13</A> <I>et
+sqq.</I>; Changes in distribution, 1830, in reference to
+Parliamentary Representation, <A HREF="#P310">310-11</A>; Town, growth of, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Preference, and Retaliation, Elgin's difficulties as to, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Presbyterianism in Canada, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>, <A HREF="#P44">44-5</A>, <A HREF="#P47">47</A>; Influence of, on Scottish
+democracy, <A HREF="#P41">41</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Press, British, and Canadian Politics, <A HREF="#P232">232-3</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Canadian, <I>see</I> Newspapers
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Indian, Disabilities of, relieved by Metcalfe, <A HREF="#P159">159</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Progressives, Canadian, Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Protection as enemy to Canadian-British connexion, Grey's view
+on, <A HREF="#P285">285</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Provincial Parliament, Baldwin's motion for, <A HREF="#P119">119</A>; Resolutions
+replying to, <A HREF="#P119">119-21</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Provincialism, and its causes, <A HREF="#P26">26</A>, <A HREF="#P27">27</A>, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Public Lands Regulation enacted, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Opinion, Canadian, development and trend of, <A HREF="#P133">133</A>; as affected
+by Autonomy, <A HREF="#P292">292</A>, <A HREF="#P329">329</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Sydenham's attitude to, <A HREF="#P87">87</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Works, Canadian, condition in early days, <A HREF="#P25">25-6</A>; British loan
+for, projected by Sydenham, <A HREF="#P97">97</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Purse-holding and Prerogative, Bagot on, <A HREF="#P165">165</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+Q
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Queen's College, Kingston, <A HREF="#P55">55</A>; history of, <A HREF="#P37">37</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Quebec, British, and British views in, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>; Immigrant miseries at,
+<A HREF="#P97">97</A>; Length of voyage to, <A HREF="#P9">9</A>; Population-Centre, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>, increase in
+population of (1790-1844), <A HREF="#P24">24</A>; as Social Centre, <A HREF="#P25">25</A>; Suburbs
+of, <A HREF="#P102">102</A>; Urban conditions in, <A HREF="#P25">25</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+R
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Racial Distinction, intensified by Autonomy, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Radical party, Separation anticipated by, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Radicals of the Durham brand, views of, on the Colonies, <I>circa</I>
+1844, <A HREF="#P246">246</A> <I>et proevi</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ranjit Singh, Metcalfe's Treaty with, <A HREF="#P158">158</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reactionaries, Insight of, as to results of Innovations, <A HREF="#P166">166-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reading-habits how checked (1839), <A HREF="#P39">39</A>, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rebellion, Risk of, from Metcalfe's methods, <A HREF="#P158">158</A>, <A HREF="#P186">186</A>, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>, <A HREF="#P193">193</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rebellion Losses Act, effects of, <A HREF="#P68">68</A>, <A HREF="#P213">213</A>, <A HREF="#P214">214</A>, <A HREF="#P215">215</A>, Annexation
+agitation connected with, <A HREF="#P220">220-1</A>, <A HREF="#P232">232-3</A>, <A HREF="#P265">265</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>1; and the
+"Double majority, " <A HREF="#P307">307</A>; Elgin's action concerning, <A HREF="#P206">206-9</A>,
+<A HREF="#P214">214</A>, <A HREF="#P220">220-1</A>, <A HREF="#P335">335</A>; Gladstone on, <A HREF="#P250">250</A>; and the Tories, <A HREF="#P335">335</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rebellions in Canada, <A HREF="#P5">5</A>, <A HREF="#P11">11</A>, <A HREF="#P14">14</A>, <A HREF="#P15">15</A>, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>, <A HREF="#P38">38</A>, <A HREF="#P55">55-6</A>, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>,
+<A HREF="#P124">124</A>, <A HREF="#P186">186</A>; After-effects, <A HREF="#P135">135</A>, <A HREF="#P213">213-15</A>; Change in British opinion
+after, by whom directed, <A HREF="#P237">237</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Mackenzie on (1848), <A HREF="#P63">63</A>;
+Molesworth's views on, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>; Settlers' attitude to, <A HREF="#P55">55-6</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reciprocity, Grey on, <A HREF="#P273">273</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Loyalty, Elgin's view on, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reciprocity Treaty, Elgin's, <A HREF="#P221">221-2</A>, <A HREF="#P287">287</A>, <A HREF="#P336">336</A>; Benefits of, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>,
+<A HREF="#P272">272</A>; as affected by Canadian Autonomy, <A HREF="#P288">288</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>; Cessation of
+(cf. Free Trade), effects on Canadian Trade, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reform, Colonial, Stanley's mistrust of, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reform Parties, Canadian and British, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Reform Party, Canadian (Reformers, Reforming Loyalists, Reforming
+Opposition), Acceptance by, of Bagot's action, as concession to
+their views; consequences in Metcalfe's Governor-Generalship,
+<A HREF="#P161">161</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Attitude to the French, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>; Civil List control
+desired by, <A HREF="#P163">163</A>; Demand for Executive Council, Russell's
+objections and concessions, <A HREF="#P72">72-5</A>; in Early Assemblies, <A HREF="#P63">63</A>,
+Methods and Leaders of, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>; Measures favoured by, <A HREF="#P64">64-5</A>; and
+Responsible Government, <A HREF="#P101">101</A>; in the Second Union Parliament,
+<A HREF="#P141">141</A>; Faculty for setting themselves in the wrong, <A HREF="#P228">228</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Constitutional, Loyalty of, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Intransigeant, <A HREF="#P301">301</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Religion in Canada, Forms prevalent; <I>see</I> Anglicanism, Methodism,
+Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Representation Act, the, <A HREF="#P310">310</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Responsible Government (<I>see also</I> Autonomy), the Struggle for,
+<I>passim</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Baldwin on, <A HREF="#P110">110-11</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Conflict over, in first Union Parliament, <A HREF="#P107">107</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Durham in favour of, <A HREF="#P61">61</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Effect on Struggle of admission of French to Office, <A HREF="#P148">148</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Elgin's work for, <A HREF="#P191">191</A>, <A HREF="#P197">197</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Grey's attitude to, <A HREF="#P268">268-71</A>, and views on British Intervention, <A HREF="#P271">271</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Hindrances to, <A HREF="#P65">65-8</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Impetus given to, by the Durham Report, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Limitations on, views of Russell and others, <A HREF="#P101">101</A>, <A HREF="#P135">135</A>, <A HREF="#P175">175</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Opponents of, <A HREF="#P60">60</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Patronage crisis in relation to, <A HREF="#P169">169-70</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Practical concession of, by Sydenham and Bagot, <A HREF="#P146">146</A>, <A HREF="#P155">155</A>, <A HREF="#P157">157</A>,
+<A HREF="#P175">175</A>, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Russell's policy and, <A HREF="#P101">101</A>, <A HREF="#P135">135</A>, <A HREF="#P175">175</A>, <A HREF="#P260">260-2</A>, final upshot of, <A HREF="#P262">262</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Stanley's attitude to, <A HREF="#P129">129</A>, <A HREF="#P130">130-1</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Supporters of, <A HREF="#P61">61</A>, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>, <A HREF="#P178">178</A>, <A HREF="#P268">268-71</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Views on, of Arthur, Cartwright, and the Family Compact, <A HREF="#P60">60-1</A> <I>et
+sqq.</I>; of Bagot, <A HREF="#P139">139</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; of Elgin, <A HREF="#P123">123-4</A>, <A HREF="#P192">192</A>, <A HREF="#P202">202</A>; of
+Metcalfe, <A HREF="#P164">164</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P175">175</A>; of Sydenham, <A HREF="#P87">87</A>, <A HREF="#P88">88</A>, <A HREF="#P101">101</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Training for, Russell on, <A HREF="#P263">263</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Responsible Government for the Colonies</I>, Buller's pamphlet on,
+<A HREF="#P234">234-5</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>, <A HREF="#P240">240-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Retaliation, as Trade weapon, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>, Grey's views on, <A HREF="#P273">273-4</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Revue Canadienne, La</I>, on Papineau, and Political Moderation
+(1847), <A HREF="#P199">199</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Richardson, Major, on Sydenham's success, <A HREF="#P107">107-8</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Book-sales of, <A HREF="#P40">40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rideau Military Canal route, <A HREF="#P11">11</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rioting, Political, <A HREF="#P65">65-8</A>, <A HREF="#P179">179-80</A>, <A HREF="#P206">206</A>, <A HREF="#P208">208</A>, <A HREF="#P227">227</A>, <A HREF="#P320">320</A>, <A HREF="#P326">326</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Road and River Communication in early days, <A HREF="#P9">9</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Robinson, John Beverley, <A HREF="#P27">27</A>; tribute by, to Methodism, <A HREF="#P46">46-7</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Roebuck, John Arthur, M.P., Debate on Canada introduced by, <A HREF="#P182">182</A>;
+and Separation, <A HREF="#P281">281</A>, <A HREF="#P282">282</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rolph, Dr. John, on the Clergy Reserves, <A HREF="#P51">51-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Roman Catholicism in Lower Canada, <A HREF="#P14">14-17</A>, <A HREF="#P31">31-2</A>, <A HREF="#P41">41-2</A>; of Scottish
+and Irish Settlers, <A HREF="#P42">42</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Rouges</I>, the, of Lower Canada, Politics of, and Annexation views,
+<A HREF="#P301">301</A>, <A HREF="#P302">302</A>, <A HREF="#P305">305</A>, <A HREF="#P331">331</A>, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Rush-Bagot Treaty, the, <A HREF="#P126">126</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Russell, Lord John, as Colonial Secretary, policy of, <A HREF="#P128">128</A>, <A HREF="#P164">164</A>,
+<A HREF="#P235">235</A>, <A HREF="#P259">259-67</A>; and the Act of Union, <A HREF="#P94">94</A>; Baldwin on, <A HREF="#P339">339</A>; and
+Federation, <A HREF="#P196">196-7</A>; and the Government of Canada, <A HREF="#P70">70</A> <I>et sqq.</I>,
+<A HREF="#P110">110</A>, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>; Leader of British Reformers, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>; Political
+evolution of, <A HREF="#P262">262-6</A>, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>; Separation anticipated by, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Russellite Whigs, use made by, of the Durham Report, <A HREF="#P258">258</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ryerson, Egerton, and Canadian Education, <A HREF="#P35">35</A>; in Defence of
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Metcalfe, <A HREF="#P174">174</A>; and Methodism, <A HREF="#P180">180</A>
+Ryerson family, value of, to Canada, <A HREF="#P18">18</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+S
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+St. Benoit, Village of, and the Rebellion Losses Bill, <A HREF="#P214">214</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+St. Lawrence River, Rapids on, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Salaries of Executive, in relation to Political purity, <A HREF="#P316">316</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Schools, early, <A HREF="#P32">32</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Convent, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>, <A HREF="#P31">31</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Problem of, <A HREF="#P307">307</A>, <A HREF="#P309">309</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Scott, R. W., and the Separate Schools Act, <A HREF="#P309">309</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Scotsmen as Settlers, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>, <A HREF="#P27">27-9</A>, <A HREF="#P42">42</A>, <A HREF="#P45">45</A>; Keenness for Education,
+<A HREF="#P33">33-7</A>; Links of, with Scotland, <A HREF="#P44">44</A>, <A HREF="#P45">45</A>; Loyalty of: a
+striking instance, <A HREF="#P338">338</A>; Noteworthy names among, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sectarianism and Education, <A HREF="#P34">34</A>, <A HREF="#P35">35</A>, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Secularization, Advocates of, <A HREF="#P64">64</A>, <A HREF="#P90">90</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Seignorial tenure difficulties, <A HREF="#P95">95-6</A>, <A HREF="#P306">306</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Self-government, Colonial, <I>see</I> Autonomy, <I>and</I> Responsible
+Government
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Separate Schools Act (Scott's), how carried, <A HREF="#P307">307</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Separation, Anticipations of, <A HREF="#P166">166</A>, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>, <A HREF="#P231">231</A>, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>, <A HREF="#P266">266</A>, <A HREF="#P274">274</A>, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P282">282</A>, of British Tories, <A HREF="#P253">253</A>, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>, <A HREF="#P255">255</A>, <A HREF="#P256">256</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Four disbelievers in, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P291">291</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Military views on, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Possibility as affected by Autonomy, <A HREF="#P323">323</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Russell's views at different times, <A HREF="#P262">262</A>, <A HREF="#P263">263</A>, <A HREF="#P265">265</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Settlers, <I>see</I> Half-pay officers, Irish, Population, Scotsmen,
+Squatters, United Empire Loyalists, <I>&amp;c.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sherman, General, <A HREF="#P290">290</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sherwood, Henry, Solicitor-General, Bagot and, <A HREF="#P144">144</A>; Elgin and,
+<A HREF="#P194">194</A>; Retirement of, <A HREF="#P250">250</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sicotte-Macdonald Ministry, and the "Double majority," <A HREF="#P309">309</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Simcoe, Lieut.-General John Graves, <A HREF="#P19">19</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Single-party Government, Canadian tendency to, <A HREF="#P298">298-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Small, J. E., in Office, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Smith, Professor Goldwin, and his party, Separationists, <A HREF="#P289">289</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in Canada, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sovereign, the, True relations with Canadian people, <A HREF="#P327">327</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Squatters, <A HREF="#P22">22</A>, <A HREF="#P29">29</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Stanley, Lord, as Colonial Secretary, relations with Bagot and
+Canada, <A HREF="#P127">127</A>, <A HREF="#P128">128</A> <I>et sqq.</I>, <A HREF="#P156">156</A>, <A HREF="#P217">217</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>, <A HREF="#P250">250-2</A>; Hincks'
+indictment of, <A HREF="#P170">170</A>; Separation anticipated by, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Bagot's diplomatic services, <A HREF="#P127">127</A>; on the Tie between Great
+Britain and the Colonies, <A HREF="#P139">139-40</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Statesmanship, Elgin's conception of, <A HREF="#P227">227</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Statesmen, Canadian, Loyalty of the more eminent, <A HREF="#P339">339</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, Influence of, at the Colonial Office,
+<A HREF="#P234">234-7</A>, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>; Views of, on Separation, <A HREF="#P237">237</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Stephen, Sir Leslie, <A HREF="#P236">236</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Strachan, Dr. John, Bishop in Toronto, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>, <A HREF="#P89">89</A>, <A HREF="#P133">133</A>; and the
+Anglican Church, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>; and the Clergy Reserve question, <A HREF="#P49">49</A>, <A HREF="#P50">50</A>,
+<A HREF="#P52">52</A>, <A HREF="#P54">54</A>, <A HREF="#P90">90</A>, <A HREF="#P92">92</A>; and Education, <A HREF="#P35">35</A>, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>; and Methodism, <A HREF="#P45">45</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Strickland family, the, as Colonists, <A HREF="#P19">19</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Strickland, Lieut.-Colonel Samuel, and Mackenzie's Rebellion, <A HREF="#P55">55</A>;
+on Unsuitable Colonists, <A HREF="#P19">19-20</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Suburbs, and the Electorate, <A HREF="#P102">102</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sullivan, Robert Baldwin, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Sydenham, Lord (Rt. Hon. Charles Poulett Thomson), as
+Governor-General, <A HREF="#P54">54</A>, <A HREF="#P57">57</A>, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P70">70</A>; Raised to Peerage, <A HREF="#P53">53</A>;
+Characteristics, <A HREF="#P76">76-8</A>, <A HREF="#P107">107-8</A>, <A HREF="#P131">131</A>, <A HREF="#P141">141</A>; and his Coalition of
+Moderates, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>, <A HREF="#P141">141</A>, <A HREF="#P298">298</A>; Debt to, of Canada, <A HREF="#P122">122-5</A>, <A HREF="#P132">132</A>, <A HREF="#P133">133</A>;
+Despatches of, <A HREF="#P325">325</A>; Episodes and course of his rule, <A HREF="#P78">78</A> <I>et sqq.</I>;
+the Fall of the Family Compact, <A HREF="#P63">63</A>; Practice of, Bagot's action
+contrasted with, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>; Relations with French Canadians, <A HREF="#P58">58</A>, <A HREF="#P141">141</A>,
+<A HREF="#P162">162</A>; Religious distribution of members of his Council (1841),
+<A HREF="#P47">47</A>; Responsible Government practically granted by, <A HREF="#P107">107</A>, <A HREF="#P228">228-9</A>,
+his own views as worded by Harrison, <A HREF="#P119">119-20</A>, Metcalfe on, <A HREF="#P164">164-5</A>;
+and Russell's system, <A HREF="#P260">260</A>; Settlement by, of Clergy Reserve
+Question, <A HREF="#P53">53</A>, <A HREF="#P54">54</A>; Sleigh-journey, record breaking <A HREF="#P11">11-12</A>, <A HREF="#P92">92</A>;
+Success with the Act of Union, <A HREF="#P92">92</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Baldwin's action in the First Union Parliament, <A HREF="#P44">44-5</A>; on
+Business in a Colonial Parliament, <A HREF="#P65">65-6</A>; on the Clergy Reserve
+question, <A HREF="#P53">53-4</A>; on Early Travel in Canada, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>; on the French
+Anti-Union movement, <A HREF="#P103">103-4</A>; on Party names, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+T
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Taché, Colonel Sir Étienne Pascal, <A HREF="#P195">195</A>, <A HREF="#P307">307</A>; and Federation, <A HREF="#P303">303</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Talbot, Colonel, in Canada, <A HREF="#P19">19</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Tariffs, Canadian, and the Home country, <A HREF="#P327">327-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Taxation, Canadian, Independence in, asserted, <A HREF="#P287">287</A>, <A HREF="#P328">328</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Taylor, Sir Henry, Influence of, at the Colonial Office, <A HREF="#P235">235</A>; on
+Russell as Chief Secretary, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Teachers, Lack of, in early days, <A HREF="#P33">33-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Terrebonne, and La Fontaine's election, <A HREF="#P117">117</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Thomson, Poulett, <I>see</I> Sydenham, Lord
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Three Rivers, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Times, The</I>, and Canadian affairs, <A HREF="#P232">232-3</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Toronto, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>; Anglicanism in, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>; Journey to (1839), <A HREF="#P10">10</A>; King's
+College at, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>; Population of (1824-46), <A HREF="#P13">13</A>, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>; Social
+characteristics (<I>circ.</I> 1846), <A HREF="#P26">26</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Toronto, Bishop in, <I>see</I> Strachan
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Toronto University, set on foot by Bagot, <A HREF="#P36">36</A>, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Tory Party
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+British, and Colonial aspirations, <A HREF="#P217">217</A>, <A HREF="#P247">247</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Separation
+anticipated by, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P279">279</A>, <A HREF="#P329">329</A>; Views analogous to those of
+Canadian Tories, <A HREF="#P295">295</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Canadian (<I>see also</I> Family Compact), Annexationist views of,
+<A HREF="#P204">204</A>, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>, Elgin's methods with, <A HREF="#P221">221</A>, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>, <A HREF="#P295">295-6</A>, <A HREF="#P334">334</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Toryism of the French Canadians, <I>see</I> French Canadians, Political
+views of
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Towns, Large and Small, Characteristics of (<I>circa</I> 1846),
+<A HREF="#P25">25</A> <I>et sqq.</I>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Trade between Canada and the U.S.A., as affected by Free Trade, <A HREF="#P272">272</A>,
+Grey's views on, <A HREF="#P273">273</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+and Colonial relations, Views on, of Bright and Cobden, <A HREF="#P284">284</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Trade-regulation, formerly Controlled by the Crown, <A HREF="#P327">327</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Trade-relations of Canada with Great Britain after Autonomy, <A HREF="#P327">327-8</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Trent</I> episode, <A HREF="#P288">288</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+U
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ulstermen as Settlers, <A HREF="#P21">21</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Ultra-Reformers party (1841), <A HREF="#P105">105</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Union, Act of, Acceptance by both Provincial governments, <A HREF="#P92">92</A>;
+French-Canadian attitude to, <A HREF="#P57">57-8</A>; Guarantees, desired by
+Stanley, <A HREF="#P152">152</A>; Grey's Changes in, as affecting the French,
+<A HREF="#P268">268</A>; Serious Omission in, <A HREF="#P93">93-5</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Union of Canada, Lord John Russell's instructions on, <A HREF="#P71">71</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+First Parliament of, <A HREF="#P100">100</A>; Elections (and other preliminaries),
+<A HREF="#P101">101</A>; Results, <A HREF="#P104">104</A>; Groups in, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>, <A HREF="#P100">100</A>, <A HREF="#P104">104-5</A>; Sydenham's
+successes, and struggles against the Autonomy party, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+<I>et sqq.</I>; Work of the First Session, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Second, Bagot's, forecasts on, <A HREF="#P140">140-1</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+United Empire Loyalists, origin, characteristics, and views of,
+<A HREF="#P17">17-20</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+United Reform Party, Baldwin on, <A HREF="#P113">113</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Unity
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Forces conducing to Education, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>, <A HREF="#P31">31</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Politics, <A HREF="#P31">31</A>;
+Religion, <A HREF="#P31">31</A>, <A HREF="#P32">32</A>, <A HREF="#P40">40</A> et seq.
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+Forces retarding, Physical, <A HREF="#P8">8-13</A>, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>, <A HREF="#P28">28-9</A>; Racial, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>, <A HREF="#P20">20-3</A>,
+<A HREF="#P24">24</A>; Religious, <A HREF="#P34">34-5</A>; Social, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+University Question, in Upper Canada (1845), <A HREF="#P184">184</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Universities of Canada, <A HREF="#P36">36-8</A> <I>&amp;n.</I>1, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Upper Canada, Arrested Development of, Sydenham's plans in aid,
+<A HREF="#P98">98-100</A>; Educational Efforts in, <A HREF="#P33">33</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Methodism in,
+<A HREF="#P45">45-7</A>; Population increase of, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>; Radicalism of, <A HREF="#P32">32</A>; and
+the Union, <A HREF="#P83">83-9</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Upper Canada College, <A HREF="#P35">35</A>, <A HREF="#P50">50</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+V
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+<I>Vendus, Les</I>, <A HREF="#P142">142</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Viger, Jacques, French Canadian politician, <A HREF="#P59">59</A>; and the Rebellion,
+<A HREF="#P142">142</A>; Rival to La Fontaine, <A HREF="#P171">171</A>; in Metcalfe's Council, <A HREF="#P177">177</A>, <A HREF="#P194">194</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Voluntary Principle in matters Ecclesiastical, pros and cons of,
+<A HREF="#P51">51-2</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+W
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, <I>Art of Colonization</I> by, <A HREF="#P239">239</A>; Enthusiasm
+of, for Immigration, <A HREF="#P97">97</A>; Influence of, on British views on
+Colonization, <A HREF="#P237">237</A> <I>et sqq.</I>; Influence on Grey, <A HREF="#P267">267</A>
+</P>
+<P CLASS="index2">
+on Baldwin's position at Metcalfe's arrival, <A HREF="#P162">162</A>; on the Patronage
+crisis, <A HREF="#P170">170-1</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Wardens, Canadian, appointment of, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Washington, Elgin's diplomacy at, <A HREF="#P221">221</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Wellington, Duke of, opposition of, to Canadian Union, <A HREF="#P249">249-50</A>, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+West Indies Slave question, <A HREF="#P235">235</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Whig party, Evolution from, of the Liberal Party, <A HREF="#P280">280-1</A>; Separation
+views of, <A HREF="#P266">266</A>, <A HREF="#P278">278</A>, <A HREF="#P280">280</A>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="index">
+Women of the <I>habitants</I>, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>, <A HREF="#P31">31</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS<BR>
+BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.<BR>
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="transnote">
+[Transcriber's note: In the index entry "Non-Separationists, the four,
+278, 491", "491" is clearly incorrect since there are not that many
+pages in the book.  It is unknown what this number should have been.]
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government, by
+J. L. Morison
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government
+       1839-1854
+
+Author: J. L. Morison
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2010 [EBook #31363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIT. SUPREMACY & CANAD. SELF-GOVT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: Lord Elgin]
+
+
+
+
+
+British Supremacy
+
+&
+
+Canadian Self-Government
+
+1839-1854
+
+
+
+By
+
+J. L. Morison, M.A., D.Litt.
+
+
+Professor of Colonial History in Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
+
+Late Lecturer on English Literature in the University of Glasgow
+
+
+
+
+Toronto
+
+S. B. Gundy
+
+_Publisher in Canada for Humphrey Milford_
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+  GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+    BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+M. T.
+
+
+
+
+{vi}
+
+PREFACE
+
+The essay which follows had been printed, and was on the point of being
+published, when the outbreak of war involved my venture in the general
+devastation from which we are only now emerging.  More than four years
+of military service lie between me and the studies of which this book
+is the summary.  It was written under one dispensation; it is being
+published under another.  My first impulse, therefore, was to ask
+whether the change which has rendered so much of the old world obsolete
+had not invalidated also the conclusions here arrived at.  But
+reflection has simply confirmed me in the desire to complete the
+arrangements for publication.  Self-government is the keynote of the
+essay, and it is unlikely that self-government will cease to be the
+central principle of sane politics either in the British Empire or in
+the world outside.  I watched a Canadian division coming out of the
+last great battle in France, battered and reduced in numbers, but with
+all {viii} its splendid energy and confidence untouched.  The presence
+of the Canadians there, their incomparable spirit and resolution, the
+sacrifices they had just been making, with unflinching generosity, for
+the Empire, seemed only the last consequences of the political struggle
+for autonomy described in the pages which follow.  They would have been
+impossible had the views of all the old imperialists from Wellington to
+Disraeli prevailed.
+
+The material on which this volume is based falls into three groups.
+First in importance are the state papers and general correspondence of
+the period, contained in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa.  In addition
+to the correspondence, ordinary and confidential, between the
+Secretaries of State for the Colonies, and the Governors-General, from
+1839 to 1867, I read two very notable collections, designated in the
+foot-notes the Bagot Correspondence and the Elgin-Grey Correspondence.
+In the former are contained not only Bagot's private correspondence
+with Lord Stanley, but also letters from Bagot's British friends and
+Canadian political advisers.  These constitute the most important
+evidence which exists for Bagot's year of office.  In the same way, the
+private correspondence, carried on between Earl Grey and the Earl of
+Elgin from {ix} 1847 to 1852, takes precedence of all other Canadian
+material of that period; and is, indeed, the most enlightening series
+of documents in existence on mid-Victorian Colonial policy.
+
+The second group is composed of pamphlets and early newspapers, more
+especially the admirable collection of pre-confederation pamphlets in
+the Archives at Ottawa, and the Bell and Morris collections at Queen's
+University.  Kingston.  I cannot pretend to have mastered all the
+material supplied by the newspapers of the period; but I have attempted
+to work through such representative journals as the _Toronto Globe_,
+the _Montreal Witness_, and the Kingston papers published while
+Kingston was capital of the united Provinces.  I consulted certain
+others, French and English, on definite points of political interest,
+such as the reappearance of Papineau in politics in 1847.
+
+The _Canadiana_ of Queen's University Library gave me my third group of
+documents: and the facts from books were confirmed or modified by
+information gathered, chiefly in Kingston, from persons whose memories
+of the period under discussion were still fresh and interesting.
+
+As the work proceeded, certain impressions were {x} very definitely
+created in my mind.  It seemed clear, in the first place, that no
+statesman, whose experience was limited by unbroken residence in
+Europe, quite understood the elements which, between 1839 and 1867,
+constituted the Home Rule problem in Canada.  More especially on
+fundamental points concerning Canadian opinion, and the general temper
+of the populace, even the best men in England seemed singularly
+ignorant.  A second impression was that, while the colony remained
+throughout essentially loyal, and while the political leaders in Canada
+displayed really great qualities of statesmanship at critical moments,
+the general development of Canadian political life was seriously
+delayed by the crudities and rudeness of provincial politicians.
+British ignorance was not the only obstacle in the way.
+
+The last impression was that the relations between Britain and Canada
+depended then, as now, not on constitutional forms, or commercial
+bargains, or armed protection, but on racial solidarity, and community
+in social and moral ideals.  It was this solidarity, far more than
+conscious statesmanship, which held Canada and Britain together.  These
+impressions I have tried to analyse and elucidate in the chapters which
+follow.
+
+{xi}
+
+I have to thank the Dominion Archivist, Dr. A. G. Doughty, for many
+kindnesses, and more especially for permitting me to read the
+Elgin-Grey Correspondence.  To my friends, Mr. K. K. M. Leys, of
+University College, Oxford, Dr. Adam Shortt, Ottawa, and Professor W.
+D. Taylor, of Queen's University, Kingston, I am indebted for advice
+and information.  Mr. James MacLehose and Dr. George Neilson made the
+final stages of printing easy by their generous assistance.  The
+opinions which I express are my own, occasionally in spite of my
+friends' remonstrances.
+
+J. L. MORISON.
+
+INNELLAN, ARGYLLSHIRE,
+  _May_, 1919.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
+
+    I. INTRODUCTORY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1
+   II. THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    8
+  III. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM  . . . . . . . . . .   70
+   IV. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT  . . . . . . . .  126
+    V. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE  . . . . . . . . . .  158
+   VI. THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN . . . . . . . . . . . .  187
+  VII. BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY . . . . . . . . . .  230
+ VIII. THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY . . . . . . . . . .  293
+       INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  347
+
+
+
+
+{1}
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+There are antinomies in politics as in philosophy, problems where the
+difficulty lies in reconciling facts indubitably true but mutually
+contradictory.  For growth in the political world is not always
+gradual; accidents, discoveries, sudden developments, call into
+existence new creations, which only the generous logic of events and
+the process of time can reconcile with pre-existing facts and systems.
+It is the object of this essay to examine one of these political
+antinomies--the contradiction between imperial ascendancy and colonial
+autonomy--as it was illustrated by events in early Victorian Canada.
+
+The problem was no new one in 1839.  Indeed it was coeval with the
+existence of the empire, and sprang from the very nature of colonial
+government.  Beneath the actual facts of the great {2} American
+revolution--reaching far beyond quarrels over stamp duties, or the
+differentiation between internal and external taxation, or even the
+rights of man--was the fundamental difficulty of empire, the need to
+reconcile colonial independence with imperial unity.  It was the
+perception of this difficulty which made Burke so much the greatest
+political thinker of his time.  As he wrote in the most illuminating of
+his letters, "I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the
+difficulty of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful
+towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely
+diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the provinces,
+which they must enjoy (in opinion and practice, at least), or they will
+not be provinces at all.  I know, and have long felt, the difficulty of
+reconciling the unwieldy haughtiness of a great ruling nation,
+habituated to command, pampered by enormous wealth, and confident from
+a long course of prosperity and victory, to the high spirit of free
+dependencies, animated with the first glow and activity of juvenile
+heat, and assuming to themselves as their birthright, some part of that
+very pride which oppresses them."[1]
+
+{3}
+
+Dissatisfied as he ever was with merely passive or negative views,
+Burke was led to attempt a solution of the problem.  He had never been
+under any illusion as to the possibility of limiting colonial
+constitutional pretensions.  A free government was what the colonists
+thought free, and only they could fix the limit to their claims.  But
+many considerations made him refuse to despair of the empire.  His
+intensely human view of politics led him to put more trust in the bonds
+of kindred and affection than in constitutional forms.  He hated the
+petty quibbles of political legists and pedants--their dilemmas, and
+metaphysical distinctions, and catastrophes.  In his opinion the bulk
+of mankind was not excessively curious concerning any theories whilst
+they were really happy.  But perhaps his political optimism depended
+most on his belief that institutions, as living things, were
+indefinitely adaptable, and that the logic of life and progress
+naturally overcame all opposing arguments.  In his ideal state there
+was room for many mansions, and he did not speak of disaster when
+American colonists proposed to build according to designs not ratified
+in Westminster.
+
+I have dwelt on the views of Burke because here, as in Indian affairs,
+he was the first of British {4} statesmen to recognize what was implied
+in the empire, and because his views still stand.  But his
+contemporaries failed utterly, either to see the danger as he saw it,
+or to meet it as he bade them meet it.  Save Chatham, they had no
+understanding of provincial opinion; in their political methods they
+were corrupt individualists, and their general equipment in imperial
+politics was contemptibly inadequate.
+
+After the loss of the American colonies, the government in England
+contrived for a time to evade the problems and responsibilities of
+colonial empire.  The colonies which remained to England were limited
+in extent and population; and such difficulties as existed were faced,
+not so much by the government in London, as beyond the seas by
+statesmen with local knowledge, like Dorchester.  At the same time, the
+consequences of the French Revolution and the great wars drew to
+themselves the attention of all active minds.  Under these
+circumstances imperial policy lost much of its prestige, and imperial
+problems either vanished or were evaded.  It was a period of "crown
+colony" administration.[2]  The connexion, as it was called, was
+maintained through oligarchic {5} institutions, strictly controlled
+from Westminster; local officials were selected from little groups of
+semi-aristocrats, more English than the home government itself; and the
+only policy which recommended itself to a nation, which still lacked
+both information and imagination, was to try no rash constitutional
+experiments, and to conciliate colonial opinion by economic favours and
+low taxation.
+
+Yet the old contradiction between British ascendancy and colonial
+autonomy could not for long be ignored; and as in the early nineteenth
+century a new colonial empire arose, greater and more diversified than
+the old, the problem once more recurred, this time in Canada.  It is
+not the purpose of this book to discuss the earlier stages of the
+Canadian struggle.  The rebellions under Mackenzie in the West and
+Papineau in the East were abnormal and pathological episodes, in
+considering which the attention is easily diverted from the essential
+questions to exciting side issues and personal facts.  In any case,
+that chapter in Canadian history has received adequate attention.[3]
+But after Colborne's firmness had repressed the {6} armed risings, and
+Durham's imperious dictatorship had introduced some kind of order,
+there followed in Canada a period of high constitutional importance, in
+which the old issue was frankly faced, both in England and in Canada,
+almost in the very terms that Burke had used.  It is not too much to
+say that the fifteen years of Canadian history which begin with the
+publication, in 1839, of _Durham's Report_, are the most important in
+the history of the modern British empire; and that in them was made the
+experiment on the success of which depended the future of that empire.
+
+These years are the more instructive, because in them there are few
+distracting events drawing the attention from the main constitutional
+question.  There were minor points--whether voluntaryism, or the
+principle of church establishment, was best for Canada; what place
+within the empire might safely be conceded to French-Canadian
+nationalism; how Canadian commerce was to relate itself to that of
+Britain and of the United States.  All of these, however, were included
+in, or dominated by, the essential difficulty of combining, in one
+empire, Canadian self-government and British supremacy.
+
+{7}
+
+The phrase, responsible government, appears everywhere in the writings
+and speeches of those days with a wearisome iteration.  Yet the
+discussion which hinged on that phrase was of primary importance.  The
+British government must either discover the kind of self-government
+required in the greater dependencies, the _modus vivendi_ to be
+established between the local and the central governments, and the seat
+of actual responsibility, or cease to be imperial.  Under four
+governors-general[4] the argument proceeded, and it was not until 1854
+that Elgin, in his departure from Canada, was able to assure the
+British government that the question had been for the time settled.
+
+The essay which follows will describe the character of the political
+community within which the question was raised; the fortunes and policy
+of the governors-general concerned in the discussion; the modifications
+introduced into British political thought by the Canadian agitation;
+and the consequences, in England and Canada, of the firm establishment
+of colonial self-government.
+
+
+
+[1] Burke, _Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol_.
+
+[2] Sir C. P. Lucas, _Introduction to Lord Durham's Report_, p. 266.
+
+[3] Its latest statement may be found in Sir C. P. Lucas's admirable
+edition of _Lord Durham's Report_, Oxford, 1912.
+
+[4] I omit from my reckoning the brief and unimportant tenure of office
+by the Earl Cathcart, who filled a gap between Metcalfe's retirement
+and Elgin's arrival.
+
+
+
+
+{8}
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY.
+
+To understand the political evolution of Canada it is essential to
+begin with a study of the elements of Canadian society.  Canadian
+constitutionalists would have written to better purpose, had they
+followed the example of the Earl of Durham, in whose _Report_ the
+concluding practical suggestions develop naturally from the vivid
+social details which occupy its earlier pages, and raise it to the
+level of literature.  In pioneering communities there is no such thing
+as the constitution, or politics, _per se_; and the relation between
+the facts, sordid and mean as they often are, of the life of the
+people, and the growth of institutions and political theories, is
+fundamental.
+
+Canadian society, in 1839 and long afterwards, was dominated by the
+physical characteristics of the seven hundred miles of country which
+stretched from Quebec to the shores of Lake Huron, with {9} its long
+water-front and timid expansion, north and south; its forests
+stubbornly resisting the axes of the settlers; its severe extremities
+of heat and cold; the innumerable inconveniences inflicted by its
+uncultivated wastes on those who first invaded it; and the imperfect
+lines of land communication which multiplied all distances in Canada at
+least four-fold.  It was perhaps this sense of distance, and difficulty
+of locomotion, which first impressed the settler and the visitor.  To
+begin with, the colony was, for practical purposes, more than a month's
+distance from the centre of government.  Steam was gradually making its
+way, and the record passage by sailing ship, from Quebec to Portsmouth,
+had occupied only eighteen days and a half,[1] but sails were still the
+ordinary means of propulsion, and the average length of voyage of 237
+vessels arriving at Quebec in 1840 was well over forty days.[2]  To the
+immigrant, however, the voyage across the Atlantic was the least of his
+troubles; for the internal communications of Canada left much to be
+desired.  The assistance {10} of railway transportation might be
+entirely ignored,--as late as 1847 only twenty-two miles of railway
+lines had been laid and worked.[3]  There was, of course, during the
+open season, the wonderful passage by river and lake into the heart of
+the continent; although the long winter months broke into the
+regularity of the traffic by water, and the St. Lawrence rapids added
+to the traveller's difficulties and expenses.  Even the magic of a
+governor-general's wand could not dispel the inconveniences of this
+simplest of Canadian routes.  "I arrived here on Thursday week,"
+grumbled Poulett Thomson, writing from Toronto in 1839.  "The journey
+was bad enough; a portage to Lachine; then the steamboat to the
+Cascades, twenty-four miles further; then road again (if road it can be
+called) for sixteen miles; then steam to Cornwall forty miles; then
+road, twelve miles; then, by a change of steamers on to Lake Ontario to
+Kingston, and thence here.  I slept one night on the road, and two on
+board the steamers.  Such, as I have described it, is the boasted
+navigation of the St. Lawrence!"[4]  For military purposes there was
+the alternative route, up the Ottawa to Bytown, {11} and thence by the
+Rideau military canal to Kingston and the Lakes.  On land, progress was
+much more complicated, for even the main road along the river and lake
+front was in shamefully bad condition, more especially when autumn
+passed into winter, or when spring once more loosened up the roads.
+There is a quite unanimous chorus of condemnation from all--British,
+Americans, and Canadians.  One lively traveller in 1840 protested that
+on his way from Montreal, he was compelled to walk at the carriage side
+for hours, ankle-deep in mud, with the reins in his hands, and that,
+with infinite fatigue to both man and beast, he accomplished sixty
+miles in two days--a wonderful performance.[5]  In the very heart of
+the rebellion, W. L. Mackenzie seems to have found the roads fighting
+against him, for he speaks of the march along Yonge Street as over
+"thirty or forty miles of the worst roads in the world"; and attributes
+part of the disheartening of his men to what one may term
+mud-weariness.[6]  Local tradition still remembers with a sense of
+wonder that Sydenham, eager to return to his work in Lower Canada, once
+travelled by sleigh {12} the 360 miles from Toronto to Montreal in
+thirty-six hours.
+
+Off the main routes, roads degenerated into corduroy roads, and these
+into tracks, and even "blazed trails "; while, as for bridges, cases
+were known where the want of them had kept settlers who were living
+within three miles of a principal town, from communicating with it for
+days at a time.[7]  And, as the roads grew rougher, Canadian conditions
+seemed to the stranger to assert themselves more and more offensively,
+animate and inanimate nature thrusting man back on the bare elements of
+things.  The early descriptions of the colony are crowded with pictures
+of wretched immigrants, mosquito-bitten, or, in winter, half dead with
+cold, struggling through mud and swamp, to find the land whither they
+had come to evade the miseries of civilization, confronting them with
+the squalor and pains of nature.  Far into the Victorian era Canada,
+whether French or British, was a dislocated community, with settlements
+set apart from each other as much by mud, swamp, and wood-land, as by
+distance.  Her population, more particularly in the west, was engaged
+not with political ideals, but in an incessant struggle {13} with the
+forests; and the little jobs, which enabled the infant community to
+build a bridge or repair a road at the public expense, must naturally
+have seemed to the electors more important items of a political
+programme than responsible government or abolition of the clergy
+reserves.  No doubt, in the older towns and cities, the efforts of the
+earlier settlers had gained for their sons leisure and a chance of
+culture; yet even in Toronto, the wild lands were but a few miles
+distant, and, as Richardson saw it, London was "literally a city of
+stumps, many of the houses being still surrounded by them."
+
+Straggling along these 700 miles, although here and there concentrated
+into centres like Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, Kingston, and
+Toronto, was a population numbering well over a million, which from its
+internal divisions, its differences in origin and disposition, and its
+relation to the British government, constituted the central problem at
+the time in British colonial politics.  The French population formed,
+naturally, the chief difficulty.  Thanks to the terms of the surrender
+in 1763, and the policy of Dorchester, a unit which called itself _la
+nation Canadienne_ had been formed, _nationalite_ had become a force in
+Lower {14} Canada, imperfectly appreciated even by the leaders of the
+progressive movement in England and Western Canada.  In the Eastern
+townships, and in Quebec and Montreal, flourishing and highly organized
+British societies existed.  The Rebellion had found sturdy opponents in
+the British militia from the townships, and the constitutional
+societies of Quebec and Montreal expressed, in innumerable resolutions
+and addresses, the British point of view.  But Lower Canada was for
+practical purposes a French unit, Roman Catholic in religion, and, in
+structure, semifeudal.  In the cities, the national self-consciousness
+of the French was most conspicuously present; and leaders like
+Papineau, La Fontaine, and Cartier proved the reality of French culture
+and political skill.  Below the higher classes, Durham and Metcalfe
+noticed that in Lower Canada the facilities given by the church for
+higher education produced a class of smaller professional men, from
+whose number the ordinary politicians and agitators were drawn.  To the
+church they owed their entrance into the world of ideas; but apparently
+they were little more loyal to the clergy than they were to Britain.
+"I am led to believe," wrote Metcalfe in 1845, "that the influence of
+the clergy is not predominant, {15} among the French-Canadian people,
+and that the avocat, the notary, and the doctor, generally disposed to
+be political demagogues, and most of them hostile to the British
+government, are the parties who exercise the greatest influence.
+Whatever power the clergy might have acting along with these
+demagogues, it would, I fear, be slight when exercised in opposition to
+them."[8]
+
+These active, critical, political groups were not, however,
+representative of French Canada.  So long as their racial pride
+remained unhurt, the French community was profoundly conservative.  It
+was noticed that the rebels of 1837 and 1838 had received no support
+from the Catholic priesthood; and in a country where the reverence for
+that ancient form of Christianity was, in spite of Metcalfe's opinion
+to the contrary, profound, it was unlikely that any anti-religious
+political movement could make much permanent headway.  Devoted to their
+religion, and controlled more especially in education by their
+priests,[9] the _habitants_ formed the peculiar people of the American
+continent.  Education flourished not at all among {16} the rank and
+file.  Arthur Buller found the majority of those whom he met either not
+able to write, or able to write little more than their names.[10]  The
+women, he said, were the active, bustling portion of the _habitants_,
+thanks to the admirable and yet inexpensive training to be had in the
+nunneries.  As for the men, they farmed and lived as their fathers had
+done before them.  They cleared their land, or tilled it where it had
+been cleared, and thought little of improvement or change.  M'Taggart,
+whose work on the Rideau Canal, made him an expert in Canadian labour,
+much preferred French Canadians to the Irish as labourers, and thought
+them "kind, tender-hearted, very social, no way very ambitious, nor
+industrious, rarely speculative."[11]  To the Canadian commonwealth,
+the French population furnished a few really admirable statesmen; a
+dominant and loyal church; some groups of professional men,
+disappointed and discontented sons of humble parents, too proud to sink
+to the level of their uninstructed youth, and without the opportunity
+of rising higher; and a great mass of men who hewed wood and drew
+water, not for a master, but for themselves, {17} submissive to the
+church, and well-disposed, but ignorant, and at the mercy of any clever
+demagogue who might raise the cry of nationalism.  Still, when
+nationality remained unchallenged, the French-Canadians were at least
+what, till recently, they remained, the most purely conservative
+element in Canada.
+
+The second element, in point of stability and importance, in the
+Canadian population was that of the United Empire Loyalists, the
+remnants of a former British supremacy in the United States.  They had
+proved their steadfastness and courage by their refusal to accept the
+rules of the new republic; and their arrival in Canada gave that
+country an aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon origin to counterbalance that of
+the seigneurs on the Lower St. Lawrence.  The men had in many cases
+been trained to arms in the revolutionary war, and they served a second
+and perhaps a harder apprenticeship in the Canadian forests.  They had
+formed the centre of resistance to American attacks in the war of 1812.
+Their sons and grandsons had once more exhibited the hereditary loyalty
+of the group, in resisting the rebels of 1837-38; and Metcalfe, who was
+their best friend among the governors of the United Provinces, justly
+{18} looked on them as the most conspicuous examples of devotion to
+connection with the British Empire, and loyal subjection to the
+Crown.[12]  Robinsons, Cartwrights, Ryersons, and a score of other
+well-known families, proved, generation after generation, by their
+sustained public capacity, how considerably the struggle for existence,
+operating on sound human material, may raise the average of talent and
+energy.  The tendency of the Loyalists to conservatism was, under the
+circumstances, only natural.  Their possession, for a time, of all the
+places in Upper Canada which were worth holding, was the consequence of
+their priority in tenure, and of their conspicuous pre-eminence in
+political ingenuity.  Critics of a later date forgot, and still forget,
+in their wholesale indictment of the Family Compact, that the Loyalist
+group called by that name had earned their places by genuine ability.
+If, like other aristocracies, they found it hard to mark the precise
+moment for retirement before the rise of democracy, their excuse must
+be found in their consciousness of high public spirit and their
+hereditary talents for administration.
+
+Politically and socially one may include among the Loyalists the
+half-pay officers, from both {19} navy and army, whom the great peace
+after Waterloo sent to Canada, as to the other colonies; and certain
+men of good family, Talbots or Stricklands, who held fast by English
+conservative tradition, played, where they could, the English gentleman
+abroad, and incidentally exhibited no mean amount of public spirit.
+Conspicuous among these was Colonel Talbot, who had come to Upper
+Canada with Simcoe in 1793, and became there an erratic but energetic
+instrument of empire.  "For sixteen years," says Mrs. Jameson, writing
+with a pardonably feminine thrill after a visit to the great man, "he
+saw scarce a human being, except a few boors and blacks employed in
+clearing and logging his land; he himself assumed the blanket coat and
+axe, slept upon the bare earth, cooked three meals a day for twenty
+woodsmen, cleaned his own boots, washed his own linen, milked his cows,
+churned the butter, and made and baked the bread."[13]  Yet, as
+Strickland confesses, in his _Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West_, there
+were few Talbots.  "Many high-spirited gentlemen," he says, "were
+tempted by the grants of land bestowed on them by the government, which
+made actual settlement one of the conditions of {20} the grant.  It
+followed, as a matter of course, that the majority of these persons
+were physically disqualified for such an undertaking, a fact which many
+deserted farms in the rear townships of the county in which I reside
+painfully indicate."[14]
+
+French Canadians and United Empire Loyalists constituted the stable
+factors in Canadian public life; but the process of immigration, which
+the years of rebellion checked only for a time, had by 1840 prepared
+another element, and that the most incalculable and disturbing both
+socially and politically.  Indeed the real problem of Canadian public
+life lay simply in the influence of the humbler class of immigrants on
+existing administration and opinion.  It was natural for the other
+settlers and the governing class to regard the larger part of the new
+population as beneath the political level.  The very circumstances of
+the emigrating process carried with them a suggestion of degradation.
+Durham had embodied in his _Report_ the more flagrant examples of the
+horrors of emigration;[15] but a later review, written in 1841, proves
+that many of the worst features of the old system still continued.
+There were still the privations, the {21} filth and the diseases of
+this northern "middle passage," the epidemics and disorders inflicted
+on the Canadian community as ship-load after ship-load of poor wretches
+passed ashore at Quebec.  On land their sorrows were renewed, for many
+of them were paupers, and there was still no organized effort to
+introduce the labourer to those who required his labour.  More than one
+half of the 12,000 who, according to the report of 1841, passed in that
+year through Bytown locks, were considered objects of charity.  Many of
+them were common labourers with families, men who had little but their
+physical strength as capital for the new venture; and cholera, typhus,
+or smallpox had in many cases reduced even that to the vanishing point.
+More especially among the Irish settlers, who, in these years and
+later, fled in dismay from the distresses of Ireland, the misery
+continued long after the first struggle.  M'Taggart, who had his
+prejudices, but who had unusually good opportunities for observation,
+thought that a tenth of the poorer Irish settlers died during their
+first two years in the country.  He found them clumsy at their work,
+accustomed to the spade and shovel, not to the axe, and maiming
+themselves most fearfully, or even killing themselves, in their {22}
+experiments in clearing the ground.[16]  Of all who came, the
+immigration agents thought the Lowland Scots and the Ulster Irishmen
+the best, and while the poorer class of settler lagged behind in the
+cities of Lower Canada, these others generally pushed on to find a hard
+earned living among the British settlers in the Upper Province.  Some
+of them found their way to the United States.  Others, faced with the
+intolerable delays of the land administration, took the risk of
+"squatting," that is, settling on wild land without securing a right to
+it--often to find themselves dislodged by a legal owner at the moment
+when their possession _de facto_ seemed established.  The majority
+settled as small farmers in the more frequented districts, or became
+shop-keepers and artisans in the towns.  Politically their position was
+curious.  The Reform Act of 1832 had extended the British franchise,
+but the majority had still no votes; and the immigrants belonged to the
+unenfranchised classes.  The Irish had the additional disability of
+being reckoned disloyal, followers of the great Irish demagogue, and
+disorderly persons until proved otherwise.[17] To government servants
+and {23} the older settlers alike, it seemed perilous to the community
+to share political power with them.  Yet they were British citizens;
+many of them at once became active members of the community through
+their standing as freeholders; the democratic influence of the United
+States told everywhere on their behalf; and even where hard work left
+little time for political discussion, the fact that local needs might
+be assisted by political discussion, and the stout individualism bred
+by the life of struggle in village, town, and country, forced the new
+settlers to interest themselves in politics.  Many of the new arrivals
+had some pretensions to education--more especially those from Scotland.
+Indeed it is worthy of note that from the Scottish stream of
+immigration there came not only the earlier agitators, Gourlay and
+Mackenzie, but, at a later date, George Brown, the first great
+political journalist in Canada, Alexander Mackenzie and Oliver Mowat,
+future leaders of Canadian liberalism, and John A. Macdonald, whose
+imperialism never lacked a tincture of traditional Scottish caution.
+The new immigrants were unlikely to challenge the social supremacy of
+the old aristocracy, but they formed so large an accession to the
+population that they could not {24} long remain without political
+power.  They must either be granted the rights of numerical majority or
+be exasperated into destructive agitation.
+
+It is not altogether easy to describe the community or chain of
+communities created out of these diverse elements.  Distance, climatic
+difficulties, and racial misunderstandings weakened the sense of unity
+in the colony; and the chief centres of population were still too young
+and unformed to present to the visitor the characteristics of a
+finished civilization.
+
+Everywhere, but more especially in the west, the town population showed
+remarkable increases.  Montreal, which had, in 1790, an estimated
+population of 18,000, had almost trebled that number by 1844; in the
+same interval, Quebec increased from 14,000 to nearly 36,000.  In the
+Upper Province, immigration and natural increase produced an even more
+remarkable expansion.  In the twenty-two years between 1824 and 1846,
+Toronto grew from a village of 1,600 inhabitants to be a flourishing
+provincial capital of 21,000.  In the census of 1848, the population of
+Hamilton was returned as 9,889; that of Kingston as 8,416; Bytown, the
+future capital, had 6,275 inhabitants; while a score of villages such
+as London, Belleville, {25} Brockville, and Cobourg had populations
+varying from one to four thousand.[18]
+
+Social graces and conveniences had, however, hardly kept pace with the
+increase in numbers.  The French region was, for better or worse,
+homogeneous, and Quebec formed a social centre of some distinction,
+wherein the critical M'Taggart noted less vanity and conceit than was
+to be met with in the country.[19]  But further west, British observers
+were usually something less than laudatory.  The municipal franchise in
+the cities of Lower Canada, being confined to the possessors of real
+estate, shut out from civic management the more enterprising trading
+classes, with the natural result that mismanagement and inefficiency
+everywhere prevailed.  In Quebec there was no public lighting, the
+community bought unwholesome water from carters who took it from the
+St. Lawrence, and the gaol--a grim but useful test of the civilization
+of the place--not merely afforded direct communication between the
+prisoners and the street, but was so ill ordered that, according to a
+clerical authority, "they who happily are {26} pronounced innocent by
+law may consider it a providential deliverance if they escape in the
+meantime the effects of evil communication and example."[20]  While
+Montreal had a better water supply, it remained practically in darkness
+during the winter nights, through the lapsing in 1836 of its earlier
+municipal organization.[21]  Strangers were said to find the provincial
+self-importance of its inhabitants irritating.  At the other extreme of
+the province, Mrs. Jameson found fault with the citizens of Toronto for
+their social conventionalism.  "I did not expect to find here," she
+wrote, "in the new capital of a new country, with the boundless forests
+within half a mile of us on almost every side, concentrated as it were,
+the worst evils of our old and most artificial social system at home,
+with none of its _agremens_, and none of its advantages.  Toronto is
+like a fourth or fifth rate provincial town with the pretensions of a
+capital city."[22]
+
+Everywhere, if contemporary prints of the cities may be taken as
+evidence, the military element was very prominent, and the tone was
+distinctly English.  The leaders of society looked {27} to London for
+their fashions, and men like John Beverley Robinson moved naturally, if
+a little stiffly, in the best English circles when they crossed to
+England.  It was, indeed, a straining after a social standard not quite
+within the reach of the ambitious provincial, which produced the
+conventionalism and dullness, noticed by British visitors in Canadian
+towns.
+
+In the smaller towns or villages where pretensions were fewer, and
+society accepted itself for that which it really was, there was much
+rude plenty and happiness.  An Ayrshire settler writing in 1845, after
+an orthodox confession that Canada, like Scotland, "groaned under the
+curse of the Almighty," described his town, Cobourg, as a place where
+wages were higher and prices lower than at home.  "A carpenter," he
+writes, "asks 6s. sterling for a day's work (without board), mason 8s.,
+men working by the day at labourer's work 2s. and board, 4s. a day in
+harvest.  Hired men by the month, 10 and 11 dollars in summer, and 7
+and 8 in winter, and board.  Women, 3 and 4 dollars per month, not much
+higher than at home.  Provisions are cheaper here than at home.  Wheat,
+4s. per bushel; oats 1s. 3d. and 1s. 6d per bushel; potatoes, 1s. 6d.;
+beef and pork, 3d. and 4d. per {28} lb.; butter, 6d. per lb.; cheese,
+6d.; tobacco, 1s. per lb.; whisky, 1s. 6d. per gallon; apples, 1s. 6d.
+per bushel; tea from 2s. 6d. to 4s., and sugar, 6d. per lb....  A man
+by honest industry here may live comfortably and support himself
+decently--I can, I know--and save something too.  We live much better
+here than at home."[23]
+
+More especially in the smaller towns, the externals must have presented
+a steady and dull monotony--the jail and court-house, three or four
+churches, a varying number of mean-looking stores including a liberal
+proportion of taverns, and the irregular rows of private houses.
+
+If lack of efficient public spirit, and social monotony, marked the
+towns, the settlers in the bush were hardly likely to show a vigorous
+communal spirit.  They had their common life, building, clearing,
+harvesting in local "bees," primitive assemblies in which work,
+drinking, and recreation welded the primitive community together, and
+the "grog-boss" became for a time the centre of society.[24]  But the
+average day of the farmer was solitary, and, except where politics
+meant {29} bridges, roads, and material gifts, his outlook was limited
+by the physical strain of his daily life, and work and sleep followed
+too closely on each other's track to leave time for other things.
+M'Taggart has a quaint picture of a squatter, which must have been
+typical of much within the colony in 1839.  He found the settler, Peter
+Armstrong, "in a snug little cabin, with a wife, two children, some
+good sleek grey cats, and a very respectable-looking dog.  He had but
+few wants, his health was aye good; there was spring water plenty just
+aside him, and enough to make a good fire in winter, while with what he
+caught, shot, gathered and grew in the yard, he lived well enough."
+His relation to the state, secular and ecclesiastical, is best gauged
+by his admission that when it came to marriage, he and his
+wife--Scottish like himself--"just took ane anither's word on't."[25]
+Crime, on the whole, considering the elements out of which the
+community had been formed, was surprisingly little in evidence.[26]  In
+certain regions it had a natural fertility.  Wherever the white trader
+met the Indian, or rival {30} fur-traders strove in competition, the
+contact between the vices of the two communities bred disorder, and
+Canadian trading success was too often marked by the indiscriminate
+ruin of the Indians through drink and disease.[27]  At Bytown, where
+the lumberers gathered to vary their labours in the bush with
+dissipation, the community "was under the control of a very dangerous
+class of roughs, who drank, gambled, and fought continually, and were
+the terror of all well-disposed citizens."[28]  Drunkenness seems to
+have been a very prevalent vice, probably because whisky was so cheaply
+produced; and where self-restraint was weak, and vast numbers of the
+poorest classes from Britain formed the basis of society, drunkenness
+was accompanied by bestial violence, or even death, in sudden and
+dreadful forms.[29]  But it was the verdict of a Scottish clergyman,
+who played his part in pioneer work round Perth, that "considering the
+mixture of worthless persons, which our population formerly contained,
+it was astonishing how few crimes had been committed."
+
+{31}
+
+Three powerful influences helped to shape the young Canadian community
+and to give it some appearance of unity--education, religion, and
+politics.  It now becomes necessary to examine these factors in
+Canadian existence in the years prior to, and immediately after, the
+visit of Durham to the colony.  In religion and education, however, our
+analysis must concern Upper and British Canada rather than the French
+region.  In the latter the existence and dominance of the Catholic
+church greatly simplified matters.  Thanks to the eighteenth century
+agreements with the French, Roman Catholicism had been established on
+very favourable terms in Lower Canada, and dominated that region to the
+exclusion of practically all other forms of religious life.  As has
+already been shown, the church controlled not only religion but
+education.  If the women of the Lower Province were better educated
+than the men, it was because the convent schools provided adequately
+for female education.  If higher education was furnished in
+superabundance, again the church was the prime agent, as it was also in
+the comparative neglect of the rank and file; and comment was made by
+Durham's commissioners on the fact that the priesthood resented
+anything which weakened {32} its control over the schools.  This
+Catholic domination had a very notable influence in politics, for,
+after the first outbursts of nationality were over, the Catholic laity
+in politics proved themselves a steadily conservative force.  La
+Fontaine, the first great French leader who knew how to co-operate with
+the British Canadians, was only by accident a progressive, and escaped
+from politics when the growth of Upper Canada radicalism began to draw
+him into dangerous religious questions.[30]  But in the Upper Province,
+education and religion did not show this stationary and consistent
+character, and played no little part in preparing for and accentuating
+the political agitation.
+
+Education had a history rather of good intentions than of brilliant
+achievement.  At different times in the earlier nineteenth century,
+schemes for district grammar schools and general common schools were
+prepared, and sums of money, unhappily not in increasing amounts, were
+voted for educational purposes.  But, apart from the doubtful
+enthusiasm of the legislators, the education {33} of the British
+settlers was hampered by an absence of suitable teachers, and the
+difficulty of letting children, who were often the only farm assistants
+at hand, attend school for any length of time.  According to good
+evidence, half of the true school population never saw the schools, and
+the other half could give only seven months in the year to their
+training.[31]
+
+In most country districts, the settlers had to trust to luck both for
+teachers and for schoolhouses, and beginnings which promised better
+things too often ended in blank failure.  There is both humour and
+romance in these early struggles after education.  In Ekfried, by the
+Thames, in Western Canada, there had been no school, till the arrival
+of an honest Scot, Robert Campbell, and the backwardness of the season
+in 1842, gave the settlement a schoolmaster, and the new settler some
+ready money.  "I get a dollar and a half, a quarter per scholar," he
+wrote to his friends in Scotland, "and seeing that the wheat did
+little, I am glad I did engage, for we got plenty of provisions."[32]
+In Perth, a more ambitious start {34} met with a tragic end.  The
+Scottish clergyman, appointed to the district by government, opened a
+school at the request of the inhabitants.  All went well, and a
+generous government provided fifty pounds by way of annual stipend;
+until a licentiate of the Anglican Church arrived.  By virtue of the
+standing of his church, the newcomer took precedence of the Scottish
+minister and displaced him as educational leader.  But, says the Scot,
+with an irony, unchristian but excusable, "the school under the
+direction of my clerical successor, soon after died of a consumption,
+and the school-house has been for sometime empty."[33]
+
+The main difficulty in education was to provide an adequate supply of
+competent teachers.  Complaints against those who offered their
+services were almost universal.  According to a Niagara witness, not
+more than one out of ten teachers in the district was competent to
+instruct his pupils even in the humblest learning,[34] and the
+commissioners who reported to the government of Upper Canada in 1839
+both confirmed these {35} complaints, and described the root of the
+offence when they said, "In this country, the wages of the working
+classes are so high, that few undertake the office of schoolmaster,
+except those who are unable to do anything else; and hence the
+important duties of education are often entrusted to incompetent and
+improper persons.  The income of the schoolmaster should, at least, be
+equal to that of a common labourer."[35]  In so precarious a position,
+it was unfortunate that sectarian and local feeling should have
+provoked a controversy at the capital of the western district.  Much as
+the education of the province owed to John Strachan, he did infinite
+harm by involving the foundation of a great central school, Upper
+Canada College, and of the provincial university, in a bitter religious
+discussion.  It was not until the public capacity and unsectarian
+enthusiasm of Egerton Ryerson were enlisted in the service of
+provincial education, that Upper Canada emerged from her period of
+failure and struggle.
+
+Apart from provincial and governmental efforts, there were many
+voluntary experiments, of which Strachan's famous school at Cornwall,
+was perhaps the most notable.  After all, the colonists were {36}
+Britons, many of them trained in the Scottish system of national
+democratic education, and wherever the struggle for existence slackened
+down, they turned to plan a Canadian system as like as possible to that
+which they had left.  Kingston was notably enterprising in this
+respect.  Not only were there schools for the more prosperous classes,
+but attempts were made to provide cheap education for the poor, at
+first supported by the voluntary contributions of ladies, and then by a
+committee representative of the best Anglican and Presbyterian
+sentiment.  Three of these schools were successfully conducted at very
+small charges, and, in certain cases, the poorest received education
+free.[36]  In higher education the period of union in Canada exhibited
+great activity.  The generous provision made for a King's College in
+Toronto had been for a long time stultified by the ill-timed sectarian
+spirit of the Bishop of Toronto; but a more reasonable temper prevailed
+after the Rebellion, and the second governor-general of the united
+provinces, Sir Charles Bagot, spent much of his short time of service
+in securing professors and seeing the provincial university
+launched.[37] {37} At the same time, the two other Canadian colleges of
+note, M'Gill University and Queen's College, came into active
+existence.  In October, 1839, after many years of delay, Montreal saw
+the corner-stone of the first English and Protestant College in Lower
+Canada laid,[38] and in the winter of 1841-2, Dr. Liddell sailed from
+Scotland to begin the history of struggle and gallant effort which has
+characterized Queen's College, Kingston, from first to last.  It is
+perhaps the most interesting detail of early university education in
+Canada, that the Presbyterian College started in a frame house, with
+two professors, one representing Arts and one Theology, and with some
+twenty students, very few of whom, however, were "fitted to be
+matriculated."[39]
+
+It is well to remember, in face of beginnings so irregular, and even
+squalid, that deficiencies in Canadian college education had been made
+good by the English and Scottish universities, and that Canadian higher
+education was from the outset assisted by the genuine culture and
+learning of the British colleges; for the main sources of university
+inspiration in British North America {38} were Oxford and Cambridge,
+Glasgow and Edinburgh.[40]
+
+There were, of course, other less formal modes of education.  When once
+political agitation commenced, the press contributed not a little to
+the education of the nation, and must indeed be counted one of the
+chief agencies of information, if not of culture.  Everywhere, from
+Quebec to Hamilton, enterprising politicians made their influence felt
+through newspapers.  The period prior to the Rebellion had seen
+Mackenzie working through his _Colonial Advocate_; and the cause of
+responsible government soon found saner and abler exponents in Francis
+Hincks and George Brown.  At every important centre, one, two, or even
+more news-sheets, not without merit, were maintained; and the secular
+press was reinforced by such educational enterprise as the Dougalls
+attempted in the _Montreal Witness_, or by church papers like the
+Methodist _Christian Guardian_.[41] {39} Nothing, perhaps, is more
+characteristic of this phase of Canadian intellectual growth than the
+earlier volumes of the _Witness_, which played a part in Canada similar
+to that of the Chambers' publications in Scotland.  The note struck was
+deeply sober and moral; the appeal was made to the working and middle
+classes who in Canada as in Scotland were coming into possession of
+their heritage; and if the intellectual level attained was never very
+high, an honest attempt was being made to educate the shop-keepers and
+farmers of Canada into wholesome national ideals.
+
+Little literary activity seems to have existed outside of politics and
+the newspapers.  For a time cheap reprints from America assisted
+Britons in Canada with their forbidden fruits, but government at last
+intervened.  It is a curious fact that this perfectly just and natural
+prohibition had a most unfortunate effect in checking the reading
+habits of the colony.[42]  In the larger towns there {40} were
+circulating libraries, and presumably immigrants occasionally brought
+books with them; but newspaper advertisements suggest that school
+books, and the like, formed almost the only stock-in-trade of the
+book-shop; and the mercurial Major Richardson, after agitating the
+chief book-sellers in Canada on behalf of one of his literary ventures,
+found that his total sales amounted to barely thirty copies, and even
+an auction sale at Kingston discovered only one purchaser, who limited
+his offer to sevenpence halfpenny.  In speaking, then, of the Canadian
+political community in 1839, one cannot say, as Burke did of the
+Americans in 1775, that they were a highly educated or book-reading
+people.  Their politicians, progressive and conservative alike, might
+have shortened, simplified, and civilized certain stages in their
+political agitations, had they been able more fully to draw on the
+authority of British political experience; and their provincialism
+would not have thrust itself so disagreeably on the modern student, had
+Locke, Rousseau, Burke, and the greater leaders in modern political
+science, been household names in early Victorian Canada.
+
+As with other young communities, the church and religion had their part
+to play in the shaping {41} of modern Canada.  And yet it would be
+impossible to attribute to any of the Canadian churches an influence so
+decisive as that which religion exercised through Presbyterianism in
+the creation of the Scottish democracy, or through Independency in
+moulding the New England character.  For while the question of a
+religious establishment proved one of the most exciting issues in
+politics, influences more truly religious suffered a natural
+degradation and diminution through their over-close association with
+secular affairs.
+
+Once again the situation in Lower Canada was simplified by the
+conditions prevailing among the French Canadians.  For Lower Canada was
+whole-heartedly Catholic, and the Canadian branch of the Roman Church
+had its eulogy pronounced in no uncertain fashion by the Earl of
+Durham, who, after praising its tolerant spirit, summed up the services
+of the priesthood in these terms: "The Catholic priesthood of this
+Province have, to a remarkable degree, conciliated the good-will of
+persons of all creeds; and I know of no parochial clergy in the world,
+whose practice of all the Christian virtues, and zealous discharge of
+their clerical duties, is more universally admired, and has been
+productive of more beneficial consequences.  {42} Possessed of incomes
+sufficient, and even large, according to the notions entertained in the
+country, and enjoying the advantage of education, they have lived on
+terms of equality and kindness with the humblest and least instructed
+inhabitants of the rural districts.  Intimately acquainted with the
+wants and characters of their neighbours, they have been the promoters
+and dispensers of charity, and the effectual guardians of the morals of
+the people; and in the general absence of any permanent institutions of
+civil government, the Catholic Church has presented almost the only
+semblance of stability and organization, and furnished the only
+effectual support for civilization and order.  The Catholic clergy of
+Lower Canada are entitled to this expression of my esteem, not only
+because it is founded on truth, but because a grateful recognition of
+their eminent services, in resisting the arts of the disaffected, is
+especially due to them from one who has administered the government of
+the Province in these troubled times."[43]
+
+Upper Canada and the British community presented a somewhat different
+picture.  Certain Roman Catholic elements among the Irish and the
+Scottish Highlanders reinforced the ranks of {43} Catholicism, but for
+the greater part Anglicanism and Presbyterianism were the
+ecclesiastical guides of the settlers.  At first, apart from official
+religion, the Church of England appeared in Canada in missionary form,
+and about 1820 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had
+fifteen missionaries in Lower Canada, and seventeen in Upper Canada.
+But under the fostering care of governors like Colborne, and the
+organizing genius of Dr. Strachan, Rector, Archdeacon, and latterly
+Bishop in Toronto, the Anglican Church in Canada became a
+self-dependent unit.  The Bishop of Toronto was able to boast in 1842
+that in his western visitation, which lasted from June till October, he
+had "consecrated two churches and one burial ground, confirmed 756
+persons at twenty-four different stations, and travelled, including his
+journeys for the formation of District Branches of the Church Society,
+upwards of 2,500 miles."[44]  In cities like Toronto and Kingston it
+was on the whole the church of the governing class, and shared in the
+culture and public qualities of that class.  Nor was it negligent of
+the cure of poorer souls, for Anglicans co-operated with Presbyterians
+in the {44} management of the poor schools in Kingston, and in that and
+the other more prominent towns of the province, the English parish
+church system seems to have been transplanted and worked most
+efficiently.  Equal in importance, if not in numbers, Scottish
+Presbyterianism claimed its section of the community.  Down to 1822,
+there were but six organized congregations in Upper and Lower Canada
+connected with the Church of Scotland,[45] but at the first
+Presbyterian Synod held in Canada, in 1831, fourteen ministers and five
+elders gathered at Kingston to represent the Church;[46] and by 1837
+the number of congregations had grown to 37 in Upper Canada, and 14 in
+Lower Canada.  Nor were these weak and struggling efforts.  The
+Scottish Church at Kingston had in 1841 a membership of 350, and an
+average attendance of 800.  Like its Anglican rival, it was simply a
+parish church, and its minister, trained in Edinburgh, as the Anglican
+cleric came naturally from an English college, visited, preached, and
+disciplined according to the rules of Knox and Melville, and
+maintained, perhaps more genuinely than either school or {45} newspaper
+could, an educational influence on his flock not unworthy of the mother
+country.  Here and there the ties, which still remained strong, between
+Canadian settlements and the districts in Scotland whence the settlers
+were drawn, proved useful aids in church extension.  Lanark, in Upper
+Canada, owed its church to the efforts of friends in Lanarkshire, in
+Scotland, who collected no less a sum than L290 for the purpose.[47]
+
+But the religious life of Canada was assisted by another less official
+force, the Methodist Church.  Methodism in its earlier days incurred
+the reproach of being rather American than British, and, in one of his
+most unjustifiable perversions of the truth, Strachan tried to make the
+fact tell against the sect, in his notorious table of ecclesiastical
+statistics.  Undoubtedly there was a stronger American element in the
+Methodist connection than in either of the other churches; and its
+spirit lent itself more readily to American innovations.  Its fervent
+methods drew from the ranks of colder churches the more emotional, and
+being freer and homelier in its ritual, it appealed very directly to a
+rude and half-educated community.  Thus the Methodist preachers made
+{46} rapid headway, more especially in regions untouched by the
+official churches.
+
+In the representative man of early Canadian Methodism, Egerton Ryerson,
+qualities conspicuously British and conservative, appeared.  Through
+him Methodism came forward as the supporter of the British connection
+in the Metcalfe troubles, as through him it may claim some of the glory
+of organizing an adequate system of provincial education.  But, after
+all, the noblest work of the sect was done in informal and irregular
+fashion.  They were the pioneers and _coureurs du bois_ of the British
+province in the religious world.  Perhaps the most genuine tribute paid
+to this earlier phase of Methodism was that of John Beverley Robinson,
+when his fellow Anglicans blamed him in 1842 for granting a plot of
+ground for a Methodist chapel.  "Frequently," he retorted, "in the most
+lonely parts of the wilderness, in townships where a clergyman of the
+Church of England had never been heard, and probably never seen, I have
+found the population assembled in some log building, earnestly engaged
+in acts of devotion, and listening to those doctrines and truths which
+are inculcated in common by most Christian denominations, but which, if
+it had not been for {47} the ministration of dissenting preachers,
+would for thirty years have been but little known, if at all, to the
+greater part of the inhabitants of the interior of Upper Canada."[48]
+Still the Canadian Methodist Church did not occupy so conspicuous a
+place in the official public life of Canada, and in Sydenham's
+Legislative Council of 1841, out of twenty-four members, eight
+represented Anglicanism, eight Presbyterianism, eight Catholicism, and
+Methodism had to find lowlier places for its political leaders.[49]
+
+Hitherto religion has been viewed in its social and spiritual aspects.
+But Canadian history has, with perhaps over-emphasis, selected one
+great controversy as the central point in the religious life of the
+province.  It is not my intention to enter here into the wearisome
+details of the Clergy Reserve question.  But the fight over the
+establishment principle forms an essential factor in the social and
+political life of Canada between 1839 and 1854, the year in which it
+was finally settled.  It is first necessary to discriminate between
+what may be called casual and incidental support to churches in Canada,
+and the main Clergy Reserve {48} fund.  When Dr. Black challenged, in
+the interests of Presbyterianism, certain monies paid to Anglican
+churches in Upper and Lower Canada, he was able to point to direct
+assistance given by the Imperial Parliament to the Anglican Church in
+Canada.  He was told in answer that these grants were temporarily made
+to individuals with whose lives they terminated, and that a pledge had
+been given in 1832 that Britain should be relieved of such
+expenses.[50]  In a similar fashion, when the district of Perth, in
+Upper Canada, was settled by discharged soldiers and emigrants from
+Scotland, "Government offered assistance for the support of a minister,
+_without respect to religious denomination_," and, as a matter of fact,
+the community thus assisted to a clergyman, received, not a minister of
+the Church of Scotland, but one ordained by the Secession Church in
+Scotland--a curious but laudable example of laxity on the part of
+government.[51]
+
+The root and ground of offending lay in the thirty-sixth and following
+clauses of the Constitutional Act of 1791, which proposed to support
+{49} and maintain a Protestant clergy in the provinces by grants of
+land, equal in value to the seventh part of lands granted for other
+purposes.  On the face of it, and interpreted by the clauses which
+follow, the Act seems to bear out the Anglican contention that the
+English Church establishment received an extension to Canada through
+the Act, and that no other church was expected to receive a share.  It
+is true that the legal decision of 1819, and the views of colonial
+secretaries like Glenelg, admitted at least the Scottish Church to a
+portion of the benefits.  But for the purposes of the situation in
+1839, it is merely necessary to say that a British parliament in 1791,
+ignorant of actual colonial conditions, and more especially of the
+curious ecclesiastical developments with which the American colonies
+had modified the British system before 1776, and probably forgetful of
+the claims of the Church of Scotland to parliamentary recognition, had
+given Canada the beginnings of an Anglican Church establishment; and
+that the Anglicans in Canada, and more especially those led by Dr. John
+Strachan, had more than fulfilled the sectarian and monopolist
+intentions of the legislators.
+
+Three schools of opinion formed themselves in {50} the intervening
+years.  First and foremost came the establishment men, mainly Anglican,
+but with a certain Presbyterian following, who claimed to monopolize
+the benefits, such as they were, of the Clergy Reserve funds.  Canada
+as a British colony was bound to support the one or two state churches
+of the mother country; religious inequality was to flourish there as at
+home; dissent was to receive the same stigma and disqualification, and
+the dominant church or churches were to live, not by the efforts of
+their members, but at the expense of all citizens of the state, whether
+Anglican, Presbyterian, or Methodist.  This phase of opinion received
+its most offensive expression from leaders like the Bishop of Toronto.
+To these monopolists, any modification of the Anglican settlement
+seemed a "tyrannical and unjust measure," and they adopted an
+ecclesiastical arrogance towards their fellow-Christians, which did
+much to alienate popular sympathies throughout the province.
+
+At the other extreme was a solid mass of public sentiment which had
+little interest in the ecclesiastical theories of the Bishop of
+Toronto, and which resented alike attempts to convert the provincial
+university into an Anglican college, and the cumbrous and unjust form
+of church establishment, {51} the most obvious evidence of which lay in
+the undeveloped patches of Clergy Reserve land scattered everywhere
+throughout the settlements.  It was the undoubted desire of a majority
+in 1840 that the Clergy Reserve system should be ended, the former
+reserves sold, and the proceeds applied to educational and general
+purposes; a desire which had been registered in the House of Assembly
+on fourteen different occasions since 1826.[52]  The case for the
+voluntary principle in Canada had many exponents, but these words of
+Dr. John Rolph in 1836 express the spirit of the movement in both its
+strength and its weakness: "Instead of making a State provision for any
+one or more churches; instead of apportioning the Clergy Reserves among
+them with a view to promoting Christianity; instead of giving pensions
+and salaries to ministers to make them independent of voluntary
+contributions from the people, I would studiously avoid that policy,
+and leave truth unfettered and unimpeded to make her own conquests....
+The professions of law and physic are well represented in this
+Assembly, and bear ample testimony to the generosity of the people
+towards them.  Will good, pious and evangelical ministers of our holy
+religion be likely to {52} fare worse than the physicians of the body,
+or the agents for our temporal affairs?  Let gospel ministers, as the
+Scriptures say, live by the gospel, and the apostolic maxim that the
+workman is worthy of his hire implies the performance of duty rewarded
+temporarily by those who impose it.  There is no fear that the
+profession will become extinct for want of professors."[53]
+
+Between the extremes, however, there existed a group of moderate
+politicians, represented, in the Upper Province by Baldwin, in the
+Lower by La Fontaine, and among British statesmen apparently by both
+Sydenham and Elgin.  Especially among its Canadian members, this group
+felt keenly the desirability of supporting religion, as it struggled
+through the difficulties inevitably connected with early colonial life.
+But neither Baldwin, who was a devoted Anglican, nor La Fontaine, a
+faithful son of his Church, showed any tinge of Strachan's bitterness
+as they considered the question; and nothing impressed Canadian opinion
+more than did La Fontaine's speech, in a later phase of the Clergy
+Reserve troubles, when he solemnly renounced on behalf of his
+coreligionists any chance of stealing an advantage while the
+Protestants {53} were quarrelling, and when he stated his opinion that
+the endowment belonged to the Protestant clergy, and should be shared
+equally among them.  It was this school of thought---to anticipate
+events by a year or two--which received the sanction of Sydenham's
+statesmanship, and that energetic mind never accomplished anything more
+notable than when, in the face of a strong secularizing feeling, to the
+justification for which he was in no way blind, he repelled the party
+of monopoly, and yet retained the endowment for the Protestant churches
+of Canada.  "The Clergy Reserves," he wrote in a private letter, "have
+been, and are, the great overwhelming grievance--the root of all the
+troubles of the province, the cause of the Rebellion--the never-failing
+watchword at the hustings--the perpetual source of discord, strife, and
+hatred.  Not a man of any party but has told me that the greatest boon
+which could be conferred on the country would be that they should be
+swept into the Atlantic, and that nobody should get them.  My Bill[54]
+has gone through the Assembly by a considerable majority, thirty to
+twenty, and I feel confident that I can get it through the {54} Council
+without the change of a word.  If it is really carried, it is the
+greatest work that ever has been done in this country, and will be of
+more solid advantage to it than all the loans and all the troops you
+can make or send.  It is worth ten unions, and was ten times more
+difficult."[55]
+
+It is a melancholy comment on the ecclesiastical interpretation of
+religion that, ten years later, when the firmly expressed desires of
+all moderate men had given the Bishop of Toronto a good excuse for
+acquiescence in Sydenham's _status quo_, that pugnacious ecclesiastic
+still fought to save as much of the monopoly as could be secured.[56]
+
+With the Clergy Reserve dispute, the region of politics has been
+reached; and, after all, politics furnished the most powerful influence
+in the young Canadian community.  But politics must be taken less in
+the constitutional sense, as has been the custom with Canadian writers,
+and more in the social and human sense.  It is important also to note
+the broad stretches of Canadian existence {55} into which they hardly
+intruded.  Political questions found few exponents among the pioneers
+as they cleared the forests, or gathered lumber for the British market,
+or pushed far to the west and north in pursuit of furs.  Even the
+Rebellion, when news of it reached Strickland and his fellow-settlers
+in the Peterborough country, came to them less as part of a prolonged
+struggle in which they all were taking part, than as an abnormal
+incident, to be ended outright by loyal strength.  They hardly seem to
+have thought that any liberties of theirs were really endangered.  When
+Mackenzie himself complained that instead of entering Toronto with four
+or five thousand men, he found himself at the head of a poor two
+hundred, he does not seem to have realized that, even had his
+fellow-conspirators not mismanaged things, it would still have been
+difficult to keep hard-working settlers keyed up to the pitch of
+revolutionary and abstract doctrines.[57]  There must have been many
+settlers of the temper of the humble Scottish janitor in Queen's
+College, Kingston, who wrote, in the midst of the struggle of parties
+in 1851: "For my part I never trouble my head about one of them.
+Although the polling-house was just across {56} the street, I never
+went near it."[58]  In the cities, however, and along the main lines of
+communication, the interest must have been keen, and the country
+undoubtedly attained its manhood as it struggled towards the solution
+of questions like those of the Clergy Reserves, the financing of the
+colony, the regulation of trade and immigration, and, above all others,
+the definition of responsible government.
+
+Something has already been said of the various political groups in the
+colony, for they corresponded roughly to the different strata of
+settlement--French, Loyalist, and men of the later immigration.  It is
+true, as Sydenham and Elgin pointed out, that the British party names
+hardly corresponded to local divisions--and that these divisions were
+really too petty to deserve the name of parties.  Yet it would be
+foolish to deny the actual existence of the groups, or to refuse to see
+in their turbulence and strife the beginning of national
+self-consciousness, and the first stage in a notable political
+development.
+
+Most conspicuous among the political forces, because the bond of party
+union was for them {57} something deeper than opinion, and must be
+called racial, was the French-Canadian group, with the whole weight of
+_habitant_ support behind it.  From the publication of Lord Durham's
+_Report_, through the Sydenham regime, and down till Sir Charles Bagot
+surrendered to their claims, the French politicians presented an
+unbroken and hostile front to the British community.  Colborne had
+repressed their risings at the point of the bayonet; a Whig government
+had deprived them temporarily of free institutions; Durham--their
+friend after his fashion--had bidden them be absorbed into the greater
+British community; Sydenham came to enforce what Durham had suggested;
+and, with each new check, their pride had grown more stubborn and their
+nationalism more intense.  Bagot, who understood them and whom they
+came to trust, may be allowed to describe their characteristics,
+through the troubled first years of union: "On Lord Sydenham's
+arrival," he wrote to Stanley, "he found the Lower Province deprived of
+a constitution, the legislative functions of the government being
+administered by a special council, consisting of a small number of
+members nominated by the Crown.  A large portion of the people, at
+least those of French origin, prostrate under {58} the effects of the
+Rebellion, overawed by the power of Great Britain, and excluded from
+all share in the government, had resigned themselves to a sullen and
+reluctant submission, or to a perverse but passive resistance to the
+government.  This temper was not improved by the passing of the Act of
+Union.  In this measure, heedless of the generosity of the Imperial
+government, in overlooking their recent disaffection, and giving them a
+free and popular constitution, ... they apprehended a new instrument of
+subjection, and accordingly prepared to resist it.  Lord Sydenham found
+them in this disposition, and despairing, from its early
+manifestations, of the possibility of overcoming or appeasing it,
+before the period at which it would be necessary to put in force the
+Act of Union, he determined upon evincing his indifference to it, and
+upon taking steps to carry out his views, in spite of the opposition of
+the French party....  They have from that time declared and evinced
+their hostility to the Union ... and have maintained a consistent,
+united, and uncompromising opposition to the government which was
+concerned in carrying it into execution."[59]
+
+To describe the French in politics, it has been {59} necessary to
+advance a year or two beyond 1839, for the Rebellion had terminated one
+phase of their political existence, and the characteristics of the next
+phase did not become apparent till the Union Assembly of 1841 and 1842.
+It was indeed an abnormal form of the national and racial question
+which there presented itself.  French Canada found itself represented
+by a party, over twenty in number, the most compact in the House of
+Assembly, and with _la nation Canadienne_ solidly behind them.  In La
+Fontaine, Viger, Morin and others, it had leaders both skilful and
+fully trusted.  Yet the party of the British supremacy quoted Durham
+and others in favour of a plan for the absorption of French Canada in
+the British element; and the same party could recount, with telling
+effect, the past misdeeds, or at least the old suspicions, connected
+with the names of the French leaders.  Misunderstood, and yet half
+excusably misunderstood; self-governing, and yet deprived of many of
+the legitimate consequences and fruits of self-government; without
+places or honours, and yet coherent, passionately French, and
+competently led, the French party stood across the path of Canadian
+peace, menacing, and with a racial rather than a party threat.
+
+{60}
+
+In the Upper Province, the party in possession, the so-called Family
+Compact group, posed as the only friends of Britain.  They had never
+possessed more than an accidental majority in the Lower House, and,
+since Durham's rule, it seemed likely that their old supremacy in the
+Executive and Legislative Councils had come to an end.  Yet as their
+power receded, their language became the more peremptory, and their
+contempt for other groups the more bitter.  One of the most respectable
+of the group, J. S. Cartwright, frankly confessed that he thought his
+fellow-colonists unfit for any extension of self-government "in a
+country where almost universal suffrage prevails, where the great mass
+of the people are uneducated, and where there is but little of that
+salutary influence which hereditary rank and great wealth exercise in
+Great Britain."[60]  Their position had an apparent but unreal
+strength, because they knew that the older type of Colonial official,
+the entire British Conservative party, and the Church of England, at
+home and abroad, supported them.  As late as July, 1839, Arthur, the
+representative of the Crown in Upper Canada, could write thus to his
+government concerning more than half the {61} population under his
+authority: "There is a considerable section of persons who are disloyal
+to the core; reform is on their lips, but separation is in their
+hearts.  These people having for the last two or three years made a
+'responsible government' their watch-word, are now extravagantly elated
+because the Earl of Durham has recommended that measure.  They regard
+it as an unerring means to get rid of all British connection, while the
+Earl of Durham, on the contrary, has recommended it as a measure for
+cementing the existing bond of union with the mother country."[61]
+
+Their programme was precise and consistent.  The influence of a too
+democratic franchise was to be modified by a Conservative upper house,
+and an executive council, chosen not in accordance with popular wishes,
+but from the class--their own--which had so long been dominant in the
+executive.  The British connection depended, in their view, on the
+permanent alliance between their group and whatsoever representative
+the British crown might send to Canada.  French Canadian feeling they
+were prepared to repress as a thing rebellious and un-English, and the
+{62} friends of the French in Upper Canada they regarded very much as a
+South African might the Englishman who should be prepared to strengthen
+his political position by an alliance with the native peoples; although
+events were to prove that, when other elements of self-interest
+dictated a different course, they were not unwilling to co-operate in
+the interests of disorder with the French.  In ecclesiastical affairs,
+they supported the establishment of an Anglican Church in Canada, and
+insulted religion never found more eloquent defenders than did the
+Clergy Reserve establishment at the hands of Sir Allan MacNab, the
+Conservative leader, and his allies.  But events and their own factious
+excesses had broken their power.  They had allowed nothing for the
+possibilities of political education, in a land where the poorest had
+infinite chances of gaining independence.  They scorned democracy at a
+time when nothing else in politics had a stable future; and the country
+naturally distrusted constitutional logicians whose conclusions
+invariably landed them in the sole possession of emoluments and place.
+Sydenham's quick eye foresaw the coming rout, and it was his opinion,
+before the Assembly of 1841 came to make matters certain, that moderate
+men would overturn the {63} sway of old Toryism, and that the wild
+heads under MacNab would stultify themselves by their foolish
+conduct.[62]
+
+In Upper Canada, the Conservative and Family Compact group had to face
+a vigorous Reforming opposition.  It is well, however, after 1838, to
+discriminate between any remnants of the old Mackenzie school, and the
+men under whom Canada was to secure unrestricted self-government.  The
+truth is that the situation up to 1837 had been too abnormal to permit
+the constitutional radicals to show themselves in their true character.
+Mackenzie himself, in the rather abject letter with which he sought
+reinstatement in 1848, admitted the falsity of his old position: "Had I
+seen things in 1837 as I do in 1848, I would have shuddered at the very
+idea of revolt, no matter what our wrongs might have been.  I ought, as
+a Scotsman, to have stood by the government in America to the last;
+exerted any energy I possessed to make it better, more just, more
+perfect; left it for a time, if too oppressive, but never tried, as I
+did, to put it down."[63]  Mackenzie's ideal, discovered {64} by him
+too late to be very useful, was actually that of the Reforming
+Loyalists who refused to indulge in treason in 1837, but who determined
+to secure their ends by peaceful persuasion.  Their leader in public
+affairs was Robert Baldwin, whose career and opinions may be more fitly
+considered at a later point, and Francis Hincks expounded their views
+in his paper _The Examiner_.  They were devoted adherents of the
+Responsible Government school; that is, they desired to have provincial
+cabinets, not simply chosen so that they might not conflict with public
+opinion, but imposed upon the governor by public opinion through its
+representatives in the House of Assembly.  They had for years protested
+against the Clergy Reserves monopoly, and although Baldwin seems always
+to have favoured the retention of some form of assistance to religion,
+the ordinary reformer was vehement for absolute secularization.
+Sydenham when he came, refused to admit that the British party names
+were anything but misnomers in Canada; and yet Hincks was not singular
+among the reformers when he said that he had been in favour of all the
+measures advocated by the British progressives--Catholic Emancipation,
+the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, Abolition of {65} Slavery,
+and Parliamentary Reform.[64]  Their relation to the French was
+curious.  Unlike the French, they were usually strong advocates of a
+union of the two provinces, and they sympathized neither with
+Papineau's doctrinaire republicanism, nor with the sullen negative
+hatred of things British which then possessed so many minds in Lower
+Canada.  But grievances still unredressed created a fellow-feeling with
+the French, and from 1839 until 1842 the gradual formation of an
+Anglo-French reforming _bloc_, under Baldwin and La Fontaine, was one
+of the most notable developments in Canadian political life.
+
+After the Union, as before it, the political life of Canada was
+characterized by a readiness to resort to violence, and a lack of
+political good manners, which contrasted painfully with the eloquent
+phrases and professions of the orators on either side.  The earliest
+impression which the first governor-general of the Union received of
+politics in his province was one of disorder and mismanagement.  "You
+can form no idea of the manner in which a Colonial Parliament transacts
+its business," Poulett Thomson wrote from Toronto, in 1839.  "When they
+came to their own affairs, {66} and, above all, to the money matters,
+there was a scene of confusion and riot of which no one in England can
+have any idea.  Every man proposes a vote for his own job, and bills
+are introduced without notice, and carried through all their stages in
+a quarter of an hour."[65]  The first efforts in the struggle for
+responsible government were rendered needlessly irritating by the
+absence of that spirit of courteous moderation which usually
+characterizes the proceedings of the Imperial Parliament.  The
+relations between the governor and his ministers, at the best
+difficult, were made impossible for a man like Metcalfe by the
+ill-mannered disdain with which, as all the citizens of his capital
+knew, the cabinet spoke of their official head; and in debate the
+personal element played far too prominent a part.  In all the early
+Union assemblies, too, the house betrayed its inexperience by passing
+rapidly from serious constitutional questions to petty jobs and
+quarrels, and as rapidly back again to first principles.  There was a
+general failure to see the risk run by too frequent discussions on
+fundamentals, and much of the bitterness of party strife would have
+been avoided if the rival parties could have prosecuted their {67}
+adverse operations by slower and more scientific approaches.
+
+The warmth of feeling and the disorder exhibited in the councils of
+state and the assembly, met with a ready response in the country.  It
+is only fair to say that many of the gravest disturbances were caused
+by recent immigrants, more especially by the Irish labourers on the
+canals in the neighbourhood of Montreal.[66]  But the whole community
+must share in the discredit.  The days had not yet ceased when
+political bills called on adherents of one or other party to assemble
+"with music and good shillelaghs";[67] and indeed the decade from 1840
+to 1850 was distinctly one of political rioting.  The election of 1841
+was disgraced, more especially in Lower Canada, by very violent strife.
+In 1843 an Act was deemed necessary "to provide for the calling and
+orderly holding of public meetings in this province and for the better
+preservation of the public peace thereat."[68]  In the Montreal
+election of April, 1844, Metcalfe accused both his former
+inspector-general and the reform candidate of using inflammatory and
+reckless language, and {68} certainly both then and in November
+disgraceful riots made the elections no true register of public
+sentiment.  At the very end of the decade, the riots caused by the
+passing of the "Rebellion Losses" Act, organized, it must be
+remembered, by the so-called loyal party, endangered the life of a
+governor-general, and made Montreal no longer possible as the seat of
+government.  One may perhaps over-estimate the importance of these
+details; for, after all, the communal life of Canada was yet in its
+extreme youth, and in England itself there were still remnants of the
+old eighteenth century disorders, with hints of the newer
+revolutionism.  Their importance is rather that they complicated the
+task of adjusting imperial standards to suit Canadian self-government,
+and introduced unnecessary errors into the conduct of affairs by the
+provincial statesmen.
+
+It was obvious then that the United Provinces of Canada had, in 1839,
+still some distance to travel before their social, religious, and
+political organization could be regarded as satisfactory.  Individually
+and collectively poor, the citizens of Canada required direct aid from
+the resources of the mother country.  Material improvements in roads
+and canals, the introduction of steam, {69} the organization of labour,
+were immediately necessary.  Education in all its stages must receive
+encouragement and recognition.  Religion must be freed from the
+encumbrance of a vexatious controversy.  Municipal institutions and
+local government had still to be introduced to teach the people the
+elements of self-government; and a broader system of colonial
+legislation and administration substituted for the discredited rule of
+assemblies and councils at Toronto and Quebec.  There was racial hate
+to be quenched; and petty party jealousies to be transmuted into more
+useful political energy.  A nation was at its birth.  The problem was
+whether in Great Britain there were minds acute and imaginative enough
+to see the actual dangers; generous enough not to be dissuaded from
+trying to avert them by any rudeness on the part of those who were
+being assisted; prophetic enough to recognize that Anglo-Saxon
+communities, whether at home or across the seas, will always claim the
+right to govern themselves, and that to such self-government none but
+the community actually affected may set a limit.
+
+
+
+[1] Robinson, _Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson_, Bart., pp. 75-6.
+
+[2] _Report of the Agent for Emigration_, Toronto, January, 1841.  "The
+passage extended to seven complete weeks," writes a Scottish settler,
+Robert Campbell, in 1840, "and to tell the truth we were weary enough
+of it."  MS. letter, _penes me_.
+
+[3] _Conditions and Prospects of Canada in 1854_, London, 1855.
+
+[4] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, pp. 141-2.
+
+[5] Richardson, _Eight Years in Canada_, p. 117.
+
+[6] See an interesting letter of January, 1838 in Christie, _History of
+Lower Canada_, v. 109.
+
+[7] _Lord Durham's Report_, Appendix B. (ed. by Lucas), iii. p. 84.
+
+[8] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, p. 453.
+Metcalfe undoubtedly overestimates the influence of these men, as
+compared with the church, over the habitant class.
+
+[9] _Lord Durham's Report_ (ed. by Lucas), Appendix D, iii. p. 284.
+
+[10] _Ibid_. p. 267.
+
+[11] M'Taggart, _Three Years in Canada_, i. p. 249.
+
+[12] Kaye, _op. cit._ p. 407.
+
+[13] Mrs. Jameson, _States and Rambles in Canada_, vol. ii. p. 189.
+
+[14] Strickland, _Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West_, vol. i. p. 135.
+
+[15] _Lord Durham's Report_, ii. pp. 242-59.
+
+[16] M'Taggart, ii. pp. 242-5.
+
+[17] See a despatch of Lord Metcalfe on the effect of Irish agitation
+on the tranquillity of Canada, Kaye, _op. cit._ pp. 432-4.
+
+[18] Censuses of Canada (1665-1871), vol. iv.; _Appendix to the First
+Report of the Board of Registration and Statistics_ (1849); _A
+Statement of the Population of Canada_ (1848).
+
+[19] M'Taggart, _op. cit._ i. p. 35.
+
+[20] _Lord Durham's Report_, Appendix A.  Sir Charles Lucas has not
+included this appendix in his edition.
+
+[21] _Ibid._ (ed. Lucas), iii. p. 220.
+
+[22] Mrs. Jameson, _Studies and Rambles in Canada_, i. p. 98.
+
+[23] _A Long-treasured Letter_, from _Matthew Fowlds and Other Fenwick
+Worthies_, Kilmarnock, 1910, pp. 205-11.
+
+[24] Strickland, _Twenty Seven Years in Canada West_, i. p. 35.
+
+[25] M'Taggart, _op. cit._ i. p. 201.
+
+[26] This statement I modify below in dealing with the violence which
+disfigured political life in Canada at this time.
+
+[27] _Passim _in descriptions of the Canadian Indians, and the
+North-West.
+
+[28] _Lord Durham's Report_, ii. p. 125 n.
+
+[29] See local news in the early volumes of _The Montreal Witness_.
+
+
+[30] I have accepted Durham's, rather than Metcalfe's estimate of the
+influence of the Roman Catholic church in Canada.  The latter may be
+found in a despatch to Stanley, entitled by Kaye, "State of Parties in
+1845" (Kaye, _op. cit._ p. 449).
+
+[31] Hodgins, _Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada_, iii.
+p. 298.
+
+[32] MS. letter, 5 December, 1842.
+
+[33] Bell, _Hints to Emigrants_, p. 125.
+
+[34] Hodgins, _Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada_, iii.
+p. 266.
+
+[35] _Ibid._ p. 249.
+
+[36] _Memorials of the Rev. John Machar_, D.D., p. 62.
+
+[37] Bagot Correspondence, in the Canadian Archives, _passim_.
+
+[38] _Montreal Gazette_, 8 October, 1839.
+
+[39] _Memorials of the Rev. John Machar_, p. 77.
+
+[40] A strong, probably exaggerated, opinion exists among the older
+members of the Canadian community that, while information and
+specialization have grown, culture has retreated from the standards set
+for it by the former school of English and Scottish college instructors.
+
+[41] "The amount of postage paid by newspapers would be a fair
+indication of their circulation....  The postage on the _Christian
+Guardian_ was L228, which exceeded by L6 the aggregate postage on the
+following newspapers: _Colonial Advocate_, L57; _The Courier_, L45;
+_Watchman_, L24; _Brockville Recorder_, L16; _Brockville Gazette_, L6;
+_Niagara Gleaner_, L17; _Hamilton Free Press_, L11; _Kingston Herald_,
+L11; _Kingston Chronicle_, L10; _Perth Examiner_, L10; _Patriot_, L6;
+_St. Catherine's Journal_, L6; _York Observer_, L3."--Egerton Ryerson,
+_Story of My Life_, p. 144.
+
+[42] _The Montreal Witness_, December, 1845.  "We do not mean to
+criticize those prohibitory regulations, but, however good their
+motives, the effect has been to girdle the tree of knowledge in Canada,
+by shutting out the people from the only available supplies of books."
+
+[43] _Lord Durham's Report_, ii. p. 138.
+
+[44] Strachan, _A Journal of Visitation to the Western Portion of his
+Diocese_ (1842).  Third edition, London, 1846.
+
+[45] _Memorial of the Rev. E. Black, D.D., to the Secretary of State
+for the Colonies_.
+
+[46] _Memorials of the Rev. J. Machar, D.D._, p. 38.
+
+[47] Bell, _Hints to Emigrants_, p. 86.
+
+[48] Robinson, _Life of Sir J. B. Robinson_, p. 179.
+
+[49] Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, i. p. 109.
+
+[50] Sir G. Grey to the Rev. E. Black, 25 March, 1837, in
+_Correspondence relating to the Churches of England and Scotland in
+Canada_ (15 April, 1840).
+
+[51] Bell, _Hints to Emigrants_, p. 101.
+
+[52] Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell, 22 January, 1840.
+
+[53] Quoted from Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. p. 192.
+
+[54] That is, his bill for dividing the Reserves in certain proportions
+among the churches.
+
+[55] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, pp. 160-1.
+
+[56] See the Elgin-Grey Correspondence (Canadian Archives) for the year
+1850.
+
+[57] Christie, _History of Lower Canada_, v. pp. 113-14.
+
+[58] _Faithful unto Death, a Memorial of John Anderson, late Janitor of
+Queen's College_, p. 26.
+
+[59] Sir Charles Bagot to Lord Stanley, 26 September, 1842.
+
+[60] Bagot Correspondence: Cartwright to Bagot, 16 May, 1842.
+
+[61] Arthur to Normanby, 2 July, 1839.
+
+[62] Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell, 23 February, 1841.
+
+[63] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: W. L. Mackenzie to Major Campbell, 14
+February, 1848.
+
+[64] Hincks, _Reminiscences_, p. 15.
+
+[65] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, p. 165.
+
+[66] See, for example, a despatch--Metcalfe to Stanley, 24 June,
+1843--descriptive of troubles on the Beauharnois Canal.
+
+[67] A bill of 1833, _penes me_.
+
+[68] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 December, 1843.
+
+
+
+
+{70}
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM.
+
+Between 1839 and 1854, four governors-general exercised authority over
+Canada, the Right Honourable Charles Poulett Thomson, later Lord
+Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, Charles, Lord Metcalfe, and the Earl of
+Elgin.[1]  Their statesmanship, their errors, the accidents which
+modified their policies, and the influence of their decisions and
+despatches on British cabinets, constitute on the whole the most
+important factor in the creation of the modern Canadian theory of
+government.  In consequence, their conduct with reference to colonial
+autonomy and all the questions therewith connected, demands the most
+careful and detailed treatment.
+
+When Lord John Russell, then leader of the House of Commons, and
+Secretary of State for the {71} Colonies, selected a new
+governor-general of Canada to complete the work begun by Durham, he
+entrusted to him an elaborate system of government, most of it
+experimental and as yet untried.  He was to superintend the completion
+of that Union between Upper and Lower Canada, which Durham had so
+strenuously advocated; and the Union was to be the centre of a general
+administrative reconstruction.  The programme outlined in Russell's
+instructions proposed "a legislative union of the two provinces, a just
+regard to the claims of either province in adjusting the terms of that
+union, the maintenance of the three Estates of the Provincial
+Legislature, the settlement of a permanent Civil List for securing the
+independence of the judges, and, to the executive government, that
+freedom of action which is necessary for the public good, and the
+establishment of a system of local government by representative bodies,
+freely elected in the various cities and rural districts."[2]  In
+attaining these ends, all of them obviously to the advantage of the
+colony, the Colonial Secretary desired to consult, and, as far as
+possible, to defer to Canadian public opinion.[3]
+
+{72}
+
+Nevertheless, Lord John Russell had no sooner entered upon his
+administrative reforms, than he found himself face to face with a
+fundamental constitutional difficulty.  He proposed to play the part of
+a reformer in Canada; but the majority of reformers in that province
+added to his programme the demand for executive councils, not merely
+sympathetic to popular claims, but responsible to the representatives
+of the people in a Canadian Parliament.  Now according to all the
+traditions of imperial government a demand so far-reaching involved the
+disruption of the empire, and ended the connection between Canada and
+England.  To this general objection the British minister added a
+subtler point in constitutional law.  To yield to colonial reforming
+ideas would be to contradict the existing conventions of the
+constitution.  "The power for which a minister is responsible in
+England," he wrote to his new governor, "is not his own power, but the
+power of the crown, of which he is for the time the organ.  It is
+obvious that the executive councillor of a colony is in a situation
+totally different....  Can the colonial council be the advisers of the
+crown of England?  Evidently not, for the crown has other advisers for
+the same functions, and with {73} superior authority.  It may happen,
+therefore, that the governor receives, at one and the same time,
+instructions from the Queen and advice from his executive council
+totally at variance with each other.  If he is to obey his instructions
+from England, the parallel of constitutional responsibility entirely
+fails; if, on the other hand, he is to follow the advice of his
+council, he is no longer a subordinate officer, but an independent
+sovereign."[4]  The governor-general, then, was in no way to concede to
+the Canadian assembly a responsibility and power which resided only in
+the British ministry.
+
+At the same time large concessions, in spirit if not in letter, helped
+to modify the rigour of this constitutional doctrine.  "I have not
+drawn any specific line," Russell wrote at the end of the despatch
+already quoted, "beyond which the power of the governor on the one
+hand, and the privileges of the assembly on the other, ought not to
+extend....  The governor must only oppose the wishes of the assembly
+when the honour of the crown, or the interests of the empire, are
+deeply concerned; and the assembly must be ready to modify {74} some of
+its measures for the sake of harmony, and from a reverent attachment to
+the authority of Great Britain."
+
+Two days later, an even more important modification than was contained
+in this exhortation to charity and opportunism was proposed.  It had
+been the chief grievance in both provinces that the executive positions
+in Canada had been filled with men who held them as permanencies, and
+in spite of the clamour of public opinion against them.  Popular
+representative rights had been more than counterbalanced by entire
+executive irresponsibility.  A despatch, nominally of general
+application to British colonies, but, under the circumstances, of
+special importance to the United Provinces of Canada, changed the
+status of colonial executive offices: "You will understand, and will
+cause it to be generally known, that hereafter the tenure of colonial
+offices held during her Majesty's pleasure, will not be regarded as
+equivalent to a tenure during good behaviour, but that not only such
+officers will be called upon to retire from the public service as often
+as any sufficient motives of public policy may suggest the expediency
+of that measure, but that a change in the person of the governor will
+be considered as a sufficient reason for any {75} alterations which his
+successor may deem it expedient to make in the list of public
+functionaries, subject of course to the future confirmation of the
+Sovereign.  These remarks do not apply to judicial offices, nor are
+they meant to apply to places which are altogether ministerial and
+which do not devolve upon the holders of them duties in the right
+discharge of which the character and policy of the government are
+directly involved.  They are intended to apply rather to the heads of
+departments, than to persons serving as clerks or in similar capacities
+under them; neither do they extend to officers in the service of the
+Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.  The functionaries who will be
+chiefly, though not exclusively, affected by them are the Colonial
+Secretary, the Treasurer or Receiver-General, the Surveyor-General, the
+Attorney and Solicitor-General, the Sheriff or Provost Marshal, and
+other officers who, under different designations from these, are
+entrusted with the same or similar duties.  To this list must also be
+added the Members of the Council, especially in those colonies in which
+the Executive and Legislative Councils are distinct bodies."[5]
+
+{76}
+
+The importance of this general circular of October 16th is that, at a
+time when the Colonial Secretary was exhorting the new governor-general
+to part with none of his prerogatives, and in a colony where public
+opinion was importuning with some persistence for a more popular
+executive, one of the best excuses for withholding from the people
+their desires was removed.  The representative of the crown in
+consequence found himself with a new and not altogether comfortable
+opportunity for exercising his freedom of choice.
+
+It fell to Charles Poulett Thomson, President of the Board of Trade in
+the Whig ministry, to carry out the Union of the two Canadian
+provinces, and to administer them in accordance with this doctrine of
+modified autonomy.  The choice of the government seemed both wise and
+foolish.  Poulett Thomson had had an admirable training for the work.
+In a colony where trade and commerce were almost everything, he brought
+not Durham's aristocratic detachment but a real knowledge of commerce,
+since his was a great mercantile family.  In Parliament, he had become
+a specialist in the financial and economic issues, which had already
+displaced the diplomatic or purely political questions of the last
+generation.  {77} His speeches on the revision of taxes, the corn laws,
+and British foreign trade, proved that, in a utilitarian age, he knew
+the science of utilities and had freed himself from bureaucratic red
+tape.  His parliamentary career too had taught him the secret of the
+management of assemblies, and Canada would under him be spared the
+friction which the rigid attitude of soldiers, trained in the school of
+Wellington, had been causing throughout the British colonies for many
+years.
+
+There were, however, many who doubted whether the man had a character
+and will powerful enough to dominate the turbulent forces of Canadian
+politics.  Physically he was far from strong, and almost the first
+comment made by Canadians on him was that their new governor-general
+came to them a valetudinarian.  There seemed to be other and more
+serious elements of weakness.  Charles Greville spoke of him with just
+a tinge of good-natured contempt as "very good humoured, pleasing and
+intelligent, but the greatest coxcomb I ever saw, and the vainest dog,
+though his vanity is not offensive or arrogant";[6] and a writer in the
+_Colonial Gazette_, whose words reached Canada {78} almost on the day
+when the new governor arrived, warned Canadians of the imbecility of
+character which the world attributed to him.  "While therefore," the
+article continues, "we repeat our full conviction that Mr. Thomson is
+gone to Canada with the opinions and objects which we have here
+enumerated, let it be distinctly understood that we have little hope of
+seeing them realised, except through the united and steadfast
+determination of the Colonists to make use of him as an instrument for
+accomplishing their own ends."[7]  With such an introduction one of the
+most strongly marked personalities ever concerned with government in
+Canada entered on his work.
+
+Strange as it may seem in face of these disparaging comments, the new
+governor-general had already determined to make the assertion of his
+authority the fundamental thing in his policy, although with him
+authority always wore the velvet glove over the iron hand.  In Lower
+Canada the suspension of the constitution had already placed
+dictatorial powers in his hand; but, even in the Upper Province, he
+seemed to have expected that diplomacy would have to be supported by
+authority to compel it to come into {79} the Union; and he had no
+intention of leaving the supremacy over all British North America,
+which had been conferred on him by his title, to lie unused.  The two
+strenuous years in which he remade Canada fall into natural
+divisions--the brief episode in Lower Canada of the first month after
+his arrival; his negotiations with Upper Canada, from November, 1839,
+to February, 1840; the interregnum of 1840 which preceded the actual
+proclamation of Union, during which he returned to Montreal, visited
+the Maritime Provinces, and toured through the Upper Province; and the
+decisive months, from February till September 19th, 1841, from which in
+some sort modern Canada took its beginnings.
+
+The first month of his governorship, in which he settled the fate of
+French Canada, is of greater importance than appears on the surface.
+The problem of governing Canada was difficult, not simply because
+Britons in Canada demanded self-government, but because self-government
+must be shared with French-Canadians.  That section of the community,
+distinct as it was in traditions and political methods, might bring
+ruin on the Colony either by asserting a supremacy odious to the
+Anglo-Saxon elements of the population, or by {80} resenting the
+efforts of the British to assimilate or dominate them.  When Poulett
+Thomson landed, on October 19th, 1839, at Quebec, he was brought at
+once face to face with the relation between French nationalism and the
+constitutional resettlement of Canada.
+
+Durham had had no doubt about the true solution.  It was to confer free
+institutions on the colony, and to trust to the natural energy and
+increase of the Anglo-Saxon element to swamp French _nationalite_.  "I
+have little doubt," he said, "that the French, when once placed, by the
+legitimate course of events and the working of natural causes, in a
+minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality."[8]  It was in
+this spirit that his successor endeavoured to govern the French section
+in Canada.  Being both rationalist and utilitarian, like others of his
+school he minimized the strength of an irrational fact like racial
+pride, and, almost from the first he discounted the force of French
+opposition, while he let it, consciously or unconsciously, influence
+his behaviour towards his French subjects.  "If it were possible," he
+wrote in November, 1839, "the best thing for Lower Canada would be a
+despotism for ten years {81} more; for, in truth, the people are not
+yet fit for the higher class of self-government, scarcely indeed, at
+present, for any description of it."[9]  A few months later, his
+language had become even stronger:--"I have been back three weeks, and
+have set to work in earnest in this province.  It is a bad prospect,
+however, and presents a lamentable contrast to Upper Canada.  There
+great excitement existed; the people were quarrelling for realities,
+for political opinions and with a view to ulterior measures.  Here
+there is no such thing as a political opinion.  No man looks to a
+practical measure of improvement.  Talk to any one upon education, or
+public works, or better laws, let him be English or French, you might
+as well talk Greek to him.  Not a man cares for a single practical
+measure--the only end, one would suppose, of a better form of
+government.  They have only one feeling--a hatred of race."[10]
+
+But at the outset his task was simple.  His powers in Lower Canada, as
+he confessed on his first arrival, were of an extraordinary nature; and
+indeed it lay with him, and his Special Council, to settle the fate of
+the province.  Pushing on {82} from Quebec to Montreal, he lost no time
+in calling a meeting of the Special Council, whose members, eighteen in
+number, he purposely left unchanged from the regime of his predecessor
+On November 13th and 14th, after discussions in which the minority
+never exceeded three, that body accepted Union with the Upper Province
+in six propositions, affirming the principle of union, agreeing to the
+assimilation of the two provincial debts, and declaring it to be their
+opinion "that the present temporary legislature should, as soon as
+practicable, be succeeded by a permanent legislature, in which the
+people of these two provinces may be adequately represented, and their
+constitutional rights exercised and maintained."[11]  Before he left
+Montreal, he assured the British ministry that the large majority of
+those with whom he had spoken, English and French, in the Lower
+Province were warm advocates of Union.[12]
+
+Yet here lay his first mis judgment, and one of the most serious he
+made.  It was true and obvious that the British inhabitants of Eastern
+Canada earnestly desired a union which would promote {83} their racial
+interests; true also that a group of Frenchmen took the same point of
+view.  But the governor was guilty of a grave political error, when he
+ignored the feeling generally prevalent among the French that Union
+must be fought.  Colborne's judgment in 1839, that French aversion to
+Union was growing less, seems to have been mistaken.[13]  The British
+government, more especially in the person of Durham, had not disguised
+their intention--the destruction of French nationalism as it had
+hitherto existed.  They had taken, and were taking, the risk of
+conducting the experiment in the face of a grant of self-government to
+the doomed community; and the first governor-general of union and
+constitutionalism was now to find that French racial unity, combined
+with self-government, was too strong even for his masterful will,
+although he had all the weight of Imperial authority behind him.  But,
+for the time, Lower Canada had to be left to its council, and the
+centre of interest changed to Toronto and Upper Canada.
+
+There, although no racial troubles awaited him, the governor had to
+persuade a popular assembly before he could have his way; and there for
+the {84} first time he was made aware of the perplexing cross-currents
+and side eddies, and confusion of public opinion, which existed
+everywhere in Canadian politics.  So doubtful was the main issue that
+he debated with himself whether he should venture to meet the Assembly
+without a dissolution and election on the definite issue of the Union;
+but the need for haste, and his natural inclination to take risks, and
+to trust to his powers of management, decided him to face the existing
+local parliament.  By the end of November he had arrived at Toronto,
+and the Assembly met on December 3rd.  Two plain but difficult tasks
+lay before him: to persuade both houses of Parliament to accept his
+scheme of Union, and to arrange, on some moderate basis, the whole
+Clergy Reserve question.  To complicate these practical duties, the
+speculative problem of responsible government, long keenly canvassed in
+Toronto, and the peculiar conditions and methods of local politics, lay
+as dangerous obstacles in his path.  The manners and methods of the
+politicians of Upper Canada drew him even in his despatches into vivid
+criticism.  After a month's observation, he sent Russell a long and
+very able description of the prevailing disorders.  In spite of a
+general loyalty the people {85} had been fretted into vexations and
+petty divisions, and for the most part felt deep-rooted animosity
+towards the executive authorities.  Indeed, apart from the party bias
+of the government, its inefficiency and uncertainty had destroyed all
+public confidence in it.  Under the executive government, the authority
+of the legislative council had been exercised by a very few
+individuals, representing a mere clique in the capital, frequently
+opposed both to the government and to the Assembly, and considered by
+the people hostile to their interests.  In the lower chamber, the loss
+of public influence by the ministry had introduced absolute legislative
+chaos, and even the control over expenditure, and the examination of
+accounts, were of the loosest and most irregular character.[14]  In a
+private letter he allowed himself a freedom of expression which renders
+his description the _locus classicus_ for political conditions before
+the Union:--"The state of things here is far worse than I had expected.
+The country is split into factions animated with the most deadly hatred
+to each other.  The people have got into the way of talking so much of
+_separation_, {86} that they begin to believe in it.  The
+Constitutional party is as bad or worse than the other, in spite of all
+their professions of loyalty.  The finances are more deranged than we
+believed even in England.  The deficit, L75,000 a year, more than equal
+to the income.  All public works suspended.  Emigration going on fast
+_from_ the province.  Every man's property worth only half what it was.
+When I look to the state of government, and to the departmental
+administration of the province, instead of being surprised at the
+condition in which I find it, I am only astonished it has been endured
+so long.  I know that, much as I dislike Yankee institutions and rule,
+I would not have fought against them, which thousands of these poor
+fellows, whom the Compact call rebels, did, if it were only to keep up
+such a Government as they got....  Then the Assembly is such a House!
+Split into half a dozen parties.  The Government having _none--and no
+one man_ to depend on!  Think of a house in which half the members hold
+places, yet in which the Government does not command a single vote; in
+which the place-men generally vote against the Executive; and where
+there is no one to defend the Government when attacked, or {87} to
+state the opinion and views of the Governor."[15]
+
+With the eye of a political strategist, Poulett Thomson prepared his
+alternative system, a curious kind of despotism, based, however, simply
+on his own powers of influencing opinion in the House.  It was plain to
+him that the previous governments had wantonly neglected public
+opinion.[16]  It was also plain that the populace had regarded these
+governments as consisting not of the governor with his ministers under
+him, but of the Family Compact clique in place of the governor.[17]
+The system which he proposed to substitute expressed very fully his
+working theory.  Responsible government in the sweeping sense of that
+term employed by the reforming party he resisted, holding that, whether
+against his ministers, or the electors, he must be personally
+responsible for all his administrative acts.  At the same time he
+assured parliament that "he had received her Majesty's commands to
+administer the government of these provinces in accordance with the
+well-understood wishes and interests of the people, and to pay to their
+feelings, {88} as expressed through their representatives, the
+deference that is justly due to them."[18]  To secure this end, he
+called public attention to the despatch from Russell, definitely
+announcing the change of tenure of all save judicial and purely
+ministerial places, thereby making it clear that no man would be
+retained in office longer than he seemed acceptable to the governor and
+the community.  Then he set to work to build up, out of moderate men
+drawn from all groups, a party of compromise and good sense to support
+him and his ministry; and finally, he claimed for himself the central
+authority without any modifying conditions.  Concerning the ultimate
+seat of that authority he never hesitated.  Whatever power he had came
+from the Home Ministry as representing the Crown, and to them alone he
+acknowledged responsibility.  For the rest, he had to carry on the
+Queen's government; that is, to govern Canada so that peace and
+prosperity might remain unshaken; and as a first condition he had to
+defer to the wishes of the people.  But it cannot be too strongly
+re-asserted that he refused to surrender one iota of his
+responsibility, and that the ideal which he set for himself was a
+combination of governor and prime-minister.  The efficiency {89} of his
+system was to depend on the honestly benevolent intentions which the
+governor-general cherished towards the people, and on the fidelity of
+both the ministry and the parliamentary majority established and
+secured through belief in those intentions.
+
+The new system met with an astounding success.  The scheme of Union was
+laid before both Houses.  On the thirteenth of December the Council,
+which had hitherto been the chief obstacle, approved of the scheme by
+fourteen votes to eight, the minority consisting of Toronto 'die-hards'
+with the Bishop, recalcitrant as usual, at their head.  Ten days later,
+the governor-general was able to assure Russell that the Lower House
+had, after some strenuous debates and divisions, assented also; the
+only change from his own outline being an amendment that "such part of
+the civil list as did not relate to the salaries of the judges, and the
+governor, and the administration of justice, which are made permanent,
+should be granted for the lifetime of the Queen, or for a period of not
+less than ten years."[19]  On one point, not without its influence in
+embittering opinion among the French, {90} Parliament and Governor were
+agreed, that while the debates in the Union parliament might be
+conducted in either English or French, in the publication of all
+records of the Legislature the English language only should be
+adopted.[20]
+
+Swept on by this great initial success, Poulett Thomson determined if
+possible to settle the Clergy Reserve trouble out of hand.  As has been
+shown above, this ecclesiastical difficulty affected the whole life of
+the community; and its settlement would mean peace, such as Upper
+Canada had not known for a generation.  The pacificator, however, had
+to face two groups of irreconcilables, the Bishop of Toronto with his
+extremist following, and the secularizing party resolute to have done
+with any form of subsidy to religion.  As he himself confessed, he had
+little hope of succeeding in the Assembly, but he trusted to his new
+popularity, then at its spring tide, and he won.  Before the end of
+January the question had been settled on a compromise, by a majority of
+28 to 20 in the Assembly, and of 14 to 4 in the Council.  It was even
+more satisfactory to know that out of 22 members of Assembly who were
+communicants of the Church of England, only 8 {91} voted in favour of
+the _status quo_.  There was but one set-back.  Legal opinion in
+England decided that the local assembly had not powers to change the
+original act of 1791; and in the Imperial legislation which this check
+made necessary, other influences crept in, and the governor-general
+bitterly complained that the monstrous proportion allotted to the
+Church of England, and the miserable proportion set apart for other
+churches, rendered the Act only less an evil than if the question had
+been left unsettled.[21]  Still, the settlement retained existing
+reserves for religious purposes, ended the creation of fresh reserves,
+divided past sales of land between the Churches of England and of
+Scotland, and arranged for the distribution of the proceeds of future
+sales roughly in proportion to the numbers and importance of all the
+churches in Canada.  It was not an ideal arrangement, but quiet men
+were anxious to clear the obstacle from the way, and through such men
+Poulett Thomson worked his will.  It is the most striking testimony to
+the governor's power of management that, as a politician stated in
+1846, three-quarters of the people believed the arrangement unjust and
+partial, and acquiesced only because their political head desired it.
+But {92} the end was not yet, and the uneasy ambition of the Bishop of
+Toronto was in a few years to bring on his head just retribution for
+the strife his policy continued to create.  Nothing now remained but to
+close this, the last parliament of Upper Canada under the old regime,
+and the governor, who never suffered from lack of self-appreciative
+optimism, wrote home in triumph: "Never was such unanimity.  When the
+speaker read my speech in the Commons, after the prorogation, they gave
+me three cheers, in which even the ultras joined."[22]  It was perhaps
+the last remnant of this pardonable exultation which swept him over the
+360 miles between Toronto and Montreal in thirty-six hours, breaking
+all records for long-distance sleighing in the province.
+
+The primary duty of the governor had now been accomplished, for he had
+persuaded both local governments to accept an Imperial Act of Union,
+and it might seem natural to pass over the intervening months, until
+Union had been officially proclaimed, and the first Union parliament
+had been elected and had met.  But the _interregnum_ from February,
+1840, to February, 1841, must not be ignored.  In these twelve short
+months he turned {93} once again to the problem of Lower Canada,
+hurried on a short visit to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to settle
+constitutional difficulties there, returned in a kind of triumphal
+procession through the English-speaking district of Lower Canada known
+as the Eastern Townships,[23] and spent the autumn in a tour through
+the Western part of the newly united colony.  It was only fitting that
+a grateful Queen and Ministry should bestow on him a peerage;
+henceforward he must appear as Baron Sydenham of Sydenham and Toronto.
+
+But apart from these mere physical activities, he was preparing for the
+culmination of his work in the new parliament.  It must be remembered
+not only that he distrusted the intelligence and initiative of colonial
+ministers too much to dream of giving place to them, but that his
+theory of his own position--the benevolent despot, secured in his
+supremacy through popular management--forced on him an elaborate
+programme of useful administration.  He must face the new Parliament
+with a good record, and definite promises.  The failure of the home
+ministry to include the local government clauses, which formed a
+fundamental {94} part of the Union Bill, made such efforts even more
+necessary than before.  It had been plain to Durham and Charles Buller,
+as well as to Sydenham, that, if an Act of Union were to pass, it could
+only be made operative by joining to it an entirely new system of local
+government.  Accordingly, when opposition forced Russell to omit the
+essential clauses from his Act of Union, Sydenham penned one of his
+most vigorous despatches in reply.  "Owing to this (rejection), duties
+the most unfit to be discharged by the general legislature are thrown
+upon it; powers equally dangerous to the subject and to the Crown are
+assumed by the Assembly.  The people receive no training in those
+habits of self-government which are indispensable to enable them
+rightly to exercise the power of choosing representatives in
+parliament.  No field is open for the gratification of ambition in a
+narrow circle, and no opportunity given for testing the talents or
+integrity of those who are candidates for popular favour.  The people
+acquire no habits of self-dependence for the attainment of their own
+local objects.  Whatever uneasiness they may feel--whatever little
+improvement in their respective neighbourhoods may appear to be
+neglected, afford grounds for complaint against the executive.  All
+{95} is charged upon the Government, and a host of discontented spirits
+are ever ready to excite these feelings.  On the other hand, whilst the
+Government is thus brought directly in contact with the people, it has
+neither any officer in its own confidence, in the different parts of
+these extended provinces, from whom it can seek information, nor is
+there any recognized body, enjoying the public confidence, with whom it
+can communicate, either to determine what are the real wants and wishes
+of the locality, or through whom it may afford explanation."[24]
+
+Nothing could be done to remedy the evil in Upper Canada, until the new
+parliament had met, but the temporary dictatorship still remained in
+French Canada, and at once Sydenham set to work to create all that he
+wanted there, recognizing shrewdly that what had been granted in the
+Lower Province to the French must prove a powerful argument for a
+similar grant to Upper Canada, when the time should come for action.
+About the same time, he established by ordinance a popular system of
+registry offices, to simplify the difficulties introduced into land
+transfers by the French law--"all {96} the old French law of before the
+Revolution, _Hypotheques tacites et occultes_, Dowers' and Minors'
+rights, _Actes par devant notaires_, and all the horrible processes by
+which the unsuspecting are sure to be deluded, and the most wary are
+often taken in."[25]
+
+Curiously enough, although his love of good government drove him to
+amend conditions among the French, Sydenham's relations with that
+people seem to have grown steadily worse.  He had made advances to the
+foremost French politician, La Fontaine, offering him the
+solicitor-generalship of Lower Canada; but La Fontaine, who never had
+any enthusiasm for British Whig statesmanship,[26] regarded the offer
+as a bribe to draw him away from his countrymen and their national
+ideal, and declined it, thereby increasing the tension.  Thus, as the
+time for the election drew near, the French were still further
+hardening their hearts against the governor-general of United Canada,
+and Sydenham, his patience now exhausted, could but exclaim in baffled
+anger, "As for the French, nothing but time will do anything with them.
+They hate British rule--British connection--improvements of {97} all
+kinds, whether in their laws or their roads; so they will sulk, and
+will try, that is, their leaders, to do all the mischief they can."[27]
+
+Meantime he had prepared two other politic strokes before he called
+Parliament: the regulation of immigration, and a project for raising a
+British loan in aid of Canadian public works.  Immigration, more
+especially now that the current had set once more towards Canada, was
+one of the essential facts in the life of the colony; and yet the evils
+attendant on it were still as obvious as the gains.  Most of the
+defects so vividly portrayed by Durham and his commissioners still
+persisted--unsuitable immigrants, over-crowded ships, disease which
+spread from ship to land and overcrowded the local hospitals, wretched
+and poverty-stricken masses lingering impotently at Quebec, and a
+straggling line of westbound settlers, who obtained work and land with
+difficulty and after many sorrows.[28]  Sydenham had none of Gibbon
+Wakefield's doctrinaire enthusiasm on the subject; and, as he said, the
+inducements, to parishes and landlords to send out their surplus
+population were already {98} sufficiently strong.  But much could and
+must be done by way of remedy.  It was his plan to regulate more
+strictly the conditions on board emigrant ships, and to humanize the
+process of travelling.  Government agents must safeguard the rights of
+ignorant settlers; relief, medical and otherwise, should be in
+readiness for the destitute and afflicted when they arrived; sales of
+land were to be simplified and made easier; and a system of public
+works might enable the local authorities to solve two problems at one
+time, by giving the poorer settler steady employment, and by completing
+the great tasks, only half performed in days when money and labour
+alike were wanting.[29]  The final achievement of these objects
+Sydenham reserved until he should meet parliament, but he had laid his
+plans, and had primed the home authorities with facts long before that
+date.
+
+In the same way he had foreseen the need of Canada for Imperial
+assistance, both in her public works, and in her finance.  Assistance
+in the former of these matters was peculiarly important.  Colonists,
+more especially in the Upper Province, had undertaken the development
+of Canadian natural resources, but poverty had called a halt {99}
+before the development was complete, or, by preventing necessary
+additions and improvements, had rendered useless what had already been
+done.  Conspicuous among such imperfect works were the canals; and
+Sydenham realized the strange dilemma into which provincial enterprise
+seemed doomed to run.  The province, he told Russell, was sinking under
+the weight of engagements which it could only meet by fresh outlay,
+whilst that outlay the condition of its credit preventing it from
+making.[30]  He was therefore prepared to come before the United
+Parliament with a proposal, backed by the British Ministry, for a great
+loan of L1,500,000 to be negotiated by the home government, and to be
+utilized, partly in redeeming the credit of the province, and partly in
+completing its public works.  "It will therefore be absolutely
+necessary that Her Majesty's government should enable the governor of
+the province of Canada to afford this relief when the Union is
+completed, and the financial statement takes place; and I know of no
+better means than those originally proposed--of guaranteeing a loan
+which would remove a considerable charge arising from the high rate of
+interest payable by the province on the debt already contracted, or
+{100} which it would have to pay for raising fresh loans which may be
+required hereafter for great local improvements."[31]
+
+There remained now the last and greatest of Sydenham's labours before
+his stewardship could be honourably accounted for and surrendered, the
+summoning, meeting, and managing, of a parliament representative of
+that Canada, English and French, which he had restored and irritated.
+His reputation must depend the more on this political adventure,
+because he had already determined that 1841 should be his last year in
+Canada--he would not stay, he said, though they made him Duke of Canada
+and Prince of Regiopolis.  And indeed the Parliament of 1841, in all
+its circumstances, still remains one of the salient points in modern
+Canadian history.
+
+The Union came into force on the tenth of February, but long before
+that time all the diverse political interests in Canada had organized
+themselves for the fray.  Sydenham himself naturally occupied the
+foremost place.  He was acting now, not merely as governor-general, but
+as the prime minister of a new cabinet, and as a party manager, {101}
+whose main duty it was to secure parliamentary support for his men and
+his measures by the maintenance of a sound central group.  By the
+beginning of the year he thought he had evidence for believing that, in
+Upper Canada, a great majority of the members would be men who had at
+heart the welfare of the province, and the British connection, and who
+desired to make the Act of Union operate to the advantage of the
+country.[32]  But even in Upper Canada there were doubtful elements.
+The Family Compact men, few as they might be in number, were unlikely
+to leave their enemy, the governor-general, in peace; nor were all the
+Reformers prepared to acquiesce in Sydenham's very restrained and
+limited interpretation of responsible government.  Late in 1840, and
+early in 1841, the Upper Canadian progressives had organized their
+strength; and additional significance was given to their action by
+their communications with Lower Canada.[33]  There, indeed, was the
+crux of the experiment.  The French Canadians, already organized in
+sullen opposition, had just received what they counted a fresh insult.
+But Sydenham may be allowed to {102} explain his own action.  "There
+were," he wrote to Russell in March, 1841, "attached to the cities,
+both of Montreal and Quebec, very extensive suburbs, inhabited
+generally by a poor population, unconnected with the mercantile
+interests to which these cities owe their importance.  Had these cities
+been brought within the electoral limits, the number of their
+population would have enabled them to return one, if not both, of the
+members for each city.  But such a result would have been directly at
+variance with the grounds on which increased representation was given
+by Parliament to these cities.  On referring to the discussions which
+took place in both houses when the Union Bill was before them, I find
+that members on all sides laid great stress on the necessity of
+securing ample representation to the mercantile interests of Canada....
+Feeling myself, therefore, bound in duty to carry out the views of the
+British parliament in this matter, _I was compelled in fixing the
+limits of Quebec and Montreal to transfer to the county a large portion
+of the suburbs of each_."[34]  Whatever Sydenham's intentions may have
+been, the actual result of his action was to secure for his party four
+seats in the very heart of the enemy's country; {103} and the French
+Canadians, naturally embittered, resented the governor's action as a
+piece of gerrymandering, which had practically disfranchised many
+French voters.  Already, in 1840, under the active leadership of
+Neilson of Quebec, a British supporter of French claims, an anti-union
+movement had been started.[35]  In July of the same year La Fontaine
+visited Toronto, to canvass, said scandal, for the speaker's chair in
+the united assembly; and in any case he was able to assure his
+compatriots that they had sympathizers among the British in the West.
+The Tory paper in Sydenham's new capital, Kingston, in a review and
+forecast of the situation, settled on this Anglo-French co-operation as
+one of the serious possibilities of the future;[36] and Sydenham as he
+watched developments in the Lower Province, found himself growing
+unwontedly pessimistic.  "In Lower Canada," he wrote, "the elections
+will be bad.  The French Canadians have forgotten nothing and learnt
+nothing by the Rebellion, and the suspension of the constitution, and
+are more unfit for representative government {104} than they were in
+1791.  In most of the French counties, members, actuated by the old
+spirit of the Assembly, and without any principle except that of
+inveterate hostility to British rule and British connection, will be
+returned without a possibility of opposition."[37]
+
+The elections began on the 8th of March, and the date on which
+parliament was to meet was postponed, first from April 8th to May 26th,
+and then, in consequence of the continued lateness of the season,[38]
+from May 26th to June 14th.  The result of the elections, known early
+in April, gave matter for serious thought to many, Sydenham himself not
+excluded.  Absolute precision is difficult, but Sydenham's biographer
+has tabulated the groups as follows:
+
+  Government Members - - - -  24
+  French Members - - - - - -  20
+  Moderate Reformers - - - -  20
+  Ultra Reformers  - - - - -   5
+  Compact Party  - - - - - -   7
+  Doubtful - - - - - - - - -   6
+  Special Return - - - - - -   1
+  Double Return  - - - - - -   1
+                              --
+                              84[39]
+
+{105}
+
+In the confusion of groups, Sydenham still trusted to the centre--a
+party almost precisely similar to that which in 1867 was called
+Liberal-Conservative.  This centre he hoped to create out of moderate
+Conservatives who had enlarged their earlier views, and moderate
+Reformers who anxiously desired to see Sydenham's proposed improvements
+carried out.[40]  A shrewd observer, himself a member, and
+appreciatively critical of Sydenham's work, counted at least five
+parties in the new parliament.  Three of these groups came from Upper
+Canada--the Conservatives under Sir Allan MacNab; the Ministerialists,
+that is the Reformers and moderate Conservatives, under the
+Attorney-General Draper, and the Secretary Harrison, and the
+ultra-reformers who looked to Robert Baldwin for guidance.  From Lower
+Canada came the French nationalists, with some British supporters,
+under Morin, Neilson, and Aylwin, and the defenders of the Union
+policy, chiefly British, but with a few conservative French allies.
+"The division lists of the session 1841," writes the same observer,
+"cannot fail to strike anyone acquainted with the state of parties, as
+extraordinary.  Mr. Baldwin on several occasions voted with
+considerable {106} majorities in opposition to the Government, while as
+frequently he was in insignificant minorities.  There was a decided
+tendency towards a coalition with the Reformers of French origin, on
+the part of Sir Allan MacNab and the Upper Canada Conservatives.  The
+Ministerial strength lay in the support which it received from the
+British party of Lower Canada, and from the majority of the Upper
+Canada Reformers."[41]  Well might Sydenham speak of the delusive
+nature of the party nicknames borrowed by his legislators from England.
+
+Whatever were the characteristic faults of the parliament in 1841,
+sloth was not one of them.  All through the summer it worked with
+feverish energy.  Writing to his brother at the end of August, Sydenham
+boasted--"The five great works I aimed at have been got through--the
+establishment of a board of works with ample powers; the admission of
+aliens; a new system of county courts; the regulation of the public
+lands ceded by the Crown under the Union Act; and lastly the District
+Council Bill.  I think you will admit this to be pretty good work for
+one session, especially when superadded to half a dozen minor measures,
+as well {107} as the fact of having set up a government, brought
+together two sets of people, who hated each other cordially, and
+silenced all the threatened attacks upon the Union, which were expected
+to be so formidable....  What do you think of this, you miserable
+people in England, who spend two years upon a single measure?"[42]
+
+But the chief significance of the session lies in the persistent
+warfare waged between Sydenham and the advocates of a more extended
+system of autonomy.  The result, as will be shewn, was indecisive, but,
+under the circumstances a drawn battle was equivalent to defeat for the
+governor-general.
+
+Sydenham had never before flung himself so completely into the fight.
+"I actually breathe, eat, drink, and sleep nothing but government and
+politics," was his own description of life in Kingston.  He had
+accomplished with little resistance from others all that his opening
+speech had promised.  His ministry owned him as their actively
+directing head.  His power of managing individuals in spite of
+themselves passed into a jest.  Playing with men's vanity, tampering
+with their interests, their passions and their prejudices, placing
+himself in a position of familiarity with those from whom {108} he
+might at once obtain assistance and information--such, according to an
+eccentric writer of the day, were the secrets of Sydenham's
+success.[43]  Few men ever played the part of benevolent despot more
+admirably, and his achievements were the more creditable because he
+could count on no allegiance except that which he induced by his
+persuasive arts, and by the proofs he had given of a sincere desire to
+promote Canadian prosperity.
+
+Nevertheless, throughout the summer months, there occurred a series of
+sharp encounters with a half-organized party of reform; and the end of
+the session, while it saw Sydenham successful, saw also his adversaries
+as eager as ever, and much more learned than they had been in the ways
+of political opposition and agitation.  The opposition leaders massed
+their whole strength on one fundamental point--the claim to possess as
+fully as their fellow-citizens in Great Britain did, the cabinet and
+party system of government.  In other words, if any group, or coalition
+of groups, should succeed in establishing an ascendency in the popular
+assembly, that ascendency must receive acknowledgment by the creation
+of a cabinet, and the appointment of {109} a prime minister, approved
+by the parliamentary majority and responsible to them; and Sydenham's
+ingenious device of an eclectic ministry responsible to him alone was
+denounced as unconstitutional.  The first encounter came, two days
+before the session started, and Robert Baldwin of Toronto was the
+leader of the revolt.  In February, 1840, Sydenham had invited Robert
+Baldwin to be his Solicitor-General in the Upper Province.  Baldwin,
+although his powers were not those of a politician of the first rank,
+was perhaps the soundest constitutionalist in Western Canada.  He had
+been from the first a reformer, but he had never encouraged the wild
+ideas of the rebels of 1837.  Sir F. B. Head had called him to his
+councils in 1836, as a man "highly respected for his moral character,
+moderate in his politics and possessing the esteem and confidence of
+all parties,"[44] and only Head's impracticability had driven him from
+public service.  There is not a letter or official note from his pen,
+which does not bear the stamp of unusual conscientiousness, and a very
+earnest desire to serve his country.  So little was he a self-seeker,
+that he earned the lasting ill-will of his eldest son by passing a bill
+abolishing primogeniture, and thus {110} ending any hopes that existed
+of founding a great colonial family.  The Earl of Elgin, who saw much
+of him after 1847, regarded him not merely as a great public servant,
+but as one who was worth "two regiments to the British connection," and
+perhaps the most truly conservative statesman in the province.[45]  In
+his quiet, determined way, he had made up his mind that responsible
+government, in the sense condemned by both Sydenham and Russell, must
+be secured for Canada, and Sydenham's benevolent plans did not disguise
+from him the insidious attempt to limit what he counted the legitimate
+constitutional liberty of the colony.  It cannot justly be objected
+that his acceptance of office misled the governor-general, either in
+1840 or in 1841.  "I distinctly avow," he wrote publicly in 1840,
+"that, in accepting office, I consider myself to have given a public
+pledge that I have a reasonably well-grounded confidence that the
+government of my country is to be carried on in accordance with the
+principles of Responsible Government which I have ever held....  I have
+not come into office by means of any coalition with the
+Attorney-General,[46] or with any others now in {111} the public
+service, but have done so under the governor-general, and expressly
+from my confidence in him."[47]  In the same way, when Sydenham chose
+him for the Solicitor-Generalship of Upper Canada in the Union
+Ministry, Baldwin, who had no belief in Sydenham's cabinet of all the
+talents, wrote bluntly to say that he "had an entire want of political
+confidence in all of his colleagues except Mr. Dunn, Mr. Harrison, and
+Mr. Daly."[48]  In view of his later action, his critics charged him
+with error in thus accepting an office which placed him in an
+impossible position; but Baldwin's ready answer was: "The head of the
+government, the heads of departments in both provinces, and the country
+itself, were in a position almost anomalous.  That of the head of the
+government was one of great difficulty and embarrassment.  While he
+(Baldwin) felt bound to protect himself against misapprehensions as to
+his views and opinions, he also felt bound to avoid, as far as
+possible, throwing any difficulties in the way of the governor-general.
+At the time he was called to a seat in the Executive Council, he was
+already one of those public servants, the political character {112}
+newly applied to whose office made it necessary for them to hold seats
+in that Council.  Had he, on being called to take that seat, refused to
+accept it, he must of course have left office altogether, or have been
+open to the imputation of objecting to an arrangement for the conduct
+of public affairs which had always met with his most decided
+approbation."[49]  At worst, the Solicitor-General can only be blamed
+for letting his abnormally sensitive conscience lead him into political
+casuistry, the logic of which might not appear so cogent to the
+governor as to himself, when the crisis should come.  How sensitive
+that conscience was, may be gathered from the fact that his acceptance
+of office in 1841 was accompanied with an avowal of want of confidence,
+made openly to those colleagues with whom he disagreed.  It was further
+illustrated when he made a difficulty with Sydenham over taking the
+Oath of Supremacy, which, in a country, many of whose inhabitants were
+Roman Catholics protected in their religion by treaty rights, declared
+that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or
+ought to have any jurisdiction, {113} power, superiority, pre-eminence
+of authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm."[50]
+
+The crisis came, as Baldwin expected it to come, when parliament met.
+Already, as has been seen, the French Canadians had organized their
+forces and formed the most compact group in the Assembly, while the
+little band of determined reformers from Upper Canada made up in
+decision and principle what they lacked in numbers.  Hincks, who was
+one of the latter group, says that, before parliament met, the two
+sections consulted together concerning the government, and although La
+Fontaine had lost his election through a display of physical force on
+the other side, Baldwin was able to lead the combined groups into
+action.  On June 12th, he wrote to Sydenham stating that the United
+Reform Party represented the political views of the vast majority of
+Canadians, that four ministers--Sullivan, Ogden, Draper, and Day--were
+hostile to popular sympathies and ideals, and that he thought the
+accession of Lower Canada Reformers absolutely essential to a sound
+popular administration.  It was a perfectly consistent, if somewhat
+unhappily executed, attempt to secure {114} the absolute responsibility
+of the Executive Council to the representatives of the people; and a
+week later, in the Assembly, when no longer in office, he defended his
+action.  He believed that when the election had determined of what
+materials the House of Assembly was to be composed, it then became his
+duty to inform the head of the government that the administration did
+not possess the confidence of the House of Assembly, and to tender to
+the representative of his sovereign the resignation of the office which
+he held, having first, as he was bound to do, offered his advice to his
+Excellency that the administration of the country should be
+reconstructed.[51]
+
+It was the directest possible challenge to Sydenham's system.
+Baldwin's claim was that, once the representatives of the people had
+made known the people's will, it was the duty of the ministry to
+reflect that will in their programme and actions, or to resign.  As for
+the governor-general, he must obviously adjust whatever theories he
+might have, to a situation where colonial ministers were content to
+hold office only where they had the confidence of the people.
+
+The action of the governor-general was {115} characteristically
+summary.  His answer to Baldwin reproved him for a "proposal in the
+highest degree unconstitutional, as dictating to the crown who are the
+particular individuals whom it should include in the ministry";
+intimated the extreme displeasure of his Excellency, and assumed the
+letter to be equivalent to resignation.[52]  To the home government he
+spoke of the episode with anger and some contempt: "Acting upon some
+principle of conduct which I can reconcile neither with honour nor
+common sense, he strove to bring about this union (between Upper and
+Lower Canadian reformers), and at last, having as he thought effected
+it, coolly proposed to me, on the day before Parliament was to meet, to
+break up the Government altogether, dismiss several of his colleagues,
+and replace them by men whom I believe he had not known for 24
+hours--but who are most of them thoroughly well known in Lower Canada
+as the principal opponents of any measure for the improvement of the
+province."[53]
+
+The crisis once passed, Sydenham hoped, and not without justification,
+that Baldwin would carry few supporters over to the opposition, and
+{116} that the Assembly would settle quietly down to enact the measures
+so bountifully set out in the opening speech.  The first day of
+Assembly saw the party of responsible government make a smothered
+effort to state their views in the debate on the election of a speaker.
+On June 18th, an elaborate debate, nominally on the address, really on
+the fundamental point, found the attorney-general stating the case for
+the government, and Baldwin and Hincks pushing the logic of responsible
+government to its natural conclusion.  Baldwin once more grappled with
+the problem of the responsibility of the members of council, and the
+advice they should offer to the governor-general.  He admitted freely
+that unless the representative of the sovereign should acquiesce in the
+measures so recommended, there would be no means by which that advice
+could be made practically useful; but this consideration did not for a
+moment relieve a member of the council from the fulfilment of an
+imperative duty.  If his advice were accepted, well and good; if not,
+his course would be to tender his resignation.[54]
+
+{117}
+
+The government came triumphantly out of the ordeal, and all amendments,
+whether affecting the Union, or responsible government, were defeated
+by majorities, usually of two to one.  "I have got the large majority
+of the House ready to support me upon any question that can arise,"
+Sydenham wrote at the end of June; "and, what is better, thoroughly
+convinced that their constituents, so far as the whole of Upper Canada
+and the British part of Lower Canada are concerned, will never forgive
+them if they do not."[55]
+
+But the enemy was not so easily routed.  There had been much violence
+at the recent elections; and, among others, La Fontaine had a most just
+complaint to make, for disorder, and, as he thought, government
+trickery had ousted him from a safe seat at Terrebonne.  Unfortunately
+the protests were lodged too late, and a furious struggle sprang up, as
+to whether the legal period should, in the cases under consideration,
+be extended, or whether, as the government contended, an inquiry and
+amendments affecting only the future should suffice.  It was ominous
+for the cause of limited responsibility, that the government had to own
+defeat in the Lower House, and saved itself only {118} by the veto of
+the Legislative Council.  Nor was that the end.  A mosaic work of
+opposition, old Tories, French Canadians, British anti-unionists, and
+Upper Canada Reformers, was gradually formed, and at any moment some
+chance issue might lure over a few from the centre to wreck the
+administration.  Most of the greater measures passed through the ordeal
+safely, including a bill reforming the common schools and another
+establishing a Board of Works.  The critical moment of the latter part
+of the session, however, came with the introduction of a bill to
+establish District Councils in Upper Canada, to complete the work
+already done in Lower Canada.  The forces in opposition rallied to the
+attack, Conservatives because the bill would increase the popular
+element in government, Radicals because the fourth clause enacted that
+the governor of the province might appoint, under the Great Seal of the
+province, fit and proper persons to hold during his pleasure the office
+of Warden of the various districts;[56] and, as Sydenham himself
+hinted, there were those who regretted the loss to members of Assembly
+of a great opportunity for jobbery.  One motion passed by the
+chairman's casting vote; {119} and nothing, in the governor-general's
+judgment, saved the bill but the circumstance of his having already
+established such councils in Lower Canada.[57]
+
+There was one more attack in force before the session ended.  On
+September 3rd, Baldwin, seconded by a French Canadian, moved "that the
+most important as well as the most undoubted of the political rights of
+the people of the province, is that of having a provincial parliament
+for the protection of their liberties, for the exercise of a
+constitutional influence over the executive departments of the
+government, and for legislation upon all matters, which do not on the
+ground of absolute necessity constitutionally belong to the
+jurisdiction of the Imperial parliament, as the paramount authority of
+the Empire."[58]  The issue was stated moderately but quite directly,
+and there are critics of Sydenham who hold that his answer--for it was
+his voice that spoke--surrendered the whole position.  That answer took
+the form of resolutions, moved by the most moderate reformer in the
+Assembly, S. B. Harrison:
+
+(i) That the head of the provincial executive {120} government of the
+province, being within the limits of his government the representative
+of the Sovereign, is not constitutionally responsible to any other than
+the authority of the Empire.
+
+(ii) That the representative of the Sovereign, for the proper conduct
+and efficient disposal of public business, is necessarily obliged to
+make use of the advice and assistance of subordinate officers in the
+administration of his government.
+
+(iii) That in order to preserve the harmony between the different
+branches of the Provincial Parliament which is essential to the happy
+conduct of public affairs, the principal of such subordinate officers,
+advisers of the representative of the Sovereign, and constituting as
+such the provincial administration under him ... ought always to be men
+possessed of the public confidence of the people, thus affording a
+guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests of the people,
+which our gracious Sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the
+Provincial Government, will on all occasions be faithfully represented
+and advocated.
+
+(iv) That the house has the constitutional right of holding such
+advisers politically responsible for every act of the Provincial
+Government of a local {121} character sanctioned by such government
+while such advisers continue in office."[59]
+
+Of Sydenham's own doctrine of colonial government the outlines are
+unmistakeable.  A governor-general existed, responsible for his actions
+solely to the imperial authority.  Under that government the people had
+full liberty to elect their representatives, through whom their desires
+could be made known.  It was the duty of the governor-general to
+consult, on every possible detail, the popular will.  Sydenham
+therefore held it essential that the governor-general in Canada should
+be one trained in the Imperial Parliament to interpret and to guide
+popular expression of opinion; and he believed that in such
+parliamentary diplomacy the governor-general would have to make many
+minor surrenders.  But he never recoiled from a position, which was
+also that of Durham, that, as the proclamation of Union asserted, the
+grant of local autonomy was subject to certain limitations, and that
+these limitations no action of the Provincial Legislature could affect.
+Nor did he admit that his own responsibility to the Crown could be
+modified by the existence of a responsibility on the {122} part of his
+ministers to the Canadian people.  Moreover, his own imperious temper
+and sense of superior enlightenment made him act in the very spirit of
+his doctrine with a resolution which few imperial servants of his time
+could have surpassed.  It may be then that the final resolutions, and
+especially the last of them, were marked by a gentler mode of
+expression than before, but they were actually a reaffirmation of
+Sydenham's early views, and were quite consistent with the initial
+despatch of the colonial secretary.
+
+The end was now near.  Sydenham had already applied for and received
+permission, first to leave Canada, should his health require that step,
+and then, to resign.  He had delayed to act on this permission, until
+he should see the end of the session, and the accomplishment of his
+ambitions.  But, on September 4th, a fall from horseback inflicted
+injuries which grew more complicated through his generally enfeebled
+condition, and he died on Sunday, September 19th.  On the preceding
+day, one of the most useful and notable sessions in the history of the
+Canadian Parliament came to an end.
+
+Both by his errors, and by his acts of statesmanship, Sydenham
+contributed more than any other {123} man, except Elgin, to establish
+that autonomy in Canada which his theories rejected.  Before
+self-government could flourish in the colony, there must be some solid
+material progress, and two years of incessant legislation and
+administrative innovation, all of it suggested by Sydenham, had turned
+the tide of Canadian fortunes.  It was necessary, too, that some larger
+field than a trivial provincial assembly with its local jobs should be
+provided for the new adventure in self-government; and Sydenham not
+only engineered a difficult Act of Union past all preliminary
+obstacles, but, of his own initiative, gave Canada the local
+institutions through which alone the country could grow into
+disciplined self-dependence.
+
+But even his errors aided Canadian development.  Acting for a
+government in whose counsels there was no hesitation, Sydenham
+expounded in word and practice a perfectly self-consistent theory of
+colonial government.  It was he who, by the virility of his thought and
+action, forced those who demanded responsible government to test and
+think over again their own position.  The criticism which Elgin passed
+on him in 1847 is final: "I never cease to marvel what study of human
+nature, or of history, led him to the conclusion {124} that it would be
+possible to concede to a pushing and enterprising people, unencumbered
+by an aristocracy, and dwelling in the immediate vicinity of the United
+States, such constitutional privileges as were conferred on Canada at
+the time of Union, and yet restrict in practice their powers of
+self-government as he proposed."[60]  Yet he had raised the question,
+for both sides, to a higher level, and his adversaries owed something
+of their triumph, when it came, to the man who had taught them a more
+spacious view of politics.
+
+But it may be urged that he roused the French, insulted them, excluded
+them, and almost precipitated a new French rising.  Undoubtedly he was
+an enemy to French claims, but, at the time, most of these claims were
+inadmissible.  The French had brought the existing system of local
+government to a standstill.  Few of those who took part in the
+Rebellion had any reasonable or adequate conception of a reformed
+constitution.  As a people they had set themselves to obstruct the
+statesmen who came to assist them, and to oppose a Union which was
+doubtless imperfect as an instrument of government, but which was a
+necessary stage in the construction of a {125} better system.  Here
+again Sydenham aimed at carrying out a perfectly clear and consistent
+programme, the political blending of the French with the British
+colonists.  Unfortunately that programme was impossible.  It had been
+constructed by men who did not understand the racial problem, and who,
+even if they had understood it, would not have accepted the modern
+solution.  Yet French nationalism, between 1839 and 1841, had certain
+negative lessons still to learn.  As, in Upper Canada, Robert Baldwin
+discovered from his opposition to the governor-general the methods and
+limits of parliamentary opposition, so La Fontaine, the worthiest
+representative of French Canada, began in these years to substitute
+constitutional co-operation with the reformers of the West, for the old
+sullen negative nationalism which had failed so utterly in 1837, as the
+most suitable means for maintaining the rights of his people.
+
+
+
+[1] I disregard Cathcart's tenure of office.  For all practical
+purposes it was merely that of an acting governor.
+
+[2] Instructions to the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 7 September,
+1839.
+
+[3] _Ibid._
+
+[4] Lord John Russell to the Rt. Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 14 October,
+1839.
+
+[5] Lord John Russell to the Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, 16 October, 1839.
+
+[6] Greville, _A Journal of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV._,
+iii. p. 330.
+
+[7] Quoted from _The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, 19 October, 1839.
+
+[8] _Lord Durham's Report_ (Lucas), ii. p. 307.
+
+[9] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, p. 148.
+
+[10] Poulett Scrope, p. 168.
+
+[11] _Journals of the Special Council of Lower Canada_, 13 November,
+1839.
+
+[12] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 18 November,
+1839.
+
+[13] Sir John Colborne to Lord Normanby, 19 August, 1839.
+
+[14] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December
+1839.
+
+[15] Poulett Scrope, pp. 148-9.
+
+[16] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December,
+1839.
+
+[17] _Ibid._
+
+[18] Poulett Scrope, p. 163.
+
+[19] _Correspondence relative to the Reunion of Upper and Lower Canada_
+(23rd March, 1840), p. 20.
+
+[20] _Ibid._ p. 33.
+
+[21] Sydenham to Russell, 13 January, 1841.
+
+[22] Poulett Scrope, p. 164.
+
+[23] Poulett Scrope, p. 183.  "I have done nothing for two days, but
+pass under triumphal arches, and receive addresses of thanks and
+praise."
+
+[24] Correspondence relative to the Affairs of Canada (1841): The Right
+Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 16 September, 1840.
+
+[25] Poulett Scrope, p. 198.
+
+[26] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845,
+"You know that I do not like the Whigs."
+
+[27] Poulett Scrope, p. 181.
+
+[28] See a report from the agent for emigration at Toronto, made to
+Sydenham, 6 January, 1841.
+
+[29] Sydenham to Russell, 26 January, 1841.
+
+[30] Sydenham to Russell, 22 February, 1841.
+
+[31] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 27 June, 1840.
+
+[32] Sydenham to Russell, 26 February, 1841.
+
+[33] Merritt, _Life of the Hon. W. H. Merritt, M.P._  See under the
+years 1840 and 1841.
+
+[34] Sydenham to Russell, 6 March, 1841.  The italics are my own.
+
+[35] Poulett Scrope, p. 205.
+
+[36] _The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, 12 February, 1841.  "A
+powerful struggle will be made at the next election to secure the
+return of representatives, who will coincide with the views of the
+French party in the Lower Province."
+
+[37] Sydenham to Russell, 26 February, 1841.
+
+[38] _Ibid._, 1 June, 1841.
+
+[39] Poulett Scrope, p. 217.  As the Canadian portion of the biography
+was the work of Sydenham's secretary, Murdoch, it carries with it
+considerable authority.  Murdoch was, indeed, one of the most competent
+of the men round Sydenham.
+
+[40] Sydenham to Russell, 26 June, 1841.
+
+[41] Hincks, _Lecture on the Political History of Canada_, 1840-1855,
+pp. 22-23.
+
+[42] Poulett Scrope, p. 243.
+
+[43] Richardson, in his curious characterization of the man in _Eight
+Years in Canada_.
+
+[44] Sir F. B. Head to Lord Glenelg, February, 1836.
+
+[45] The references to Baldwin in the Elgin-Grey Correspondence are,
+without exception, most cordial, and usually complimentary.
+
+[46] The Hon. W. H. Draper, a moderate Conservative.
+
+[47] Quoted in Hincks, _Lecture on the Political History of Canada_, p.
+19.
+
+[48] _Ibid._ pp. 18-19.
+
+[49] Baldwin's own explanation, furnished to a volume _The Irishman in
+Canada_.  He was peculiarly fond of memoranda or declarations, written
+in the third person.
+
+[50] Sydenham to Russell, 28 May, 1841.  Sydenham dispensed with the
+oath on the advice of his legal officials.
+
+[51] _The Mirror of Parliament_ (published in Kingston), 23 June, 1841.
+
+[52] Sydenham to Baldwin, 13 June, 1841.
+
+[53] _Ibid._, 23 June, 1841.
+
+[54] _The Mirror of Parliament_, reporting Baldwin's speech of 18th
+June.  I have chosen to give Baldwin's own language in all its
+awkwardness and stiffness.
+
+[55] Poulett Scrope, p. 233.
+
+[56] District Municipal Council Act (1841), Cl. IV.
+
+[57] Sydenham to Russell, 28 August, 1841.
+
+[58] _Journals of the House of Assembly_, 3 September, 1841.
+
+[59] I have used as my chief authority here the reports in _The Quebec
+Gazette_, more especially the issue of Friday, 10 September, 1841.
+
+[60] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+
+
+
+
+{126}
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT.
+
+Sir Charles Bagot, the second governor-general of United Canada,
+contrasted strangely with his predecessor in character and political
+methods.  He was a man of the Regency, and of Canning's set.  Since
+1814 he had occupied positions of considerable importance in the
+diplomatic world, not because of transcendent parts, but because of his
+connections.  He had been ambassador at Washington, St. Petersburg, and
+the Hague; and in the United States, where, to the end, his friends
+remembered him with real affection, he had rendered service permanently
+beneficial both to Britain and to America by negotiating the Rush-Bagot
+treaty, which established the neutralization of the great lakes.  In
+Europe, he had been known to fame mainly as the recipient of George
+Canning's rhyming despatch; and for the rest, he allowed the great
+minister to make him, as he had made all {127} his other agents, a pawn
+in the game where he alone was player.  In his correspondence he stands
+out as an old-fashioned, worldly, cultured, and unbusiness-like
+diplomatist, worthy perhaps of a satiric but kindly portraiture by
+Thackeray--a genuine citizen of Vanity Fair.  Apart from his
+correspondence, his friendships, and his American achievements, he
+might have passed through life, deserving nothing more than some few
+references in memoirs of the earlier nineteenth century.  But by one
+freak of fortune he found himself transported to Canada in 1842, and,
+by another, he became one of the foremost figures in the history of
+Canadian constitutional development.  There have been few better
+examples of the curious good-fortune which has attended on the growth
+of British greatness than the story of Bagot's short career in Canada.
+When a very eminent personage demanded from the existing government
+some explanation of their selection of Bagot, Stanley, who was then
+Secretary of State for the Colonies, pointed, not to administrative
+qualifications, but to his diplomatic services in the United States.
+Relations with the American Republic do not here concern us, but it may
+be remembered that the situation in 1841 and 1842, just before the
+{128} Ashburton Treaty, was full of peril; and Bagot was sent to Canada
+as a person not displeasing to the Americans, and a diplomatist of
+conciliatory temper.  But his work was to be concerned with domestic,
+not international, diplomacy.
+
+Three factors must be carefully studied in the year of political
+turmoil which followed: the Imperial government, the Canadian political
+community, and the new governor-general.
+
+During this and the following governor-generalship, the predominant
+influence at the Colonial Office was Lord Stanley, almost the most
+distinguished of the younger statesmen of the day.  Peel's judicial and
+scientific mind usually controlled those of his subordinates; but even
+Peel found it hard to check the brilliant individualism of his colonial
+secretary; and this most interesting of all the great failures in
+English politics exercised an influence in Canadian affairs, such as
+not even Lord John Russell attempted.  Judged from his colonial
+despatches, Stanley seems to have found it very hard to understand that
+there could be another side to any question on which he had made up his
+mind.  His party had consented to a modification of the old oligarchic
+rule in Canada; but they were intent upon limiting the scope of the
+{129} change, and upon conducting all their operations in a very
+conservative spirit.  Stanley's instructions to Bagot had been drawn up
+in no ungenerous fashion.  Bagot was to know no distinctions of
+national origin or religious creed, and in so far as it might be
+consistent with his duty to his Sovereign, he was to consult the wishes
+of the mass of the community.[1]  Their happiness it was his main duty
+to secure.  In ecclesiastical matters, Stanley, who had changed his
+party rather than consent to weaken the Anglican Church in Ireland, was
+willing to acknowledge "that the habits and opinions of the people of
+Canada were, in the main, averse from the absolute predominance of any
+single church."[2]  But the theory inspiring the instructions was one
+which denied to the colonists any but the most partial responsibility
+and independence, and which regarded their party divisions as factious
+and at times treasonable.  This disbelief in the reality of Canadian
+parties was, however, discounted, and yet at the same time rendered
+more insulting to the reformers, because the colonial secretary
+regarded the fragments of old Family Compact Toryism as still the best
+guarantee in Canada for the British connection.  "Although {130} I am
+far from wishing to re-establish the old Family Compact of Upper
+Canada," he wrote, at a later date, "if you come into difficulties,
+that is the class of men to fall back upon, rather than the
+ultra-liberal party."[3]  Confidence in political adventurers and the
+disaffected French seemed to him a kind of madness.  In addition to
+this attitude towards existing parties, Stanley held stiffly to every
+constitutional expedient which asserted the supremacy of the Imperial
+government.  The Union had, by fixing a Civil List, taken the power of
+the purse within certain limits from Canadian hands, and this Civil
+List Stanley regarded as quite essential to the maintenance of British
+authority.[4]  In fact, any discussion of the subject seemed to him the
+"reopening of a chapter which has already led to such serious
+consequences, and in the prosecution of which I contemplate seriously
+the prospect of the dismemberment of the Empire."[5]  Holding views so
+resolute, he could not, like Russell, trust his representative on the
+spot; and, from the first, the troubles of the new governor-general
+were multiplied by Stanley's {131} determination to make the views of
+the Colonial Office prevail in Canada.  "I very much doubt," wrote
+Murdoch, Sydenham's former secretary, "how far Lord Stanley is really
+alive to the true state of Canada, and to the necessity of governing
+through the assembly."[6]
+
+Local influences provide the second factor in the situation.  As has
+been seen, the Canadian political community was demanding both
+responsible government, and the admission of the French to a share in
+office.  Sydenham had exhibited the most wonderful skill in working an
+anomalous system of government, and he had found himself on the brink
+of failure.  His Council, which Bagot had inherited, "might be said to
+represent the Reform or popular party of Upper Canada, and the moderate
+Conservatives of both provinces, to the exclusion of the French and the
+ultra-conservatives of both provinces,"[7] but the compromise
+represented less a popular demand for moderation, than Sydenham's own
+individual idea of what a Canadian Council should be.  There had been
+uneasiness in adjusting the opinions of individual members; there was a
+steady decline in the willingness of the Assembly {132} and the country
+to support them; and a determined constitutional opposition found
+additional strength through the support of the French party, whom the
+governor had alienated not simply as a political division but as a
+race.  In a sense, there was no imminent danger, as there had been in
+1837, for Sydenham's sound administration had given the country peace
+and prosperity.  English money and immigrants were flowing in; the
+woods were ringing with the axes of settlers too busy in clearing the
+ground to trouble much with politics; the lines of communication were
+being improved and transportation simplified; and, thanks to Ashburton,
+the war-cloud to the south had vanished over the horizon.  Yet the
+politicians held the central position--everything depended on them; and
+the crisis for Bagot would arise, first, when he should be called on to
+fill certain places in the Executive Council, and then, when Parliament
+met.  It is often assumed that public opinion was seriously divided on
+the question of the responsibility of the ministry to the Assembly, and
+of the extent of the concessions to be made to the French; and that the
+opposition to reform was almost equal in the numbers of its supporters
+to the progressive party.  But this is to over-estimate the forces of
+{133} reaction.  The Family Compact men had fallen on evil days.
+Strachan with his church party, and MacNab with his tail of Tory
+irreconcilables, had really very little substantial backing; and honest
+Tory gentlemen, like J. S. Cartwright, who openly advocated an
+aristocratic administration, were unlikely to attract the crowd.  The
+work of Sydenham had contributed much to the political education of
+Canada; popular opinion was now firmer and more self-consistent, and
+that opinion went directly contrary to the views of Stanley and his
+supporters.  One may find evidence of this in the views of moderates on
+either side.
+
+Harrison, who represented the moderate reforming party in Sydenham's
+ministry, held that responsible government, in some form or other, was
+essential, and that French nationalism must also receive concessions.
+"Looking at the present position of parties," he wrote to Bagot in
+July, "it may, I think, be safely laid down that, to obtain a working
+majority in the House of Assembly, it is absolutely necessary that the
+government should be able to carry with it the bulk of the
+French-Canadian members....  There is no disguising the fact that the
+French members possess the power of the country; and he who directs
+that {134} power, backed by the most efficient means of controlling it,
+is in a situation to govern the province best."[8]  It was his opinion
+that Bagot should anticipate the coming crisis by calling in Baldwin
+and the French, before events forced that step on him.
+
+On the Conservative side, a moderate man like W. H. Draper, the
+attorney-general for Upper Canada in Sydenham's ministry, argued in
+favour of a policy almost identical.  While his views tended to
+oscillate, now to this side, now to that, their general direction was
+clear.  He felt that the ideal condition was one of union between the
+parties of Western Canada, which would "render the position of the
+government safer in its dealings with the French-Canadians."  But no
+such union was possible, and Draper, with that honest opportunism which
+best expressed his mind and capacity, assured Bagot that action in the
+very teeth of his instructions was the only possible course.  "One
+thing I do not doubt at all," he wrote in July 1842, "and that is that,
+with the present House of Assembly, you cannot get on without the
+French, while it is necessary for me at the same time to declare
+frankly that I cannot sit at the {135} council-board with Mr.
+Baldwin."[9]  In other words, since Draper admitted that the opposition
+leaders must receive office, and at the same time declared the
+impossibility of his holding office with them, he was consenting to
+Cabinet government, not in the restricted form permitted in Lord John
+Russell's despatches, but after the regular British fashion.
+
+Outside the sphere of party politics moderate opinion took precisely
+the same stand.  Murdoch had been Sydenham's right-hand man, and was
+still the fairest critic of Canadian politics.  That he distrusted
+Stanley's methods is apparent in his letters to Bagot; and it was his
+suggestion that the Imperial position should be modified, and that some
+concession should be made to French national feeling.  "No half
+measures," he told Bagot, "can now be safely resorted to.  After the
+Rebellion, the government had the option, either of crushing the French
+and anglifying the province, or of pardoning them and making them
+friends.  And as the latter policy was adopted, it must be carried out
+to its legitimate consequences."[10]
+
+{136}
+
+The situation in Canada during the spring and summer of 1842 stood
+thus.  A governor-general, entirely new to the work of domestic
+administration, and to the province which had fallen to his lot, faced
+a curious dilemma.  The British cabinet, the minister responsible for
+the colonies, and all those in Canada who claimed to be the peculiar
+friends of the British connection, bade him govern for, but not by the
+people, and exclude from office almost all the French-Canadians, on the
+ground that they were devotedly French in sympathies.  Another group,
+at times aggressive, and very little accustomed to the orthodox methods
+of parliamentary opposition, bade him venture and trust; and warned him
+that no half measures would satisfy the claims of constitutional
+liberty and nationality.
+
+The administration of Bagot occupied a single year, and its more
+important episodes were crowded into a few weeks in the autumn of 1842.
+Yet there have been few years of equal significance in the history of
+Canadian political development.  There were intervals in which Bagot
+had time to reveal to Canada his genius for making friends; and the
+foundation of a provincial university in Toronto deeply interested one
+who had something of {137} Canning's wit and literary inclinations.
+But politics usually claimed all his attention.  The Union of the
+Provinces, and the Imperial supremacy, had to be defended against their
+assailants; the vacant places in the Executive Council had to be
+filled, as nearly as was possible in harmony with the wishes of the
+community; and whatever the character of that council might be, it
+would have to face the test of criticism from an Assembly, which had
+already striven not unsuccessfully with Sydenham.  In his attempt to
+answer these various problems, Bagot was at his worst in finance.  He
+had not the requisite business training, and entirely lacked Sydenham's
+knowledge, boldness, and precision.  In the correspondence over the
+mode in which the province should dispose of the British loan of
+L1,500,000, Stanley's views show a clearness and force, lacking in
+those of Bagot; and in the one really unfortunate episode of the year,
+his want of financial skill drew on the governor-general's head the
+remonstrances of both Stanley and the Treasury authorities.  To escape
+financial difficulties in Canada, Bagot had anticipated the loan, by
+drawing on British funds for L100,000, and the Treasury did not spare
+him.  "He ought," wrote the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "to have {138}
+considered those (difficulties) which must arise here from the
+presentation of large drafts at the Treasury, for which Parliament had
+made no provision; and for which, as Parliament was not sitting, no
+regular provision could be made.  The situation to which the Treasury
+is reduced is this: either to protest the bills for want of funds, or
+to accept the bills, and find within thirty days the means of paying
+them."[11]  This incident furnished to Stanley fresh proof, if any were
+needed, of Bagot's inexperience.  An anxious and mistrustful temper
+appears in all his despatches to Bagot; but, in fact, with little
+justification.  He never learned how completely the governor for whom
+he trembled was his master in the art of governing a half-autonomous
+colony.
+
+As early as March, Bagot had begun to feel that the views of the
+Cabinet in Britain were impracticable: and that even the Civil List
+might not be so easily defended as Stanley imagined.  "I know well by
+what a slender thread the adhesion of the colony will hang whenever we
+consent to leave the matter entirely in its own hands....  But the
+present supply is not sufficient for its purposes.  We must always be
+dependent on the Legislature for provision to meet its excess; and I
+cannot but {139} think that the sooner the Legislature succeeds, if
+they are to succeed, in carrying the point, the more generous they may
+possibly be in the use of their victory."[12]  Bagot was already
+defining the policy which was to be peculiarly his own.  He had a
+singularly clear eye for facts, even when they contradicted his
+preconceived ideas; and, being a man of the world, he saw that
+compromise with the opposition was as natural in Canada as in Britain.
+But in answer to his despatches, proposing such a compromise, Stanley,
+with his dogmatic omniscience, and eloquent certainty, had nothing but
+regrets to express, and difficulties to suggest.  England, he thought,
+had dealt generously with Canada in the terms of the Act of Union, and
+sound statesmanship lay in resolute defence of that measure.  And,
+since there always seems to be in such imperialists a sense of
+political pathos--the _lacrymae rerum politicarum_--he began to have
+pessimistic views of the permanence of the connection: "I am very far
+from underrating the value to Great Britain of her extensive and
+rapidly improving North American possessions, but I cannot conceal from
+myself the fact that they are maintained to her at no light cost, and
+at no {140} trifling risk.  To all this she willingly submits, so long
+as the bonds of union between herself and her colonies are strengthened
+by mutual harmony, good will, and confidence; and it would be indeed
+painful to me to contemplate the possibility that embarrassments,
+arising from uncalled for and unfounded jealousies on the part of
+Canada, might lead the people of England to entertain a doubt how far
+the balance of advantages preponderated in favour of the continuance of
+the present relations."[13]  The Civil List raised the fundamental
+question, but it was a simple issue, and it lay still far in the
+future.  The constitution of the ministry, however, and its relation to
+the coming parliament, could be neither evaded nor delayed.
+
+Bagot's instructions gave him a certain scope, for he was permitted to
+avail himself of the advice and services of the ablest men, without
+reference to the distinction of local party.  In making use of this
+liberty, Bagot had to consider chiefly the need of finding a majority
+in the Lower House--happily he could postpone their meeting till
+September.  Of the probable tone of that Assembly the estimates varied,
+but Murdoch, who knew the situation as well as any man, calculated that
+while {141} the government party would number thirty, the French, with
+their British Radical friends, would be thirty-six strong, the old
+Conservatives eight, and some ten or so would "wait on providence or
+rather on patronage."[14]  In Sydenham's last days, the government
+majority, which he had so subtly, and by means so machiavellian, got
+together, had vanished.  Reformers, not all of them so scrupulous as
+Baldwin, were ready to ruin a government which kept them from a
+complete triumph.  Sir Allan MacNab with his old die-hards, fulminating
+against all enemies of the British tradition, was still willing to make
+an unholy alliance with the French, if only he could checkmate a
+governor-general who did not seem to appreciate his past services to
+Britain.  And the French themselves, alienated and insulted by
+Sydenham, sat gloomily alone, restless over the Union, seemingly on the
+threshold of some fresh racial conflict.  Everything was uncertain,
+save the coming government defeat.[15]
+
+At the very outset, Bagot had this question of French Canada thrust
+upon him.  From the moment of his arrival his council advised the {142}
+admission of the French Canadians to a share in power.  He refused, for
+Stanley had very carefully instructed him on that subject.  The
+Colonial Secretary had spoken of the wisdom of forgetting old
+divisions, but he never permitted himself to forget that the French
+leaders--La Fontaine, Viger, Girouard--had all been, in some fashion or
+other, involved in the troubles of 1837.  He believed that there still
+existed in Lower Canada a gloomy, rebellious, French Canadian party,
+which no responsible British statesman could afford to recognize.
+Sober-minded Canadian statesmen told him that it was useless to attempt
+to detach from the party individuals--_les Vendus_ their compatriots
+called them.  He answered that he would like to multiply such _Vendus_;
+and he hoped for a day when the anglicising of the Lower Province
+should have been completed.  It was his intention to break down all
+forces tending in the opposite direction.  He was conscious of a
+repulsion, equally strong, in his feelings towards Baldwin, and the
+Reform party.  Whether it came by French racial hate, or Upper Canadian
+republicanism, which was the name he gave to all views of a reforming
+colour, the ruin of the Empire would follow hard on concession to
+agitation.  In his heart, he trusted only {143} the old Tories, and not
+all his disgust at MacNab's interested advances could alter his
+conviction that one party alone cared for Britain--the former Family
+Compact men.  When he bade Bagot disregard party divisions in his
+choice of ministers, he was unconsciously limiting Bagot's choice to a
+very little circle, all of them most unmistakably displeasing to the
+populace, whose wishes he professed to be willing to consult.  He
+claimed to be a man of principle--mistaking the clearness of
+doctrinaire ignorance for the certainty of honest knowledge.
+
+Happily the governor-general of Canada was not in this sense a man of
+principle.  He observed, took counsel, and began to shape his own
+policy.  It is not easy to describe that policy in a sentence, or even
+to make it absolutely clear.  He had come out to Canada, forewarned
+against Baldwin and the school of constitutionalists associated with
+him; and the warning made him reluctant to consent to their ideas.  He
+had been advised to draw his councillors from all directions, and his
+naturally moderate spirit approved a policy of judicious selection.
+But the noteworthy feature in the line of action which he ultimately
+followed was that he allowed his diplomatic instincts to overbalance
+the advice imposed on him by the British ministry.  {144} In selecting
+individuals for his councils, he almost unconsciously followed the
+wishes of Baldwin and his party, until, at the end, he found himself in
+the hands of resolute advocates of responsible government, and did
+nothing to withstand their doctrine.  But this is to anticipate events,
+and to simplify what was actually a process involved in some confusion.
+He filled two vacant places--one with the most brilliant of reforming
+financiers, Francis Hincks, whose merits he saw at once; the other,
+after a gentlemanly refusal from Cartwright, with Sherwood, a sound but
+comparatively moderate Conservative from Upper Canada.  In an admirable
+letter to Stanley at the beginning of the summer, he outlined his
+policy.  Stanley, ever fearful of rash experiments, warned him that a
+combination of black and white does not necessarily produce grey.  To
+this he answered: "My hope is that, circumstanced as I am, I possibly
+may be able to do this, that is, to take from all sides the best and
+fittest men for the public service....  The attempt to produce such a
+grey, whether it succeed or not, must, I think, after all that has
+passed, and at this particular crisis in which I find myself here, be
+the safest line."[16]  Stanley, then, limited his {145} choice of men,
+and in the event of a crisis, was prepared that he should risk a defeat
+and the violent imposition of an alien ministry, on the chance that
+such a reverse might provoke a loyalist uprising to defend the British
+connection.  Baldwin dreamed of a consistently Radical cabinet.
+MacNab, with his eyes shut to the consequences, seems to have
+considered a leap in the dark--a coalition between his men and the
+French Canadians.  Bagot, as opportunist as the Tories, but opportunist
+for the sake of peace, and some kind of constitutional progress, laid
+aside lofty ideals, and said, as his most faithful advisers also said,
+that the future lay with _judicious selection_, no party being barred
+except where their conduct should have made recognition of them
+impossible to a self-respecting governor.
+
+It is difficult to name all the influences which operated on Bagot's
+mind.  He corresponded largely and usefully with Draper, the soundest
+of his conservative advisers.  His own innate courtesy led him to end
+the social ostracism of the French, and taught him their good
+qualities.  Being quick-witted and observant, his political instincts
+began almost unconsciously to force a new programme upon him.  Before
+August, he had conciliated moderate reforming opinion through Hincks;
+he {146} had proved to the French, by legal appointments, which met
+with a stiff and forced acquiescence in Stanley, that at least he was
+not their enemy.  He had begun to question the certainty of Stanley's
+wisdom on the Civil List, and various other subjects.  Then, between
+July 28th and September 26th, the date of two sets of despatches,
+which, if despatches ever deserve the term, must be called works of
+genius, he completed his plan, brought it to the test of practice, and
+challenged the home government to acquiesce, or recall him.  With his
+ministry constituted as it was in July, he had to face the certainty of
+a vote of no confidence as soon as parliament met.  Were he to do
+nothing, some unholy alliance of groups would defeat the government.
+In that case, his ministers, pledged as they were to constitutionalism
+by the resolutions of September, 1841, had warned him beforehand, that
+they would resign in a body.  All hold over the French would be lost,
+and responsible government, whether he and Stanley willed it or not,
+would be established in its most obnoxious form.  To fill the vacant
+places, or to reconstruct the ministry, the field of choice was very
+small, even if men of every connection were included.  "Out of the 84
+members of the House of {147} Assembly," he told Stanley, "not above
+30, as far as I can judge, are at all qualified for office, by the
+common advantages of intelligence and education, and of these, ten at
+least are not in a position to accept it."[17]  In the case of the
+French he seemed to have reached an absolute deadlock.  He found offers
+to individual Frenchmen useless, for he did not gain the party, and he
+ruined the men whom he honoured.  The Assembly was to meet on the 8th
+of September, and as that date drew near, the excitement rose.  It was
+a crisis with many possibilities both for England and for Canada.
+
+As certainly as Stanley, with all the wisdom of Peel's cabinet behind
+him, was wrong, and fatally so, Bagot's conduct between September 10th
+and September 14th was precisely right.  In a correspondence with Peel,
+just before the crisis, Stanley sought to get his great leader to take
+his view.  Even Peel's genius proved incompetent to settle a problem of
+local politics, three thousand miles away from the scene of action.
+The wisdom of his answer lay, not in its suggestions, which were
+useless to Bagot, but in its hint "that much must be left to the
+judgment and discretion of those who have to act at a great distance
+from the supreme {148} authority."[18]  Stanley himself, from first to
+last, was for allowing Bagot to face defeat, although he always thought
+it possible that stubborn resistance to what he counted treason would
+rally a secure majority to Bagot and the Crown.  Time and again after
+assuring Bagot that he and the ministry acquiesced, which, to do them
+justice, they did like men, he harked back to the idea of allowing
+events to prove that the government was indeed powerless, before it
+made a definitive surrender.  Long before Parliament met, the situation
+had been discussed in all its bearings; and the only doubt that
+remained was concerning which out of three or four foreshadowed
+catastrophes would end the existence of the government.  The ministers
+themselves had their negative programme ready; for, having consented to
+the constitutional resolutions of September, 1841, they forewarned
+Bagot that if they were left in a minority, or in a very small
+majority, they should feel themselves compelled to resign, and they
+added that, if Bagot did not accept their recommendation to admit the
+French Canadians, they would insist upon his accepting their
+resignation.[19]
+
+{149}
+
+When the Assembly met, events moved very rapidly.  On the opening day,
+Neilson brought forward the exciting question of amnesty; and the air
+was filled with rumours and schemes, of which the most ominous for
+government was the project of coalition between Conservatives and
+French Canadians.  The time had come for action--if anything could
+really be done.  To understand the boldness of Bagot's tactics, it must
+be remembered that they went "in the teeth of an almost universal
+feeling at home ... certainly in opposition to Lord Durham's recorded
+sentiments, and as certainly to Lord Sydenham's avowed practice"--to
+say nothing of Stanley's own wishes.  La Fontaine was definitely
+approached on the tenth, and, seemingly, Bagot was not quite prepared
+for the greatness of his claims--"four places in the Council, with the
+admission of Mr. Baldwin into it."[20]  But he had no alternative, for
+on the 12th he received a plain statement from his cabinet that, if he
+failed, they were not prepared to carry on the government.[21]  To his
+dismay, the surrender, if one may so term it, which he signed next day,
+was not accepted, since Baldwin could not {150} countenance the
+pensioning of the ministers, Ogden and Davidson, who had been
+compulsorily retired, and, although MacNab was at hand with the offer
+of sixteen Conservative stalwarts, the plan was useless, and, in view
+of MacNab's general conduct at this time, irritating.  When Bagot wrote
+that night to Stanley it was as a despairing man, for the attack had
+begun at 3 o'clock, Baldwin leading off with an address, as usual
+pledging the House to responsible government, and there was every
+chance that he would defeat the ministry.  At this point Bagot took the
+strange and daring plan of allowing Draper to read his letter to La
+Fontaine in the House, that the Lower Canadians might "learn how
+abundantly large an offer their leaders have rejected, and the honest
+spirit in which that offer was made."[22]  His unconventionality won
+the day, by convincing the House that the governor-general was in
+earnest.  Successive adjournments staved off the debate on the address;
+and by September 16th, terms had been settled.  La Fontaine, Small,
+Aylwin, Baldwin, and Girouard if he cared to take office, were to
+enter, Draper, Davidson, Ogden and Sherwood passing out.
+Unfortunately, since neither Ogden nor Sherwood happened to be {151}
+present, Bagot had to accept their resignations on his own initiative,
+and without previous consultation with them.  Not even that dexterous
+correspondent could quite disguise the awkwardness of his position when
+he wrote to tell both men that they had ceased to be his ministers.[23]
+So the crisis ended.
+
+The address was carried by fifty-five votes to five, the malcontents
+being MacNab, foiled once more in his ambitions; Moffat and Cartwright,
+representing inflexible Toryism; Neilson, whose position as a
+recognized opponent of the Union tied his hands, and Johnstone, a
+disappointed place man.  Peace ruled in the Assembly, and the battle
+passed to the province, the newspapers, and most ominous of all for the
+governor, to the cabinet and public in Britain.  A storm of abuse,
+criticism, and regrets broke over Bagot's devoted head.  The opposition
+press in Canada called him "a radical, a puppet, an old woman, an
+apostate, a renegade descendant of old Colonel Bagot who fell at Naseby
+fighting for his King."[24]  MacNab, in the House, led a bitterly
+personal opposition.  At least one {152} cabinet meeting in England was
+called specially to consider the incident, and for some months Stanley
+tempered assurances that he and the government would support their
+representative, with caustic expressions of regret.  The necessity of
+the change, he reiterated, had not been fully proven.  The French
+members and Baldwin were doubtful characters.  If the worst must be
+accepted, and a ministry constructed, containing both Baldwin and the
+French, then Bagot had better obtain from the new cabinet some
+assurance of "their intention of standing by the provisions of the Act
+of Union, including the Civil List, and every other debatable
+question."  Then, fearing lest the very citadel of responsibility and
+control should be surrendered, he set forth his theory of government in
+an elaborate letter which revealed distinct distrust of his
+correspondent's power of resistance.  "Your position is different from
+that of the Crown in England.  The Crown acts avowedly and exclusively
+on the advice of its ministers, and has no political opinions of its
+own.  You act in concert with your Executive Council, but the ultimate
+decision rests with yourself, and you are recognised, not only as
+having an opinion, but as supreme and irresponsible, except to the Home
+government, for {153} your acts in your executive capacity.
+Practically you are (influenced) by the advice you receive, and by
+motives of prudence, in not running counter to the advice of those who
+command a majority in the Legislature; but you cannot throw on them the
+onus of your actions in the same sense that the Crown can in this
+country."[25]
+
+Yet, so far as Canada was concerned, Bagot had reason to feel
+satisfied.  Threatened with half a dozen hostile combinations, he had
+forestalled them all, and found the Assembly filled with friends, not
+enemies.  He had approached a sullen French nation--and thereafter the
+French party formed as solid an accession to Canadian political
+stability as they had once been dangerous to Imperial peace; and their
+union with the moderate reformers in government, while it gave them all
+they asked, enabled the governor to exercise a natural restraint on
+them, should they again be tempted to nationalist excesses.  He had not
+explicitly surrendered to any sweeping doctrine of responsible
+government.  There was peace at last.  The Assembly which passed over
+thirty acts, reaffirmed the rights of the royal prerogative, and {154}
+was dismissed in the most amiable temper with itself, and the
+governor-general.
+
+One may discern, however, a curious contradiction between the
+superficial consequences of the crisis, as described by Bagot, and the
+fundamental changes the beginnings of which he was able to trace in the
+months which followed.  On the face of it, Bagot's policy of frank
+expediency had saved Stanley and his party from a crushing defeat and a
+humiliating surrender to extreme views.  So far, he had assisted the
+cause of conservatism.  But the disaster and the humiliation would have
+come, not from the grant of responsible government, but from the misuse
+of it to which a victory, won against a more resolute governor, might
+have tempted Baldwin and La Fontaine, and from the false position in
+which the imperial government would have stood, towards the men who had
+challenged imperial authority and won.  It is interesting to follow the
+process by which Bagot came to see all that lay in his action.
+Yielding to Canadian autonomy, he went on to new surrenders.  He had
+already warned Stanley that the agitation over the Civil List would
+certainly reawaken; to the end he seems to have been considering the
+advisability of a complete surrender {155} on that point.  When he
+wrote communicating to the minister the Assembly's acknowledgment of
+the royal prerogative, in recognizing the right of the Crown to name
+the capital, he pointed out that, prerogative or no prerogative, the
+possessor of the purse had the final voice.  He rebuked his new
+minister, Baldwin, for tacking on question-begging constitutional
+phrases to a legal opinion, but he told Stanley, quite frankly, that,
+"whether the doctrine of responsible government is openly acknowledged,
+or is only tacitly acquiesced in, _virtually it exists_."[26]  During
+the remainder of his tenure of office, partly because of his own
+ill-health, but partly also, I think, from conviction, he gave his
+ministers the most perfect freedom of action.  And, although he did not
+gain the point, he was willing to make sweeping concessions in answer
+to the call for an amnesty for the rebels of 1837.  He recognized the
+force of trusting, in a self-governing community, even those who had
+once striven against the British rule with arms--the final proof in any
+man that he has come to understand the secrets, at once of Empire, and
+of constitutional government.
+
+There is little more to tell of Bagot's rule, for {156} the last months
+of his life were spent in a struggle to overcome extreme bodily
+sickness in the interest of public duty; and Stanley himself, in the
+name of the Cabinet, expressed his admiration for the gallantry of his
+stand.
+
+To the end, he held himself justified in his political actions, and if
+there were moments when he questioned whether Stanley would see things
+in a reasonable light, he possessed the perfect confidence of his
+Canadian ministers, who did not neglect his injunction to them to
+defend his memory.[27]
+
+Nevertheless the irritation of the Colonial Secretary was neither
+unnatural nor unjustifiable.  He confidently expected that separation
+from England would be the immediate consequence of a surrender to the
+reform party in Canada; and he believed that Bagot had made that
+surrender.  In the latter opinion he was correct.  There are times when
+the party of reaction sees more clearly than their opponents the scope
+and consequences of innovation, however blind they may be to the
+developments which by their parallel advance check the obvious dangers;
+and Sir Charles Metcalfe, whom Stanley sent to Canada to stay the
+flowing tide, has furnished the most accurate negative criticism of
+{157} the Bagot incident: "The result of the struggle naturally
+increased the conviction that Responsible Government was effectually
+established, new Councillors were forced on the governor-general....
+The Council was no longer selected by the governor.  It was thrust on
+him by the Assembly of the people.  Some of the new members of the
+Council had entered it with extreme notions of the supremacy of the
+Council over the governor; and the illness of Sir Charles Bagot, after
+this change, threw the current business of administration almost
+entirely into their hands, which tended much to confirm these
+notions."[28]  It fell to the lot of this critic to attempt to correct
+Bagot's mistakes.
+
+
+
+[1] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841.
+
+[2] _Ibid._
+
+[3] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 17 May, 1842.  The term
+_Bagot Correspondence_ is used to denote the letters to and from Bagot,
+other than despatches, in the possession of the Canadian Archives.
+
+[4] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841.
+
+[5] _Ibid._
+
+[6] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 18 October, 1842.
+
+[7] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842.
+
+[8] Bagot Correspondence: Harrison to Bagot, 11 July, 1842
+
+[9] Bagot Correspondence: W. H. Draper to Bagot, 18 May, and 16 July,
+1842.
+
+[10] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 3 September, 1842.
+
+[11] Goulburn to Stanley, 16 September, 1842.
+
+[12] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 26 March, 1842.
+
+[13] Stanley to Bagot, 27 May, 1842.
+
+[14] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, describing an interview
+with Murdoch, 1 September, 1842.
+
+[15] See Bagot's admirable analysis of French conditions in his public
+and confidential despatches, 26 September, 1842.
+
+[16] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 12 June, 1842.
+
+[17] Bagot to Stanley: 26 September, 1842--confidential.
+
+[18] Peel to Stanley, 28 August, 1842.
+
+[19] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842--confidential.
+
+[20] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 July, 1842.
+
+[21] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 13 September, 1842.
+
+[22] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 13 September, 1842.
+
+[23] Bagot Correspondence: letters to Sherwood 16 September, and to
+Ogden 19 September.  Dismissal is far too blunt a term in which to
+describe the transaction.
+
+[24] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 October, 1842.
+
+[25] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 3 November and 3 December,
+1842.
+
+[26] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 28 October, 1842.
+
+[27] Hincks, _Reminiscences of his Public Life_, p. 89.
+
+[28] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, p. 416.
+
+
+
+
+{158}
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE.
+
+A surrender of the official Imperial position so unexpected and so
+contrary to the intentions of the Colonial Office, as that which Bagot
+had made, provoked a natural reaction.  Bagot's successor was one of
+those men of principle who are continually revealing the flaws and
+limitations implicit in their principles by earnest over-insistence on
+them.  It is unfortunate that Sir Charles Metcalfe should appear in
+Canadian history as the man whose errors almost precipitated another
+rebellion, for among his predecessors and successors few have equalled
+him, none has outstripped him, in public virtue or experience.  He had
+earned, throughout thirty-seven years in India, a reputation for
+efficiency in every kind of administrative work.  As a lad of little
+more than twenty he had negotiated with Ranjit Singh the treaty which,
+for a generation, kept Sikhs and British at peace.  In the {159}
+residency at Hyderabad he had fought, in the face of the
+governor-general's displeasure, a hard but ultimately successful battle
+for incorrupt administration.  After Bentinck had resigned, Metcalfe
+had been appointed acting governor-general, and he might have risen
+even higher, had not the courageous act, by which he freed the press in
+India from its earlier disabilities, set the East India Company
+authorities against him.  He was something more than what Macaulay
+called him--"the ablest civil servant I ever knew in India"; his
+faculty for recommending himself to Anglo-Indian society on its lighter
+side, and the princely generosity which bound his friends to him by a
+curious union of reverence and affection, combined with his genius for
+administration to make him an unusual and outstanding figure in that
+generation of the company officials in India.  Led by the sense of duty
+which ever dominated him, he had passed from retirement in England to
+reconcile the warring elements in Jamaica to each other; and his
+success there had been as great as in India.  In English politics, in
+which he had naturally played little part, he identified himself with
+the more liberal wing of the Whigs, although his long absence from the
+centre of affairs, and the inclination natural to {160} an
+administrator, to think of liberalism rather as a thing of deeds and
+acts than of opinion, gave whatever radicalism he may have professed a
+bureaucratic character.  He described himself not inaptly to a friend
+thus: "A man who is for the abolition of the corn laws, Vote by Ballot,
+Extension of the Suffrage, Amelioration of the Poor-laws for the
+benefit of the poor, equal rights to all sects of Christians in matters
+of religion, and equal rights to all men in civil matters...; and (who)
+at the same time, is totally disqualified to be a demagogue--shrinks
+like a sensitive plant from public meetings; and cannot bear to be
+drawn from close retirement, except by what comes in the shape of real
+or fancied duty to his country."[1]  Outside of the greater figures of
+the time, he was one of the first citizens of the Empire, and Bagot, as
+he thought of possible successors, only dismissed the suggestion of
+Metcalfe's appointment because it seemed too good news to be true.
+Nevertheless Sir Charles Metcalfe had one great initial disadvantage
+for work in Canada.  Distinguished as were his virtues, a very little
+discernment in the home government might have discovered the obstacles
+which must meet an absolutely efficient, {161} liberal administrator in
+a country where democracy, the only possible principle of government
+for Canada, was still in its crude and repulsive stage.  The
+delimitation of the frontier between Imperial control and Canadian
+self-government required a subtler and more flexible mind than
+Metcalfe's, and a longer practice than his in the ways of popular
+assemblies.  Between March, 1843, when he assumed office, and the end
+of 1845, when he returned to die in England, Metcalfe's entire energy
+was spent in grappling with the problem of holding the balance level
+between local autonomy and British supremacy.  His real contribution to
+the question was, in a sense, the confusion and failure with which his
+career ended; for his serious practical logic reduced to an absurdity,
+as nothing else could have done, the position stated so firmly by
+Russell in 1839.
+
+Sir Charles Metcalfe came to Canada at a moment when responsible
+government in its most extended interpretation seemed to have
+triumphed.  In Upper and Lower Canada the reforming party had accepted
+Bagot's action as the concession of their principle, and the two chief
+ministers, Baldwin and La Fontaine, were men resolute to endure no
+diminution of their share of responsibility.  Bagot's {162} illness had
+given additional strength to their authority, and Gibbon Wakefield, who
+was then a member of Assembly, believed that Baldwin had already taken
+too great a share of responsibility to be willing to occupy a secondary
+place under an energetic governor.[2]  Indeed an unwillingness to allow
+the governor-general his former unlimited initiative becomes henceforth
+a mark of the leaders of the Reformers, and La Fontaine, who had
+resented Sydenham's activity as much as his anti-nationalist policy,
+protested against the suggestion that Charles Buller should be sent to
+Canada, because he "apprehended that Buller would be disposed to take
+an active part himself in our politics."[3]  There seemed to be no
+obstacle in the way of a complete victory for reforming principles.
+The French remained as solidly as ever a unit, and under La Fontaine
+they were certain to continue to place their solidarity at the disposal
+of the Upper Canada reformers.  The latter, _ultras_ and moderates
+alike, were too adequately represented, in all their shades and
+aspects, in the cabinet, to be willing to shake its power; and {163}
+the sympathetic co-operation between Irishmen in Canada, and those who
+at that time in Ireland were beginning another great democratic
+agitation, made the stream of Hibernian immigration a means of
+reinforcing the Canadian progressives.  One of the best evidences of
+the growth of Reform was the persistent agitation of the Civil List
+question.  Following up their action under Bagot, the reformers
+demanded the concession of a completer control than they seemed then to
+possess over their own finances, and a more economical administration
+of them.  The inspector-general, in a report characterized by all his
+admirable clearness, stated the issue thus: "It is impossible for any
+government to support a Civil List to which objections are raised, and
+with justice, by the people at large; first, on the ground that its
+establishment was a violation of their constitutional rights; second,
+that the services provided for are more than ought to be placed on the
+permanent Civil List; third, on the ground that the salaries provided
+are higher than the province can afford to pay with a due regard to the
+public interests, and more especially to the maintenance of the public
+credit."[4]
+
+{164}
+
+Metcalfe, then, found in Canada a ministry not far from being
+unanimous, supported by a union of French and British reformers; and he
+ought to have realized how deeply the extended view of self-government
+had affected the minds of all, so that only by a serious struggle could
+Sydenham's position of 1839 be recovered.  But Metcalfe was an
+Anglo-Indian, trained in the school of politics most directly opposed
+to the democratic ways of North America.  He was entirely new to
+Canadian conditions; and one may watch him studying them
+conscientiously, but making just those mistakes, which a clever
+examination candidate would perpetrate, were he to be asked of a sudden
+to turn his studies to practical account.  The very robustness of his
+sense of duty led him naturally to the two most contentious questions
+in the field--those which concerned the responsibility of the colonial
+executive government, and the place of party in dictating to the
+governor-general his policy and the use to be made of his patronage.
+
+His study of Sydenham's despatches revealed to him the contradiction
+between that statesman's resolute proclamation of Russell's doctrine,
+and the course of practical surrender which his actions seemed to have
+followed in 1841.  "In adopting {165} the very form and practice of the
+Home Government, by which the principal ministers of the Crown form a
+Cabinet, acknowledged by the nation as the executive administration,
+and themselves acknowledging responsibility to Parliament, he rendered
+it inevitable that the council here should obtain and ascribe to
+themselves, in at least some degree, the character of a cabinet of
+ministers."[5]  In a later despatch, Metcalfe attempted to demonstrate
+the inapplicability of such a form of government to a colony: "a system
+of government which, however suitable it may be in an independent
+state, or in a country where it is qualified by the presence of a
+Sovereign and a powerful aristocracy, and by many circumstances in
+correspondence with which it has grown up and been gradually formed,
+does not appear to be well adapted for a colony, or for a country in
+which those qualifying circumstances do not exist, and in which there
+has not been that gradual progress, which tends to smooth away the
+difficulties, otherwise sure to follow the confounding of the
+legislative and executive powers, and the inconsistency of the practice
+with the theory of the Constitution."[6]
+
+{166}
+
+To his mind, what Durham had advocated was infinitely sounder--"that
+all officers of the government except the governor and his secretary
+should be responsible to the united Legislature; and that the governor
+should carry on his government by heads of departments, in whom the
+United Legislature repose confidence....  The general responsibility of
+heads of departments, acting under the orders of the Governor, each
+distinctly in his own department, might exist without the destruction
+of the former authority of her Majesty's Government."[7]  So set was he
+in his opposition to cabinet government on British lines in Canada,
+that he prophesied separation as the obvious consequence of concession.
+It was natural that one so distrustful of cabinet machinery in a colony
+should altogether fail to see the place of party.  It must always be
+remembered that party, in Canada, had few of those sanctions of
+manners, tradition, and national service, which had given Burke his
+soundest arguments, when he wrote the apologetic of the eighteenth
+century Whigs.  Personal and sometimes corrupt interests, petty ideas,
+ignoble quarrels, a flavour of pretentiousness which came from the
+misapplication of British terms, and a {167} lack of political
+good-manners--in such guise did party present itself to the British
+politician on his arrival in British North America.  Metcalfe, from his
+previous experience, had come to identify party divisions with
+factiousness, a political evil which the efficient governor must seek
+to extirpate.  His triumph in Jamaica had secured the death of party
+through the benevolent despotism of the governor, and there can be no
+doubt that he hoped in Canada to perform a precisely similar task.
+"The course which I intend to pursue with regard to all parties," he
+wrote to Stanley in April, 1843, "is to treat all alike, and to make no
+distinctions, as far as depends on my personal conduct."  But since
+parties did exist, and were unlikely to cease to exist, the
+governor-general's distaste for party in theory merely forced him to
+become in practice the unconscious leader of the Canadian
+conservatives, who, under men like MacNab and the leaders of the Orange
+Lodges, differed only from other parties in the loudness of their
+loyalist professions, and the paucity of their supporters among the
+people.  Metcalfe complained that at times the whole colony must be
+regarded as a party opposed to her Majesty's Government.[8]  He might
+have {168} seen that what he deplored proceeded naturally from the
+identification of himself with the smallest and least representative
+group of party politicians in the colony.
+
+The radical opposition between the governor and the coalition which his
+executive council represented led naturally to the crisis of November
+26th, 1843.  For months the feeling of mutual alienation had been
+growing.  On several occasions, more notably in the appointment to the
+speakership of the legislative council, and in one to a vacant
+clerkship of the peace, the governor's use of patronage had caused
+offence to his ministers; and, towards the end of November, the entire
+Cabinet, with the exception of Daly, whose nickname "the perpetual
+secretary" betokened that he was either above party feeling or beneath
+it, handed in their resignations.  The motives of their action became,
+as will be shown, the subject of violent controversy; but the statement
+of Sir Charles Metcalfe seems in itself the fairest and most probable
+account of what took place.  "On Friday, Mr. La Fontaine and Mr.
+Baldwin came to the Government House, and after some irrelevant matters
+of business, and preliminary remarks as to the course of their
+proceedings, demanded of {169} the Governor-general that he should
+agree to make no appointment, and no offer of an appointment, without
+previously taking the advice of the Council; that the lists of
+candidates should in every instance be laid before the Council; that
+they should recommend any others at discretion; and that the
+Governor-general in deciding, after taking their advice, shall not make
+any appointment prejudicial to their influence."[9]
+
+At a slightly later date the ministers attributed their resignation to
+a serious difference between themselves and the governor-general on the
+theory of responsible government.  To that statement Metcalfe took
+serious exception, but he admitted that "in the course of the
+conversations which both on Friday and Saturday followed the explicit
+demand made by the Council regarding the patronage of the Crown, that
+demand being based on the construction put by some of the gentlemen on
+the meaning of responsible government, different opinions were elicited
+on the abstract theory of that still undefined question as applicable
+to a colony."[10]  There can be no doubt that the _casus belli_ was an
+absolute assertion of the right of the council to control patronage,
+but it is, at the same time, {170} perfectly clear that in the opinion
+of the ministers the disposal of patronage formed part of the system of
+responsible government, and that they were quite explicit to Metcalfe
+in their statements on that point.  The incident, striking enough in
+itself, gave occasion for an extraordinary outburst of pamphleteering;
+and the reckless or incompetent statements of men on either side make
+it necessary to dispel one or two illusions created by the partizan
+excitement of the time.  On the side of the council, Hincks, the
+inspector-general, then and afterwards contended that the incident was
+only an occasion and a pretext; that Stanley had sent Metcalfe out to
+wreck the system of responsible government, so far conceded by Sydenham
+and Bagot; and that the episode of 1843 was part of a deeper plot to
+check the growth of Canadian freedom.[11]  Apart from the absurdities
+contained in Hincks' statement of the case, the only answer which need
+be made to the charge is that, if Stanley could have descended to such
+ignoble plotting, Metcalfe was the last man in the world to act as his
+dishonoured instrument.  On the other side, Gibbon Wakefield believed
+that {171} the council chose the occasion to escape from a defeat
+otherwise inevitable, in the hope that a renewed agitation for
+responsible government might reinstate them in public favour.  As
+Metcalfe gave the suggestion some authority by accepting it
+provisionally in a despatch,[12] the details of Wakefield's charge may
+be given.  The ministry, he held, had been steadily weakening.  Two
+bills, advocated by them, had been abandoned owing to the opposition of
+their followers.  The French solidarity had begun to break up, and La
+Fontaine had found in Viger a rival in the affections of his adherents.
+The ministers, intoxicated by the possession of a little brief
+authority, had offended the sense of the House by their arrogance; and
+the debates concerning the change of the seat of government from
+Kingston to Montreal had been a cause of stumbling to many.  With their
+authority weakened in the House, doubtful in the country, and more than
+doubtful with the governor-general, the resignation of the ministers,
+in Wakefield's view of the case, "upon a ground which was sure to
+obtain for them much popular sympathy, was about the most politic of
+their ministerial acts."[13]
+
+{172}
+
+But the ministry possessed and continued to possess a great
+parliamentary majority; and a dissolution could not in any way have
+improved their position.  Besides this, the alienation of the
+councillors from the governor-general had developed far more deeply
+than was generally supposed; indeed it is difficult to see how common
+action between the opposing interests could have continued with any
+real benefit to the public.  On May 23rd, that is six months before the
+resignation, Captain Higginson, the Governor's civil secretary, had an
+interview with La Fontaine, to ascertain his views on the appointment
+of a provincial aide-de-camp, and on general topics.  The accuracy of
+Higginson's _precis_ of the conversation was challenged by La Fontaine,
+but its terms seem moderate and probable, and do not misrepresent the
+actual position of the Executive Council in 1843--a determined
+opposition to the governor-general's attempt to destroy government by
+party: "Mr. La Fontaine said, 'Your attempts to carry on the government
+on principles of conciliation must fail.  Responsible government has
+been conceded, and when we lose our majority we are prepared to retire;
+to strengthen us we must have the entire confidence of the
+Governor-general exhibited most {173} unequivocally--and also his
+patronage--to be bestowed exclusively on our political adherents.  We
+feel that His Excellency has kept aloof from us.  The opposition
+pronounce that his sentiments are with them.  There must be some acts
+of his, some public declaration in favour of responsible government,
+and of confidence in the Cabinet, to convince them of their error.
+This has been studiously avoided.'"[14]  The truth is that the ministry
+felt the want of confidence, which, on the governor's own confession,
+existed in his mind towards them.  Believing, too, as all of them did
+more or less, in party, they must already have learned the views of
+Metcalfe on that subject, and they suspected him of taking counsel with
+the conservatives, whom Metcalfe declared to be the only true friends
+to Britain in Canada.  Matters of patronage Metcalfe had determined, as
+far as possible, to free from party dictation; and so he and his
+ministers naturally fell out on the most obvious issue which their
+mutual differences could have raised.  There was nothing disingenuous
+in the popular party claiming that the patronage question stood in this
+case for the broader issue.  Indeed Metcalfe's own statement that "he
+objected to the {174} exclusive distribution of patronage with party
+views and maintained the principle that office ought, in every
+instance, to be given to the man best qualified to render efficient
+service to the State" was actually a challenge to the predominance of
+the party-cabinet system, which no constitutionalist could have allowed
+to pass in silence.  Egerton Ryerson, to whom in this instance the
+maxim about the cobbler sticking to his last is applicable, erected a
+ridiculous defence for Metcalfe, holding that "according to British
+practice, the councillors ought to have resigned on what Metcalfe had
+done, and not on what he would not promise to do.  If the Crown
+intended to do just as they desired the governor-general to do, still
+the promise ought not to be given, nor ought it to have been asked.
+The moment a man promises to do a thing he ceases to be as free as he
+was before he made the promise."[15]  The actual struggle lay between
+two schools directly opposed in their interpretation of responsible
+government; and since Sir Charles Metcalfe definitely and avowedly set
+himself against cabinet government, the party system, and the place of
+party in allocating patronage, the ministers were not free to allow him
+to {175} appoint men at his own discretion.  For the sake of a theory
+of government for which many of them had already sacrificed much, they
+were bound to defend what their opponents called the discreditable
+cause of party patronage.
+
+The line of action which the members of council followed had already
+been sketched out by Robert Baldwin in his encounter with Sydenham.  In
+the debate of June 18th, 1841, Baldwin had admitted that should the
+representative of the Crown be unwilling to accept the advice offered
+to him by his council, it would be impossible by any direct means to
+force that advice upon him.  But he also held that this did not relieve
+the members of council for a moment from the fulfilment of an
+imperative duty.  "If their advice," he said, "were accepted--well and
+good.  If not, their course would be to tender their resignations."[16]
+
+This indeed was battle _a outrance_ between two conflicting theories of
+government.  Russell, Sydenham, and Metcalfe, had refused to admit
+self-government beyond a certain limit, and Metcalfe, in accepting the
+situation created by the resignation of his ministers, was battling
+very directly for his view.  On the other side, Baldwin and the {176}
+colonial politicians had claimed autonomy as far as it might be granted
+within the empire.  By resigning their offices, they called on their
+opponents to make the alternative system work.  For two years Metcalfe
+occupied himself with the task they set him.
+
+It is not necessary to enter into all the details of those years.  The
+relevant facts group themselves round three centres of interest--the
+painful efforts put forth by Metcalfe to build up a new council, the
+general election through which he sought to find a party for his
+ministers, and the attitude of the colony towards the new ministers,
+and of both toward the representative of the Crown on the eve of his
+departure for England in 1845.
+
+The struggle to reconstruct the ministry was peculiarly distressing,
+and ended in a very qualified success.  Daly, Metcalfe's one remaining
+councillor, carried no weight in the country.  Baldwin and his group
+could not be approached; and Harrison, the most moderate of the
+reformers, had previously resigned over the question of the removal of
+the seat of government from Kingston.  In Lower Canada, Metcalfe found
+himself almost as much the object of French hatred as Sydenham had
+been, and it was with great difficulty that he {177} secured Viger to
+represent the French Canadians in his council--at the expense of
+Viger's influence among his compatriots.[17]  By the end of 1843,
+Metcalfe had secured the services of three men, "Viger representing the
+French party, and Mr. Daly and Mr. Draper representing in some degree
+as to each both the British and moderate Reform parties."[18]
+Officious supporters, of whom Egerton Ryerson was chief, did their best
+to introduce to the governor competent outsiders, and Draper used his
+reputation for moderation in the effort to secure suitable candidates.
+Even after the election of 1844 was over, Draper, and Caron, the
+Speaker in the Upper House, actually attempted an intrigue with La
+Fontaine; and although the episode brought little credit to any of the
+parties concerned, La Fontaine at least recognized how much was
+involved in acceptance or rejection of the proposals of
+government--when he said: "If under the system of accepting office at
+any price, there are persons, who, for a personal and momentary
+advantage, do not fear to break the only bond which constitutes our
+strength, union among ourselves, I do not wish to be, and I never will
+be, of the {178} number."[19]  Eventually a patchwork ministry was
+constructed, but its pitiable weakness proved how difficult it was to
+create a council, except along orthodox British party lines.  It was a
+_reductio ad absurdum_ of the eclectic principle of cabinet building.
+
+The reconstruction of the council involved a dissolution of Parliament.
+The late councillors had a steady and decisive majority in the existing
+Assembly; and the governor-general found it necessary to face the risk
+of an appeal to the country.  The fate of Lower Canada he could imagine
+beforehand; nothing but accident could prevent the return of an
+overwhelming majority against his men.  Even among the western British
+settlers an unprejudiced observer reported early in 1844 that more than
+nine-tenths of the western voters were supporters of the late Executive
+Council.[20]  Montreal, which, thanks to Sydenham's manoeuvres, counted
+among the British seats, returned an opponent of the new Ministers at a
+bye-election in April, 1844, although the {179} government party
+explained away the defeat by stories of Irish violence.  But Metcalfe's
+extraordinary persistence, and his belief that the battle was really
+one for the continuance of the British connection, gave him and his
+supporters renewed vigour, and, even to-day, the election of November,
+1844, is remembered as one of the fiercest in the history of the
+colony.  Politics in Canada still recognized force as one of the
+natural, if not quite legitimate, elements in the situation, and it was
+eminently characteristic of local conditions that, early in his term of
+office, Metcalfe should have reported that meetings had been held near
+Kingston at which large numbers of persons attended armed with
+bludgeons, and, in some cases, with firearms.[21]  Montreal, with all
+its possibilities of conflict, and with its reputation for disorder to
+maintain, led the-way in election riots.  In April, 1844, according to
+the loyalists, the reformers had won through the use of Irish labourers
+brought in from the Lachine canal.  However that may be, the military
+had been called in, and at least one death had resulted from the
+confused rioting of the day.[22]  In November, the loyalists in their
+turn organized {180} a counter demonstration, and the success of the
+loyal party was not altogether disconnected with physical force.[23]
+From the west came similar stories of violence and trickery.  In the
+West Riding of Halton, the Tories were said to have delayed voting,
+which seemed to be setting against them, by various stratagems,
+including the swearing in of old grey-headed men as of 21 years of age,
+and among the accusations made by the defeated candidate was one that
+certain deputy returning officers had allowed seven women to vote for
+the sitting member.[24]  On the whole the election went in favour of
+the governor-general, although Metcalfe took too favourable a view of
+the situation when he reported the avowed supporters of government as
+46, as against 28 avowed adversaries.  At best his majority could not
+rise above six.  Yet even so, the decision of the country still seems
+astonishing.  There was the unflinching Tory element at the centre; and
+the British members from Lower Canada.  Ryerson had used his great
+influence among the Methodists, and, since the cry was one of loyalty
+to the Crown, many waverers {181} may have voted on patriotic grounds
+for the government candidates.  Metcalfe's reputation, too, counted for
+him, for he had already become known as more than generous, and one of
+his successors estimated that he spent L6,000 a year in excess of his
+official income.  "It must be admitted," he himself wrote to Stanley,
+"that this majority has been elected by the loyalty of the majority of
+the people of Upper Canada, and of those of the Eastern townships in
+Lower Canada."[25]
+
+The government, and presumably also the governor-general, were accused
+of having secured their victory by doubtful tactics, and Elgin reported
+in 1847 that his Assembly, which was that of the 1844 election, had had
+much discredit thrown on it on the ground that the late
+governor-general had interfered unduly in the elections.[26]  Neither
+side had been perfectly scrupulous in its methods of warfare, and it is
+not necessary to blame Metcalfe for the misguided zeal and cunning of
+his Ministers and his country supporters.  Be that as it may, the
+governor-general had won a hard-fought victory--Pyrrhic as it proved.
+
+Throughout this political warfare, Metcalfe had {182} been sustained by
+the strong support of the home government.  The cabinet announced
+itself ready to give him every possible support in maintaining the
+authority of the Queen, and of her representative, against unreasonable
+and exorbitant pretensions.[27]  In the debate on the troubles, which
+Roebuck introduced on May 30th, 1844, all the leading men on either
+side, Stanley, Peel, Russell, and Buller, warmly supported the
+governor, Russell and Buller being as strong in their reprobation of
+the demands of the council as Stanley himself.[28]  And the chorus of
+approval culminated in the letters from Peel and Stanley, which
+announced the conferring of a peerage on Metcalfe "as a public mark of
+her Majesty's cordial approbation of the judgment, ability, and
+fidelity, with which he had discharged the important trust confided to
+him by her Majesty."[29]  In a sense the honours and praise were not
+altogether out of place.  Metcalfe had been sent out to conduct the
+administration of Canada on what we now regard as an impossible system;
+and unlike his immediate predecessors he had conceded not one point to
+the other side.  In spite of all that his enemies could say, his {183}
+personal honour and dignity remained untarnished.  The nicknames and
+cruel taunts flung at him, in the earlier months, apparently by his own
+ministers, recoil now on their heads, as the petty insults of
+unmannerly politicians; indeed, the accusations which they made of
+simplicity and honesty, simply reinforce the impression of quixotic
+high-mindedness, which was not the least noble feature in Metcalfe's
+character.  His generosity had been unaffected by his difficulties; and
+there are few finer things in the history of British administration
+than the sense of duty exhibited throughout 1845 by Lord Metcalfe,
+when, dying of cancer in the cheek, almost blind, and altogether unable
+to write his despatches, he still clung to his post "to secure the
+preservation of this colony and the supremacy of the mother country."
+It is easy to separate the man from the official, and to praise the
+former as one of the noblest of early Victorian administrators.
+
+But even before Lord Metcalfe's departure at the end of 1845, the
+inadequacy of his system stood revealed.  He had indeed a majority in
+the Assembly, but a small and doubtful majority; and since its members
+had been elected rather to support Metcalfe than to co-operate with his
+ill-assorted {184} ministry, difficulties very soon revealed
+themselves.  There were causes of dissension, chief among them the
+University question in Upper Canada, which threatened to wreck the
+government party.  But the most ominous sign of coming defeat was the
+incompatibility of temper which rapidly developed between loyal
+ministers and loyal Assembly.  "It is remarkable," Metcalfe wrote in
+May, 1845, "that none of the Executive Council, although all are
+estimable and respectable, exercise any great influence over the party
+which supports the government.  Mr. Draper is universally admitted to
+be the most talented man in either House of the Legislature, and his
+presence in the Legislative Assembly was deemed to be so essential,
+that he resigned his seat in the Upper House, sacrificing his own
+opinions in order that he might take the lead in the Assembly;
+nevertheless he is not popular with the party that supports the
+government, nor with any other, and I do not know that, strictly
+speaking, he can be said to have a single follower.  The same may be
+remarked of every other member of the Executive Council; and although I
+have much reason to be satisfied with them, and have no expectation of
+finding others who would serve her Majesty better, still I do not {185}
+perceive that any of them individually have brought much support to the
+government."[30]
+
+That is the confession of a man who has attempted the impossible, and
+who is being forced reluctantly to witness his own defeat.  The
+ministry which he had created lacked the authority which can come only
+from the best political talent of a people acting in sympathy with the
+opinions of that people.  He had, with great difficulty, found a House
+of Assembly willing by a narrow majority to support him, but personal
+support is not in itself a political programme, and the fallacy of his
+calculations appeared when work in detail had to be accomplished.  He
+had reprobated party, and he found in a party--narrower in practice
+even than that which he had displaced--the only possible foundation for
+his authority.  He had come to Canada to complete the reconciliation of
+opposing races within the colony, and, when he left, the French seemed
+once more about to retreat into their old position of invincible
+hostility to all things British.  The governor-generalship of Lord
+Metcalfe is almost the clearest illustration in the nineteenth century
+of the weakness of the doctrinaire in practical politics.
+Unfortunately, the {186} doctrine which Metcalfe had strenuously
+enforced was backed by the highest of imperial authorities, and
+sanctioned by monarchy itself.  In less than ten years after the
+Rebellion, the renovated theory of colonial autonomy had produced a new
+dilemma.  It remained with Metcalfe's successor to decide whether
+Britain preferred a second rebellion and probable separation to a
+radical change of system.
+
+
+
+[1] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, revised edition, ii. p. 313.
+
+[2] _A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada_, by a
+member of the Provincial Parliament, p. 29.
+
+[3] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845.
+
+[4] _Parliamentary Paper concerning the Canadian Civil List_ (1 April,
+1844), p. 5.
+
+[5] Metcalfe to Stanley, 5 August, 1843.
+
+[6] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+
+[7] Metcalfe to Stanley, 6 August, 1843.
+
+[8] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+
+[9] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, ii. pp. 367-8.
+
+[10] _Ibid._ ii. p. 369.
+
+[11] See Hincks, _Lecture on the Political History of Canada_; and
+Dent, _The Last Forty Years_.  The latter work was written under the
+influence of Sir Francis Hincks, whose comments on it are contained in
+the inter-leaved copy in the possession of the Canadian archives.
+
+[12] Metcalfe to Stanley, 26 December, 1843.
+
+[13] _A Letter on the Ministerial Crisis, by the old Montreal
+Correspondent of the Colonial Gazette_, Kingston, 1843.
+
+[14] Quoted from Ryerson, _Story of my Life_, pp. 332-3.
+
+[15] Ryerson, _op. cit._ p. 323.
+
+[16] See above, p. 116.
+
+[17] Viger was defeated in the election of 1844.
+
+[18] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Melcalfe_, p. 426.
+
+[19] See, for the whole intrigue, _Correspondence between the Hon. W.
+H. Draper and the Hon. B. E. Garon; and, between the Honbles. L. H. La
+Fontaine and A. N. Morin_, Montreal, 1840.
+
+[20] The Rev. John Ryerson to Egerton Ryerson, February, 1844, in _The
+Story of my Life_.
+
+[21] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 December, 1843.
+
+[22] Montreal Gazette, 23 April, 1844.
+
+[23] _Montreal Daily Witness_, 7 March, 1896, containing reminiscences
+by Dr. William Kingsford.
+
+[24] Young, _Early History of Galt and Dumfries_, p. 193.
+
+[25] Metcalfe to Stanley, 23 November, 1844.
+
+[26] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 9 December, 1847.
+
+[27] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 May, 1844.
+
+[28] _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.
+
+[29] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, ii. pp. 405-9.
+
+[30] Metcalfe to Stanley, 13 May, 1845.
+
+
+
+
+{187}
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN.
+
+The year which intervened between Metcalfe's departure and the arrival
+of Lord Elgin at the beginning of 1847, may be disregarded in this
+inquiry.  Earl Cathcart, who held office in the interval, was chosen
+because relations with the United States at that time were serious
+enough to make it desirable to combine the civil and the military
+headship in Canada in one person.  In domestic politics the
+governor-general was a negligible quantity, as his successor confessed:
+"Lord Cathcart, not very unreasonably perhaps, has allowed everything
+that required thought to lie over for me."[1]
+
+But the arrival of Elgin changed the whole aspect of affairs, and
+introduced the most {188} important modification that was made in
+Canadian government between 1791 and the year of Confederation.  Since
+1839, governors-general who took their instructions from Britain, and
+who seldom allowed the Canadian point of view to have more than an
+indirect influence on their administration, had introduced the most
+unhappy complications into politics.  Both they and the home government
+were now reduced to the gloomiest speculations concerning the
+permanence of the British connection.  In place of the academic or
+official view of colonial dependence which had hitherto dominated
+Canadian administration, Elgin came to substitute a policy which
+frankly accepted the Canadian position, and which as frankly trusted to
+a loyalty dependent for none of its sanctions upon external coercion or
+encouragement.  With 1846, Great Britain entered on an era of which the
+predominating principle was _laissez faire_, and within twelve months
+of the concession of that principle in commerce, Elgin applied it with
+even more astonishing results in the region of colonial Parliamentary
+institutions.
+
+The Canadian episode in Elgin's career furnishes the most perfect and
+permanently useful service rendered by him to the Empire.  Although he
+{189} gathered laurels in China and India, and earned a notable place
+among diplomatists, nothing that he did is so representative of the
+whole man, so valuable, and so completely rounded and finished, as the
+seven years of his work in Canada.  Elsewhere he accomplished tasks,
+which others had done, or might have done as well.  But in the history
+of the self-governing dominions of Britain, his name is almost the
+first of those who assisted in creating an Empire, the secret of whose
+strength was to be local autonomy.
+
+He belonged to the most distinguished group of nineteenth century
+politicians, for with Gladstone, Canning, Dalhousie, Herbert, and
+others, he served his apprenticeship under Sir Robert Peel.  All of
+that younger generation reflected the sobriety, the love of hard fact,
+the sound but progressive conservatism, and the high administrative
+faculty of their great master.  It was an epoch when changes were
+inevitable; but the soundest minds tended, in spite of a powerful party
+tradition, to view the work in front of them in a non-partizan spirit.
+Gladstone himself, for long, seemed fated to repeat the party-breaking
+record of Peel; and three great proconsuls of the group, Dalhousie,
+Canning, and Elgin, found in imperial administration a more {190}
+congenial task than Westminster could offer them.  Elgin occupies a
+mediate position between the administrative careers of Dalhousie and
+Canning, and the parliamentary and constitutional labours of Gladstone.
+He was that strange being, a constitutionalist proconsul; and his chief
+work in administration lay in so altering the relation of his office to
+Canadian popular government, as to take from the governor-generalship
+much of its initiative, and to make a great surrender to popular
+opinion.  Between his arrival in Montreal at the end of January, 1847,
+and the writing of his last official despatch on December 18th, 1854,
+he had established on sure foundations the system of democratic
+government in Canada.
+
+Never was man better fitted for his work.  He came, a Scotsman, to a
+colony one-third Scottish, and the name of Bruce was itself soporific
+to the opposition of a perfervid section of the reformers.  His wife
+was the daughter of Lord Durham, whom Canadians regarded as the
+beginner of a new age of Canadian constitutionalism.  He had been
+appointed by a Whig Government, and Earl Grey, the new Colonial
+Secretary, was already learned in liberal theory, both in politics and
+economics, and understood that Britons, abroad as at home, {191} must
+have liberty to misgovern themselves.  Elgin's personal qualities were
+precisely those best fitted to control a self-governing community.  Not
+only was he saved from extreme views by his caution and sense of
+humour, but he had, to an extraordinary degree, the power of seeing
+both sides, and more especially the other side, of any question.  In
+Canada too, as later in China and India, he exhibited qualities of
+humanity which some might term quixotic;[2] and, as will be illustrated
+very fully below, his gifts of tact and _bonhomie_ made him a
+singularly persuasive force in international affairs, and secured for
+Britain at least one clear diplomatic victory over America.
+
+Following on a succession of short-lived and troubled governorships,
+under which, while the principle of government had remained constant,
+nothing else had done so, Elgin had practically to begin Durham's work
+afresh, and build without much regard for the foundations laid since
+1841.  The alternatives before him were a grant of really responsible
+government, or a rebellion, with annexation to the United States as its
+probable end.  The {192} new Governor saw very clearly the dangers of
+his predecessor's policy.  "The distinction," he wrote at a later date,
+"between Lord Metcalfe's policy and mine is twofold.  In the first
+place he profoundly distrusted the whole Liberal party in the
+province--that great party which, excepting at extraordinary
+conjunctures, has always carried with it the mass of the
+constituencies.  He believed its designs to be revolutionary, just as
+the Tory party in England believed those of the Whigs and Reformers to
+be in 1832.  And, secondly, he imagined that when circumstances forced
+the party upon him, he could check these revolutionary tendencies by
+manifesting his distrust of them, more especially in the matter of the
+distribution of patronage, thereby relieving them in a great measure
+from that responsibility, which is in all free countries the most
+effectual security against the abuse of power, and tempting them to
+endeavour to combine the role of popular tribunes with the prestige of
+ministers of the crown."[3]
+
+The danger of a crisis was the greater because, as has been shown,
+Metcalfe's anti-democratic policy had been more than the expression of
+a personal {193} mood.  It was the policy of the British government.
+After Metcalfe's departure, and Stanley's resignation of the Colonial
+office, Gladstone, then for a few months Colonial Secretary, assured
+Cathcart that "the favour of his Sovereign and the acknowledgment of
+his country, have marked (Metcalfe's) administration as one which,
+under the peculiar circumstances of the task he had to perform, _may
+justly be regarded as a model for his successors_."[4]  In truth, the
+British Colonial office was not only wrong in its working theory, but
+ignorant of the boiling tumult of Canadian opinion in those days;
+ignorant of the steadily increasing vehemence of the demand for true
+home rule, and of the possibility that French nationalism, Irish
+nationalism, and American aggression, might unite in a great upheaval,
+and the political tragedy find its consummation in another Declaration
+of Independence.
+
+But Elgin was allowed little leisure for general reflections; the
+concrete details of the actual situation absorbed all his energies.
+Since Metcalfe's resignation, matters had not improved.  There was
+still an uncertain majority in the House of Assembly, although, in the
+eyes of probably a {194} majority of voters, the disorders of the late
+election had discredited the whole Assembly.  But the ministry had gone
+on from weakness to further weakness.  Draper, who did his best to
+preserve the political decencies, had been forced to ask Cathcart to
+assist him in removing certain of his colleagues.  Viger had been a
+complete failure as President of the Council, and performed none of the
+duties of his department except that of signing his name to reports
+prepared by others.  Daly was of little use to him; and, as for the
+solicitor-general for Upper Canada, Sherwood, "his repeated absence on
+important divisions, his lukewarm support, and occasional (almost)
+opposition, his habit of speaking of the Members of your Excellency's
+Government and of the policy pursued by them, his more than suspected
+intrigues to effect the removal of some members of the council, have
+altogether destroyed all confidence in him."[5]  Draper himself had
+seemingly grown tired of the dust and heat of the struggle, and, soon
+after Elgin's assumption of authority, resigned his premiership for a
+legal position as honourable and more peaceful.
+
+{195}
+
+Elgin, then, found a distracted ministry, a doubtful Assembly, and an
+irritated country.  His ministers he thought lacking in pluck, and far
+too willing to appeal to selfish and sordid motives in possible
+supporters.[6]  He was irritated by what seemed to him the petty and
+inconsistent divisions of Canadian party life: "In a community like
+this, where there is little, if anything, of public principle to divide
+men, political parties will shape themselves under the influence of
+circumstances, and of a great variety of affections and antipathies,
+national, sectarian, and personal....  It is not even pretended that
+the divisions of party represent corresponding divisions of sentiment
+on questions which occupy the public mind, such as voluntaryism, Free
+Trade, etc., etc.  Responsible Government is the one subject on which
+this coincidence is alleged to exist."[7]  The French problem he found
+peculiarly difficult.  Metcalfe's policy had had results disconcerting
+to the British authorities.  Banishing, as he thought, sectarianism or
+racial views, he had yet practically shut out French statesmen from
+office so successfully, that, when Elgin, acting through Colonel Tache,
+{196} attempted to approach them, he found in none of them any
+disposition to enter into alliance with the existing ministry.[8]
+Elgin, who was willing enough to give fair play to every political
+section, could not but see the obvious fault of French Canadian
+nationalism.  "They seem incapable of comprehending that the principles
+of constitutional government must be applied against them, as well as
+for them," he wrote to Grey.  "Whenever there appears to be a chance of
+things taking this turn they revive the ancient cry of nationality, and
+insist on their right to have a share in the administration, not
+because the party with which they have chosen to connect themselves is
+in the ascendant, but because they represent a people of distinct
+origin."[9]  Most serious of all, because it hampered his initiative,
+he found every party except that in office suspicious of the governor's
+authority, and newspapers like Hincks' _Pilot_ grumbling over Imperial
+interference.
+
+One sweeping remedy, he had, within a few months of his arrival, laid
+aside as impossible.  Lord John Russell and Grey had discussed with
+{197} him the possibility of raising Canadian politics out of their
+pettiness by a federal union of all the British North American
+colonies.  But as early as May 1847, Elgin had come to doubt whether
+the free and independent legislatures of the colonies would be willing
+to delegate any of their authority to please a British ministry.[10]
+It was necessary then to fall back on the unromantic alternative of
+modifying the constitution of the ministry; and here French solidarity
+had made his task difficult.  Yet the amazing thing in Elgin was the
+speed, the ease, and the accuracy, with which he saw what none of his
+predecessors had seen--the need to concede, and the harmlessness of
+conceding, responsible government in Baldwin's sense of the term.
+Within two months of his accession to power, he declared, "I am
+determined to do nothing which will put it out of my power to act with
+the opposite party, if it is forced upon me by the representatives of
+the people."[11]  Two months later, sick of the struggles by which his
+ministers were trying to gain here and there some trivial vote to keep
+them in office, he recurred to the same idea as not merely harmless but
+sound.  That ministers {198} and opposition should occasionally change
+places struck him not merely as constitutional, but as the most
+conservative convention in the constitution; and in answer to the older
+school to whom a change of ministers at the dictation of a majority in
+the Assembly meant the degradation of the governor-generalship, he
+hoped "to establish a moral influence in the province, which will go
+far to compensate for the loss of power consequent on the surrender of
+patronage to an executive responsible to the local parliament."[12]
+
+To give his ministers a last fair chance of holding on to office, he
+dissolved parliament at the end of 1847, recognizing that, in the event
+of a victory, their credit would be immensely increased.  The struggle
+of December 1847, to January 1848, was decisive.  While the French
+constituencies maintained their former position, even in Upper Canada
+the discredited ministry found few supporters.  The only element in the
+situation which disturbed Elgin was the news that Papineau, the
+arch-rebel of 1837, had come back to public life with a flourish of
+agitating declarations; and that the French people had not condemned
+with sufficient decisiveness his seditious utterances.  Yet he need
+have {199} had no qualms.  _La Revue Canadienne_ in reviewing the
+situation certainly refused to condemn Papineau's extravagances, but
+its conclusion took the ground from under the agitator's feet, for it
+declared that "cette moderation de nos chefs politiques a puissamment
+contribue a placer notre parti dans la position avantageuse qu'il
+occupe maintenant."[13]  Now Papineau was incapable of political
+moderation.
+
+The fate of the ministry was quickly settled.  Their candidate for the
+speakership of the Lower House was defeated by 54 votes to 19; a vote
+of no confidence was carried by 54 to 20; on March 23rd parliament was
+prorogued and a new administration, the first truly popular ministry in
+the history of Canada, accepted office, and the country, satisfied at
+last, was promised "various measures for developing the resources of
+the province, and promoting the social well-being of its
+inhabitants."[14]
+
+The change was the more decisive because it was made with the approval
+of the Whig government in England.  "I can have no doubt," Grey wrote
+to Elgin on February 22nd, "that you must accept {200} such a council
+as the newly elected parliament will support, and that however unwise
+as relates to the real interests of Canada their measures may be, they
+must be acquiesced in, until it shall pretty clearly appear that public
+opinion will support a resistance to them.  There is no middle course
+between this line of policy, and that which involves in the last resort
+an appeal to parliament to overrule the wishes of the Canadians, and
+this I agree with Gladstone and Stanley in thinking impracticable."[15]
+The only precaution he bade Elgin take was to register his dissent
+carefully in cases of disagreement.  Having conceded the essential, it
+mattered little that Grey could not quite rid himself of doubts as to
+the consequences of his previous daring.  The concession had come most
+opportunely, for Elgin, who feared greatly the disturbing influences of
+European revolutionism, Irish discontent, and American democracy in its
+cruder forms, believed that, had the change not taken place, "we should
+by this hour (November 30th, 1848) either have been ignominiously
+expelled from Canada, or our relations with the United States would
+have been in a most precarious condition."
+
+{201}
+
+It is not necessary to follow Elgin through all the details of more
+than seven busy years.  It will suffice to watch him at work on the
+three great allied problems which combined to form the constitutional
+question in Canada; the character of the government to be conceded to,
+and worked along with, the colonists; the recognition to be given to
+French nationalist feeling; and the nature of the connection between
+Britain and Canada which would exist after concessions had been made on
+these points.  The significance of his policy is the greater, because
+the example of Canada was certain, _mutatis mutandis_, to be followed
+by the other greater colonies.  Elgin's solution of the question of
+responsible government was so natural and easy that the reader of his
+despatches forgets how completely his task had baffled all his
+predecessors, and that several generations of colonial secretaries had
+refused to admit what in his hands seemed a self-evident truth.  At the
+outset Elgin's own mind had not been free from serious doubt.  He had
+come to Canada with a traditional suspicion of the French Canadians and
+the progressives of Upper Canada; yet within a year, since the country
+so willed it, he had accepted a cabinet, composed entirely of these two
+sections.  On his {202} way to the formation of that cabinet he not
+only brushed aside old suspicions, but he refused to surrender to the
+seductions of the eclectic principle, which allowed his predecessors to
+evade the force of popular opinion by selecting representatives of all
+shades of that opinion.  He saw the danger of allowing responsible
+government to remain a party cry, and he removed "that most delicate
+and debatable subject" from party politics by conceding the whole
+position.  The defects of the Canadian party system never found a
+severer critic than Elgin, but he saw that by party Canada would be
+ruled, and he could not, as Metcalfe had done, deceive himself into
+thinking he had abolished it by governing in accordance with the least
+popular party in the state.  With the candour and the discriminating
+judgment which so distinguished all his doings in Canada, he admitted
+that, notwithstanding the high ground Lord Metcalfe had taken against
+party patronage, the ministers favoured by that governor-general had
+"used patronage for party purposes with quite as little scruple as his
+first council."[16]
+
+Since the first general election had proved beyond a doubt that
+Canadians desired a {203} progressive ministry, he made the change with
+perfect success, and remained a consistent guide and friend to his new
+ministers.
+
+There was something dramatic in the contrast between the possibilities
+of trouble in the year when the concession was made, and the peace
+which actually ensued.  It was the year of revolution, and the men whom
+he called to his assistance were "persons denounced very lately by the
+Secretary of State to the Governor-General as impracticable and
+disloyal";[17] but before the year was out he was able to boast that
+when so many thrones were tottering and the allegiance of so many
+people was waxing faint, there is less political disaffection in Canada
+than there ever had been before.  From 1848 until the year of his
+recall, he remained in complete accord with his liberal administration,
+and never was constitutional monarch more intimately and usefully
+connected with his ministers than was Elgin, first with Baldwin and La
+Fontaine, and then with Hincks and Morin.
+
+Elgin gave a rarer example of what fidelity to colonial
+constitutionalism meant.  In these years of liberal success, "Old
+Toryism" faced a new strain, and faced it badly.  The party had {204}
+supported the empire, when that empire meant their supremacy.  They had
+befriended the representative of the Crown, when they had all the
+places and profits.  When the British connection took a liberal colour,
+when the governor-general acted constitutionally towards the
+undoubtedly progressive tone of popular opinion, some of the tories
+became annexationists.  Many of them, as will be shown later,
+encouraged a dastardly assault on the person of their official head;
+and all of them, supported by gentlemen of Her Majesty's army, treated
+the representative of the Crown with the most obvious discourtesy.[18]
+Nevertheless, when opinion changed, and when a coalition attacked and
+unseated the Progressive ministry of 1848-1854, Elgin, without a
+moment's hesitation, turned to the men who had insulted him.  "To the
+great astonishment of the public, as well as to his own," wrote
+Laurence Oliphant, who was then on Elgin's staff, "Sir Allan MacNab,
+who had been one of his bitterest opponents ever since the Montreal
+events, was sent for to form a ministry--Lord Elgin by this act
+satisfactorily disproving the charges of {205} having either personal
+or political partialities in the selection of his ministers."[19]
+
+But the first great constitutional governor-general of Canada had to
+interpret constitutionalism as something more than mere obedience to
+public dictation with regard to his councillors.  He had to educate
+these councillors, and the public, into the niceties of British
+constitutional manners; and he had to create a new vocation for the
+governor-general, and to exchange dictation for rational influence.  He
+had to teach his ministers moderation in their measures, and,
+indirectly, to show the opposition how to avoid crude and extreme
+methods in their fight for office.  When his high political courage, in
+consenting to a bill very obnoxious to the opposition, forced them into
+violence, he kept his temper and his head, and the opposition leaders
+learned, not from punishment, but from quiet contempt, to express
+dissent in modes other than those of arson and sticks and stones.  For
+seven years, by methods so restrained as to be hardly perceptible even
+in his private letters to Grey, he guided the first experimental
+cabinets into smooth water, and when he resigned, he left behind him
+politicians {206} trained by his efforts to govern Canada according to
+British usage.
+
+At the same time his influence on the British Cabinet was as quiet and
+certain.  He was still responsible to the British Crown and Cabinet,
+and a weaker man would have forgotten the problems which the new
+Canadian constitutionalism was bound to create at the centre of
+authority.  Two instances will illustrate the point, and Elgin's clear
+perception of his duty.  They are both taken from the episode of the
+Rebellion Losses Bill, and the Montreal riots of 1849.  The Bill which
+caused the trouble had been introduced to complete a scheme of
+compensation for all those who had suffered loss in the late Rebellion,
+whether French or English, and had been passed by majorities in both
+houses; but while there seemed no valid reason for disallowing it,
+Elgin suspected trouble--indeed, at first, he viewed the measure with
+personal disapproval.[20]  He might have refused permission to bring in
+the bill; but the practical consequences of such a refusal were too
+serious to {207} be accepted.  "Only imagine," he wrote, "how difficult
+it would have been to discover a justification for my conduct, if at a
+moment when America was boiling over with bandits and desperadoes, and
+when the leaders of every faction in the Union, with the view of
+securing the Irish vote for the presidential election, were vying with
+each other in abuse of England, and subscribing funds for the Irish
+Republican Union, I had brought on such a crisis in Canada by refusing
+to allow my administration to bring in a bill to carry out the
+recommendation of Lord Metcalfe's commissioners."[21]  He might have
+dissolved Parliament, but, as he rightly pointed out, "it would be
+rather a strong measure to have recourse to dissolution because a
+Parliament, elected one year ago under the auspices of the present
+opposition, passed by a majority of more than two to one a measure
+introduced by the Government."  There remained only the possibility of
+reserving the bill for approval or rejection at home.  A weaker man
+would have taken this easy and fatal way of evading responsibility; but
+Elgin rose to the height of his vocation, when he explained his reason
+for acting on his own {208} initiative.  "I should only throw upon her
+Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the popular eye here)
+on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which rests, and ought I think
+to rest, on my own shoulders."[22]  He gave his assent to the bill,
+suffered personal violence at the hands of the Montreal crowd and the
+opposition, but, since he stood firm, he triumphed, and saved both the
+dignity of the Crown and the friendship of the French for his
+government.
+
+The other instance of his skill in combining Canadian autonomy with
+British supremacy is less important, but, in a way, more extraordinary
+in its subtlety.  As a servant of the Crown, he had to furnish
+despatches, which were liable to be published as parliamentary papers,
+and so to be perused by Canadian politicians.  Elgin had therefore to
+reckon with two publics--the British Parliament, which desired
+information, and the Canadian Parliament, which desired to maintain its
+dignity and freedom.  Before the Montreal outrage, and when it was
+extremely desirable to leave matters as vague as possible, Elgin simply
+refrained from giving details to the Colonial Office.  "I could not
+have made my official communication to {209} you in reference to this
+Bill, which you could have laid before Parliament, without stating or
+implying an irrevocable decision on this point.  To this circumstance
+you must ascribe the fact that you have not heard from me
+officially."[23]  With even greater shrewdness, at a later date, he
+made Grey expunge, in his book on Colonial Policy, details of the
+outrage which followed the passing of the Act; for, said he, "I am
+strongly of opinion that nothing but evil can result from the
+publication, at this period, of a detailed and circumstantial statement
+of the disgraceful proceedings which took place after the Bill
+passed....  _The surest way to arrest a process of conversion is to
+dwell on the errors of the past, and to place in a broad light the
+contrast between present sentiments and those of an earlier date_."[24]
+In constitutional affairs manners make, not merely the statesman, but
+the possibility of government; and Elgin's highest quality as a
+constitutionalist was, not so much his understanding of the machinery
+of government, as his knowledge of the constitutional temper, and the
+need within it of humanity and common-sense.
+
+{210}
+
+Great as was Elgin's achievement in rectifying Canadian constitutional
+practice, his solution of the nationalist difficulty in Lower Canada
+was possibly a greater triumph of statesmanship; for the present _modus
+vivendi_, which still shows no signs of breaking down, dates from the
+years of Elgin's governorship.  The decade which included his rule in
+Canada was pre-eminently the epoch of nationalism.  Italy, Germany, and
+Hungary, with Mazzini as their prophet, were all struggling for the
+acknowledgment of their national claims, and within the British Islands
+themselves, the Irish nationalists furnished, in Davis and the writers
+to _The Nation_, disciples and apostles of the new gospel.  It is
+always dangerous to trace European influences across the Atlantic; but
+there is little doubt that as the French rebellion of 1837 owed
+something to Europe, so the arch-rebel Papineau's paper, _L'Avenir_,
+echoed in an empty blustering fashion, the cries of the nationalist
+revolution of 1848.[25]
+
+Elgin found on his arrival that British administration had thrown every
+element in French-Canadian politics into headlong opposition to itself.
+How dangerous the situation was, one may infer from {211} the
+disquieting rumours of the ambitions of the American Union, and from
+the passions and memories of injustice which floods of unkempt and
+wretched Irish immigrants were bringing with them to their new homes in
+America.  In Elgin's second year of office, 1848, he had to face the
+possibility of a rising under the old leaders of 1837.  His solution of
+the difficulty proceeded _pari passu_ with his constitutional work.  In
+the latter he had seen that he must remove the disquieting subject of
+"responsible government" from the party programme of the progressives,
+and the politic surrender of 1847 had gained his end.  Towards French
+nationalism he acted in the same spirit.  As has already been seen, he
+was conscious of the political shortcomings of the French.  Yet there
+was nothing penal in his attitude towards them, and he saw, with a
+clearness to which Durham never attained, how idle all talk of
+anglicizing French Canada must be.  "I for one," he said, "am deeply
+convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to denationalize the
+French.  Generally speaking, they produce the opposite effect from that
+intended, causing the flame of national prejudice and animosity to burn
+more fiercely."[26]
+
+{212}
+
+But how could the pathological phase of nationalism be ended?  His
+first Tory advisers suggested the old trick of making converts, but the
+practice had long since been found useless.  His next speculation was
+whether the French could be made to take sides as Liberals or Tories,
+apart altogether from nationalist considerations.  But the political
+solidarity of the French had been a kind of trades-unionism, claiming
+to guard French interests against an actual menace to their very
+existence as a nation within the empire; and they were certain to act
+only with Baldwin and his friends, the one party which had regarded
+them as other than traitors or suspects, or at best tools.
+
+No complete solution of the problem was possible; but when Elgin
+surrendered to the progressives, he was making concessions also to the
+French--by admitting them to a recognized place within the
+constitution, and doing so without reservation.  The joint ministry of
+La Fontaine and Baldwin was, in a sense, the most satisfactory answer
+that could be made to the difficulty.  From the moment of its creation
+Elgin and Canada were safe.  He remained doubtful during part of 1848,
+for Papineau had been elected by acclamation to the Parliament which
+held its first session that year; and he "had {213} searched in vain
+... through the French organs of public opinion for a frank and decided
+expression of hostility to the anti-British sentiments propounded in
+Papineau's address."[27]  He did not at first understand that La
+Fontaine, not Papineau, was the French leader, and that the latter
+represented only himself and a few _Rouges_ of violent but
+unsubstantial revolutionary opinions.  Nevertheless, he gave his French
+ministers his confidence, and he applied his singular powers of winning
+men to appeasing French discontent.  As early as May, 1848, he saw how
+the land lay--that French Canada was fundamentally conservative, and
+that discontent was mainly a consequence of sheer stupidity and error
+on the part of England.  "Who will venture to say," he asked, "that the
+last hand which waves the British flag on American ground may not be
+that of a French Canadian?"[28]
+
+His final settlement of the question came in 1849, and the introduction
+of that Rebellion Losses Bill which has been already mentioned.  The
+measure was, in the main, an act of justice to French sufferers from
+the disturbances created by the Rebellion; for they had naturally
+shared but slightly {214} in earlier and partial schemes of
+compensation; and the opposition to the bill was directed quite frankly
+against the French inhabitants of Canada as traitors, who deserved, not
+recompense, but punishment.  Now there were many cases of real
+hardship, like that of the inhabitants of St. Benoit, a village which
+Sir John Colborne had pledged himself to protect when he occupied it
+for military purposes, but which, in his absence, the loyalist
+volunteers had set on fire and destroyed.  The inhabitants might be
+disloyal, but in the eyes of an equal justice a wrong had been done,
+and must be righted.  The idea of the bill was not new--it was not
+Elgin's bill; and if his predecessors had been right, then the French
+politicians were justified in claiming that the system of compensation
+already initiated must be followed till all legitimate claims had been
+met.
+
+It would be disingenuous to deny that Elgin calculated on the pacific
+influence which his support of the bill would exert in Lower Canada.
+"I was aware of two facts," he told Grey in 1852: "Firstly, that M. La
+Fontaine would be unable to retain the support of his countrymen if he
+failed to introduce a measure of this description; and secondly, that
+my refusal would be taken by him and his friends {215} as a proof that
+they had not my confidence."  But his chief concern was to hold the
+balance level, to redress an actual grievance, and to repress the fury
+of Canadian Tories whose unrestrained action would have flung Canada
+into a new and complicated struggle of races and parties.  "I am firmly
+convinced," he told Grey in June, speaking of American election
+movements at this time, "that the only thing which prevented an
+invasion of Canada was the political contentment prevailing among the
+French Canadians and Irish Catholics"; and that political contentment
+was the result of Elgin's action in supporting his ministers.  A happy
+chance, utilized to the full by Elgin's cautious wisdom, had enabled
+him to do the French what they counted a considerable service; and the
+rage and disorder of the opposition only played the more surely into
+the hands of the governor-general, and established, beyond any risk of
+alteration, French loyalty to him personally.[29]
+
+From that day, with trivial intervals or incidents of misunderstanding,
+the British and the French in Canada have played the political game
+together.  It was in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry that {216} the
+joint action, within the Canadian parties, of the two races had its
+real beginning; and while the traditions and idiosyncrasies of Quebec
+were too ingrained and fundamental to admit of modification beyond a
+certain point, Canadian parliamentary life was henceforth based on the
+free co-operation of French and English, in a party system which tried
+to forget the distinction of race.  From this time, too, Elgin began to
+discern the conservative genius of the French people, and to prophesy
+that, when Baldwin's moderate reforming influence should have been
+withdrawn, the French would naturally incline to unite with the
+moderate Conservatives--the combination on which, in actual fact, John
+A. Macdonald based his long control of power in Canada.
+
+The nationalist question is so intermingled with the constitutional
+that it is not always easy to separate the two issues.  The same
+qualities which settled the latter difficulty ended also French
+grievances--saving common-sense which did not refuse to do the obvious
+thing; _bonhomie_ which understood that a well-mannered people may be
+wooed from its isolation by a little humouring; a mind resolute to
+administer to every British subject equal rights; and an austere
+refusal to let an {217} arrogant and narrow-minded minority claim to
+itself a kind of oligarchic glory at the expense of citizens who did
+not belong to the Anglo-Saxon stock.
+
+There is a third aspect of Elgin's work in Canada of wider scope than
+either of those already mentioned, and one in which his claims to
+distinction have been almost forgotten--his contribution to the working
+theory of the British Empire.  Elgin was one of those earlier sane
+imperialists whose achievements it is very easy to forget.  It is not
+too much to say that, when Elgin came to Canada, the future of the
+British colonial empire was at best gloomy.  Politicians at home had
+placed in front of themselves an awkward dilemma.  According to the
+stiffer Tories, the colonies must be held in with a firm hand--how
+firm, Stanley had illustrated in his administration of Canada.  Yet
+Tory stiffness produced colonial discontent, and colonial discontent
+bred very natural doubts at home as to the possibility of holding the
+colonies by the old methods.  On the other hand, there were those, like
+Cobden, who, while they believed with the Tories that colonial
+home-rule was certain to result in colonial independence, were
+nevertheless too loyal to their doctrine of political liberty to resist
+colonial claims.  They looked to an immediate but {218} peaceful
+dissolution of the empire.  It seemed never to strike anyone but a few
+radicals, like Durham and Buller, that Britons still held British
+sentiments, even across the seas, and that they desired to combine a
+continuance of the British connection with the retention of all those
+popular rights in government which they had possessed at home.  A
+Canadian governor-general, then, had to deal with British Cabinets
+which alternated between foolish rigour and foolish slackness, and with
+politicians who reflected little on the responsibilities of empire,
+when they flung before careless British audiences irresponsible
+discussions on colonial independence--as if it were an academic subject
+and not a critical issue.
+
+Elgin had imperial difficulties, all his own, to make his task more
+complicated.  Not only were there French and Irish nationalists ready
+for agitation, but the United States lay across the southern border;
+and annexation to that mighty and flourishing republic seemed to many
+the natural euthanasia of British rule in North America.  Peel's
+sweeping reforms in the tariff had rekindled annexationist talk; for
+while Lord Stanley's bill of 1843 had attracted all the produce of the
+west to the St. Lawrence by its grant of preference to the {219}
+colony, "Peel's bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the
+New York channels of communication ... ruining at once mill-owners,
+forwarders and merchants."[30]  And every petty and personal
+disappointment, every error in colonial office administration, raised a
+new group to cry down the British system, and to call for a peaceful
+junction with the United States.
+
+Elgin had not been long in Canada before he saw one important
+fact--that the real annexationist feeling had commercial, not political
+roots.  Without diminishing the seriousness of the situation, the
+discovery made it more susceptible of rational treatment.  A colony
+suffering a severe set-back in trade found the precise remedy it looked
+for in transference of its allegiance.  "The remedy offered them,"
+wrote Elgin, "is perfectly definite and intelligible.  They are invited
+to form part of a community which is neither suffering nor free-trading
+... a community, the members of which have been within the last few
+weeks pouring into their multifarious places of worship, to thank God
+that they are exempt from the ills which affect other men, from those
+more especially which affect their despised neighbours, the inhabitants
+of North {220} America, who have remained faithful to the country which
+planted them."[31]  With free-trade in the ascendant, and, to the
+maturest minds of the time, unanswerably sound in theory, Elgin had to
+dismiss schemes of British preference from his mind; and, towards the
+end of his rule, when American policy was irritating Canada, he had
+even to restrict the scope within which Canadian retaliation might be
+practised.  There could be no imperial Zollverein.  But he saw that a
+measure of reciprocity might give the Canadians all the economic
+benefits they sought, and yet leave to them the allegiance and the
+government which, in their hearts, they preferred.  The annexationist
+clamour fell and rose, mounting highest in Montreal, and reaching a
+crisis in the year of the Rebellion Losses disturbance; but Elgin,
+while sometimes he grew despondent, always kept his head, and never
+ceased to hope for the reciprocity which would at once bring back
+prosperity and still the disloyal murmurs.  Once or twice, when the
+annexationists were at their worst, and when his Tory opponents chose
+support of that disloyal movement as the means of insulting their
+governor, he took stern measures for repressing an unnatural evil.  "We
+intend," {221} he wrote in November, 1849, after an annexation meeting
+at which servants of the State had been present, "to dismiss the
+militia officers and magistrates who have taken part in these affairs,
+and to deprive the two Queen's Counsels of their silk gowns."  But he
+relied mainly on the positive side of his policy, and few statesmen
+have given Canada a more substantial boon than did Elgin when, just
+before his recall, he went to Washington on that mission which Laurence
+Oliphant has made classic by his description, and concluded by far the
+most favourable commercial treaty ever negotiated by Britain with the
+United States.
+
+There is perhaps a tendency to underestimate the work of his
+predecessors and assistants in preparing the way, but no one can doubt
+that it was Elgin's persistence in urging the treaty on the home
+Cabinet, and his wonderful diplomatic gifts, which ultimately won the
+day.  Oliphant, certainly, had no doubt as to his chief's share in the
+matter.  "He is the most thorough diplomat possible--never loses sight
+for a moment of his object, and while he is chaffing Yankees, and
+slapping them on the back, he is systematically pursuing that
+object";[32] and again, "There was concluded in {222} exactly a
+fortnight a treaty, to negotiate which had taxed the inventive genius
+of the Foreign Office, and all the conventional methods of diplomacy,
+for the previous seven years."[33]
+
+It was a long, slow process by which Elgin restored the tone of
+Canadian loyalty.  Frenchmen who had dreamed of renouncing allegiance
+he won by his obvious fairness, and the recognition accorded by him to
+their leaders.  He took the heart out of Irish disaffection by his
+popular methods and love of liberty.  Tory dissentients fell slowly in
+to heel, as they found their governor no lath painted to look like
+iron, but very steel.  To desponding Montreal merchants his reciprocity
+treaty yielded naturally all they had expected from a more drastic
+change.  It is true that, owing to untoward circumstances, the treaty
+lasted only for the limited period prescribed by Elgin; but it tided
+over an awkward interval of disaffection and disappointment.
+
+He did more, however, than cure definite phases of Canadian
+disaffection; his influence through Earl Grey told powerfully for a
+fuller and more optimistic conception of empire.  With all its virtues,
+the bureaucracy of the Colonial Office did not understand the
+government of colonies such {223} as Canada; and where colonial
+secretaries had the ability and will, they had not knowledge sufficient
+to lead them into paths at once democratic and imperial.  Even Grey
+relapsed on occasion from the optimism which empire demands of its
+statesmen.  It was not simply that he emphasized the wrong
+points--military and diplomatic issues, which in Canada were minor and
+even negligible matters; but at times he seemed prepared to believe
+that the days of the connection were numbered.[34]
+
+In 1848 he had impaled himself on the horns of one of those dilemmas
+which present themselves so frequently to absentee governments and
+secretaries of state--either reciprocity and an Americanized colony, or
+a new rebellion as the consequence of a refusal in Britain to consent
+to a reciprocity treaty.[35]  In 1849, "looking at these indications of
+the state of feeling in Canada, and at the equally significant
+indications as to the feeling of the House of Commons respecting the
+value of our colonies," he had begun to despair of their retention.[36]
+But there were greater sinners than those of the Colonial Office.
+While Elgin {224} was painfully removing all the causes of trouble in
+Canada, and proving without argument, but in deeds, that the British
+connection represented normal conditions for both England and Canada,
+politicians insisted on making foolish speeches.  At last, an offence
+by the Prime Minister himself drove Elgin into a passion unusual in so
+equable a mind, and which, happily, he expressed in the best of all his
+letters.  "I have never been able to comprehend why, elastic as our
+constitutional system is, we should not be able, now more especially
+when we have ceased to control the trade of our colonies, to render the
+links which bind them to the British Crown at least as lasting as those
+which unite the component parts of the Union....  You must renounce the
+habit of telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional
+existence....  Is the Queen of England to be the sovereign of an
+empire, growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age,
+striking its roots deep into fresh earth and drawing new supplies of
+vitality from virgin soils?  Or is she to be for all essential purposes
+of might and power monarch of Great Britain and Ireland merely, her
+place and that of her land in the world's history determined by the
+productiveness of 12,000 square miles of a coal {225} formation which
+is being rapidly exhausted, and the duration of the social and
+political organization over which she presides dependent on the annual
+expatriation, with a view to its eventual alienization, of the surplus
+swarm of her born subjects?"[37]  That is the final question of
+imperialism; and Elgin had earned the right not only to put it to the
+home government with emphasis, but also to answer it in an affirmative
+and constructive sense.
+
+The argument forbids any mention of the less public episodes in Elgin's
+Canadian adventure; his whimsical capacity for getting on with men,
+French, British, and American; the sly humour of his correspondence
+with his official chief; the searching comments made by him on men and
+manners in America; the charm of such social and diplomatic incidents
+as Laurence Oliphant has related in his letters and his _Episodes in a
+Life of Adventure_.  But it may be permitted to sum up his qualities as
+governor, and to connect his work with the general movement towards
+self-government which had been proceeding so rapidly since 1839.
+
+He was too human, easy, unclassical, and, on {226} the other hand, too
+little touched with Byronic or revolutionary feeling, even to suggest
+the age of Pitt, Napoleon, Canning; he was too sensible, too orthodox,
+too firmly based on fact and on the past, to have any affinity with our
+own transitionary politics.  Like Peel, although in a less degree, he
+had at once a firm body of opinions, a keen eye for new facts, and a
+sure, slow capacity for bringing the new material to bear on old
+opinion.
+
+He was able, as few have been, to set the personal equation aside in
+his political plans, holding the balance between friends and foes with
+almost uncanny fairness, and astonishing his petty enemies by his
+moderation.  His mind could regard not merely Canada but also Britain,
+as it reflected on future policy; and, in his letters, he sometimes
+seems the one man in the empire at the time who understood the true
+relation of colonial autonomy to British supremacy.  Not even his most
+foolish eulogist will attribute anything romantic to his character.
+There was nothing of Disraeli's "glitter of dubious gems" about the
+honest phrases in which he bade Russell think imperially.  Unlike
+Mazzini, it was his business to destroy false nationalism, not to exalt
+that which was true, and {227} for that cool business the glow and
+fervour of prophecy were not required.  We like to see our leaders
+standing rampant, and with sulphurous, or at least thundery,
+backgrounds.  But Elgin's ironic Scottish humour forbade any pose, and
+it was his business to keep the cannon quiet, and to draw the lightning
+harmless to the ground.  The most heroic thing he did in Canada was to
+refrain from entering Montreal at a time when his entrance must have
+meant insult, resistance, and bloodshed, and he bore quietly the taunts
+of cowardice which his enemies flung at his head.
+
+He was far too clear-sighted to think that statesmanship consists in
+decisions between very definitely stated alternatives of right and
+wrong.  "My choice," he wrote in characteristic words, "was not between
+a clearly right and clearly wrong course--_how easy is it to deal with
+such cases, and how rare are they in life_--but between several
+difficulties.  I think I chose the least."[38]  His kindly, shrewd, and
+honest countenance looks at us from his portraits with no appeal of
+sentiment or pathos.  He asked of men that which they find it most
+difficult to give--moderation, common-sense, a willingness to look at
+both sides, and to {228} subordinate their egoisms to a wider good; and
+he was content to do without their worship.
+
+It is now possible to summarize the movement towards autonomy so far as
+it was affected by the governors-general of the transition period.
+
+The characteristic note in the earlier stages had been the domination
+of the governor-general's mind by a clear-cut theory--that of Lord John
+Russell.  That theory was in itself consistent, and of a piece with the
+rest of the constitution; and its merits stood out more clearly because
+Canadian progressives had an unfortunate faculty for setting themselves
+in the wrong--making party really appear as faction, investing
+self-government with something of the menace of independence, and
+treating the responsibility they sought in the most irresponsible way.
+The British theory, too, as guaranteeing a definitely British
+predominance in Canada, brought into rather lurid relief the mistaken
+fervour of French-Canadian nationalism.
+
+Yet Sydenham, who never consciously, or at least openly, surrendered
+one detail of the system entrusted to him by Russell, found events too
+much for him; and that which conquered Sydenham's resolution made short
+work of any resistance Bagot may have dreamed of offering.  Metcalfe
+was wrong {229} in suspecting a conscious intention in Sydenham's later
+measures, but he was absolutely right when he wrote, "Lord Sydenham,
+whether intending it or not, did concede Responsible Government
+practically, by the arrangements which he adopted, although the full
+extent of the concession was not so glaringly manifested during his
+administration as in that of his successor."[39]
+
+Canadian conditions were, in fact, evolving for themselves a new
+system--Home Rule with its limits and conditions left as vague as
+possible--and that new system contradicted the very postulates of
+Russell's doctrine.  It was only when the system of Russell became
+incarnate in a governor, Lord Metcalfe, and when the opposing facts
+also took personal form in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry, that both
+in Canada and Britain men came to see that two contradictory policies
+faced each other, and that one or other alternative must be chosen.  To
+Elgin fell the honour not merely of seeing the need to choose the
+Canadian alternative, but also of recognizing the conditions under
+which the new plan would bring a deeper loyalty, and a more lasting
+union with Britain, as well as political content to Canada.
+
+
+
+[1] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.  It
+would be wrong to call Cathcart the "acting governor-general"; yet
+apart from military matters that term describes his position in civil
+matters not inadequately.
+
+[2] Walrond, _Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin_, p. 424.  "During a
+public service of twenty-five years I have always sided with the weaker
+party."
+
+[3] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey on Grey's Colonial Policy,
+8 October, 1852.
+
+[4] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.  The italics are my own.
+
+[5] W. H. Draper to the Earl Cathcart, in Pope, _Life of Sir John
+Macdonald_, i. pp. 43-4.
+
+[6] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.
+
+[7] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+
+[8] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, enclosing a note from
+Col. Tache, 27 February, 1847.
+
+[9] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 28 June, 1847.
+
+[10] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 7 May, 1847.
+
+[11] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 27 March, 1847.
+
+[12] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.
+
+[13] _La Revue Canadienne_, 21 December, 1847.
+
+[14] The speech of the governor-general in proroguing Parliament, 1848.
+
+[15] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.
+
+[16] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 17 March, 1848.
+
+[17] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 5 February, 1848.
+
+[18] Elgin refers (11 June, 1849) to "military men, most of whom, I
+regret to say, consider my ministers and myself little better than
+rebels."
+
+[19] _Episodes in a Life of Adventure_, p. 57.
+
+[20] The obvious point, made by the Tories in Canada, and by Gladstone
+in England, was that the new scheme of compensation was certain to
+recompense many who had actually been in arms in the Rebellion,
+although their guilt might not be provable in a court of law.  See
+Gladstone in _Hansard_, 14 June, 1849.
+
+[21] Elgin to Grey, concerning Grey's _Colonial Policy_, 8 October,
+1852.  Metcalfe's policy in the matter had really forced Elgin's hand.
+
+[22] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 14 March, 1849.
+
+[23] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 12 April, 1849.
+
+[24] Elgin's letter of 8 October, 1852, criticizing Grey's book.  The
+italics are my own.
+
+[25] Elgin kept very closely in touch with the sentiments of the
+Canadian press, French and English.  See his letters _passim_.
+
+[26] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 4 May, 1848.
+
+[27] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 7 January, 1848.
+
+[28] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 4 May, 1848.
+
+[29] See an interesting reference in a letter to Sir Charles Wood,
+written from India.  Walrond, _op. cit._ pp. 419-20.
+
+[30] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 16 November, 1848.
+
+[31] Walrond, p. 105.
+
+[32] Mrs. Oliphant, _Life of Laurence Oliphant_, i. p. 120.
+
+[33] L. Oliphant, _Episodes in a Life of Adventure_, p. 56.
+
+[34] For Grey's mature position, see below, in Chapter VII.
+
+[35] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 27 July, 1848.
+
+[36] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 20 July, 1849.
+
+[37] The letter, which may be found in Walrond's _Life of Lord Elgin_,
+pp. 115-20, ought to be read from its first word to its last.
+
+[38] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 7 October, 1849.
+
+[39] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, p. 414.
+
+
+
+
+{230}
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY.
+
+While these great modifications were being made in the form and spirit
+of Canadian provincial government, corresponding changes were taking
+place in British opinion.  In the present chapter, it is proposed to
+examine these as they operated during the first two decades of the
+Victorian era.  But an examination of early Victorian imperialism
+demands, as a first condition, the dismissal of such prejudices and
+misjudgments as are implicit in recent terms like "Little-Englander"
+and "Imperialist."  It is, indeed, one of the objects of this chapter
+to show how little modern party cries correspond to the ideas prevalent
+from 1840 to 1860, and to exhibit as the central movement in imperial
+matters the gradual development of a doctrine for the colonies, and
+more especially for Canada, not dissimilar to that which dominated the
+economic theory of the day under the title of _laissez faire_.
+
+{231}
+
+It is important to limit the scope of the inquiry, for the problem of
+Canadian autonomy was strictly practical and very pressing.  There is
+little need to exhibit the otiose or irresponsible opinions of men or
+groups of men, which had no direct influence on events.  Little, for
+example, need be said of the views of the British populace.  No doubt
+Joseph Hume expressed views in which he had many sympathizers
+throughout the country; but his constituents were too ill-informed on
+Canadian politics to make their opinions worthy of study; and their
+heated debates, carried on in mutual improvement societies, had even
+less influence in controlling the actions of government than had the
+speeches of their leader in Parliament.[1]  After the sensational
+beginning of the reign in Canada, public opinion directed its attention
+to Canadian affairs only when fresh sensations offered themselves, and
+usually exhibited an indifference which was not without its advantages
+to the authorities.  "People here are beginning to forget Canada, which
+is the best thing they can do," wrote Grey {232} to Elgin after the
+Rebellion Losses troubles had fallen quiet.
+
+The British press, too, need claim little attention.  On the confession
+of those mainly concerned, it was wonderfully ignorant and misleading
+on Canadian subjects.  Elgin, who was not indifferent to newspaper
+criticism, complained bitterly of the unfairness and haphazard methods
+of the British papers, neglecting, as they did, the real issues, and
+emphasizing irritating but unimportant troubles.  "The English press,"
+he wrote, after an important viceregal visit to Boston in 1851, "wholly
+ignores our proceedings both at Boston and Montreal, and yet one would
+think it was worth while to get the Queen of England as much cheered in
+New England as she can be in any part of Old England."[2]  Grey in turn
+had to complain, not merely of indifference, but of misrepresentation,
+and that too in a crisis in Canadian politics, the Rebellion Losses
+agitation; "I am misrepresented in _The Times_ in a manner which I fear
+may do much mischief in Canada.  I am reported as having said that the
+connexion between Canada and this country was drawing rapidly to a
+close.  This is {233} the very opposite of what I really said."[3]  How
+irresponsible and inconsistent a great newspaper could be may be
+gathered from the treatment by _The Times_ of the Annexationist
+movement in 1849.  Professing at first a calm resignation, it refused
+for the country "the sterile honour of maintaining a reluctant colony
+in galling subjection"; yet, shortly afterwards, it took the high
+imperial line of argument and predicted that "the destined future of
+Canada, and the disposition of her people" would prevent so unfortunate
+an ending to the connection.[4]  The fact is that in all political
+questions demanding expert knowledge, newspaper opinion is practically
+worthless; except in cases where the services of some specialist are
+called in, and there the expert exercises influence, not through his
+articles, but because, elsewhere, he has made good his claims to be
+heard.  Canadian problems owed nothing of their solution to the British
+press.
+
+Another factor, irresponsible and indirect, yet closer to the scene of
+political action than the press, was assumed in those years to have a
+great {234} influence on events--the permanent element in the Colonial
+Office, and more especially the permanent under-secretary, James
+Stephen.  Charles Buller's pamphlet on _Responsible Government for the
+Colonies_ formulates the charge against the permanent men in a famous
+satiric passage.  Buller had been speaking of the incessant change of
+ministers in the Colonial Office--ten secretaries of state in little
+more than so many years.  "Perplexed with the vast variety of subjects
+presented to him--alike appalled by the important and unimportant
+matters forced on his attention--every Secretary of State is obliged at
+the outset to rely on the aid of some better informed member of his
+office.  His Parliamentary Under-Secretary is generally as new to the
+business as himself: and even if they had not been brought in together,
+the tenure of office by the Under-Secretary having on the average been
+quite as short as that of the Secretary of State, he has never during
+the period of his official career obtained sufficient information to
+make him independent of the aid on which he must have been thrown at
+the outset.  Thus we find both these marked and responsible
+functionaries dependent on the advice and guidance of another; and that
+other person must of course be one of the permanent {235} members of
+the office....  That mother-country which has been narrowed from the
+British Isles into the Parliament, from the Parliament into the
+executive government, from the executive government into the Colonial
+Office, is not to be sought in the apartments of the Secretary of
+State, or his Parliamentary Under-Secretary.  Where you are to look for
+it, it is impossible to say.  In some back-room--whether in the attic,
+or in what storey we know not--you will find all the mother-country
+which really exercises supremacy, and really maintains connexion with
+the vast and widely-scattered colonies of Britain."[5]
+
+The directness and strength of the influence which men like Sir Henry
+Taylor and Sir James Stephen exercised, both on opinion and events, may
+be inferred from Taylor's confessions with regard to the slave question
+in the West Indies, and the extent to which even Peel himself had to
+depend for information, and occasionally for direction, on the
+permanent men.[6]  It seems clear, too, that up till the year when Lord
+John Russell took over the Colonial Office, Stephen had a great {236}
+say in Canadian affairs, especially under Glenelg's regime.  "As to his
+views upon other Colonial questions," says Taylor, "they were perhaps
+more liberal than those of most of his chiefs; and at one important
+conjuncture he miscalculated the effect of a liberal confidence placed
+in a Canadian Assembly, and threw more power into their hands than he
+intended them to possess."[7]  On the assumption that he was
+responsible for Glenelg's benevolent view of Canadian local rights, one
+might attribute something of Lord John Russell's over logical and
+casuistical declarations concerning responsible government to Buller's
+"Mr. Mother-country."  But it is absurd to suppose that Russell's
+independent mind operated long under any sub-secretarial influence;
+more especially since the rapid succession of startling events in
+Canada made his daring and unconventional statesmanship a fitter means
+of government than the plodding methods of the bureaucrat.  After 1841,
+Stanley and Stephen were too little sympathetic towards each other's
+methods and ideas, and Gladstone too strongly fortified in his own
+opinions, for Stephen's influence to creep in; while the Whig
+government which entered as he left the Colonial Office, had, {237} in
+Grey, a Secretary of State too learned in the affairs of his department
+to reflect the last influences of his retiring under-secretary.
+Whatever, then, Mr. Over-Secretary Stephen did to dominate Lord
+Glenelg, and to initiate the concession of responsible government to
+Canada, his influence must speedily have sunk to a very secondary
+position, and the independent and conscious intentions of the
+responsible ministers held complete sway.  It is interesting to note
+that, according to his son, he seems to have come to share "the
+opinions prevalent among the liberal party that the colonies would soon
+be detached from the mother-country."[8]
+
+The actual starting-point of the development of British opinion with
+regard to Canadian institutions is perfectly definite.  It dates from
+the co-operation and mutual influence of a little group of experts in
+colonial matters, of whom Charles Buller and Gibbon Wakefield were the
+moving spirits, and the Earl of Durham the illustrious mouthpiece.  The
+end of the Rebellion furnished the occasion for their propaganda.
+
+The situation was one peculiarly susceptible to {238} the treatment
+likely to be proposed by these radical and unconventional spirits.  It
+was difficult to describe the constitutional position of Canada without
+establishing a contradiction in terms, and neither abstract and logical
+minds like that of Cornewall Lewis, nor bureaucratic intelligences like
+Stephen's, could do more than intensify the difficulty and emphasize
+it.  The _deus ex machina_ must appear and solve the preliminary or
+theoretic difficulties by overriding them.  There are some who describe
+the pioneers of Canadian self-government as philosophic radicals; but
+they were really not of that school.  It was through the absence of any
+philosophy or rigid logic that they succeeded.
+
+Foremost in the group came Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of those
+erratic but creative spirits whose errors are often as profitable to
+all (save themselves) as their sober acts.  It is not here necessary to
+enter on the details of his emigration system; in that he was, after
+all, a pioneer in the south and east rather than in the west.  But in
+the stirring years of colonial development, in which Canada, Australia,
+and New Zealand took their modern form, Wakefield was a leader in
+constitutional as well as in economic matters, and Canada was favoured
+not only with his opinions, but with {239} his presence.  In the _Art
+of Colonization_ he entered into some detail on these matters.  There
+was a certain breezy informality about his views, which carried him
+directly to the heart of the matter.  He understood, as few of his
+contemporaries did, that in all discussions concerning the "connexion,"
+the final argument was sentimental rather than constitutional; and he
+accepted without further argument the incapacity of Englishmen for
+being other than English in the politics of their colony.  "There would
+still be hostile parties in a colony," he wrote as he planned reforms,
+"yes, parties instead of factions: for every colony would have its
+'ins' and 'outs,' and would be governed as we are--as every free
+community must be in the present state of the human mind--by the
+emulation and rivalries, the bidding against each other for public
+favour, of the party in power and the party in opposition.  Government
+by party, with all its passions and corruptions, is the price that a
+free country pays for freedom.  But the colonies would be free
+communities: their internal differences, their very blunders, and their
+methods of correcting them, would be all their own; and the colonists
+who possessed capacity for public business would govern in turns far
+better on the whole than {240} it would be possible for any other set
+of beings on earth to govern that particular community."[9]  He was,
+then, for a most entire and whole-hearted control by colonists, and
+especially Canadians, of their own affairs.  But when he came to define
+what these affairs included, he had limits to suggest, and although he
+was aware of the dangers implicit in such a limitation, he was very
+emphatic on the need of imperial control in diplomacy and war, and more
+especially in the administration of land.[10]  How practical and
+sincere were his views on the supremacy of the home government, he
+proved by supporting, in person and with his pen, Sir Charles Metcalfe
+in his struggle to limit the claims of local autonomy.
+
+Powerful and suggestive as Wakefield's mind was, he had, nevertheless,
+to own a master in colonial theory; for the most distinguished, and by
+far the clearest, view of the whole matter is contained in Charles
+Buller's _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, which he published
+anonymously in 1840.  Buller was indeed the ablest of the whole group,
+and his early death was one of the greatest losses which English
+politics sustained in the nineteenth {241} century--"an intelligent,
+clear, honest, most kindly vivacious creature; the genialist Radical I
+have ever met,"[11] said Carlyle.  The ease of his writing and his gift
+for light satire must not be permitted to obscure the consistency and
+penetration of his views.  Even if Durham contributed more to his
+Report than seems probable, the view there propounded of the scope of
+Responsible Government is not nearly so cogent as that of the later
+pamphlet.  Buller, like the other members of his group, believed in the
+acknowledgment of a supremacy, vested in the mother country, and
+expressed in control of foreign affairs, inter-colonial affairs, land,
+trade, immigration, and the like; but outside the few occasions on
+which these matters called for imperial interference, he was for
+absolute non-interference, and protested that "that constant reference
+to the authorities in England, which some persons call responsibility
+to the mother country, is by no means necessary to insure the
+maintenance of a beneficial colonial connexion."[12]  His originality
+indeed is best tested by the vigour and truth of his criticisms of the
+existing administration.  First of all representation had been given
+without {242} executive responsibility.  Then for practical purposes
+the colonists were allowed to make many of their own laws, without the
+liberty to choose those who would administer them.  Then a colonial
+party, self-styled the party of the connexion, or the loyal party,
+monopolized office.  To Buller the idea of combining a popular
+representation with an unpopular executive seemed the height of
+constitutional folly; and, like Wakefield, he understood, as perhaps
+not five others in England did, the place of party government and
+popular dictation in colonial constitutional development.  "The whole
+direction of affairs," he said, "and the whole patronage of the
+Executive practically are at present in the hands of a colonial party.
+Now when _this is the case, it can be of no importance to the mother
+country in the ordinary course of things, which of these local parties
+possesses the powers and emoluments of office_."[13]  Unlike the
+majority of his contemporaries, he believed in assuming the colonists
+to be inspired with love for their mother country, common sense, and a
+regard for their own welfare; and it seemed obvious that men so
+disposed were infinitely better qualified than the Colonial Office to
+manage their own affairs.  Nothing but evil {243} could result "from
+the attempt to conduct the internal affairs of the colonies in
+accordance with the public opinion, not of those colonies themselves,
+but of the mother country."[14]  It may seem a work of supererogation
+to complete the sketch of this group with an examination of the
+opinions expressed in Lord Durham's Report; yet that Report is so
+fundamental a document in the development of British imperial opinion
+that time must be found to dispel one or two popular illusions.[15]  It
+is a mistake to hold that Durham advocated the fullest concession of
+local autonomy to Canada.  Sir Francis Hincks, a protagonist of
+Responsible Government, once quoted from the Report sentences which
+seemed to justify all his claims: "The crown must submit to the
+necessary consequences of representative institutions, and if it has to
+carry on the government in union with a representative body, it must
+consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that representative
+body has confidence"; and again, "I admit that the system which I
+propose would in fact place the internal government of the colony in
+the hands of the {244} colonists themselves, and that we should thus
+leave to them the execution of the laws of which we have long entrusted
+the making solely to them."[16]  Public opinion in Canada also put this
+extreme interpretation on the language of the Report.
+
+Yet, as a first modification, it was Lord Metcalfe's confident opinion
+that the responsibility of ministers to the Assembly for which Durham
+pled, was not that of a united Cabinet, but rather of departmental
+heads in individual isolation,[17] and certainly one sentence in the
+Report can hardly be interpreted otherwise: "This (the change) would
+induce responsibility for every act of the Government, and, as a
+natural consequence, it would necessitate _the substitution of a system
+of administration by means of competent heads of departments, for the
+present rude machinery of an executive council_."[18]
+
+In the second place, while Durham did indeed speak of making the
+colonial executive responsible to a colonial Assembly, he discriminated
+between the internal government of the colony and its {245} imperial
+aspect.[19]  In practice he modified his gift of home rule, by placing,
+like Wakefield and Buller, many things beyond the scope of colonial
+responsibility, for example, "the constitution of the form of
+government, the regulation of foreign relations, and of trade with the
+mother country, the other British colonies, and foreign nations, and
+the disposal of the public lands."[20]  There is too remarkable a
+consensus of opinion on this point within the group to leave any doubt
+as to the intention of Durham and his assistants; that an extensive
+region should be left subject to strictly imperial supervision.
+Durham's career ended before his actions could furnish a practical test
+of his theories, but Buller, like Wakefield, gave a plain statement of
+what he meant by supporting Metcalfe against his council, at a time
+when the colonial Assembly seemed to be infringing on imperial rights.
+"No man," said Buller, of the Metcalfe affair, "could seriously think
+of saying that in the appointment of every subordinate officer in every
+county in Canada, the opinion of the Executive Council was to be
+taken."[21]
+
+{246}
+
+To pass from controversy to certainty, there was one aspect of the
+Report which made it the most notable deliverance of its authors, and
+which set that group apart from every other political section in
+Britain, whether Radical, Whig, or Tory--I mean its robust and
+unhesitating imperialism.  How deeply pessimism concerning the Empire
+had pervaded all minds at that time, it will be the duty of this
+chapter to prove, but, in the Report at least, there is no doubt of its
+authors' desire, "to perpetuate and strengthen the connexion between
+this Empire and the North American Colonies, which would then form one
+of the brightest ornaments in your Majesty's Imperial Crown."  This
+confident imperial note, then, was the most striking contribution of
+the Durham Radicals to colonial development; and the originality and
+unexpectedness of their confidence gains impressiveness when contrasted
+with general contemporary opinion.
+
+They contributed, too, in another and less simple fashion, to the
+constitutional question.  Nowhere so clearly as in their writings are
+both sides of the theoretic contradiction--British supremacy and
+Canadian autonomy--so boldly stated, and, in spite of the
+contradiction, so confidently accepted.  They would trust implicitly to
+the sense and {247} feelings, however crude, of the colony: they would
+surrender the entire control of domestic affairs: they would sanction,
+as at home, party with all its faults, popular control of the
+executive, and apparently the decisive influence of that executive in
+advising the governor in internal affairs.  Yet, in the great imperial
+federation of which they dreamed, they never doubted the right of the
+mother country to act with overmastering authority in certain crises.
+That right, and the unquenchable affection of exiles for the land
+whence they came, constituted for them "the connexion."
+
+These were the views which came to dominate political opinion in
+Britain, for Molesworth was right when he declared that to Buller and
+Wakefield, more than to any other persons, was the country indebted for
+sound views on colonial policy.  The interest of the present inquiry
+lies in tracing the development of these views into something unlike,
+and distinctly bolder than, anything which these rash and
+unconventional thinkers had planned.
+
+Whatever might be the shortcomings of the Radical group, the daring of
+their trust in the colonists stands out in high relief against a
+background of conservative restriction and distrust.  It was natural
+for the Tories to think of colonies as {248} they did.  Under the
+leadership of North and George III. they had experienced what might
+well seem to them the natural consequences of the old constitutional
+system of colonial administration.  After 1782 they were disinclined to
+experiment in Assemblies as free as those of Massachusetts and
+Connecticut had been.  The reaction caused by the French Revolution
+deepened their distrust of popular institutions; and the war of 1812
+quickened their hatred of the United States--the zone of political no
+less than military danger for Canada.  The conquests which they made
+had given them a second colonial empire, and they had administered that
+empire with financial generosity and constitutional parsimony, hoping
+against hope that a fabric so unexpected and difficult as colonial
+empire might after all disappoint their fears by remaining true to
+Britain.  Developing in spite of themselves, and with the times, they
+had still learned little and forgotten little.  So it was that Sir
+George Arthur, a Tory governor _in partibus infidelium_, was driven
+into panic by Durham's frank criticisms, and expounded to Normanby, his
+Whig chief, fears not altogether baseless: "The bait of responsible
+government has been eagerly taken, and its poison is working most
+mischievously....  {249} The measure recommended by such high authority
+is the worst evil that has yet befallen Upper Canada":[22] and again,
+"since the Earl of Durham's Report was published, the reform party, as
+I have already stated, have come out in greater force--not in favour of
+the Union, nor of the other measures contemplated by the Bill, that has
+been sent out to this country, but for the daring object so strenuously
+advocated by Mackenzie, familiarly denominated responsible
+government."[23]
+
+The distrust and timidity of Arthur's despatches are shared in by
+practically the entire Tory party in its dealings with Canada, after
+the Rebellion.  The Duke of Wellington opposed the Union of the
+provinces, because, among other consequences, "the union into one
+Legislature of the discontented spirits heretofore existing in two
+separate Legislatures will not diminish, but will tend to augment, the
+difficulties attending the administration of the government;
+particularly under the circumstances of the encouragement given to
+expect the establishment in the united province of a local responsible
+administration of government."[24]  He {250} was greatly excited when
+the news of Bagot's concessions arrived.  Arbuthnot describes his
+chief's mood as one of anger and indignation.  "What a fool the man
+must have been," he kept exclaiming, "to act as he has done! and what
+stuff and nonsense he has written! and what a bother he makes about his
+policy and his measures, when there are no measures but rolling himself
+and his country in the mire."[25]
+
+During these years, and until late in 1845, Lord Stanley presided at
+the Colonial Office.  Naturally of an arrogant and unyielding temper,
+and with something of the convert's fanatic devotion to the political
+creed of his adoption, he administered Canada avowedly on the lines of
+Lord John Russell's despatch to Poulett Thomson, but with all the
+emphasis on the limitations prescribed in that despatch, and in a
+spirit singularly irritating.  His conduct towards Bagot exhibited a
+consistent distrust of Canadian self-government; and the fundamental
+defects of his advice to Bagot's successor cannot be better exhibited
+than in the letter warning Metcalfe of "the extreme risk which would
+attend any disruption of the present Conservative party of Canada.
+Their own steadiness {251} and your own firmness and discretion have
+gone far towards consolidating them as a party and securing a stable
+administration of the colony."[26]  In spite of the warnings of Durham
+and Buller, Stanley was aiming at restoring all the ancient
+landmarks--an unpopular executive, a small privileged party "of the
+connexion," and a colony quickly and surely passing from the control of
+Britain.  Even after Stanley's resignation, and the accession of an
+avowed Peelite and free-trader, Gladstone, to his office, the change in
+commercial theory did not at first effect any change in the Colonial
+Office interpretation of the Canadian constitution.  No doubt Gladstone
+recommended Cathcart to ascertain the deliberate sense of the Canadian
+community at large, and pay respect to the House of Assembly as the
+organ of that sense, but he committed himself and the new
+governor-general to a strong support of Metcalfe's system, and put him
+on his guard against "dishonourable abstract declarations on the
+subject of what has been termed responsible government."[27]
+
+It would be tedious to follow the subject into every detail of Canadian
+administration; but all {252} existing evidence tends to prove that the
+representative men of the British Tory party opposed the new
+interpretation of Canadian rights at every crisis in the period.  In
+the Rebellion Losses debate in 1849, Gladstone, taking in this matter a
+view more restricted than that of his leader Peel, held that Elgin
+should have referred to the Home Government at the very first moment,
+and before public opinion had been appealed to in the colony.[28]  The
+fall of the Whig ministry in 1851 was followed by the first of three
+brief Derby administrations: and the Earl of Derby proved himself to be
+more wedded than he had been as Lord Stanley to the old restrictive
+system.  The Clergy Reserve dispute was nearing its end, but Derby and
+Sir John Pakington, his colonial secretary, intervened to introduce one
+last delay, and to give the Bishop of Toronto his last gleam of hope.
+The appointment of Pakington, which, according to Taylor, was treated
+with very general ridicule, was in itself significant: even an ignorant
+and retrograde politician was adequate for his task when that task was
+obstruction.  After the short-lived Derby administration was over,
+Pakington continued his defence of Anglican rights in Canada, and
+although {253} Canadian opinion had declared itself overwhelmingly on
+the other side, he refused to admit that "the argument of
+self-government was so paramount that it ought to over-rule the sacred
+dedication of this property."
+
+So far nothing unexpected has been revealed in the early Victorian
+colonial policy of the Tories.  The party naturally and logically
+opposed all forms of democratic control; they stood for the strict
+subordination of the outlying regions to the centre in the
+administration of dependencies; they were, as they had always and
+everywhere been, the party of the Church, and of church endowment.  But
+it is surprising to find that the party of Wellington and of British
+supremacy varied their doctrine of central authority with very
+pessimistic prophecies concerning the connection between mother country
+and colonies.
+
+Stanley has already been exhibited, during the Bagot and Metcalfe
+incidents, as a prophet of pessimism; and at the same period, Peel
+seems to have shared in the views of his Colonial Secretary.  "Let us
+keep Nova Scotia and New Brunswick," he said, "but the connection with
+the Canadas _against their wills_, nay without the cordial co-operation
+of the predominant party in Canada, is {254} a very onerous one.  The
+sooner we have a distinct understanding on that head the better.  The
+advantage of commercial intercourse is all on the side of the colony,
+or at least is not in favour of the mother country.  Why should we go
+on fighting not our own battle (I speak now of a civil battle) but
+theirs--in a minority in the Legislature, the progress of the contest
+widening daily old differences and begetting new ones!  But above all,
+if the people are not cordially with us, why should we contract the
+tremendous obligation of having to defend, on a _point of honour_,
+their territory against American aggression?"[29]
+
+Ten years later, Tory pessimists still talked of separation.  Lord John
+Manners, in an oration which showed as much rhetorical effort as it did
+little sense and information, was prepared for disaster over no more
+tragic an issue than the Clergy Reserves.  Concession to local demands
+on that point for him involved something not far from disruption of the
+Empire.  "Far better than this, if you really believe it to be
+necessary to acknowledge the virtual independence of Canada, recall
+your Governor-General, call back your army, call home your fleet, and
+let Canada, if she be so {255} minded, establish her independence and
+cast off her character as a colony, or seek refuge in the extended arms
+of the United States."[30]  But perhaps it is not fair to confront a
+man with his perorations.
+
+The most remarkable confession of Tory doubt still remains to be told.
+It is not usually noticed that Disraeli's famous phrase "these wretched
+colonies will all be independent too in a few years, and are a
+mill-stone round our necks,"[31] was used in connection with Canadian
+fishery troubles, and belongs to this same region of imperial
+pessimism.  There is, however, another less notorious but perfectly
+explicit piece of evidence betraying the fears which at this time
+disturbed the equanimity of the founder of modern imperialism.  He had
+been speaking of the attempts of liberalism to effect the
+disintegration of the Empire; but the speech, which contained his
+counter-scheme of imperial consolidation, was itself an evidence of
+doubt deeper than that harboured by his opponents.  "When those subtle
+views were adopted by the country, under the plausible plea of granting
+{256} self-government to the Colonies, _I confess that I myself thought
+that the tie was broken_.  Not that I for one object to
+self-government.  I cannot conceive how our distant colonies can have
+their affairs administered except by self-government.  But
+self-government, in my opinion, when it is conceded, ought to have been
+conceded as part of a great policy of Imperial consolidation."[32]
+Disraeli was speaking of the views on colonial government, which he had
+held, apparently at the time when Grey and Elgin introduced their new
+system.  That system had since been developed under Gladstone's
+supervision; and, in 1872, the date of Disraeli's speech, it presented
+not fewer, but more decided signs of colonial independence.  Yet the
+statesman who accused the Whigs and Liberals of planning the disruption
+of the Empire, never attempted, when in office, to stay the decline of
+imperial unity by any practical scheme of federation, and must be
+counted either singularly indifferent to the interests of the empire,
+or sceptical as to its future.  A few years later, when the Imperial
+Titles Bill was under discussion, Disraeli again revealed a curious
+disbelief in, or misunderstanding of, the character of the
+self-governing colonies.  He had been {257} challenged to defend his
+differentiation of the royal title in India from that authorized in the
+rest of the British Empire.  It would have been easy to confess that an
+imperial dignity, appropriate to the East, would have been singularly
+out of place in communities more democratic than Britain herself.  But
+he chose to argue from the unsubstantiality of separate colonial
+existence, and the natural inclination of prosperous colonists to make
+for England, the moment their fortunes had been made.  "The condition
+of colonial society," he said, "is of a fluctuating character....
+There is no similarity between the circumstances of our colonial
+fellow-subjects and those of our fellow-subjects in India.  Our
+colonists are English; they come and go, they are careful to make
+fortunes, to invest their money in England; their interests are
+immense, ramified, complicated, and they have constant opportunities of
+improving and enjoying the relations which exist between themselves and
+their countrymen in the metropolis.  Their relations to their Sovereign
+are ample, they satisfy them.  The colonists are proud of those
+relations, they are interested in the titles of the Queen, they look
+forward to return when they {258} leave England, they do return--in
+short they are Englishmen."[33]
+
+It seems fair to argue from these instances that Disraeli, with all his
+imagination and insight, did not, even in 1876, understand the
+constitutional and social self-sufficiency of the greater colonies; or
+the nature of the bond which held them fast to the mother country.  His
+consummate rhetorical skill persuaded the nation to be imperial, while
+he himself doubted the very possibility of permanence in an empire
+organized on the only lines--those of strict autonomy--which the
+colonists were willing to sanction.
+
+So the party of the earlier British Empire distrusted the foundations
+laid by Durham and his group for a new structure; and behind all their
+proclamations of authority, there were ill-concealed fears of another
+declaration or succession of declarations of independence.
+
+It is now time to turn to the central body of imperial opinion--that
+which used Durham's views as the foundation of a new working theory of
+colonial development.  Its chief exponents were the Whigs of the more
+liberal school, who counted {259} Lord John Russell their
+representative and leader.
+
+It was only at the end of a period dominated by other interests that
+Lord John Russell was able to turn his attention to colonies, and more
+particularly to Canada.  Even in 1839, the leader of the House of
+Commons, and the politician on whom, after all, the fate of the Whig
+party depended, had many other claims on his attention.  He was no
+theorist at general on the subject, and his interest in Canada was
+largely the product of events, not of his own will.  But he came at a
+decisive moment in Canadian history; his tenure of the Colonial Office
+coincided with the period in which Durham's Report exercised its
+greatest influence, and Russell, who had the politician's faculty for
+flinging himself with all his force into the issue dominating the
+present, inaugurated what proved to be a new regime in colonial
+administration.
+
+In attributing so decisive a part to Russell's work at the Colonial
+Office, one need not estimate very highly his powers of initiative or
+imagination.  It was Lord John Russell's lot, here as in Parliamentary
+Reform, to read with honest eyes the defects of the existing system, to
+initiate a great and useful change, and then to predicate finality
+{260} of an act, which was really only the beginning of greater
+changes.  But in Canadian politics as in British, he must be credited
+with being better than his words, and with doing nothing to hinder a
+movement which he only partially understood.
+
+His ideas have in part been criticized in relation to Lord Sydenham's
+governor-generalship: in a sense, Sydenham was simply the Russell
+system incarnate.  But it is well to examine these ideas as a whole.
+Russell was a Durhamite "with a difference."  Like Durham he planned a
+generous measure of self-government, but he was a stricter
+constitutional thinker than Durham.  He reduced to a far finer point
+the difficulty which Durham only slightly felt, about the seat of
+ultimate authority and responsibility; and his instructions to Sydenham
+left no doubt as to the constitutional superior in Canada.  With
+infinitely shrewder practical insight than his prompter, he refused to
+simplify the problem of executive responsibility, by making the council
+subject to the Assembly in purely domestic matters, and to the Crown
+and its representative in external matters.  "Supposing," he said,
+"that you could lay down this broad principle, and say that all
+external matters {261} should be subject to the home government, and
+all internal matters should be governed according to the majority of
+the Assembly, could you carry that principle into effect?  I say, we
+cannot abandon the responsibility which is cast upon us as Ministers of
+the Executive of this great Empire."[34]  Ultimately the surrender had
+to be made, but it was well that Russell should have refused to consent
+to what was really a fallacy in Durham's reasoning.  In consequence of
+this position, the Whig leader regarded Bagot's surrender as one,
+difficult perhaps to avoid, but unfortunate in its results, and he was
+an unflinching supporter of Metcalfe.  He further declared that he
+thought Metcalfe's council had an exaggerated view of their power, and
+that to yield to them would involve dangers to the connection.[35]  The
+novelty involved in his policy lay, however, outside this point of
+constitutional logic: it was a matter of practice, not of theory.  Not
+only did he support Sydenham in those practical reforms in which the
+new political life of Canada began, but in spite of his theory he
+really granted all save the form of full responsibility.  So completely
+had he, and his agent Sydenham, undermined their own imperial {262}
+position, that when Peel's ministry fell in 1846, it was one of the
+first acts of Lord John Russell, now prime minister, to consent to the
+demolition of his own old theories.  If he may not dispute with Grey
+the credit of having conceded genuine responsibility to Canada, at
+least he did not exercise his authority to forbid the grant.
+
+It seems to me, indeed, that Russell definitely modified his position
+between 1841 and 1847.  At the earlier date he had been a stout
+upholder of the supremacy of Britain in Canada, for he believed in the
+connection, and the connection depended on the retention of British
+supremacy.  In the debate of January 16th, 1838, he argued thus for the
+Empire: "On the preservation of our colonies depends the continuance of
+our commercial marine; and on our commercial marine mainly depends our
+naval power; and on our naval power mainly depends the strength and
+supremacy of our arms."[36]  It is worthy of note that Charles Buller
+took occasion to challenge this description of the pillars of
+empire--it seemed a poor theory to him to make the empire a
+stalking-horse for the commerce and interests of the mother country.
+But as events taught Russell surely that the casuistry of 1839 {263}
+was false, and that Responsible Government was both a deeper and a
+broader thing than he had counted it, and yet inevitable, he accepted
+the more radical position.  At the same time, he either came to lay
+less stress on the unity of Empire, or he was forced to acknowledge
+that, since Home Rule must be granted, and since with Home Rule
+separation seemed natural, Britain had better practise resignation in
+view of a possible disruption.  The best known expression of this phase
+in Russell's thought is his speech on Colonial Administration in 1850:
+"I anticipate, indeed, with others that some of the colonies may so
+grow in population and wealth that they may say, 'Our strength is
+sufficient to enable us to be independent of England.  The link is now
+become onerous to us; the time is come when we think we can, in amity
+and alliance with England, maintain our independence.'  I do not think
+that that time is yet approaching.  But let us make them as far as
+possible fit to govern themselves ... let them increase in wealth and
+population; and whatever may happen, we of this great empire shall have
+the consolation of saying that we have contributed to the happiness of
+the world."[37]  It is possible to {264} argue that because Russell
+admitted that the time for separation was not yet approaching he was
+therefore an optimist.  But the evidence leans rather to the less
+glorious side.  It was this speech which kindled Elgin into a passion
+and made him bid Grey renounce for himself and his leader the habit of
+telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional existence.  The
+same speech, too, extorted complaints from Robert Baldwin, the man whom
+Sydenham and Russell had once counted half a traitor.  "I never saw him
+so much moved," wrote Elgin, to whom Baldwin had frankly said about a
+recent meeting.  "My audience was disposed to regard a prediction of
+this nature proceeding from a Prime Minister, less as a speculative
+abstraction than as one of that class of prophecies which work their
+own fulfilment."[38]  The speech was not an accidental or occasional
+flash of rhetoric.  The mind of the Whig leader, acquiescing now in the
+completeness of Canadian local powers, and reading with disquiet the
+signs of the times in the form of Canadian turbulence, seems to have
+turned to speculate on the least harmful form which separation might
+take.  Of this there is direct evidence in a private letter from Grey
+to Elgin: "Lord {265} John in a letter I had from him yesterday,
+expresses a good deal of anxiety as to the prospects of Canada, and
+reverts to the old idea of forming a federal union of all the British
+provinces, in order to give them something more to think of than their
+mere local squabbles;[39] and he says that if to effect this a
+separation of the two Canadas were necessary he should see no objection
+to it.  His wish in forming such a union would be to bring about such a
+state of things, that, _if you should lose our North American
+provinces, they might be likely to become an independent state, instead
+of being merged in the Union_."[40]
+
+Russell moved then at this period through a most interesting
+development of views.  His initial position was a blend of firm
+imperialism and generous liberal concession, the latter more especially
+inspired by Durham.  As his genuine sympathies with liberty and
+democracy operated on his political views, these steadily changed in
+the direction of a more complete surrender to Canadian demands.  But,
+since, in spite of his sympathies, he still remained logical, and since
+he had believed the connection to depend on {266} the
+governor-general's supremacy, the modification of that supremacy
+involved the weakening of his hopes of empire.  If the change seem
+somewhat to his discredit, his best defence lies in the fact that Peel,
+who made a very similar modification of his mind on Canadian politics,
+was also contemplating in these years a similar separation.  "The
+utility of our connexion with Canada," he said in 1844, "must depend
+upon its being continued with perfect goodwill by the majority of the
+population.  It would be infinitely better that that connexion should
+be discontinued, rather than that it should be continued by force and
+against the general feeling and conviction of the people."[41]  Indeed,
+Russell seems to have been accompanied on his dolorous journey by all
+the Peelites and not a few of the Whigs.  "There begins to prevail in
+the House of Commons," wrote Grey to Elgin in 1849, "and I am sorry to
+say in the highest quarters, an opinion (which I believe to be utterly
+erroneous) that we have no interest in preserving our colonies and
+ought therefore to make no sacrifice for that purpose.  Peel, Graham,
+and Gladstone, if they do not avow this opinion as openly as Cobden and
+his friends, yet betray very clearly that they {267} entertain it, nor
+do I find some members of the Cabinet free from it."[42]
+
+Meanwhile, the direction of colonial affairs had fallen to the writer
+of the letter just quoted: from the formation of the Russell ministry
+in 1846 until its fall, Earl Grey was the dominant force in British
+colonial policy.  Unlike Russell, Grey was not so much a politician
+interested in the great parliamentary game, as an expert who had
+devoted most of his attention to colonial and economic subjects.
+Consciously or unconsciously, he had imbibed many of Wakefield's ideas,
+and in that period of triumphant free trade, he came to office resolute
+to administer the colonies on free-trade principles.  It said much for
+the fixity and consistency of his ideas of colonial administration
+that, unlike Russell, Buller, and others, he had not been misled by the
+Metcalfe incident.  "The truth is," he said of Metcalfe, "he did not
+comprehend responsible government at all, nor from his Indian
+experience is this wonderful."[43]
+
+The most comprehensive description of the Grey regime is that it
+practised _laissez faire_ principles in colonial administration as they
+never had been {268} practised before.  Under him Canada first enjoyed
+the advantages or disadvantages of free trade, and escaped from the
+shackles of the Navigation Laws.  Grey and Elgin co-operated to bring
+the Clergy Reserve troubles to an end, although the Whigs fell before
+the final steps could be taken.  Grey secured imperial sanction for
+changes in the Union Act of 1840, granting the French new privileges
+for their language, and the colony free control of its own finances.
+But all these were subordinate in importance to the attitude of the new
+minister towards the whole question of Canadian autonomy, and its
+relation to the Imperial Parliament.  That attitude may be examined in
+relation to the responsibility of the Canadian executive, the powers of
+the Imperial Parliament, the occasions on which these powers might be
+fitly used, and the bearing of all the innovations on the position of
+Canada within the British Empire.
+
+Grey's policy with regard to Responsible Government was simple.  As
+Canadians viewed the term, and within the very modest limits set to it
+by them, he surrendered the whole position.  So much has already been
+said on this point in connection with Elgin, that it need not be
+further elaborated.  Yet, since there might linger a suspicion that the
+{269} policy was that rather of the governor than of the minister,
+Grey's position may be given in a despatch written to Sir John Harvey
+in Nova Scotia, before Elgin went to Canada.
+
+"The object," wrote Grey, "with which I recommend to you this course is
+that of making it apparent that any transfer, which may take place, of
+political power from the hands of one party to those of another is the
+result, not of an act of yours, but of the wishes of the people
+themselves, as shown by the difficulty experienced by the retiring
+party in carrying on the government of the Province according to the
+forms of the Constitution.  To this I attach great importance; I have
+therefore to instruct you to abstain from changing your Executive
+Council until it shall become perfectly clear that they are unable with
+such fair support from yourself as they have a right to expect, to
+carry on the government of the province satisfactorily, and command the
+confidence of the Legislature....  In giving all fair and proper
+support to your Council for the time being, you will carefully avoid
+any acts which can possibly be supposed to imply the slightest personal
+objection to their opponents, and also refuse to assent to any measures
+which may be {270} proposed to you by your Council, which may appear to
+you to involve an improper exercise of the authority of the Crown for
+party rather than for public objects.  In exercising however this power
+of refusing to sanction measures which may be submitted to you by your
+Council, you must recollect that this power of opposing a check upon
+extreme measures, proposed by the party for the time in the Government,
+depends entirely for its efficacy upon its being used sparingly and
+with the greatest possible discretion.  A refusal to accept advice
+tendered to you by your Council is a legitimate ground for its members
+to tender to you their resignation--a course they would doubtless
+adopt, should they feel that the subject on which a difference had
+arisen between you and themselves was one upon which public opinion
+would be in their favour.  Should it prove to be so, concession to
+their views must sooner or later become inevitable, since it cannot be
+too distinctly acknowledged that it is neither possible nor desirable
+to carry on the government of any of the British Provinces in North
+America, in opposition to the opinion of the inhabitants."[44]
+
+In strict accordance with this plan, Grey gave {271} Elgin the most
+loyal support in introducing responsible government into Canada, and,
+in a note written not long after Papineau had once more awakened the
+political echoes with a distinctly disloyal address, he expressed his
+willingness to include even the old rebel in the ministerial
+arrangement, should that be insisted on by the leaders of a party which
+could command a majority.[45]
+
+Complete as was the concession made by Grey to local claims, it would,
+nevertheless, be a grave error to think that he left no space for the
+assertion of imperial authority.  No doubt it was part of his system to
+reduce to a minimum the occasions on which interference should be
+necessary, but that such occasions might occur, and demand sudden and
+powerful action from Britain, he ever held.  Even in matters of a
+character purely domestic, he believed, with Lord John Russell, that
+intervention might be necessary, and he desired to prevent danger, not
+by minimizing the powers of the imperial authority, but by exercising
+them with great discretion.[46]  It was perhaps with this conservation
+of central power in view that {272} he was willing to transfer to the
+British treasury the responsibility of paying the salary of the
+governor-general, provided the colonists would take over some part of
+the expenses and difficulties of Canadian defence.  But the extent to
+which he was prepared to exalt the supremacy is best illustrated in the
+control of imperial commerce.  A great change had just been made in the
+economic system of Britain.  Free trade was then to its adherents not
+an arguable position, but a kind of gospel; and men like Grey, who had
+something of the propagandist about them, were inclined to compel
+others to come in.  Now, unfortunately for Canada, free trade appeared
+there first rather as foe than as friend.  As has already been seen,
+the measures of 1846 overturned the arrangement made by Stanley in
+1843, whereby a preference given to Canadian flour had stimulated a
+great activity in the milling and allied industries; and the removal of
+the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Acts did not take place till
+1849.  At the same time the United States, the natural market for
+Canadian products, showed little inclination to listen to talk of
+reciprocity; and the Canadians, seemingly deprived of pre-existing
+advantages by Peel's action, talked of retaliation as a means of {273}
+bettering their position, at least in relation to the United States.
+Grey, however, was an absolute believer in the magic powers of free
+trade.  "When we rejected all considerations of what is called
+reciprocity," he wrote to Elgin, "and boldly got rid of our protective
+duties without inquiring whether other nations would meet us or not,
+the effect was immediately seen in the increase of our exports, and the
+prosperity of our manufactures."[47]  Canada, then, in his opinion
+could retaliate most effectively, not by setting up a tariff against
+the United States, but by opening her ports more freely then before.
+He had a vision, comparable although in contrast, to that of believers
+in an imperial tariff, of an empire with its separate parts bound to
+each other by a general freedom of trade.  Besides all this, he had a
+firm trust that the evils which other nations less free than Britain
+might for a time inflict on her trade by their prohibitions, would
+shortly end, since all would be convinced by the example of Britain and
+would follow it.  Under these circumstances he set imperial policy
+against local prejudice, and wrote to his governor-general: "I do trust
+you will be able to prevent the attempt to enter upon that silliest of
+all silly policies, the {274} meeting of commercial restrictions by
+counter restrictions; _indeed it is a matter to be very seriously
+considered, whether we can avoid disallowing any acts of this kind
+which may be passed_."[48]
+
+In spite, then, of the present thoroughness of Grey's conversion to the
+Canadian position with regard to Home Rule, there was for him still an
+empire operating through the Houses at Westminster and the Crown
+ministers, and striking in, possibly on rare occasions, but, when
+necessary, with a heavy hand.  To such a man, too, belief in the
+permanence of empire was natural.  There are fewer waverings on the
+point in Grey's writings than in those of any of his contemporaries,
+Durham, Buller, and Elgin alone excepted.  He had, indeed, as his
+private correspondence shows, moments of gloom.  Under the strain of
+the Montreal riots, and the insults to Elgin in 1849, he wrote: "I
+confess that looking at these indications of the state of feeling
+there, and at the equally significant indications to the feelings in
+the House of Commons, respecting the value of our colonies, I begin
+almost to despair of our long retaining those in North America; while I
+am persuaded that to both parties a hasty separation will be a very
+serious {275} evil."[49]  Elgin's robust faith, and perfect knowledge,
+however, set him right.  Indeed, in tracing the growth of Grey's
+colonial policy, it is impossible for anyone to mistake the evidences
+of Elgin's influence; and the chapter on Canada in his _Colonial
+Policy_ owes almost more to Elgin than it does to the avowed author.
+His final position may be stated thus.  The empire was to the advantage
+of England, for, apart from other reasons, her place among the nations
+depended on the colonies, and the act of separation would also be one
+of degradation.  The empire was an unspeakable benefit to the colonies:
+"To us," he once wrote in a moment of doubt, "except the loss of
+prestige (no slight one I admit) the loss of Canada would be the loss
+of little but a source of heavy expense and great anxiety, while to the
+Canadians, the loss of our protection, and of our moderating influence
+to restrain the excesses of their own factions, would be one of the
+greatest that can be conceived."[50]  But, apart from these lower loss
+and gain calculations, to Grey the British Empire was a potent
+instrument, essential to the peace and soundness of the world, and he
+expected the {276} provinces to which he had conceded British rights,
+to rally to uphold British standards through a united and loyal
+imperial federation.  Those were still days when Britain counted
+herself, and not without justification, a means of grace to the less
+fortunate remainder of mankind.  "The authority of the British Crown is
+at this moment the most powerful instrument, under Providence, of
+maintaining peace and order in many extensive regions of the earth, and
+thereby assists in diffusing among millions of the human race, the
+blessings of Christianity and civilization.  Supposing it were clear
+(which I am far from admitting) that a reduction of our national
+expenditure (otherwise impracticable) to the extent of a few hundred
+thousands a year, could be effected by withdrawing our authority and
+protection from our numerous Colonies, would we be justified, for the
+sake of such a saving, in taking this step, and thus abandoning the
+duty which seems to have been cast upon us?"[51]
+
+Such, then, was the imperial policy of Britain under the man who
+carried it farthest forward, before the great renaissance at the end of
+Queen Victoria's reign.  To Grey, Canada was all that it had meant to
+Durham--a province peopled by {277} subjects of the Queen, and one
+destined by providence to have a great future--a fundamental part of
+the Empire, and one without which the imperial whole must be something
+meaner and less glorious.  Like Durham he planned for it a constitution
+on the most generous lines, and conferred great gifts upon it.  And, in
+exchange, he claimed a loyalty proportionate to the generosity of the
+Crown, and a propriety of political behaviour worthy of citizens of so
+great a state.  In the last resort he held that in abnormal crises, or
+in response to great and beneficial policies, Canadians must forget
+their provincial outlook, or, if they could not, at least accept the
+ruling of an imperial parliament and a crown more enlightened and
+authoritative on these matters than a colonial ministry or people could
+be.  Having conceded all the rights essential to a free existence, he
+mentioned duties, and called the sum of these duties Empire.
+
+The concluding stage in the evolution of mid-Victorian opinion
+concerning Canada, which must now be described, differs essentially
+from the earlier stages, although, as it seems to me, the chief factor
+in the development is still Durham and his group.  It is the period of
+separatism.
+
+One thing has appeared very prominently in the {278} foregoing
+argument--the prevalence of a fear, or even a fixed belief, that the
+connection between Britain and Canada must soon cease.  Excluding, for
+the present, the entire group of extreme radicals, there was hardly a
+statesman of the earlier years of Victoria, who had not confessed that
+Canada must soon leave England, or be left.  Many instances have been
+already cited.  Among the Tories, Stanley thought that Bagot had
+already begun the process of separation, and that Metcalfe's failure
+would involve the end of the connection.  Peel, ever judicial, gave his
+verdict in favour of separation, should Canadians persist in resenting
+imperial action.  As Lord John Russell's view of autonomy expanded, his
+hopes for continued British supremacy contracted; and, on the evidence
+of a letter from Grey quoted above, Russell was not alone among the
+Whigs in his opinion, nor Peel among his immediate followers.  The
+reckless and partizan use of the term Little-Englander has largely
+concealed the fact that apart from Durham, whose faith was not called
+upon to bear the test of experience, and Buller, Grey, and Elgin, who
+had special grounds for their confidence, all the responsible
+politicians of the years between 1840 and 1860 moved steadily towards a
+"Little England" position.  {279} The reasons for that movement are
+worthy of examination.
+
+So far as the Tories were concerned, the change, already traced in
+detail, was not unnatural.  In the eighteenth century, the colonies,
+possessed of just that responsible government for which Canadian
+reformers were clamouring, had with one accord left the Empire.  The
+earlier nineteenth century had witnessed in the British American
+colonies a steadily increasing demand for the liberties, formerly
+possessed by the New England states.  Representative assemblies had
+been granted; then a modified form of responsibility of the executive
+to these assemblies; then the complete surrender of executive to
+legislature.  Attempts had been made to gain some countervailing powers
+by bargain; but, in Canada, the civil list had now been surrendered to
+local control, the endowment of the Church of England was practically
+at an end, patronage was in the hands of the provincial ministry, and
+all the exceptions which the central authority had claimed as essential
+to its continued existence followed in the wake of the lost executive
+supremacy.  Neither Whigs nor Tories quite understood how an Empire was
+possible, in which there was no definite federating principle; or, if
+there {280} were, where the federating principle existed only to be
+neutralized as, one by one, the restrictions imposed by it were felt by
+the colonists to be annoying to their sense of freedom.  Empire on
+these terms seemed to mean simply a capacity in the mother country for
+indefinite surrender.  The accomplishment of the purpose proclaimed by
+Durham, Russell, and Grey, would, to a Tory even less peremptory than
+the Duke of Wellington, mean the end of the connection; and as they
+felt, so they spoke and acted.  They were separatists, not of
+good-will, but from necessity and the nature of things.
+
+Among the Whigs, an even more important process was at work.  By 1850
+the disintegration of the Whig party was already far advanced.
+Finality in reform had already been found impossible, and Russell and
+the advanced men were slowly drawing ahead of conservatives like
+Melbourne and Palmerston.  After 1846, the liberalizing power of Peel's
+steady scientific intelligence was at work, transforming the ideas of
+his allies, as he had formerly shattered those of his old friends, and,
+of Peel's followers, Gladstone at least seemed to be looking in the
+same direction as his master--towards administrative liberalism.  The
+{281} Whig creed and programme were in the melting pot.  Now, what made
+the final product not Whig, but Liberal, was on the whole the
+increasing influence of the parliamentary Radicals; and in colonial
+matters the Radicals, who told on the revived and quickened Whig party,
+were pronouncedly in favour of separation.  It is too often assumed
+that the imperial creed of Durham and Buller was shared in by their
+fellow Radicals.  That is a grave mistake.  One may trace a descent
+towards separatism from Molesworth to Roebuck and Brougham.  In
+Molesworth, the tendency was comparatively slight.  No doubt in 1837,
+under the stress of the news of rebellion, he had proclaimed the end of
+the British dominion in America as his sincere desire.[52]  But he
+believed in a colonial empire, if England would only guarantee good
+government.  "The emancipation of colonies," he said, in a cooler mood,
+"must be a question of time and a question, in each case, of special
+expediency ... a question which would seldom or never arise between a
+colony and its mother country if all colonies were well governed"; and
+he explained his language about Canada on grounds of bad government.
+"I hope that the people of {282} that country (Lower Canada) will
+either recover the constitution which we have violated, or become
+wholly independent of us."[53]  It is not necessary to quote Hume's
+confused but well-intentioned wanderings--views sharing with those of
+the people whom Hume represented, their crude philanthropy and
+imperfect clearness.  But Roebuck marked a definite stage in advance;
+for, while he was willing to keep "the connexion," where it could be
+kept with honour, he seems to have regarded separation as
+inevitable--"come it must," he said--and his best hopes were that the
+separation might take place in amity and that a British North American
+federation might counterbalance the Union to the south.[54]  Grote's
+placid and facile radicalism accepted the growing breach with Canada as
+the most desirable thing which could happen both to the mother country
+and the colony; and Brougham directed all his eccentric and ill-ordered
+energy and eloquence, not only to denounce the Whig leaders, but to
+proclaim the necessity of the new Canadian republic.  "Not only do I
+consider the possession as worth no breach of the Constitution ... but
+in a national view I really hold those colonies to {283} be worth
+nothing.  I am well assured that we shall find them very little worth
+the cost they have entailed on us, in men, in money, and in injuries to
+our trade; nay, that their separation will be even now a positive gain,
+so it be effected on friendly terms, and succeeded by an amicable
+intercourse."[55]
+
+Separation was indubitably a dogma of philosophic radicalism; and yet
+it was not so much the influence of this metaphysical and doctrinaire
+belief which moved Whig opinion.  It was rather the plain business-like
+and matter-of-fact radicalism of the economist statesmen, led by Bright
+and Cobden.  Of the two forces represented by Peel and by Cobden, which
+completed the formation of a modern Liberal party, the latter was on
+the whole the stronger; and Bright and Cobden took the views of their
+Radical predecessors, and out of airy and ineffectual longings created
+solid political facts.  "I cannot disguise from myself," wrote Grey to
+Elgin in 1850, "that opinion in this country is tending more and more
+to the rejection of any burden whatever, on account of our colonies";
+and the reason for the tendency was certainly the purely economic views
+to which {284} Cobden was accustoming Britain, and the cogency of the
+arguments by which he was driving amateur politicians from their
+earlier indefensible positions.  That trade was all-important, and that
+the operations of trade disregarded the irrelevant facts of nationality
+and race; that no one community could interfere in the social and
+political life of another without disaster to both; that the defence of
+colonies was not only dangerous to peace as provoking suspicious
+neighbours, but needless expense to the mother country; in short that
+_laissez-faire_ was the dominating principle in politics, and that
+_laissez-faire_ shattered the earlier dreams of imperial supremacy and
+colonial dependency--these were the views introduced by Cobden and
+Bright into a newly awakened and imperfectly educated England; and they
+played just such havoc with earlier political ideas, as Darwin and
+evolution did with pre-existing theological orthodoxy.[56]
+
+It was hardly wonderful then that the Whigs moved steadily onward until
+they almost acquiesced in the idea of imperial disruption; and, since
+Peel {285} had left his party moved almost wholly by Cobden's economic
+propaganda, it was not unnatural that the Peelites should share the
+views of their Whig allies.  It is indeed possible to find some cold
+consolation in Gladstone's Chester speech in 1855, when he predicted
+that if only the colonies were left freedom of judgment, it would be
+hard to say when the day of separation might come.[57]  But Grey had
+already suspected Gladstone of pessimism on the point, and we now know
+that as an imperialist Gladstone's course from 1855 had a downward
+tendency.  He could not resist the arguments of his Radical friends and
+teachers.
+
+Almost all the important relevant facts and events which concerned the
+connection after 1846 assisted these party movements towards belief in
+separation.
+
+Grey, whose confidence in the beneficial results of free trade
+challenged that of Cobden himself, believed that with Protection there
+vanished an awkward enemy of the connection between Canada and
+Britain.[58]  But Grey was unmistakably doctrinaire on the point.
+Elgin warned him, again and again, of "the uneasy feeling which the
+{286} free-trade policy of the mother country ... has tended to produce
+in the colonial mind,"[59] and that uneasiness passed gradually over to
+Britain.  It would be to trespass unduly beyond the limits prescribed
+in this essay to deal with the introduction of the Canadian tariff in
+1858 and 1859; yet the statements of Galt who introduced the budget in
+the latter year strike the reader now, as they must have struck the
+British reader then, with a sense that the connection was practically
+at an end: "The government of Canada cannot, through those feelings of
+deference which they owe to the Imperial authorities, in any measure
+waive or diminish the right of the people of Canada to decide for
+themselves both as to the mode and extent to which taxation shall be
+imposed....  The Imperial government are not responsible for the debts
+and engagements of Canada.  They do not maintain its judicial,
+educational, or civil service.  They contribute nothing to the internal
+government of the country; and the Provincial Legislature, acting
+through a ministry directly responsible to it, has to make provision
+for all these wants.  They must necessarily claim and exercise the
+widest latitude, as to the nature, and {287} the extent of the burdens,
+to be placed upon the industry of the people."[60]  There was almost
+everything to be said in favour of this enlightened selfishness; and
+yet a growing coolness on the part of British legislators was, under
+the circumstances, very comprehensible.  It was all the more so,
+because the innovations in Canada influenced British diplomacy in its
+relations with the United States; and between 1854, the date of Elgin's
+Reciprocity Treaty, and 1867, British statesmen learned some of the
+curious ramifications of their original gift of autonomy to Canada.  In
+diplomacy as in economic relations, their appreciation of the value of
+the connection did not increase.
+
+Parallel with this disruptive tendency in the new economic policy,
+another in military matters began to make itself felt.  As Canada
+received her successive grants of liberties, and ever new liberties,
+the imperial authorities began to consider the advisability of
+withdrawing imperial troops by degrees, and of leaving Canada to meet
+the ordinary demands of her own defence.  Grey and Elgin had
+corresponded largely on the point; and the result had been a very
+general reduction of British troops {288} in Canada, the assumption
+being that Canada would look to her own protection.  To discover the
+character of the change thus introduced, and its bearing on imperial
+politics, it again becomes necessary to travel beyond the limit set,
+and to examine its results between 1860 and 1867.  In these years the
+military situation developed new and alarming possibilities for Canada.
+The re-organization of the Canadian tariff excited much ill-feeling in
+the United States, for it seemed an infringement of the arrangements
+made by Elgin in 1854.[61]  Then followed the _Trent_ episode, the
+destruction created by the _Alabama_, the questionable policy both of
+England and of Canada in taking sides, no matter how informally, in the
+war.  In addition, the Irish-American section of the population, which
+had furnished its share, both of rank and file, and of leaders, to the
+war, was in those years bitterly hostile to the British Empire, and
+plotted incessantly some secret stroke which should wound Britain
+through Canada.  The gravest danger threatening British peace and
+supremacy at that time lay, not in Europe, but along the Canadian {289}
+frontier, nor would it be fair to say that Britain alone, not Canada,
+had helped to provoke the threatened American attack.  Under these
+circumstances, partly because of the expense, but partly also through
+factiousness and provincial shortsightedness, the Canadian assembly
+rejected a scheme for providing an adequate militia, and left a
+situation quite impossible from the military point of view.  Instantly
+a storm of criticism broke over the heads of the colonies, so bitter
+and unqualified that there are those who believe that to this day the
+mutual relations of Britain and Canada have never quite recovered their
+old sincerity.[62]  A member of the Canadian parliament, who was
+travelling at the time in England, found the country in arms against
+his province: "You have no idea of the feeling that exists here about
+the Militia Bill, and the defences of Canada generally.  No one will
+believe that there is not a want of loyalty among the Canadians, and
+whenever I try to defend Canada, the answer is always the same, that
+'the English look for actions not assertions'; many hard and unjust
+things are now said about the country, all of which add strength to the
+Goldwin Smith party, which, after {290} all, is not a very small one;
+and the Derbyites make no secret of what they would do if they were in
+power,--let Canada take her chance."[63]  Even Earl Grey was prepared,
+at that crisis, to submit to the British and Canadian parliaments a
+clear issue, calling on the latter to afford adequate support to the
+British forces left in British North America, or to permit the last of
+them to leave a country heedless of its own safety.[64]  From that time
+forth, more especially after Lee, Jackson, Grant, and Sherman had
+revealed the military possibilities of the American Republic, even
+military men began to accept the strategic arguments against the
+retention of Canada as unanswerable, and joined the ranks of those who
+called for separation.  Richard Cartwright, who had opportunities for
+testing British opinion, more especially among military officers, found
+a universal agreement that Canada was indefensible, and that separation
+had better take place, before rather than after war.[65]  So John
+Bright and the leaders of the British army had at last found a point in
+diplomacy and strategy on which they might agree.
+
+{291}
+
+A considerable portion of authoritative British opinion has now been
+traversed; and beneath all its contradictions and varieties a deep
+general tendency has been discovered.  That tendency made for the
+separation of Canada from England and the Empire.  It is strange to see
+how resolutely writers have evaded the conclusion, and yet, if the
+views discussed above have been fairly stated, only four men of note
+and authority, Durham, Buller, Elgin, and Grey remained unaffected by
+the growing pessimism of the time, and of these, the last seemed at the
+end to find it difficult to maintain the confidence of 1853 under the
+trials of 1862.  Britain was, in fact, undergoing a great secular
+change of policy.  She had been driven, step by step, from the old
+position of supremacy and authority.  As in commerce the security of
+protection had been abandoned for the still doubtful advantages of free
+trade, so, in the colonies, the former cast-iron system of imperial
+control had been abandoned for one of _laissez-faire_ and
+self-government.  It would have been impossible for British statesmen
+to follow any other course than that which they actually chose.
+Self-government, and self-government to the last detail and corollary
+of the argument they must perforce concede.  But {292} in the stress of
+their imperial necessities, it was not strange that they should discern
+all the signs of disruption, rather than the gleams of hope; and men
+like Disraeli who claimed at a later date that they had never despaired
+of the Empire, did so at the expense of their sincerity, and could do
+so only because the false remedies they prescribed were happily
+incapable of application.  Little Englandism, if that unfortunate term
+may be used to describe an essential and inevitable phase of imperial
+expansion, was the creed of all but one or two of the most capable and
+daring statesmen of the mid-Victorian age.
+
+Strangely enough, while they had exhausted the materials for their
+argument so far as these lay in Britain, they had all failed to regard
+the one really important factor in the situation--the inclinations of
+the Canadian people.  For the connection of Britain with Canada
+depended less on what the ministers of the Crown thought of Canada than
+on what the Canadians thought of their mother country.
+
+
+
+[1] In Fenwick (Scotland), the Improvement of Knowledge Society
+discussed Canadian affairs on 1 January, 1839, when James Taylor
+proposed the sentiment, "The speedy success of the Canadian struggle
+for emancipation from British thraldom."  The toast, according to the
+minute book, was enthusiastically honoured.
+
+[2] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 1 November, 1851.
+
+[3] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 11 May, 1849.
+
+[4] Allin and Jones, _Annexation, Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity_,
+Chap. IX.
+
+[5] _Responsible Government for the Colonies, London_, 1840.  See the
+extract made by Wakefield in his _View of the Art of Colonization_, p.
+279.
+
+[6] _The Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor, passim._
+
+[7] _Ibid._ ii. pp. 302-3.
+
+[8] Leslie Stephen, _Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen_, p. 49.  "On
+the appointment of a Governor-general of Canada, shortly before his
+resignation of office, he observes in a diary, that it is not unlikely
+to be the last that will ever be made."
+
+[9] Wakefield, _Art of Colonization_, p. 317.
+
+[10] _Ibid._ pp. 312-3.
+
+[11] Froude, _Early Life of Carlyle_, ii. p. 446.
+
+[12] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 65.
+
+[13] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 37.
+
+[14] _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, p. 98.
+
+[15] I am inclined to accept John Stuart Mill's account of the
+authorship--"written by Charles Buller, partly under the influence of
+Wakefield."
+
+[16] Quoted by Hincks in _A Lecture on the Political History of
+Canada_, p. 9.
+
+[17] Kaye, _Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe_, pp. 414-15.
+
+[18] _Lord Durham's Report_ (Lucas), ii. p. 280.
+
+[19] See an admirable discussion of the point in Lucas's edition of the
+_Report_, i. p. 146 and ii. p. 281.
+
+[20] _Ibid._ ii.  p. 282.
+
+[21] A speech by Charles Buller in _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.
+
+[22] Arthur to Normanby, 21 August, 1839.
+
+[23] _Ibid._ 15 October, 1839.
+
+[24] Protest of the Duke of Wellington against the Third Reading of a
+bill, etc., 13 July, 1840.
+
+[25] Parker, _Life of Sir Robert Peel_, iii. pp. 382-3.
+
+[26] Stanley to Metcalfe, 18 June, 1845.
+
+[27] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846.
+
+[28] Gladstone's speech in Hansard, 14 June, 1849.
+
+[29] Parker, _Life of Sir Robert Peel_, iii. p. 389.
+
+[30] _Hansard_, 4 March, 1853.
+
+[31] _Memoirs of an Ex-Minister_, i. p. 344: Disraeli to Malmesbury, 13
+August, 1852.
+
+[32] _The Speeches of the Earl of Beaconsfield_, ii. p. 530.
+
+[33] _Hansard_, 9 March, 1876.  The whole speech is an admirable
+example of Disraeli's gift of irresponsible paradox.
+
+[34] _Hansard_, 3 June, 1839.
+
+[35] _Ibid._ 30 May, 1844.
+
+[36] _Hansard_, 16 January, 1838.
+
+[37] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, pp. 339-40.
+
+[38] Walpole, _Life of Lord John Russell_, pp. 339-40.
+
+[39] The reference is to the Rebellion Losses Act riots.
+
+[40] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 8 August, 1849.
+
+[41] _Hansard_, 30 May, 1844.
+
+[42] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 18 May, 1849.
+
+[43] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 6 April, 1849.
+
+[44] Earl Grey to Sir John Harvey, 3 November, 1846.
+
+[45] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 22 February, 1848.
+
+[46] Grey, _Colonial Policy_, i. p. 25.
+
+[47] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 5 December, 1850.
+
+[48] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 25 October, 1849.
+
+[49] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 20 July, 1849.
+
+[50] _Ibid._: Grey to Elgin, 22 March, 1848.
+
+[51] Grey, _Colonial Policy_, i. pp. 13-14.
+
+[52] Molesworth in _Hansard_, 22 December, 1837.
+
+[53] Molesworth in _Hansard_, 6 March, 1838.
+
+[54] Roebuck before the House of Commons, 22 January, 1838.
+
+[55] Brougham in _Hansard_, 18 January, 1838.
+
+[56] See, for a very complete statement of Bright's views on the point,
+his speech on _Canadian Fortifications_, 23 March, 1865.  Cobden's
+colonial policy is scattered broadcast through his speeches.
+
+[57] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, i. p. 269.
+
+[58] See the preliminary chapter in his _Colonial Policy_.
+
+[59] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 6 December, 1848.
+
+[60] See Galt, _Canada from_ 1849 _to_ 1859, and his memorandum of 25
+October, 1859.
+
+[61] See a despatch from Lord Lyons respecting the Reciprocity Treaty,
+Washington, 28 February, 1862: enclosing a copy of the report of the
+committee of the House of Representatives on the Reciprocity Treaty.
+
+[62] See Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. p. 426.
+
+[63] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 242.
+
+[64] Earl Grey, in _Hansard_, 18 July, 1862.
+
+[65] Sir Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, p. 55.
+
+
+
+
+{293}
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY.
+
+A change so informally achieved, and yet so decisive, as the completion
+of a system of self-government in Canada could not but have
+far-reaching and unexpected secondary consequences.  It is the object
+of this chapter to trace the more important of these as they appeared
+in the institutions and public life of Canada, and in the modification
+of Canadian sentiment towards Great Britain.
+
+The most obvious and natural effect of Elgin's concessions was a
+revolution in the programmes of the provincial parties, and in their
+relations to each other and to government.  It may be remembered that
+all the governors of the period agreed in reprobating the factiousness
+and pettiness of Canadian party politics.  Even Elgin had been unable
+to see very much rationality in their methods.  There was, he held,
+little of public principle to divide {294} men, apart from the
+fundamental question of responsible government.[1]  But it is possible
+to underestimate the reality and importance of the party system as it
+existed down to 1847.  To have admitted that men differed on the
+principle of responsible government, was to have admitted that party
+strife had some justification; and all the other details--affections
+and antipathies, national, sectarian, and personal--were the
+circumstances natural to party life as that life has everywhere come
+into existence.  Burke himself sought no higher ground for the grouping
+of men into parties than that of family connection, and common
+friendships and enmities.  No doubt the squalor and pettiness of early
+Canadian party life contrasted meanly with the glories of the
+eighteenth century Whigs, and the struggles of Fox and Pitt.  But a
+nation must begin somewhere, and these trivial divisions received a
+kind of consecration when they centred round the discussion of colonial
+self-government.  After all, so long as autonomy was only partially
+conceded, and so long as men felt impelled to take opposite sides on
+that subject, it was foolish to deny that there were Canadian parties,
+and that their differences were of some importance.
+
+{295}
+
+Moreover, before 1847 there were other good reasons for the existence
+of two distinct parties.  It was true, as Sydenham had said, that the
+British party names were not quite appropriate to the parties in Canada
+who had adopted them.  Yet there were some links between British and
+Canadian parties.  The British and the Canadian Tories had, in 1840,
+many views in common.  In a time of change both stood for a pronounced
+distrust of democracy; both regarded the creation of responsible
+government in Canada as disastrous to the connection; both were the
+defenders of Church and State.  On the other hand, it was not
+unnatural, as Elgin came to see, to compare the party led by Baldwin
+and La Fontaine with the Reformers in England who looked to Lord John
+Russell as their true leader.  Until the political traditions, which
+most of the recent immigrants had brought with them from Britain, had
+disappeared or been transformed into a new Canadian tradition, and so
+long as certain grave constitutional defects which cried for remedy
+remained unaltered, Canadian Tories and Reformers must exist, and
+government, as Metcalfe discovered, was impossible, unless it
+recognized in these provincial divisions the motive power of local
+administration.
+
+{296}
+
+But between 1847 and 1854 the foundations of these earlier parties had
+been, not so much undermined, as entirely removed.  "The continuance of
+agitation on these intensely exciting questions," wrote Elgin in his
+latest despatch from Canada, "was greatly to be deprecated, and their
+settlement, on terms which command the general acquiescence of those
+who are most deeply interested, can hardly fail to be attended with
+results in a high degree beneficial."[2]  Elgin had removed the reason
+for existence of both parties by settling the issues which divided
+them.  At the same time, the growth of a political life different from
+that of Britain, had, year by year, made the British names more
+inappropriate.  John A. Macdonald, the leader of those who had once
+called themselves Tories, was confessing the change when he wrote, in
+1860, "While I have always been a member of what is called the
+Conservative party, I could never have been called a Tory, although
+there is no man who more respects what is called old-fogey Toryism than
+I do, so long as it is based upon principle."[3]  The fierce battles
+over constitutional theories, {297} which a series of British governors
+and governments had so long deprecated, had at last been eliminated by
+the natural development of Canadian political life.
+
+The same natural development provided a substitute for the older party
+system.  Elgin, as has been seen, belonged to the group of Peelites,
+who, during the lifetime of their leader and long after it, endeavoured
+to solve the new administrative problems of the nineteenth century
+without too strict an adherence to party programmes and lines of
+division.  Curiously enough, he was the chief agent in stimulating a
+similar political movement in Canada.  There was, however, this
+difference, that while in Peel's case, and still more in that of his
+followers, the British party tradition proved overwhelmingly powerful,
+in Canada, where tradition was weaker, and the need for sound
+administration far more vital, the movement became dominant in the form
+of Liberal-conservatism.  In other words, in place of small violently
+antagonistic parties, moderate men inclined to come together to carry
+out a broad, non-controversial, national programme.
+
+There are few more remarkable developments in Canada between 1840 and
+1867 than this tendency {298} towards government by a single party.  It
+was Sydenham's shrewd insight into the Canadian political situation,
+even more than his desire to rule, which led him to govern Canada by a
+coalition of moderate men.  His only mistake lay in trying to force on
+the province what should have come by nature.  The Baldwin-La Fontaine
+compact, which really dominated Canadian politics from 1841, was a
+partial experiment in government by an alliance of groups; and when the
+great exciting questions, Responsible Government and Church
+Establishment, had been settled, and the end in view seemed simply to
+be the carrying on of the Queen's government, Liberal-conservatism
+entered gradually into possession.  When Baldwin and La Fontaine made
+way for Hincks and Morin in 1851, the change was recognized as a step
+towards the re-union of the moderates.  For, in the face of George
+Brown, and his advocacy of a more provocative radical programme,
+Francis Hincks declared for some kind of coalition: "I regret to say
+there have been indications given by a section of the party to which I
+belong, that it will be difficult indeed, unless they change their
+policy, to preserve the Union.  I will tell these persons (the
+anti-state church reformers of Upper Canada) {299} that if the Union is
+not preserved by them, as a necessary consequence, other combinations
+must be formed by which the Union may be preserved.  _I am ready to
+give my cordial support to any combination of parties by which the
+Union shall be maintained_."[4]  Three years later, the party of
+moderate reform which had co-operated with Elgin in creating a system
+of truly responsible government, and which had done so much to restore
+Canadian political equanimity, fell before a factious combination of
+hostile groups.  But the succeeding administration, nominally
+Conservative, was actually Liberal-Conservative, and it remained in
+power chiefly because Francis Hincks, who had led the Reformers,
+desired his followers to assist it, as Peel and his immediate disciples
+kept the British Whigs in office after 1846.  Robert Baldwin had been
+the leader of opposition during Sydenham's rule, and before it; indeed,
+he may be called the organizer of party division in the days before the
+grant of responsible government.  Yet when the opponents of the compact
+of 1854 quoted his precedent of party division against Hincks'
+principle of union, Baldwin disowned his would-be supporters: "However
+disinclined myself to {300} adventure upon such combinations, they are
+unquestionably, in my opinion, under certain circumstances, not only
+justifiable, but expedient, and even necessary.  The government of the
+country _must_ be carried on.  It ought to be carried on with vigour.
+If that can be done in no other way than by mutual concessions and a
+coalition of parties, they become necessary."[5]  In consequence, the
+autumn of 1854 witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a Tory government,
+headed by Sir Allan MacNab, carrying a bill to end the Clergy Reserve
+troubles, in alliance with Francis Hincks and their late opponents.
+The chief dissentients were the extreme radicals, who were now
+nicknamed the Clear-Grits.[6]
+
+After 1854, and for ten years, the political history of Canada is a
+_reductio ad absurdum_ of the older party system.  Government succeeded
+government, only to fall a prey to its own lack of a sufficient
+majority, and the unprincipled use by its various opponents of casual
+combinations and {301} alliances.  Apart from a little group of
+Radicals, British and French, who advocated reforms with an absence of
+moderation which made them impossible as ministers of state, there were
+not sufficient differences to justify two parties, and hardly
+sufficient programme even for one.  The old Tories disappeared from
+power with their leader, Sir Allan MacNab, in 1856.  The Baldwin-Hincks
+reformers had distributed themselves through all the parties--Canadian
+Peelites they may be called.  The great majority of the representatives
+of the French followed moderate counsels, and were usually sought as
+allies by whatever government held office.  The broader principles of
+party warfare were proclaimed only by the Clear-Grits of Upper Canada
+and the _Rouges_ of Lower Canada.  The latter group was distinct enough
+in its views to be impossible as allies for any but like-minded
+extremists: "Le parti rouge," says _La Minerve_, "s'est forme a
+Montreal sous les auspices de M. Papineau, en haine des institutions
+anglaises, de notre constitution declaree vicieuse, et surtout du
+gouvernement responsable regarde comme une duperie, avec des idees
+d'innovation en religion et en politique, accompagnees d'une haine
+profond pour le clerge, et avec l'intention {302} bien formelle, et
+bien prononcee d'annexer le Canada aux Etats-Unis."[7]
+
+As for the original Clear-Grits, their distinguishing features were the
+advocacy of reforming ideas in so extreme a form as to make them
+useless for practical purposes, an anti-clerical or extreme Protestant
+outlook in religion, and a moral superiority, partly real, but more
+largely the Pharisaism so inevitably connected with all forms of
+radical propaganda.  They proved their futility in 1858, when George
+Brown and A. A. Dorion formed their two-days' administration, and
+extinguished the credit of their parties, and themselves, as
+politicians capable of existence apart from moderate allies.  Until
+Canadian politics could have their scope enlarged, and the issues at
+stake made more vital, and therefore more controversial, it was obvious
+that the grant of responsible government had rendered the existing
+party system useless.
+
+The significant moment in this period of Canadian history came in 1864,
+when all the responsible politicians in the country, and more
+especially the two great personal enemies, John A. Macdonald and George
+Brown, came together to carry out a scheme of confederation, which was
+too great to {303} be the object of petty party strife, and which
+required the support of all parties to make it successful.  Both
+political parties, as George Brown confessed, had tried to govern the
+country, and each in turn had failed from lack of steady adequate
+support.  A general election was unlikely to effect any improvement in
+the situation, and the one hope seemed to lie in a frank combination
+between opponents to solve the constitutional difficulties which
+threatened to ruin the province.  "After much discussion on both
+sides," ran the official declaration, "it was found that a compromise
+might probably be had in the adoption either of the federal principle
+for the British North American provinces, as the larger question, or
+for Canada alone, with provisions for the admission of the Maritime
+Provinces and the North-Western Territory, when they should express the
+desire": and to secure the most perfect unanimity the ministers, Sir E.
+P. Tache and Mr. Macdonald, "thereon stated that, after the
+prorogation, they would be prepared to place three seats in the Cabinet
+at the disposal of Mr. Brown."[8]
+
+It is not within the scope of this essay to discuss {304} developments
+after Confederation, yet it is an interesting speculation whether, up
+to a date quite recent, the grant of responsible government did not
+continue to make a two-party system on the British basis unnatural to
+Canada.  Between 1847 and 1867, the destruction of the dual system, and
+the creation of government by coalition, were certainly the dominant
+facts in Canadian politics, and both were the products of the gift of
+autonomy.  Since 1867, it is possible to contend that, while two sets
+of politicians offer themselves as alternative governments to the
+electors, their differentiation has reference rather to the holding of
+office than to a real distinction in programme.  Alike in trade,
+imperial policy, and domestic progress, the inclination has been
+towards compromise, and either side inclines, or is forced, to steal
+the programme of the other.  Responsible government was the last issue
+which arrayed men in parties, neither of which could quite accept a
+compromise with the other.  It remains to be seen whether questions of
+freer trade, imperial organization, and provincial rights, will once
+more create parties with something deeper in their differences than
+mere rival claims to hold office.
+
+If the creation of a Liberal-Conservative party {305} was a direct
+result of the grant of autonomy, so also was the policy which led to
+Confederation.  It is no part of the present volume to trace the growth
+of the idea of Confederation, or to determine who the actual fathers of
+Confederation were.  The connection between Autonomy and Confederation
+in the province of Canada was that the former made the latter
+inevitable.
+
+Earlier chapters have dealt with the French Canadian problem, and the
+difficulty of combining French _nationalite_ with the Anglo-Saxon
+elements of the West.  In one sense, Elgin's regime saw nationalism
+lose all its awkward features.  Papineau's return to public life in
+1848, and the revolutionary stir of that year had left Lower Canada
+untouched, save in the negligible section represented by the _Rouges_.
+The inclusion of La Fontaine and his friends in the ministry had proved
+the _bona fides_ of the governor, and the French, being, as Elgin said,
+"quiet sort of people," stood fast by their friend.  "Candour compels
+me to state," he wrote after a year of annexationist agitation, "that
+the conduct of the Anglo-Saxon portion of our M.P.Ps contrasts most
+unfavourably with that of the Gallican....  The French have been
+rescued from the false position into which they {306} have been driven,
+and in which they must perforce have remained, so long as they believed
+that it was the object of the British government, as avowed by Lord
+Sydenham and others, to break them down, and to ensure to the British
+race, not by trusting to the natural course of events, but by dint of
+management and state craft, predominance in the province."[9]
+
+But while French nationalism had assumed a perfectly normal phase, the
+operations of autonomy after 1847 made steadily towards the creation of
+a new nationalist difficulty.  That difficulty had two phases.
+
+In the first place, while the Union of Upper and Lower Canada had been
+based on the assumption that from it a single nationality with common
+ideals and objects would emerge, experience proved that both the French
+and the British sections remained aggressively true to their own ways;
+and the independence bred by self-government only quickened the sense
+of racial distinction.  Now there were questions, such as that of the
+Clergy Reserves, which chiefly concerned the British section; and
+others, like the settlement of the seigniorial tenure, of purely
+French-Canadian {307} character.  Others again, chief among them the
+problem of separate schools, in Lower Canada for Protestants, in Upper
+Canada for Catholics, seemed to set the two sections in direct
+opposition.  Under the circumstances, a series of conventions was
+created to meet a situation very involved and dangerous.  The happy
+accident of the dual leadership of La Fontaine and Baldwin furnished a
+precedent for successive ministries, each of which took its name from a
+similar partnership of French and English.  Further, although the
+principle never received official sanction, it became usual to expect
+that, in questions affecting the French, a majority from Lower Canada
+should be obtained, and in English matters, one from Upper Canada.  It
+was also the custom to expect a government to prove its stability by
+maintaining a majority from both Upper and Lower Canada.  Nothing, for
+example, so strengthened Elgin's hands in the Rebellion Losses fight as
+the fact that the majority which passed the bill was one in both
+sections of the Assembly.  Yet nearly all cabinet ministers, and all
+the governors-general, strongly opposed the acknowledgment of "the
+double majority" as an accepted constitutional principle.  "I have told
+Colonel Tache," wrote Head, in 1856, "that I {308} expect the
+government formed by him to disavow the principle of a double
+majority";[10] and both Baldwin, and, after him, John A. Macdonald
+refused to countenance the practice.  Unfortunately, while the idea was
+a constitutional anomaly, threatening all manner of complications to
+the government of Canada, there were occasions when it had to receive a
+partial sanction from use.  When the Tories were sustained by a
+majority of 4 in 1856, government suffered reconstruction because there
+had been a minority of votes from Upper Canada.  As the new Tory leader
+explained, "I did not, and I do not think that the double majority
+system should be adopted as a rule.  I feel that so long as we are one
+province and one Parliament, the fact of a measure being carried by a
+working majority is sufficient evidence that the Government of the day
+is in power to conduct the affairs of the country.  But I could not
+disguise from myself that it (the recent vote) was not a vote on a
+measure, but a distinct vote of confidence, or want of confidence; and
+there having been a vote against us from Upper Canada, expressing a
+want of confidence in the government, I felt that it was a sufficient
+indication that the measures of the government {309} would be met with
+the opposition of those honorable gentlemen who had by their solemn
+vote withdrawn their confidence from the government."[11]  The practice
+continued in this state of discredit varied by occasional forced use,
+until a government--that of J. S. Macdonald and Sicotte--which had
+definitely made the double majority one of the planks in its platform,
+found that its principal measure, the Separate Schools Act of R. W.
+Scott, had to be carried by a French majority, although the matter was
+one of deep concern to Upper Canada.  It was becoming obvious that
+local interests must receive some securer protection than could be
+afforded by what was after all an evasion of constitutional practice.
+
+Meanwhile complications were arising from another movement, the
+agitation for a revision of parliamentary representation.  The twelfth
+section of the Union Act had enacted that "the parts of the said
+Province which now constitute the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada
+respectively, shall be represented by an equal number of
+representatives."  At the time of Union the balance of population had
+inclined decisively towards {310} Lower Canada; indeed that part of the
+province might fairly claim to have a constitutional grievance.  But
+between 1830 and 1860 the balance had altered.  In Lower Canada a
+population, which in 1831 had been 511,922, had increased by 1844 to
+almost 700,000; while in Upper Canada the numbers had increased from
+334,681 to well over 700,000 in 1848;[12] and each year saw the west
+increase in comparison with the east, until George Brown, speaking no
+doubt with forensic rather than scientific ends in view, estimated that
+in 1857 Upper Canada possessed a population of over 1,400,000, as
+against a bare 1,100,000 in Lower Canada.[13]  These changes produced a
+most interesting complication.  The representation after 1840 stood
+guaranteed by a solemn act--the more solemn because it had been the
+result of a bargain between Sydenham and the provincial authorities in
+Upper and Lower Canada.  It had the appearance rather of a treaty than
+of an ordinary Act of Parliament.  On the other hand, since
+self-government had been secured, and since self-government seemed to
+involve the principle of representation in proportion {311} to the
+numbers of the population, it was, according to the Upper Canadian
+politicians, absurd to give to 1,100,000 the same representation as to
+1,400,000.  So George Brown, speaking from his place in Parliament, and
+using, at the same time, his extraordinary and unequalled influence as
+editor of _The Globe_, flung himself into the fray, seeking, as his
+motion of 1857 ran, "that the representation of the people in
+Parliament should be based upon population, without regard to a
+separating line between Upper and Lower Canada."[14]  His thesis was
+too cogent, and appealed too powerfully to all classes of the Upper
+Canada community, to be anything but irresistible.  Even Macdonald,
+whose political existence depended on his alliance with the French,
+knew that his rival had made many converts among the British
+Conservatives.  "It is an open question," he wrote of representation by
+population, in 1861, "and you know two of my colleagues voted in its
+favour."[15]
+
+Yet nothing was better calculated to rouse into wild agitation the
+quiescent feeling of French nationalism.  The attempt of Durham and his
+successors to end, by natural operation, the separate {312} existence
+of French nationality was now being renewed with far greater vigour,
+and with all the weight of a normal constitutional reform.  If George
+Brown was hateful to the French electorate because of his Protestant
+and anti-clerical agitation, he was even more odious as the statesman
+who threatened, in the name of Canadian autonomy, the existence of old
+French tradition, custom, and right.  It was in answer to this twofold
+difficulty that Canadian statesmen definitely thought of Confederation.
+There were many roads leading to that event--the desire of Britain for
+a more compact and defensible colony; the movement in the maritime
+provinces for a local federation; the dream, or vague aspiration,
+cherished by a few Canadians, of a vaster dominion, and one free from
+petty local divisions and strifes.  But it was no dream or imperial
+ideal which forced Canadian statesmen into action; it was simply the
+desire, on the one hand, to give to the progressive west the increased
+weight it claimed as due to its numbers; and on the other, to safeguard
+the ancient ways and rights of the French community.  From this point
+of view, it was George Brown, the man who preached representation by
+population in season and out of season, who actually forced {313}
+Canadian statesmen to have resort to a measure, the details of which he
+himself did not at first approve; and the argument used to drive the
+point home was not imperial, but a bitter criticism of existing
+conditions.  After the great Reform convention of 1859, Brown moved in
+Parliament "that the existing legislative union between Upper and Lower
+Canada has failed to realize the anticipations of its promoters: has
+resulted in a heavy debt, burdensome taxation, great political abuses,
+and universal dissatisfaction; and it is the matured conviction of this
+Assembly, from the antagonisms developed through difference of origin,
+local interests, and other causes, that the union in its present form
+can be no longer continued with advantage to the people."[16]  In 1864
+a distracted province found itself at the end of its resources.  Its
+futile efforts at the game of political party had resulted in the
+defeat of four ministries within three years; its attempt to balance
+majorities in Upper and Lower Canada had hopelessly broken down; and
+the moment in which the stronger British west obtained the increased
+representation it sought, the French feeling for nationality would
+probably once more produce rebellion.
+
+{314}
+
+So Confederation came--to satisfy George Brown, because in the Dominion
+Assembly his province would receive adequate representation--to
+satisfy, on the other hand, a loyal Frenchman like Joseph Cauchon,
+because, as he said, "La confederation des deux Canadas, ou de toutes
+les provinces, en nous donnant une constitution locale, qui sauverait,
+cependant, les privileges, les droits acquis et les institutions des
+minorites, nous offrirait certainement une mesure de protection, comme
+Catholiques et comme Francais, autrement grand que l'Union actuelle,
+puisque de minorite nous deviendrons et resterons, a toujours, la
+majorite nationale et la majorite religieuse."[17]  That was the
+second, and perhaps the greatest of all the results of self-government.
+
+Before passing to inquire into the influence of autonomy on Canadian
+loyalty, it may prove interesting to note the political manners and
+morals of the statesmen who worked the system in its earlier stages.
+In passing judgment, however, one must bear in mind the newness of the
+country and the novelty of the experiment; the fact that a democratic
+constitution far more daring than {315} Britain allowed herself at
+home, was being tested; and the severity of the struggle for existence,
+which left Canadians little time and money to devote to disinterested
+service of their country.  In view of all these facts, and in spite of
+some ugly defects, the verdict must be on the whole favourable to the
+colony.
+
+Of direct malversation, or actual sordid dishonesty, there was, thanks
+probably to a vigorous opposition, far less than might have been
+expected.  The _cause celebre_ was that of Francis Hincks, premier from
+1851 to 1854, who was accused, among other things, of having profited
+through buying shares in concerns with which government had dealings--a
+fault not unknown in Britain; of having induced government to improve
+the facilities of regions in which he had holdings, and generally of
+having used his position as minister to make great private gains.  A
+most minute inquiry cleared him on all scores, but the committee of the
+Legislative Council, without entering further into the questions,
+mentioned as points worthy of consideration by Parliament, "whether it
+is beneficial to the due administration of the affairs of this country
+for its ministers to purchase lands sold at public competition, and
+Municipal Debentures, also {316} offered in open market or otherwise;
+whether the public interests require an expression of the opinions of
+the Two Houses of Parliament in that respect; and whether it would be
+advisable to increase the salaries of the Members of the Executive
+Council to such a figure, as would relieve them from the necessity of
+engaging in private dealings, to enable them to support their families
+and maintain the dignity of their position, without resorting to any
+kind of business transactions while in the service of the crown."[18]
+Canada was passing through an ordeal, which, sooner or later, Britain
+too must face.  Her answer, in this case, to the dilemma between
+service of the community and self-aggrandisement was not unworthy of
+the mother country.
+
+Still, in spite of the acquittal of Hincks, there were cases of
+complicated corruption, and a multitude of little squalid sins.  Men
+like Sir Allan MacNab, who had been bred in a system of preferments and
+petty political gains, found it difficult to avoid small jobbery.  "He
+has such an infernal lot of hangers on to provide for," wrote one
+minister to another, concerning the gallant knight, "that he finds it
+difficult to do the {317} needful for them all."[19]  It is clear, too,
+that when John A. Macdonald succeeded MacNab as Tory leader, purity did
+not increase.  It was no doubt easy for George Brown to criticize
+Macdonald's methods from a position of untempted rectitude, and no
+doubt also Brown had personal reasons for criticism; but he was
+speaking well within the truth, when he attacked the Tory government of
+1858, not only for grave corruption in the late general election, but
+for other weightier offences.  It was elicited, he said, by the Public
+Accounts Committee that L500,000 of provincial debentures had been sold
+in England by government at 99-1/4, when the quotation of the Stock
+Exchange was 105 @ 107, by which the province was wronged to the extent
+of L50,000.  It was elicited that a member of Parliament, supporting
+the government, sold to the government L20,000 of Hamilton debentures
+at 97-1/4 which were worth only 80 in the market....  It was elicited that
+large sums were habitually drawn from the public chest, and lent to
+railway companies, or spent on services for which no previous sanction
+of Parliament had been obtained.[20]  It is, perhaps, the gravest
+charge {318} against Macdonald that, at the entrance of Canada into the
+region of modern finance and speculation, he never understood that
+incorrupt administration was the greatest gift a man could give to the
+future of his country.
+
+In a young and not yet civilized community it was natural that the
+early days of self-government should witness some corruption among the
+voters, the more so because, at election times "there were no less than
+four days, the nomination, two days' polling, and declaration day, on
+all of which, by a sort of unwritten law, the candidates in many
+constituencies were compelled to keep open house for their supporters,"
+while direct money bribes were often resorted to, especially on the
+second day's polling in a close contest.[21]
+
+Apart from jobbery and frank corruption, Canadian politicians
+condescended at times to ignoble trickery, and to evasions of the truth
+which came perilously near breaches of honour.  The most notorious
+breach of the constitutional decencies was the celebrated episode
+nicknamed the "Double Shuffle."  Whatever apologists may say, John A.
+Macdonald sinned in the very first essentials of political fair-play.
+He had already {319} led George Brown into a trap by forcing government
+into his hands.  When Brown, too late to save his reputation,
+discovered the sheer futility of his attempt to make and keep together
+a government, and when it once more fell to the Conservatives to take
+office, Macdonald saved himself and his colleagues the trouble of
+standing for re-election by a most shameful constitutional quibble.
+According to a recent act, if a member of Legislative Council or
+Assembly "shall resign his office, and within one month after his
+resignation, accept any other of the said offices (enumerated above),
+he shall not vacate his seat in the said Assembly or Council."[22]  It
+was a simple, and a disgraceful thing, for the ministers, once more in
+power, to accept offices other than those which they had held before
+resignation, and then, at once, to pass on to the reacceptance of the
+old appropriate positions.  They saved their seats at the expense of
+their honour.  In spite of Macdonald's availability, there was too much
+of the village Machiavelli about his political tactics to please the
+educated and honest judgment.
+
+It was very natural too that, in these early struggles towards
+independence and national {320} self-consciousness, the crudities
+inseparable from early colonial existence should be painfully apparent.
+In Canada at least, vice could not boast that it had lost half its evil
+by losing all its grossness.  According to Sir Richard Cartwright, the
+prolonged absence from domestic associations, led to a considerable
+amount of dissipation among members of parliament.  The minister who
+dominated Canadian politics for so many years before and after
+Confederation set an unfortunate example to his flock; and many of the
+debates read as though they drew their heat, if not their light, from
+material rather than intellectual sources.  Apart from offences against
+sobriety and the decalogue, there can be no doubt that something of the
+early ferocity of politics still continued, and the disgrace of the
+Montreal riots which followed Elgin's sanction of the Rebellion Losses
+bill was rendered tenfold more disgraceful by the participation in them
+of gentlemen and politicians of position.  Half the success of
+democratic institutions lies in the capacity of the legislators for
+some public dignity, and a certain chivalrous good nature towards each
+other.  But that is perhaps too high a standard to set for the first
+colonial Assembly which had exercised full {321} powers of
+self-government since 1776.  After all, there were great stretches of
+honesty and high purpose to counterbalance the squalid jobs and tricks.
+If Macdonald sinned in one direction, Alexander Mackenzie had already
+begun his course of almost too austere rectitude in another.
+Opposition kept a keen eye on governmental misdoings, and George Brown,
+impulsive, imprudent, often lacking in sane statesmanship, and, once or
+twice, in nice honour, still raised himself, the readers of his
+newspaper, and the Assembly which he often led in morals, if not in
+politics, to a plane not far below that of the imperial Parliament.
+But the highest level of feeling and statesmanship reached by Canadian
+politicians before 1867 was attained in those days of difficulty in
+1864, when the whole future of Canada was at stake, and when none but
+Canadians could guide their country into safety.  There were many
+obstacles in the way of united action between the leaders on both
+sides; the attempt to create a federal constitution was no light task
+even for statesmen of genius; and the adaptation of means to end, of
+public utilities to local jealousies, demanded temper, honesty, breadth
+of view.  George Brown, who with all his impracticability and lack of
+restraint, behaved with {322} notable public spirit at this time, spoke
+for the community when he said, "The whole feeling in my mind is one of
+joy and thankfulness that there were found men of position and
+influence in Canada, who, at a moment of serious crisis, had nerve and
+patriotism enough to cast aside political partizanship, to banish
+personal considerations, and unite for the accomplishment of a measure
+so fraught with advantage to their common country."[23]  In the debate
+from which these words are taken, Canadian statesmen excelled
+themselves, and it is not too much to say that whether in attack or
+defence, the speakers exhibited a capacity and a public spirit not
+unworthy of the imperial Parliament at its best.[24]
+
+It would, however, be a mistake to exhibit the Canadian Assembly of
+early Victorian days as characterized for long by so sublime and
+Miltonic a spirit as is suggested by the Confederation debates.  After
+all, they were mainly provincial lawyers and shrewd uncultured business
+men who guided the destinies of Canada, guilty of many lapses from
+dignity in their public behaviour, and exhibiting {323} not
+infrequently a democratic vulgarity learned from the neighbouring
+republic.  That was a less elevated, but altogether living and real
+picture of the Canadian politician, which Sir John Macdonald's
+biographer gave of his hero, and the great opposition leader, as they
+returned, while on an imperial mission, from a day at the Derby:
+"Coming home, we had lots of fun: even George Brown, a covenanting old
+chap, caught its spirit.  I bought him a pea-shooter and a bag of peas,
+and the old fellow actually took aim at people on the tops of busses,
+and shot lots of peas on the way home."[25]
+
+It now becomes necessary to answer the question which, for twenty
+years, English politicians had been putting to those who argued in
+favour of Canadian self-government.  Given a system of local
+government, really autonomous, what will become of the connection with
+Great Britain?  So far as the issue is one purely constitutional and
+legal, it may be answered very shortly.  Responsible government in
+Canada seriously diminished the formal bonds which united that province
+to the mother country.  For long the pessimists in Britain had been
+proclaiming that the diminution of the governor-general's authority and
+{324} responsibility would end the connection.  After the retirement of
+Lord Elgin, that diminution had taken place.  It is a revelation of
+constitutional change to pass from the full, interesting, and
+many-sided despatches and letters of Sydenham, Bagot, and Elgin, to the
+perfunctory reports of Head and Monck.  Elgin had contended that a
+governor might hope to establish a moral influence, which would
+compensate for the loss of power, consequent on the surrender of
+patronage to an executive responsible to the local parliament;[26] but
+it was not certain that either Head or Monck possessed this indirect
+control.  In 1858 Sir Edmund Head acted with great apparent
+independence, when he refused to allow George Brown and his new
+administration the privilege of a dissolution; and the columns of _The
+Globe_ resounded with denunciations which recalled the days of Metcalfe
+and tyranny.  But, even if Head were independent, it was not with an
+authority useful to the dignity of his position; and the whole affair
+has a suspicious resemblance to one of John A. Macdonald's tricks.  The
+voice is Macdonald's voice, if the hands are the hands of Head.  Under
+Monck, the most conspicuous assertion of independence was the {325}
+governor's selection of J. S. Macdonald to lead the ministry of 1862,
+instead of Foley, the more natural alternative for premier.
+Nevertheless Monck's despatches, concerned as they are with diplomatic
+and military details, present a striking contrast to those of Sydenham
+and Elgin, who proved how active was the part they played in the life
+of the community by the vividness of their sketches of Canadian
+politics and society.  So sparing, indeed, was Monck in his
+information, that Newcastle had to reprove him, in 1863, for sending so
+little news that the Colonial Office could have furnished no
+information on Canada to the Houses of Parliament had they called for
+papers.[27]  During the confederation negotiations, the governor made
+an admirable referee, or impartial centre, round whom the diverse
+interests might group themselves: but no one could say that events were
+shaped or changed by his action.  The warmest language used concerning
+Her Majesty's representative in Canada may be found in the speech of
+Macdonald in the confederation debate: "We place no restriction on Her
+Majesty's prerogative in the selection of her representative.  The
+Sovereign has unrestricted freedom of choice.  Whether in making {326}
+her selection she may send us one of her own family, a Royal Prince, as
+a Viceroy to rule us, or one of the great statesmen of England to
+represent her, we know not....  But we may be permitted to hope that
+when the union takes place, and we become the great country which
+British North America is certain to be, it will be an object worthy the
+ambition of the statesmen of England to be charged with presiding over
+our destinies."[28]
+
+Apart from the viceregal operations of the governor, the direct action
+of the Crown was called for by the province in one notable but
+unfortunate incident, the choice of a new capital.  Torn asunder by the
+strife of French and English, Canada was unable, or at least unwilling,
+to commit herself to the choice of a definitive capital, after Montreal
+had been rendered impossible by the turbulence of its mobs.  So the
+Queen's personal initiative was invited.  But the awkwardness of the
+step was revealed in 1858, when a division in the House practically
+flung her decision contemptuously aside--happily only for the moment,
+and informally.  George Brown was absolutely right when he said: "I
+yield to no man for a single {327} moment in loyalty to the Crown of
+England, and in humble respect and admiration of Her Majesty.  But what
+has this purely Canadian question to do with loyalty?  It is a most
+dangerous and ungracious thing to couple the name of Her Majesty with
+an affair so entirely local, and one as to which the sectional feelings
+of the people are so excited."[29]  It had become apparent, long before
+1867, that while the loyalty of the province to the Sovereign, and the
+personal influence of her representative were bonds of union, real, if
+hard to describe in set terms, the headship over the Canadian people
+was assumed to be official, ornamental, and symbolical, rather than
+utilitarian.
+
+In other directions, the formal and legal elements of the connection
+were loosening---more especially in the departments of commerce and
+defence.[30]  The careers of men like Buchanan and Galt, through whom
+the Canadian tariff received a complete revision, illustrate how little
+the former links to Britain were allowed to remain in trade relations.
+There was a day when, as Chatham himself would have contended, the
+regulation of trade was an indefeasible right of the Crown.  That
+contention {328} received a rude check not only in the elaboration of a
+Canadian tariff in 1859, but in the claims made by the minister of
+finance: "It is therefore the duty of the present government,
+distinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian Legislature to adjust
+the taxation of the people in the way they judge best, even if it
+should meet the disapproval of the Imperial ministry.  Her Majesty
+cannot be advised to disallow such acts, unless her advisers are
+prepared to assume the administration of the affairs of the colony,
+irrespective of the views of the inhabitants."[31]  Similarly, the
+adverse vote on the militia proposals of 1862, which so exercised
+opinion in Britain, was but another result of the spirit of
+self-government operating naturally in the province.  It was not that
+Canadians desired consciously to check the military plans of the
+empire.  It was only that the grant of autonomy had permitted
+provincial rather than imperial counsels to prevail, and that a new
+laxity, or even slipshodness, had begun to appear in Canadian military
+affairs, weakening the formal military connection between Britain and
+{329} Canada.  Canadian defence, from being part of imperial policy,
+had become a detail in the strife of domestic politics.  "There can be
+no doubt," Monck reported, "that the proposed militia arrangements were
+of a magnitude far beyond anything which had, up to that time, been
+proposed, and this circumstance caused many members, especially from
+Lower Canada, to vote against it; but I think there was also, on the
+part of a portion of the general supporters of government, an intention
+to intimate by their vote the withdrawal of their confidence from the
+administration."[32]
+
+Even before 1867, then, it had become apparent that the imperial system
+administered on Home Rule principles was something entirely different
+from a federation like that of the United States, with carefully
+defined State and Federal rights.  All the presumption, in the new
+British state, was in favour of the so-called dependency, and the
+British Tories were correct, when they prophesied a steady
+retrogression in the legal rights possessed by the mother country.  But
+the element which they had ignored was that of opinion.  Public feeling
+rather than constitutional law was to be the new foundation of empire.
+How did the {330} development of Canadian political independence affect
+public sentiment towards Britain?
+
+The new regime began under gloomy auspices.  In 1849 Lord Elgin gave
+the most decisive proof of his allegiance to Canadian autonomy; and in
+1849 a violent agitation for annexation to the United States began.[33]
+Many forces assisted in the creation of the movement, and many groups,
+of the most diverse elements, combined to constitute the party of
+annexation.  There was real commercial distress, in part the result of
+the commercial revolution in Britain, and Montreal more especially felt
+the strain acutely.  "Property," wrote Elgin to Grey in 1849,[34] "in
+most of the Canadian towns, and more especially in the Capital, has
+fallen 50 per cent. in value within the last three years.
+Three-fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt.  Owing to free trade
+a large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada is obliged to
+seek a market in the States.  It pays a duty of 20 per cent. on the
+frontier.  If free navigation, and reciprocal trade with the Union be
+not secured for us, the worst, I fear, will come, {331} and at no
+distant day."  Now, for that distress there seemed to be one natural
+remedy.  Across the border were prosperity and markets.  A change in
+allegiance would open the doors, and bring trade and wealth flowing
+into the bankrupt province.  Consequently many of the notable names
+among the Montreal business men may be found attached to annexation
+proclamations.
+
+Again, in spite of the great change in French opinion wrought by
+Elgin's acceptance of French ministers, there was a little band of
+French extremists, the _Rouges_, entirely disaffected towards England.
+At their head, at first, was Papineau.  Papineau's predilections,
+according to one who knew him well, were avowedly democratic and
+republican,[35] and his years in Europe, at the time when revolution
+was in the air, had not served to moderate his opinions.  The election
+address with which he once more entered public life, at the end of
+1847, betrays everywhere hatred of the British government, a decided
+inclination for things American, and a strong dash of European
+revolutionary sentiment, revealed in declamations over _patriotes_ and
+_oppresseurs_.[36]  Round him gathered a little band {332} of
+anti-clericals and ultra-radicals, as strongly drawn to the United
+States as they were repelled by Britain.  Even after Papineau had
+reduced himself to public insignificance, the group remained, and in
+1865 Cartier, the true representative of French-Canadian feeling, spoke
+of the _Institut Canadien_ of Montreal as an advocate, not of
+confederation, but of annexation.[37]
+
+After the years of famine in Ireland, there was more than a possibility
+that, in Canada, as in the United States, the main body of Irish
+immigrants would be hostile to Britain, and Elgin watched with anxious
+eyes for symptoms of a rising, sympathetic with that in Ireland, and
+fostered by Irish-American hatred of England.  Throughout the province
+the Irish community was large and often organized--in 1866 D'Arcy M'Gee
+counted thirty counties in which the Irish-Catholic votes ranged from a
+third to a fifth of the whole constituency.[38]  Now while, {333} in
+1866, M'Gee spoke with boldness of the loyalty of his countrymen, it is
+undoubtedly true that, in 1848 and 1849, there were hostile spirits,
+and an army of Irish patriots across the border, only too willing to
+precipitate hostilities.
+
+For the rest, there were Americans in the province who still thought
+their former country the perfect state, and who did not hesitate to use
+British liberty to promote republican ends; there were radicals and
+grumblers of half a hundred shades and colours, who connected their
+sufferings with the errors of British rule, and who spoke loosely of
+annexation as a kind of general remedy for all their public ills.  For
+it cannot be too distinctly asserted that, from that day to this, there
+has always been a section of discontented triflers to whom annexation,
+a word often on their lips, means nothing more than their fashion of
+damning a government too strong for them to assail by rational
+processes.
+
+The annexation cry found echoes throughout the province, both in the
+press and on the platform, and it continued to reassert its existence
+long after the outburst of 1849 had ended.  Cartwright declares that,
+even after 1856, he discovered in Western Ontario a sentiment both
+strong and {334} widespread in favour of union with the United States.
+But the actual movement, which at first seemed to have a real threat
+implicit in it, came to a head in 1849, and found its chief supporters
+within the city of Montreal.  "You find in this city," wrote Elgin in
+September, 1849, "the most anti-British specimens of each class of
+which our community consists.  The Montreal French are the most
+Yankeefied French in the province; the British, though furiously
+anti-Gallican, are with some exceptions the least loyal; and the
+commercial men the most zealous annexationists which Canada
+furnishes."[39]
+
+Two circumstances, apparently unconnected with annexationism,
+intensified that movement, the _laissez faire_ attitude of British
+politicians towards their colonies, and the behaviour of the defeated
+Tory party in Canada.  Of the first enough has already been said; but
+it is interesting to note that _The Independent_, which was the organ
+of the annexationists, justified its views by references to "English
+statesmen and writers of eminence," and that the Second Annexation
+Manifesto quoted largely from British papers.[40]  The second fact
+{335} demands some examination.  The Tories had been from the first the
+party of the connection, and had been recognized as such in Britain.
+But the loss of their supremacy had put too severe a strain on their
+loyalty, and it has already been seen that when Elgin, obeying
+constitutional usage, recognized the French as citizens, equally
+entitled to office with the Tories, and passed the Rebellion Losses
+Bill in accordance with La Fontaine's wishes, the Tory sense of decency
+gave way.  Many of them, not content with abusing the governor-general,
+and petitioning for his recall, actually declared themselves in favour
+of independence, or joined the ranks of the annexation party.  In an
+extraordinary issue of the _Montreal Gazette_, a recognized Tory
+journal, the editor, after speaking of Elgin as the last governor of
+Canada, proclaimed that "the end has begun.  Anglo-Saxons!  You must
+live for the future.  Your blood and race will now be supreme, if true
+to yourselves.  You will be English at the expense of not being
+British."[41]  But other journals and politicians were not content with
+the half-way house of independence, and the majority of those who
+signed the first annexation manifesto belonged to the Tory party.[42]
+John {336} A. Macdonald, who was shrewd and cool-headed enough to
+refuse to sign the manifesto, admitted that "our fellows lost their
+heads"; but he cannot be allowed to claim credit for having advocated
+the formation of another organization, the British-American League, as
+a safety-valve for Tory feeling.[43]  Unfortunately for his accuracy,
+the League was formed in the spring of 1849; it held its first
+convention in July; and the manifesto did not appear till late autumn.
+Still, it is true that the meetings of the League provided some
+occupation for minds which, in their irritable condition, might have
+done more foolish things, and Mr. Holland MacDonald described the
+feelings of the wiser of his fellow-leaguers when he said at Kingston:
+"I maintain that there is not an individual in this Assembly, at this
+moment, prepared to go for annexation, although some may be suspected
+of having leanings that way."[44]  It was a violent but passing fit of
+petulance which for the moment obscured Tory loyalty.  When it had
+ended, chiefly because Elgin acted not only with prudence, but with
+great insight, in pressing for a reciprocity treaty with the United
+States, the British American {337} League and the Annexation Manifesto
+vanished into the limbo of broken causes and political indiscretions.
+
+The truth was that every great respectable section of the Canadian
+people was almost wholly sound in its allegiance.  Regarded even
+racially, it is hard to find any important group which was not
+substantially loyal.  The Celtic and Gallic sections of the populace
+might have been expected to furnish recruits for annexation; and
+disaffection undoubtedly existed among the Canadian Irish.  Yet Elgin
+was much more troubled over possible Irish disaffection in 1848 than he
+was in 1849; the Orange societies round Toronto seem to have refused to
+follow their fellow Tories into an alliance with annexationists; and,
+as has been already seen, D'Arcy M'Gee was able, in 1866, to speak of
+the Irish community as wholly loyal.
+
+The great mass of the French-Canadians stood by the governor and
+Britain.  Whatever influence the French priesthood possessed was
+exerted on the side of the connection; from Durham to Monck there is
+unanimity concerning the consistent loyalty of the Catholic Church in
+Canada.  Apart from the church, the French-Canadians, when once their
+just rights had been conceded, {338} furnished a stable, conservative,
+and loyal body of citizens.  Doubtless they had their points of
+divergence from the ideals of the Anglo-Saxon west.  It was they who
+ensured the defeat of the militia proposals of 1862, and there were
+always sufficient _Rouges_ to raise a cry of nationality or annexation.
+But the national leaders, La Fontaine and Cartier, were absolutely true
+to the empire, and journalists like Cauchon flung their influence on
+the same side, even if they hinted at "jours qui doivent necessairement
+venir, que nous le voulions ou que nous ne le voulions pas"--to wit, of
+independence.[45]
+
+Of the English and Scottish elements in the population it is hardly
+necessary to say that their loyalty had increased rather than
+diminished since they had crossed the Atlantic; but at least one
+instance of Highland loyalty may be given.  It was when Elgin had been
+insulted, and when the annexation cause was at its height.  Loyal
+addresses had begun to pour in, but there was one whose words still
+ring with a certain martial loyalty, and which Elgin answered with
+genuine emotion.  The Highlanders of Glengarry county, after assuring
+{339} their governor of their personal allegiance to him, passed to
+more general sentiments: "Our highest aspirations for Canada are that
+she may continue to flourish under the kindly protection of the British
+flag, enjoying the full privilege of that constitution, under which the
+parent land has risen to so lofty an eminence; with this, United Canada
+has nothing to covet in other lands; with less than this, no true
+Briton would rest satisfied."[46]
+
+As all the distinctive elements in the population remained true to
+Britain, so too did all the statesmen of eminence.  It would be easy to
+prove the fact by a political census of Upper and Lower Canada; but let
+three representative men stand for those groups which they led--Robert
+Baldwin for the constitutional reformers, George Brown for the
+Clear-Grits and progressives, John A. Macdonald for the conservatives.
+Robert Baldwin was the man whom Elgin counted worth two regiments to
+the connection, and who had expressed dismay at Lord John Russell's
+treason to the Empire.  When the annexation troubles came on, he made
+it perfectly clear to one of his followers, who had trifled with
+annexation, that he must change his views, or remain outside the
+Baldwin connection.  {340} "I felt it right to write to Mr. Perry,
+expressing my decided opinions in respect of the annexation question,
+and that I could look upon those only who are in favour of the
+continuance of the connection with the mother country as political
+friends; those who are against it as political opponents....  I believe
+that our party are hostile to annexation.  I am at all events hostile
+to it myself, and if I and my party differ upon it, it is necessary we
+should part company.  It is not a question upon which a compromise is
+possible."[47]
+
+Loyalty so strong as this seems natural in a Whig like Baldwin, but one
+associates agitation and radicalism with other views.  The progressive,
+when he is not engaged in decrying his own state, often exhibits a
+philosophic indifference to all national prejudice--he is a
+cosmopolitan whose charity begins away from home.  There were those
+among the Canadian Radicals who were as bad friends to Britain as they
+were good friends to the United States, but the Clear-Grit party up to
+confederation was true to Britain, largely because their leader, after
+1850, was George Brown, and because Brown was the loyalest Scot in
+Canada.  Brown was in a sense the most remarkable figure of the time in
+{341} his province.  Fierce in his opinions, a vehement speaker, an
+agitator whose best qualities unfitted him for the steadier work of
+government, he committed just those mistakes which make the true
+agitator's public life something of a tragedy, or at least a
+disappointment.  But Brown's work was done out of office.  His
+passionate advocacy of the policy of Abraham Lincoln and the abolition
+of slavery kept relations with the United States calm through a
+diplomatic crisis.  He it was who made confederation not possible, but
+necessary, by his agitation for a sounder representation.  His work as
+opposition leader, and as the greatest editor known to Canadian
+journalism, saved Canadian politics from becoming the nest of jobs and
+corruption which--with all allowance for his good qualities--John A.
+Macdonald would have made them.  Never before, and certainly never
+since his day, has any Canadian influenced the community as Brown did
+through _The Globe_.  "There were probably many thousand voters in
+Ontario," says Cartwright,[48] "especially among the Scotch settlers,
+who hardly read anything except their _Globe_ and their Bible, and
+whose whole political creed was practically dictated to them {342} by
+the former."  Now that influence was exerted, from first to last, in
+favour of Britain.  In his maiden speech in parliament Brown protested
+against a reduction of the governor's salary, and on the highest
+ground: "The appointment of that high authority is the only power which
+Great Britain still retains.  Frankly and generously she has one by one
+surrendered all the rights which were once held necessary to the
+condition of a colony--the patronage of the Crown, the right over the
+public domain, the civil list, the customs, the post office have all
+been relinquished ... she guards our coasts, she maintains our troops,
+she builds our forts, she spends hundreds of thousands among us yearly;
+and yet the paltry payment to her representative is made a topic of
+grumbling and popular agitation."[49]  In the same spirit he fought
+annexation, and killed it, among his followers; and, when confederation
+came, he helped to make the new dominion not only Canadian, but
+British.  In that age when British faith in the Empire was on the wane,
+it was not English statesmanship which tried to inspire Canadian
+loyalty, but the loyalty of men like Brown which called to England to
+be of better heart.  "I am much concerned {343} to observe," he wrote
+to Macdonald in 1864, "that there is a manifest desire in almost every
+quarter that ere long, the British American colonies should shift for
+themselves, and in some quarters, evident regret that we did not
+declare at once for independence.  I am very sorry to observe this, but
+it arises, I hope, from the fear of invasion of Canada by the United
+States, and will soon pass away with the cause that excites it."[50]
+
+Of Sir John Macdonald's loyalty it would be a work of supererogation to
+speak.  His first political address proclaimed the need in Canada of a
+permanent connection with the mother country,[51] and his most famous
+utterance declared his intention of dying a British subject.  But
+Macdonald's patriotism struck a note all its own, and one due mainly to
+the influence of Canadian autonomy working on a susceptible
+imagination.  He was British, but always from the standpoint of Canada.
+He had no desire to exalt the Empire through the diminution of Canadian
+rights.  For the old British Tory, British supremacy had necessarily
+involved colonial dependence; for Macdonald, the Canadian Conservative,
+the glory of the Empire lay in the {344} fullest autonomous development
+of each part.  "The colonies," he said in one of his highest flights,
+"are now in a transition stage.  Gradually a different colonial system
+is being developed--and it will become, year by year, less a case of
+dependence on our part, and of over-ruling protection on the part of
+the Mother Country, and more a case of healthy and cordial alliance.
+Instead of looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England will
+have in us a friendly nation--a subordinate but still a powerful
+people--to stand by her in North America in peace or in war.  The
+people of Australia will be such another subordinate nation.  And
+England will have this advantage, if her colonies progress under the
+new colonial system, as I believe they will, that though at war with
+all the rest of the world, she will be able to look to the subordinate
+nations in alliance with her, and owning allegiance to the same
+Sovereign, who will assist in enabling her again to meet the whole
+world in arms, as she has done before."[52]
+
+
+These words serve as a fitting close to the argument and story of
+Canadian autonomy.  A review of the years in which it attained its full
+strength {345} gives the student of history but a poor impression of
+political foresight.  British and Canadian Tories had predicted
+dissolution of the Empire, should self-government be granted, and they
+described the probable stages of dissolution.  But all the events they
+had predicted had happened, and the Empire still stood, and stood more
+firmly united than before.  British progressives had advocated the
+grant, while they had denied that autonomy need mean more than a very
+limited and circumscribed independence.  But the floods had spread and
+overwhelmed their trivial limitations, and the Liberals found
+themselves triumphant in spite of their fears, and the restrictions
+which these fears had recommended.  Canadian history from 1839 to 1867
+furnishes certain simple and direct political lessons: that communities
+of the British stock can be governed only according to the strictest
+principles of autonomy; that autonomy, once granted, may not be
+limited, guided, or recalled; that, in the grant, all distinctions
+between internal and imperial, domestic and diplomatic, civil authority
+and military authority, made to save the face of British supremacy,
+will speedily disappear; and that, up to the present time, the measure
+of local independence has also been the measure of local loyalty {346}
+to the mother country.  It may well be that, as traditions grow
+shadowy, as the old stock is imperceptibly changed into a new
+nationality, and as, among men of the new nationality, the pride in
+being British is no longer a natural incident of life, the autonomy of
+the future may prove disruptive, not cohesive.  Nothing, however, is so
+futile as prophecy, unless it be pessimism.  The precedents of
+three-quarters of a century do not lend themselves to support counsels
+of despair.  The Canadian community has, after its own fashion, stood
+by the mother country in war; it may be that, in the future, the
+attempt to seek peace and ensue it will prove a more lasting, as it
+must certainly be a loftier, reason for continued union.
+
+
+
+[1] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.
+
+[2] He was reporting (18 December, 1854) the passing of acts dealing
+with the Clergy Reserves, and Seigniorial Tenure.
+
+[3] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 151.
+
+[4] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, pp. 47-48.
+
+[5] Baldwin to Hincks, 22 September, 1854: in Hincks, _Lecture on the
+Political History of Canada_, pp. 80-81.
+
+[6] The Clear-Grits are thus described in _The Globe_, 8 October, 1850:
+"disappointed ministerialists, ultra English radicals, republicans and
+annexationists....  As a party on their own footing, they are powerless
+except to do mischief."  Brown had not yet transferred his allegiance.
+
+[7] Quoted from Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. p. 190.
+
+[8] Ministerial explanations read to the House of Assembly, by the Hon.
+John A. Macdonald, on Wednesday, 22 June, 1864.
+
+[9] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 2 August, 1850.
+
+[10] Head to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 May, 1856.
+
+[11] Statement of the Hon. John A. Macdonald in the Assembly, 26 May,
+1856.
+
+[12] See _Appendix to the First Report of the Board of Registration and
+Statistics_, Montreal, 1849.
+
+[13] _Life of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 263.  This is undoubtedly an
+overestimate--prophetic rather than truthful.
+
+[14] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 267.
+
+[15] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, p. 234.
+
+[16] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 72.
+
+[17] Cauchon, L'Union des provinces de l'Amerique Britannique du Nord,
+p. 45.
+
+[18] _Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council_, p.
+xiv., Quebec, 1855.
+
+[19] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, p. 149.
+
+[20] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 271.
+
+[21] Sir Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, pp. 20-21.
+
+[22] The Independence of Parliament Act--20 Victoria, c. 22.
+
+[23] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 299.
+
+[24] See the volume containing the Parliamentary Debates on
+confederation, in 1865.
+
+[25] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 283.
+
+[26] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.
+
+[27] The Secretary of State for the Colonies to Monck, 10 July, 1863.
+
+[28] _Confederation Debates_ (1865), p. 34.
+
+[29] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 272.
+
+[30] See the previous chapter, pp. 283-290.
+
+[31] See the most important statement by Galt, dated 25 October, 1859,
+and contained in _Sessional Papers of the Canadian Parliament_, vol.
+xviii., No. 4.
+
+[32] Monck to Newcastle, 28 July, 1863.
+
+[33] See, on the Annexation movement, Allin and Jones, _Annexation,
+Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity_, a useful summary of Canadian
+opinion in 1849 and 1850.
+
+[34] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 23 April, 1849.
+
+[35] Christie, _History of Lower Canada_, iv. p. 539.
+
+[36] See _La Revue Canadienne_, 21 December, 1847.
+
+[37] _Confederation Debates_, p. 56.  In answer to Cartier, "the Hon.
+Mr. Dorion said that was not the case.  The honorable gentleman had
+misquoted what had passed there (_i.e._ at the _Institut_).  The Hon.
+Mr. Cartier said he was right.  If resolutions were not passed,
+sentiments were expressed to that effect.  Then the organ of the
+Institute--_L'Ordre_ he thought--had set forth that the interests of
+Lower Canada would be better secured by annexation to the United States
+than by entering into a Confederation with the British American
+Provinces."
+
+[38] _The Irish Position in British, and in Republican North
+America_--a lecture, p. 13.
+
+[39] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 3 September, 1849.
+
+[40] Allin and Jones, _op. cit._ pp. 91 and 164.
+
+[41] _Montreal Gazette_, 25 April, 1849.
+
+[42] Allin and Jones, _op. cit._ p. 115.
+
+[43] Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, i. p. 71.
+
+[44] _Convention of the British American League_, 1849, p. li.
+
+[45] Joseph Cauchon, _L'Union des provinces de L'Amerique Britannique
+du Nord_, p. 51.
+
+[46] _Further Papers relative to the Affairs of Canada_ (7 June, 1849),
+p. 25.
+
+[47] Quoted from Dent, _The Last Forty Years_, ii. pp. 181-2.
+
+[48] Sir Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, pp. 9-10.
+
+[49] _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_, p. 50.
+
+[50] Written from England.  Pope, _Life of Sir John Macdonald_, ii. p.
+274.
+
+[51] _Ibid._ p. 32.
+
+[52] _Confederation Debates_, p. 44.
+
+
+
+
+{347}
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Agriculture of the _Habitants_, 16
+
+  "Alabama" affair, the, 288
+
+  Alien Admission Bill, 106
+
+  America, United States of, Bagot's diplomatic services in, 126, 127-8
+    and Canadian Annexation, 204, 218, 219
+    and Canada, Federation in, differences between, 329
+    Elgin's skilful Diplomacy with, 191
+    Politics in, as affecting Canadian (1852), 200, 207, 215
+    Relations with Great Britain as affected by Canadian Autonomy, 287
+    Tory feeling to, after 1812, 248
+    Trade of, with Canada as affected by Free Trade, 272, Grey's
+      views on, 273
+
+  American Aggression, and the Defence of Canada, Peel on, 254
+    Education, Burke on, 40
+    Immigrants, Annexation views of, 333
+    War, the, attitude to, of Canada and Great Britain, 288;
+      Military power shown by, 290
+
+  Amnesty, Bagot's attitude to, 155
+
+  Anderson, John, political indifference of, 55-6 _&n._
+
+  Anglicanism (_see also_ Clergy Reserves), in Canada, 43-4, 47;
+      Imperial support to, 48, 49
+
+  Anglicization of French Canada, views on, of various Governors,
+      57, 59, 83, 142, 211, 306, 311-12
+
+  Anglo-French Reforming _bloc_, evolution of, 65, 161
+    Attitude of, on Metcalfe's arrival, 161 _et sqq._
+
+  Annexation, Federation as alternative to, Russell on, 265
+    Manifestoes on, 334, 337
+    Movement in favour of, activity in 1849, 330;
+      Inconsistencies on, of _The Times_, 233; Opposition to, of
+      Brown, 342; Supporters of, 204, 330 _et sqq._; _Rouges_
+      views on, 302
+    Risk of, on Elgin's arrival, 191
+    Tory views on, 204, 254, 255
+
+  Anti-Union attitude of French Canadians, 124
+
+  Ashburton Treaty, the, Difficulties solved by, 127-8, 132
+
+  Armstrong, Peter, Typical Squatter, 29
+
+  _Art of Colonization_, by Wakefield, 239
+
+  Arthur, Sir George, Governor-General, Timid despatches of, 249
+    on Colonial Disloyalty, 60-1
+    on the Durham Report and its effect, 248-9
+
+  Autonomy, Canadian, the Struggle for, _passim_
+    British opinion on, changes in, 230 _et sqq._
+    Conditions demanded by, 277
+    Limitations on, views of Durham and Sydenham on, 119-21
+    Macdonald's views on, 344
+    Movement towards, as affected by Successive Governors, 122-5,
+      138, 228, by Elgin, 228-9, and by Grey, 268-71
+    Natural outcome of _Laissez-faire_, 291
+    Results, as affecting Anglo-American relations, 287;
+      Confederation, 305; Connexion of Canada and Great Britain,
+      323 _et sqq._; Party system, 302-5; Summary of, 345-6
+
+  Aylwin, T. C., in office, 150
+
+
+  B
+
+  Bagot, Sir Charles, Governor-General, 70, 126 _et sqq._, 156, 163;
+      as Financier, 237-8; and King's College, Toronto, 36; Political
+      antecedents of, 126-7; Political opportunism of, 138 _et sqq._,
+      143-6, wisdom of his methods, 147; the practical surrender of
+      Responsible Government by, 158, 161, 228-9; Russell's view on,
+      261, Stanley's view on, 278; Relations with French-Canadians,
+      57, 146-7, 149-50; Stanley's instructions to, 129, and relations
+      with, 127 _et sqq._
+    Work of his period of office, three factors of, 128 _et sqq._
+    on Autonomy, Separation, and Loyalty, 138; on the Crown's right
+      to name the Capital, 155; on the French Canadians after the
+      Union, 57-8
+
+  Baldwin, Robert, Leader of Reforming Loyalists, 64, 105, 125, 197,
+      295; Anti-annexation actions of, 339; Averse to the "Double
+      majority," 308; Bagot and, 143, 144; Challenge by, to Sydenham's
+      system, 143-6; Character and Politics of, 109 _et sqq._, 141;
+      Check to, 155; and the Clergy Reserve question, 52; and Elgin,
+      203; Harrison's views on, and Draper's, 134; Insistence by, on
+      Responsible Government, 113-5, 116, 119, 150, 161-2, 176; Loyalty
+      of, 339; Motion by, demanding a Provincial Parliament, 119;
+      Office claimed for, 149; and the Patronage crisis, 168; as
+      Solicitor-General of Upper Canada, 109 _et sqq._; Stanley's
+      attitude to, 142.
+    on Coalition government, 299-300; on Patronage, and the position of
+      the Council, 175; on Russell's Colonial Administration Speech
+      (1850), 264
+
+  Baldwin-Hincks Reformers, in Politics, 301
+
+  Baldwin-La Fontaine Ministry, the, 161, 212, and the origin of
+      Anglo-French Solidarity, 215-6, 229, 295, 298; Precedent provided
+      by, 307
+
+  Belleville, Population (1846), 24
+
+  Bentinck, Lord William, Governor-General of India, 159
+
+  Black, Dr., and the Clergy Reserve question, 48
+
+  Board of Works for Canada set up, 106, 118
+
+  Boston, Elgin's official visit to (1851), 232
+
+  Bridges, Lack of, 12
+
+  Bright, John, and Separation, 283, 290
+
+  British aid to Canada, need of (1839), and Sydenham's Loan Scheme,
+      68-9, 97 _et sqq._
+    Approval of Metcalfe's methods, and those of earlier Governors,
+      170, 175, 180, 182, 186, 193
+    Colonial Empire, maintenance of, views on, 275, 277 _et sqq._
+    Communities, Government of, Lesson on, from Canadian history, 345
+    Community, attempted absorption in, of French-Canadians, 57, 59,
+      83, 142, 211, 306, 311-12
+    Empire, permanence of, some firm believers in, 274; World-value of,
+      Grey's view on, 275-6
+
+  British Half-pay Officers as Colonists, 18-20
+    Opinion on Canadian Autonomy, changes in, 235 _et sqq._
+    Predominance, passim; Russell's theory of, effects of, 228-9
+    Universities, relations of, with Canadian College Education, 37-8
+      _&n._1
+    Views on Imperialism, early Victorian, 230, gradual change in, 230
+      _et sqq._
+
+  British-American League, aims of, 336-7
+
+  British-Canadian connexion, on what chiefly dependent, 292
+
+  Brockville, Population (1846), 25
+
+  Brougham, Lord, and Separation, 281, 282-7
+
+  Brown, George, pioneer of Political journalism, Scottish origin of,
+      23; Characteristics of, 323, 340-3; and the Clear-Grits, 300
+      _&n._2, 340-1; and Confederation, 312-14, 341, 342; as Editor,
+      and Leader, 341; Loyalty of, 339; and Macdonald's federation
+      scheme, 302 _&n._ _et sqq._; Macdonald's unfairness to, 319;
+      Political rectitude of, 321; Political views of, 298; Why
+      disliked by the French, 312
+    on Canadian loyalty, 326-7; on Canadian population distribution
+      (1857), 310-11, and Parliamentary representation, 310-11; on
+      Political corruption, 317; on Public spirit connected with
+      Confederation, 322
+
+  Brown-Dorion two days' administration, the, 302
+
+  Buchanan, Isaac, and Canadian Tariff, 327
+
+  Buller, Arthur, on the Illiteracy of the _Habitants_, 16
+
+  Buller, Charles, characteristics of, 241; as Educator in sound
+      Colonial policy, 247, 251; Imperialism of, 162, 245; La Fontaine's
+      objection to, 162; and Local Government, 94; Non-belief of, in
+      Separation, 278, 281; Views of, on Colonial affairs, 94, 162, 234-5,
+      236, 237, 240-3, 247, 251, 278, 281, 291
+    famous pamphlet by, 234-5, 236, 240-3
+    on Permanent Officials and Changing Heads at the Colonial Office,
+      234-5, 236; on Russell's Imperialism, 262
+
+  Burke, Edmund, on American Education and Book-reading, 40; on
+      Colonial Independence and Imperial Unity, 2, 3; on Party, 294;
+      on the Whigs, 166
+
+  Bytown (Ottawa), and the Immigrants, 21; Population (1846), 24;
+      Social conditions at, 30
+
+
+  C
+
+  Campbell, Robert, as School-master, 33
+
+  Canada, Autonomy of, _see_ Autonomy.
+    Communications in, and to, in early days, 9 _et sqq._
+    Disaffection in, how cured by Elgin, 222
+    as Envisaged by Grey and by Durham, 276-7
+    History of, Political lessons from, 345-6
+    Loyalty of, as affected by Autonomy, 203, 229, 314, 323 _et sqq._,
+      342; Mistrust of, over Militia Bill, 289
+    Relations of, with Great Britain, as affected by Autonomy, in
+      anticipation (Stanley's), 139-40, 156, and in fact, 156, 323
+      _et sqq._; true basis of, 239
+    Social and Physical conditions in (_circa_ 1839), 8 _et sqq._
+    Tariff reorganisation in, difficulties created by, with U.S.A., 288
+
+  Canal-works, condition in 1841, 99
+
+  Canning, George, 189; and Bagot, 126, 137
+
+  Capital, the, Crown's right to name, Bagot on, 155; Brown on, 326-7
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas, on Buller, 241
+
+  Caron, Rene Edouard, Speaker of Upper House, and La Fontaine, 177
+
+  Cartier, Sir George Etienne, French-Canadian Leader, 14; and
+      French-Canadian feeling, 332 _&n._; Loyalty of, 338
+
+  Cartwright, J. S., 144; Political views of, 60, 133, 151
+
+  Cartwright, Sir Richard, and British views on Separation, 290
+    on Annexation views after 1856, 333-4; on Personal Morals of Members
+      of Canadian Assemblies, 320; on the Political influence of _The
+      Globe_, 341-2
+
+  Cathcart, Earl of, as interim Governor-General, 7 _n._, 70 _n._,
+      187 _&n._
+
+  Cauchon, Joseph, and Confederation, 314; Loyalty of, 338
+
+  Chatham, Earl of, 4
+
+  China, Elgin's work in, 189, 191
+
+  _Christian Guardian, The_, 38 _&n._2
+
+  Church of England in Canada (_see also_ Clergy Reserves), 43-4, 47, 49
+
+  Church Support, Voluntary principle of, Rolph on, 51-2
+
+  Civil List difficulties, 138, 140, 146, 154, 155, 163; Grey's
+      attitude as to, 272; Stanley's views on, 130; the Surrender,
+      154-5, 163, 279
+
+  Clear-Grit party, Loyalty of, 339; Politics of, 300 _&n._2, 301, 302
+
+  Clericalism in French Canada, 14, 15, 17; and School Control, 31-2
+
+  Clergy Reserve Question, dispute on, 47-54, 62, 64, 252-3, 254-5,
+      268; Settlement of, by compromise, 90-2, 279, 306
+
+  Coalition Governments in Canada (_see_ Baldwin-Hincks _& others_),
+      298-9, 304
+
+  Cobden, Richard, and Separation, 217, 283, 284, 285
+
+  Coburg, Population (1846), 25; Social conditions and prices at
+      (1845), 27-8
+
+  Colborne, Sir John, Acting Governor, and the Anglican Church, 43;
+      French risings quelled by, 5, 57, 214; on the French and the
+      Union, 83
+
+  Colleges and Universities, Canadian, 35-8, 136
+
+  Colonial Administration, Russell's speech on, 1850, 263
+    Autonomy (_see also_ Autonomy, Canadian), MacDonald's views on, 344
+    Connexion with the Empire, Continuance of, various views on (_see
+      also_ Annexation, Separation, _&c._), 2, 3, 277 _et sqq._,
+      323 _et sqq._
+    Government, Conflicting views on, _passim_
+    Independence, Burke's view on, 2, 3
+    Parliaments, Defects of, 65-6, 289
+    Unity, Conditions adverse to, 24
+
+  Colonial Office, the, Elgin's influence on, 222-5; Permanent officials
+      of, Buller on, 234-5, 236
+
+  _Colonial Advocate_, The, 38
+
+  _Colonial Gazette_, on Poulett Thomson, 77-8
+
+  _Colonial Policy_, by Earl Grey, Canada chapter in, inspired by
+      Elgin, 275
+
+  _Colonies, Responsible Government for_, Buller's famous pamphlet,
+      234-5 _&n._, 236, 240
+
+  Colonies, Secretaries of State for, _see also under_ Names
+    Lord J. Russell, 1839
+    Lord Stanley, 1841
+    Gladstone, 1846
+    Earl Grey, 1846
+    Sir J. Pakington, 1852
+    Duke of Newcastle, 1852
+    Sir George Gray, 1854
+    Views on, of British Politicians, 2, 3, 217, 230 _et sqq._, 255-8,
+      262, 264, 283, 284, 285, 290, 292 _et alibi_
+
+  Colonists, Buller's views on, 242; Cartwright's opinion of, 60
+
+  _Colonization, The Art of_, by Wakefield, 239
+
+  Commercial crisis, Canadian, in 1849, Elgin on, 331
+    Marine, as a pillar of Empire, 262
+    Relations, Peel on, 254
+    Treaty, _see_ Reciprocity Treaty
+
+  Compromise, Bagot's views on, and Stanley's, 139-40
+
+  Confederation of British North American Colonies, various Schemes
+      for, 196-7; the result of Autonomy, 305; Difficulties connected
+      with, 279-80, 312; Russell's aim in furthering, 265; Scheme of
+      Brown and Macdonald for, 302 _et sqq._, 312-14, 341, 342
+
+  "Connexion," the Basis of, sentimental rather than practical, 239;
+      Effect on, of Autonomy, 323 _et sqq._
+
+  Conservative Party, Canadian (see also Family Compact, & Tory Party),
+      in 1841, 105; Loyalty of, 339
+
+  Conservatism of the French Canadians, 15, 17, 32, 41
+    United Empire Loyalists, 18
+
+  Constitutional Act of 1791, and the Clergy Reserve question, 48-9
+
+  Constitutional Question in Canada, three allied problems forming,
+      Elgin's mode of dealing with, 201 _et sqq._
+
+  Convent Education of Women, 16, 31
+
+  Copyright prohibition, effect on Reading habits, 39 _&n._, 40
+
+  Corduroy Roads, 12
+
+  Cornwall, Strachan's School at, 35
+
+  Corruption, political, in Canada, 315 _et sqq._; Brown's salutary
+      counteraction of, 341
+
+  County Courts, Canadian, new system set up, 106
+
+  Crime, in early days, 29 _&n._2, 30
+
+  Crown, the, and the Case of a Governor-General, compared by
+      Stanley, 152-3
+
+  Crown Colony administration, period of, 4-5
+
+
+  D
+
+  Dalhousie, Earl of, Governor-General, 189-90
+
+  Daly, Sir Dominick, the "perpetual secretary," 168, 176, 177
+
+  Darwin, and Bright & Cobden, parallel between, 284
+
+  Davidson, John, retirement of, 150
+
+  Day, Charles Dewey, 113
+
+  Debate in House of Commons on Canadian affairs (1844), 182
+
+  Defence of Canada (_see also_ Militia Bill), British views on, 254,
+      272, 287 _et sqq._
+
+  Democracy, attitude to, of the Family Compact, 60 _et sqq._
+
+  Democratic Government in Canada, established by Elgin, 190
+    Institutions, Elements of Success in, 320
+
+  Derby, Earl of (_see_ for earlier references, Stanley, Lord), 252
+
+  Derbyites, and Separation, 290
+
+  Despatches of Elgin and later Governors, 208-9, 249, 325
+
+  Diplomacy, and Separation, 287 War, and Land as matters for
+      Imperial Control, in Wakefield's view, 240
+
+  District Councils for French Canada set up, 98, 118, 119
+
+  Draper, Hon. H. W., Attorney-General, leader of Ministerialists,
+      105, 111 _&n._, 113, 150, 177; Metcalfe on, 184; Resignation
+      of, 194
+    on the Political crisis of 1842, 134-5
+
+  Disraeli, Benjamin (Earl of Beaconsfield), Imperialism of,
+      misgivings in, 255-8, 292
+
+  District Council Bill (Canadian), passed, 106, 118
+
+  Doctrinaire, the, in Practical Politics, position of Metcalfe as
+      illustrating, 185,
+
+  Domestic Colonial affairs, Imperial Intervention in, views of
+      Russell, and of Grey, 271-2, 274
+
+  Dorchester, Earl of, and Colonial affairs, 4; and the French
+      Canadians, 13
+
+  Dorion, A. A., _see_ Brown-Dorion ministry
+
+  "Double majority," evolution of, 307-8
+
+  "Double Shuffle" episode, 318-9
+
+  Dougalls, the, and the _Montreal Witness_, 38-9
+
+  Drunkenness, among Whites and Indians, 30; among Members of
+      Parliament, 320
+
+  Durham, Earl of, Governor-General, 6, 14, 71, 76, 190, 191, 251;
+      Canadian views on, 190; and the Change in British views on
+      Canadian affairs, 237; and the Destruction of French Nationalism,
+      57, 59, 83, 211, 311-2; and Immigration, 97; Responsible Colonial
+      government as advocated by, 61, 149, 166, 244-5; non-Separationist
+      views, 281; Visit of, to Canada, 31
+    on the Catholic clergy of Lower Canada, 41-2; on Local Government, 94
+
+  _Durham's Report_, 4 _n._, 5 _n._, 6, 57; Effects of, 249; Fallacy in,
+      260-1; Illusions on, dispelled, 243-4; Imperial note of, 246-7
+
+
+  E
+
+  Economics, and Separation, 220, 285-6, 330-1
+
+  Education, French-Canadian, 14, 15, 16
+    by Newspaper, 38-9
+    School and College, 31 _et sqq._, 136
+    of Scottish immigrants, 23
+
+  Ekfried, Early Education at, 33
+
+  Elgin, Countess of, 190
+
+  Elgin, Earl of, Governor-Generalship of, 7, 56, 70, 187 _et sqq._
+    Character and Politics of, 188 _et sqq._, 190, 191, 209, 221, 225
+      _et sqq._, 256, 297; Chief result of his rule, 190, 268-71;
+      Despatches of, 325, Influence of, on Autonomy movement, 188 _et
+      sqq._, 228-9, and on Grey's Colonial policy, 275; Insult to, 204,
+      208-9, 227, 320, Scottish loyal address on, 328-9; and Irish
+      disaffection, 200, 337; Non-Separationist views of, 278, 281;
+      Relations with French Canada, 193, 195-6, 198, 210 _et sqq._, 222
+    Later career of, 188-9, 191
+    on Baldwin, 110, 339; on British Press methods, 232; on Canadian
+      attitude to Free Trade, 220, 285-6; on Canadian Party Politics,
+      56, 195, 293, 295; on the elections of 1844, 181; on French
+      Canadian Nationalism, 196, and Loyalty (1850), 305-6; on
+      Metcalfe's policy, 192, 202; on Montreal, its inhabitants and
+      Annexation views at (1849), 334; on Moral influence of
+      Governors, 324; on Sydenham's attitude to Autonomy, 123-4; on
+      True and False Imperialism, 224-5
+
+  Emigration and its horrors, 20-1; Wakefield's system of, 238
+
+  English Canadians, loyalty of, 338
+
+  English character of Colonists, Disraeli's views on, 257-8
+
+  English tone in Canadian Society (_circ._ 1846), 26-7
+
+  _Episodes in a Life of Adventure_, by Oliphant, referred to, 225
+
+  _Examiner, The_, Politics of, 64
+
+  Executive Council, British and Canadian views on, 71 _et sqq._
+    Sydenham's, inherited by Bagot, 131; Stanley's advice on, 129,
+      136, 143, 144-5, actual Composition of, 144; La Fontaine's
+      demands and the upshot, 149 _et sqq._; Stanley's sarcasm, 152-3
+
+  Executive Responsibility, as conceived by Durham, 244-5
+
+
+  F
+
+  "Family Compact," the, Political views, and position of, 18, 60 _et
+      sqq._, 101, 129-30, 133
+
+  Farmers, Life and work of (_circa_ 1845), 28-9
+
+  Federation, _see_ Confederation
+
+  Finance, Canadian (see also Civil List, Clergy Reserves, Tariffs,
+      Taxation), in 1839, 86; Bagot's action concerning, 137-8; Grey on,
+      in 1846, 272
+
+  Foley, ----, 325
+
+  Forests, difficulties due to, 9, 12-13
+
+  Fowlds, Matthew, on Life at Coburg (1845), 27-8 _&n._1
+
+  Franchise conditions (1832), 22
+
+  Free-Trade, effects of, in Canada, 220, 285-6, 330; Views on, of
+      Elgin, 220, 285-6, and of Grey, 267, 272-4, 285
+
+  French, the, in Canada, _see_ French-Canadians
+
+  French-British Political  solidarity (_see also_ Anglo-French
+      _bloc_), birth of, 215 _et sqq._
+
+  French Canadians of Lower Canada (_see also_ Papineau, Rebellions,
+      _&c._), 13-17
+    Anti-Union movement among, 103
+    District Councils set up for, 95, 118, 119
+    Fate settled by Poulett-Thomson, 79-90
+    Importance of, in 1842, 131, 132, 133-6, 141, 148, need for
+      Conciliating, Harrison on, 133-4; Admission of, to Office,
+      problem of, and struggle for, 133 _et sqq._, the climax, 148-51,
+      the aftermath, 151 _et sqq._
+    Influence of the Roman Catholic clergy in, 15, 32-3, 337
+    Language question and, 90
+    Loyalty of, 337-8
+    Nationalism, and the Nationalist Party among, Anglicization of,
+      efforts towards, 57, 59, 83, 142, 211, 306, 311-12; Obvious
+      fault of, 196; Problem of, on Elgin's arrival, 193, 195-6, 198,
+      Elgin's solution of the difficulties, 210 _et sqq._, 305;
+      Irritation of, over Parliamentary Representation, 311-13;
+      Confederation favoured by, 314
+    Political views of (_see also_ Conservatism, Nationalism _supra_,
+      Rouges), 15-17, 32, 41, 57-9, 105, 143, 196, 210 _et sqq._, 301,
+      302, 305, 331, 338
+    Privileges accorded to, by Grey, 268
+    Relations with Bagot, 57, 146-7, 149-50; with Elgin, 193, 195-6,
+      198, 215, 222, 305-6; with Metcalfe, 176-7, 195-6; with
+      Sydenham, 79 _et sqq._, 125, 132-5, 176
+
+  French Revolution, the, Effects of, 4, 248
+
+  Fur-trade, Social drawbacks of, 29-30
+
+
+  G
+
+  Galt, Alexander Tilloch, and Canadian Tariffs, 327; on Separation,
+      286-7
+
+  George III., and the Colonies, 248
+
+  Girouard, John Joseph, and the rebellion, 142; Office open to, 150
+
+  Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., trained by Peel, 189-90, 200; and
+      Administrative Liberalism, 280; as Colonial Secretary, 251, 256
+    on British approval of Metcalfe's methods, 193; on Rebellion
+      Losses Bill, 206 _n._; on Separation, 266-7, 285
+
+  Glenelg, Lord, at the Colonial Office, 236; and the Clergy Reserve
+      question, 49; on Canadian local rights, 236
+
+  _Globe, The_, Brown's newspaper, on the Clear-Grits, 300 _n._2;
+      Influence of, 311, 341-2
+
+  Good Government essential to Colonial Empire, Molesworth on, 281-2
+
+  Gourlay, Robert, agitator, Scottish origin of, 23
+
+  Governor-General and Assembly, Russell's instructions concerning,
+      72 _et sqq._
+    and Colonial Executive, relations between, as sketched by Grey, 269
+    in relation to Confederation, 325
+    Diminution of importance of, after Autonomy, 324 _et sqq._
+    Duties of, Sydenham's views on, 119-21
+    Salary of (_see also_ Civil List), Brown's attitude on, 342
+
+  Governors-General referred to, in order of date, _see also
+      under_ Names
+    Dalhousie, Earl of, 1820
+    Colborne, Sir John (acting), 1830
+    Thomson, C. Poulett, 1833; _later_ Lord Sydenham, 1841
+    Durham, Earl of, 1838
+    Colborne, Sir John, 1838
+    Bagot, Sir Charles, 1842
+    Metcalfe, Lord, 1843
+    Cathcart, Earl of, 1846
+    Elgin, Earl of, 1847
+    Head, Sir Edmund W., 1854
+    Monck, Viscount, 1861
+
+  Grant, General Ulysses, 290
+
+  Great Britain (_see also_ British), and the Colonies, future
+      relations between, MacDonald on, 344
+    Imperial policy of, under Grey, 275-6 _et proevi_; Change in,
+      process and progress of, 291
+    Relations with Canada as affected by Autonomy, 323 _et sqq._;
+      Basis of, 239
+
+  Greville, Charles, on Poulett Thomson, 77
+
+  Grey, Earl, as Colonial Secretary, 196, 222, 237; Characteristics
+      of the man and his ideas, 267 _et sqq._; Events of his term of
+      office, 268 _et sqq._
+    Colonial policy of, 190-1, 196, 199, 256, 267-8 _et sqq._;
+      Elgin's influence on, 209 _&n._2, 275; and Federation, 196-7;
+      Free Trade with Canada urged by, 267-8, 272-4; and the Militia
+      Bill crisis, 290; Views of, on Separation, 278, 281, occasional
+        misgivings, 223, 283
+    on Attitude of a Governor of a Self-governing Colony, 269-70; on
+      British indifference to Canada (1851), 232; on Elgin's best
+      attitude to the Canadian Executive of 1848, 200; on Newspaper
+      misrepresentation, 232; on Separationist views at Westminster,
+      260-7
+
+  Grey, Sir George, on the Clergy Grants, 48 _&n._1
+
+  Grote, George, and Separation, 282
+
+
+  H
+
+  _Habitants_, the, Characteristics of, 15-17
+
+  Hamilton, Population (1846), 24
+
+  Harrison, S. B., Secretary, 105, Moderate Reform views of, 119,
+      176; Resolutions moved by, on Provincial Parliaments, 119-20
+    on the Need for Responsible Government, and for Conciliation of
+      the French Canadians, 133-4
+
+  Harvey, Sir John, Grey's letter to, on attitude of Governors of
+      Self-Governing Colonies, 269-70
+
+  Head, Sir Edmund W., as Governor-General, 324; Averse to the "Double
+      majority," 307-8
+
+  Head, Sir F. B., on Baldwin, 109
+
+  Herbert, Sydney (Lord Herbert of Lea), 189
+
+  Higginson, Captain, and La Fontaine, 172
+
+  Hincks, Sir Francis, Advocate of Responsible Government, 38; Press
+      exponent of Reforming Loyalist views, 64, 196; in Bagot's
+      Executive, 144; Interpretation by, of Durham's Report, 243-4;
+      Political morality of, attacked, 315
+    on the Civil List difficulty, 163; on Coalitions, 298-9; on the
+      Patronage Crisis, 170; on the Reformers, 113
+
+  Hincks-Morin Ministry, the, and Moderate re-union, 298
+
+  Home Rule (_see also_ Autonomy), Evolution of, in Canada,
+      antithesis of, to Russell's theory, 229
+
+  Hume, Joseph, and Canadian politics, 231, 282
+
+  Hyderabad, Metcalfe at, 159
+
+
+  I
+
+  Immigration and its Problems, 20 _et sqq._, 97-8, 238
+
+  Imperial Aid to Religious bodies in Canada, _see_ Anglican Church,
+      _and_ Clergy Reserve question
+    Control, Struggle for, 1-229, _et passim_; Views of various
+      British  politicians, 230 _et sqq._
+    Creed of Durham and Buller, not that of their party, 281
+    Government, and the French Canadians, 136
+    Note of Durham's Report, 246-7
+    Solidarity, some staunch believers in, 274
+    Sentiment, and Bagot's action, antagonism between, 149
+    Tariff, 273
+    Unity, Burke's view on, 2, 3, 6
+
+  Imperial Parliament, Courtesies of, 66; Over-ruling by, of
+      Canadian wishes, various views on, 200; as Training school for
+      Colonial Governors, 121
+
+  Imperial Titles Bill, Disraeli's speech on, 255-8
+
+  Imperialism, British, Early Victorian, 230
+    Disraeli's, the gaps in, 253 _et sqq._
+    Durham's, 281
+    Elgin's, 217 _et sqq._
+    True basis of, Feeling rather than Laws, 329
+
+  Independence, Colonial, Russell on, 263
+     and Loyalty, ratio between, 345-6
+
+  Independence of Parliament Act, as affecting Resignations, 319
+
+  Independency, as moulding New England Character, 41
+
+  Indian Career of Elgin, 189, 191, and of Metcalfe, 158-9
+
+  Indians, Canadian, Trade and Drink as affecting, 29-30
+
+  _Institut Canadien_, Annexationist advocate, 332 _&n._1
+
+  Internal government, and Imperial matters, Durham's distinction
+      concerning, 244-5
+
+  Irish Agitation, as affecting Canada, 22 _&n._2, 200, 337
+    Immigrants; as Colonists, 21, 22, 23; Political trend of, 163;
+      Turbulence of, 22, 67, 179; won by Elgin, 222; Arriving after
+      the Famine, anxieties caused by, 332-3
+
+  Irish-American hostility to Great Britain as affecting Canada,
+      288-9, 332, 333
+
+  Irish Republican Union, 207
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jackson, General ("Stonewall"), 290
+
+  Jamaica, Metcalfe's success in, 159, 167
+
+  Jameson, Mrs., on Colonel Talbot as Colonist, 19; on Toronto and
+      its Conventionalism, 26
+
+
+  K
+
+  King's College, Toronto, 36
+
+  Kingston, Anglicanism in, 43, 44; as Capital, 103; Educational
+      efforts at, 36; Election riots near (1844), 179; Population
+      of (1839-46), 13, 24; Presbyterianism in, 44; Removal from,
+      of the Seat of Government, 171, 176
+
+  _Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, on the Anglo-French Anti-Union
+      Movement, 103 _&n._2
+
+  Knox, John, & Melville, Canadian followers of, 44
+
+
+  L
+
+  Lachine, portage to, 10
+
+  Lachine Canal, 179
+
+  La Fontaine, Sir Louis, Leader of French Canadians, 14, 32, 59, 65,
+      295; and Anglo-French cooperation, 125, 162; and the Anti-Union
+      movement, 103; Claims of, as to Office, 149, Bagot's action,
+      150-1; and the Clergy Reserve troubles, 52-3; Loss of Election
+      by, 113, 117; Loyalty of, 338; Office refused by (1845), 96;
+      accepted (1848), effects of, 305; and the Patronage Crisis,
+      168, 171; and the Rebellion of 1837, 142; and the Rebellion
+      Losses Bill, 214; Restrictive attitude to Governors-General,
+      162; on the Importance of the Anglo-French Union, 177; on
+      Patronage, 172-3
+
+  La Fontaine-Baldwin Ministries, 161, 212, 215-16, 229, 295, 298
+
+  _Laissez faire_ doctrine, in British colonial politics, 188, 230;
+      Autonomy the natural result of, 291; and Home Control, in
+      Colonial affairs, Grey's views on, 267 _et sqq._; as
+      Influencing Annexationism, 334
+
+  Lake Ontario, 10
+
+  Lake-neutralization Treaty, _see_ Rush-Bagot Treaty
+
+  Lanark, Scottish and Canadian, ties between, 45
+
+  Land transfers, under French law, Sydenham's efforts to simplify,
+      95-6, 306
+
+  Languages for Debates and Records, 90
+
+  Lee, General, 290
+
+  Legislative and Executive powers of Canadian Government, views on,
+      of Russell, and of the Canadians, 71 _et sqq._
+
+  Lewis, Cornewall, 238
+
+  Liberal-Conservatism Canadian, evolution of, 297
+
+  Liddell, Dr., and Queen's College, 37
+
+  Lincoln, President, Brown's support of, 341
+
+  Literary Inactivity, Canadian, some causes, 39 _&n._, 40
+
+  "Little Englanders," Early Victorian, 278 _et sqq._, 292
+
+  Local government, Absence of Provision for, in Act of Union, 93-5;
+      in French Canada, Bagot on, 57; as Training for higher politics,
+      94; Sydenham's views on, 94, and efforts for, 106
+
+  London, and Early Canadian Society, 27
+
+  London (Ontario), in early days, 13; population of (1846), 24
+
+  Lower Canada, French-Canadians of (_q.v._), Clericalism, Politics
+      and Society among, 14-17; Priestly control of Schools in, 31-2
+    Municipal Franchise limitations in; results, 25
+    Union with Upper, difficulties in, 82
+
+  Lowland Scots, as Settlers, 21
+
+  Loyalist electioneering practices (1844), 179-80
+
+  Loyalty, Canadian, as affected by Autonomy, 203, 229, 314, 323
+      _et sqq._
+    Inspiration given to, by Brown and such men, 342-3
+    Mistrust of, begotten over the Militia Bill, 289
+
+  Lyons, Lord, on Elgin's Reciprocity Treaty, 288 _n._
+
+  Lucas, Sir C. P. _cited_, 4 _n._, 5 _n._
+
+  Lumberers, Wild life among, 30
+
+
+  M
+
+  Macaulay, Lord, on Metcalfe, 159
+
+  MacDonald, Rolland, on Annexation, 336
+
+  Macdonald-Sicotte Ministry, and the "Double majority," 309
+
+  Macdonald, Sir John A., and Annexation, 336; Averse to the "Double
+      majority," 308-9; Basis of his control of power, 216; and
+      Brown's scheme of Confederation, 302 _et sqq._; Imperialism
+      of, 23; Leadership of, 325; Loyalty of, 339, 343-4; Political
+      Morality of, 317-19, 321, 324, 341
+    and Representation by Population, 316
+    on Canada's Governors-General, 325-6; on Change of Political
+      views, 296
+
+  M'Gee, D'Arcy, on the Irish-Catholic vote in Canada (1866), 332-3;
+      on Loyalty of Irish Canadians, 333, 337
+
+  M'Gill University, 37
+
+  Mackenzie, Alexander, Liberal leader, 23; Political rectitude of, 321
+
+  Mackenzie, William Lyon, Press organ of, 38; Rebellion under, 5, 11,
+      55, recognition by, of its error, 63
+
+  MacNab-Hincks Ministry, the, 300
+
+  MacNab, Sir Allan Napier, Tory leader, 62, 63, 105, 133, 143, 167,
+      300, 301; and Bagot, 141, 143, 150, 151; Defender of the Clergy
+      Reserves, 62, 63; Invited by Elgin to form a Ministry, 204; and
+      Political jobbery, 316-7
+
+  M'Taggart, --, on French Canadians, 16; on Irish settlers, 16, 21;
+      on Quebec as Social Centre, 25; on Squatter life, 29
+
+  Manners, Lord John, on the Future of Canada, 254-5
+
+  Marriage and the Squatter, 29
+
+  Melbourne, Earl of, 280
+
+  Metcalfe, Lord (Sir Charles Metcalfe), as Governor-General, 7 _n._,
+      70, 158 _et sqq._; Character and qualifications of, 158-61, 164,
+      181, 183; earlier career, 159-60, 267
+    Attitude of his Cabinet, 66; Despatches _cited_, 164-5; Dislike
+      or party, results of, 167-8; and the La Fontaine-Baldwin
+      Ministry, 229; Last days in harness, 183; and Local
+      administration, 295; and the  Patronage crisis of 1843, 168-70,
+      202; Policy of, Elgin on, 192, 202, Grey on, 267; Struggles of,
+      to balance Autonomy and Supremacy, 161 _et sqq._; Supporters of,
+      182, 240, 249, 261; and the United Empire Loyalists, 17-18
+    on Demagogues in Lower Canada, 14-15; on Durham's view of
+      Executive Responsibility, 244; on Electioneering Language, 67;
+      on the Influence of the Roman Church in Canada, 32 _n._; on
+      Irish agitation and its effects on Canada, 21 _n._2; on the
+      Parliament of 1844, 181; on Results of Bagot's administration,
+      157; on Sydenham's concession of Responsible Government, 229
+
+  Methodism in Canada, 15-17; and Education, 46
+
+  Military attitude to Elgin, 204 _&n._
+    Prominence in Canadian Society, 26
+    Settlers, 18, 20
+    Views on Separation, 290
+
+  Militia Bill, Canadian rejection of, and the effects, 289-90; True
+      inwardness of the affair, 328-9
+
+  Mill, John Stuart, on the Authorship of Durham's Report, 243 _n._2
+
+  _Minerve, La_, on the _Rouges_, 301
+
+  Ministerial Responsibility to the Crown, and to a Governor, Stanley
+      on, 152-3
+
+  Ministerialist Party (1841), 105
+
+  Ministers, Loyal, and the Assembly, difficulties between (1845), 184
+
+  Moffat, George, Politics of, 151
+
+  Molesworth, ----, on Separation, 281
+
+  Monck, Viscount, as Governor, 324; scanty Despatches of, 325; on
+      the Militia Bill, 329
+
+  Montreal, British and French views in, 14; and the Election of
+      1844, 178, 179-80; Merchants of, and the Reciprocity Treaty,
+      222; zealous Annexationists, 334; Population of, 13, 24; Riots
+      at, 67, 68, 179-80, 206, 208, 227, 320, 326; Roads near (1840),
+      11; as Seat of Government, 68, 171; Social conditions at (1840),
+      26; Suburbs of, 102
+
+  _Montreal Gazette_, on Independence, 335
+
+  _Montreal Witness_, The, characteristics and value of, 38-9
+
+  Moral Influence of Governors, _versus_ Political Patronage, Elgin
+      on, 198, and as exercised by him, 205 _et sqq._
+
+  Morin, Augustin Norbert, French Canadian politician, 59, and the
+      Nationalists, 105
+
+  Mowat, Oliver, Liberal leader, 23
+
+  Murdoch, T. W. C., 104 _n._, 140-1; the Need for Conciliating the
+      French, 135; on Stanley's view of Canadian autonomy, 131
+
+
+  N
+
+  _Nation Canadienne, La_, 13; as represented in the Union Assembly, 59
+
+  Navigation Acts, Restrictions of, abolished by Grey, 267, 272
+
+  Neilson, ----, and the Anti-Union movement, 103, 105, 151; and
+      the Amnesty question, 149
+
+  Newcastle, Duke of, and Monck's scanty Despatches, 325
+
+  Newspaper Opinion, real value of, 233
+
+  Newspapers, Educational and Political influence of, 38-9 _&nn._,
+      311, 341-2
+
+  Non-Separationists, the four, 278, 491
+
+  Normanby, Earl of, 248
+
+  North, Lord, and the Colonies, 248
+
+  Nova Scotia, 269
+
+
+  O
+
+  Oath of Supremacy, Baldwin's difficulty concerning, 112; Dispensed
+      with, by Sydenham, 113 _n._
+
+  O'Connell, Daniel, 22
+
+  Office, Colonial, Change in Tenure of, 74-5
+
+  Ogden, ----, Political views of, 113; retirement of, 150
+
+  "Old Toryism" after concession of Responsible Government, 203
+      _et sqq._
+
+  Oliphant, Laurence, on Elgin in Canada, 204-5, 221, 222, 225
+
+  Orange Lodge, the, Politics of, 167
+
+  Ottawa, _see_ Bytown
+
+  Ottawa River route, 10
+
+
+  P
+
+  Pakington, Sir John, and the Clergy Reserves dispute, 252-3
+
+  Palmerston, Viscount, 280
+
+  Papineau, Louis, French-Canadian Leader, 14, 301, 331; Rebellion
+      led by, 3; Republicanism of, 65, 271; Return of, to Public Life
+      (1847-8), 198-9, 212-13, 271, 305, 331-2; as Leader of the
+      _Rouges_, 301, 331
+
+  Parliament, British, _see_ Imperial Parliament
+    Canadian characteristics of, 65, 289; First Union, 59, composing
+      group, 104, 113, Crisis in, on Responsible Government, 113-22,
+      Five great measures carried by, 106
+
+  Parliamentary Representation after the Union, Proportionalism in,
+      309-11, attempted reform, 311 _et sqq._
+
+  Party Government, and Colonial Constitutional development, views
+      on, of Wakefield, 239-40, and of Buller, 242
+    Names, as used in Canada, 56, 106, 195, 295
+    Politics in Canada, before and after Autonomy, 56, 106, 166-7,
+      173, 185, 195, 293 _et sqq._, 302-5 _et sqq._
+
+  Patronage, Crisis concerning, 168-70; Surrender of, by Elgin,
+      198, 279
+
+  Peel, Sir Robert, 262, 283; and Elgin, a comparison, 226; and "the
+      Man on the spot," 147-8; and the Permanent Staff of the Colonial
+      Office, 235; Political pupils of, 189; and Stanley, 128;
+      Transforming influence of, on the Whigs, 280; Views of, on
+      Separation, 253-4, 266-7, 278
+
+  Peelites, the, and Party ties, 297; Views of, on Separation, 266, 285
+    Canadian, 301
+
+  Permanent Officials, and Transitory Chiefs, 234-5
+
+  Perry, Peter, Baldwin's letter to, on Annexation, 340
+
+  Personalities and Politics, 66
+
+  Perth (Canada), Early Educational efforts at, 33-4; and its
+      Minister, 48
+
+  Pessimism of British opinion on the Colonies _circa_ 1844, 246
+
+  _Pilot, The_, 196
+
+  Pioneers, the, of Canadian Self-government, 237-8 _et sqq._
+
+  Political Groups,  Canadian--British Early days, 14, 56; (_a_)
+      United Empire Loyalists, 17, 20; (_b_) Half-Pay Officers, 18;
+      (_c_) Immigrants, 20, 56
+        Later days--Anglo-French bloc, 65, 161; Liberal-Conservatives,
+          297
+    French-Canadian, 14, 15, 20; importance of, 56-9
+
+  Political Manners and Morals, after Autonomy, 314 _et sqq._
+
+  Political and Material conditions and Needs of Canada in 1839, 68-9
+
+  Politics in early days, 13 _et sqq._, 64 _et sqq._; _per_ Newspaper,
+      38; Questions of chief concern, 56; Turbulence in (_see_
+      Montreal riots), 65-8 _et alibi_
+
+  Population, Canadian, Composition of, and Problems of, 13 _et
+      sqq._; Changes in distribution, 1830-60, in reference to
+      Parliamentary Representation, 310-11; Town, growth of, 24
+
+  Preference, and Retaliation, Elgin's difficulties as to, 220
+
+  Presbyterianism in Canada, 43, 44-5, 47; Influence of, on Scottish
+      democracy, 41
+
+  Press, British, and Canadian Politics, 232-3
+    Canadian, _see_ Newspapers
+    Indian, Disabilities of, relieved by Metcalfe, 159
+
+  Progressives, Canadian, Loyalty of, 339
+
+  Protection as enemy to Canadian-British  connexion, Grey's view
+      on, 285
+
+  Provincial Parliament, Baldwin's motion for, 119; Resolutions
+      replying to, 119-21
+
+  Provincialism, and its causes, 26, 27, 40
+
+  Public Lands Regulation enacted, 106
+    Opinion, Canadian, development and trend of, 133; as affected
+      by Autonomy, 292, 329 _et sqq._; Sydenham's attitude to, 87
+    Works, Canadian, condition in early days, 25-6; British loan
+      for, projected by Sydenham, 97 _et sqq._
+
+  Purse-holding and Prerogative, Bagot on, 165
+
+
+  Q
+
+  Queen's College, Kingston, 55; history of, 37
+
+  Quebec, British, and British views in, 14; Immigrant miseries at,
+      97; Length of voyage to, 9; Population-Centre, 13, increase in
+      population of (1790-1844), 24; as Social Centre, 25; Suburbs
+      of, 102; Urban conditions in, 25
+
+
+  R
+
+  Racial Distinction, intensified by Autonomy, 306
+
+  Radical party, Separation anticipated by, 278, 281
+
+  Radicals of the Durham brand, views of, on the Colonies, _circa_
+      1844, 246 _et proevi_
+
+  Ranjit Singh, Metcalfe's Treaty with, 158
+
+  Reactionaries, Insight of, as to results of Innovations, 166-7
+
+  Reading-habits how checked (1839), 39, 40
+
+  Rebellion, Risk of, from Metcalfe's methods, 158, 186, 191, 193
+
+  Rebellion Losses Act, effects of, 68, 213, 214, 215, Annexation
+      agitation connected with, 220-1, 232-3, 265 _&n._1; and the
+      "Double majority, " 307; Elgin's action concerning, 206-9,
+      214, 220-1, 335; Gladstone on, 250; and the Tories, 335
+
+  Rebellions in Canada, 5, 11, 14, 15, 36, 38, 55-6, 57, 59, 103,
+      124, 186; After-effects, 135, 213-15; Change in British opinion
+      after, by whom directed, 237 _et sqq._; Mackenzie on (1848), 63;
+      Molesworth's views on, 281; Settlers' attitude to, 55-6
+
+  Reciprocity, Grey on, 273
+    and Loyalty, Elgin's view on, 220
+
+  Reciprocity Treaty, Elgin's, 221-2, 287, 336; Benefits of, 222,
+      272; as affected by Canadian Autonomy, 288 _&n._; Cessation of
+      (cf. Free Trade), effects on Canadian Trade, 272
+
+  Reform, Colonial, Stanley's mistrust of, 142
+
+  Reform Parties, Canadian and British, 295
+
+  Reform Party, Canadian (Reformers, Reforming Loyalists, Reforming
+      Opposition), Acceptance by, of Bagot's action, as concession to
+      their views; consequences in Metcalfe's Governor-Generalship,
+      161 _et sqq._; Attitude to the French, 65; Civil List control
+      desired by, 163; Demand for Executive Council, Russell's
+      objections and concessions, 72-5; in Early Assemblies, 63,
+      Methods and Leaders of, 64; Measures favoured by, 64-5; and
+      Responsible Government, 101; in the Second Union Parliament,
+      141; Faculty for setting themselves in the wrong, 228
+    Constitutional, Loyalty of, 339
+    Intransigeant, 301
+
+  Religion in Canada, Forms prevalent; _see_ Anglicanism, Methodism,
+      Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism
+
+  Representation Act, the, 310
+
+  Responsible Government (_see also_ Autonomy), the Struggle for,
+      _passim_
+    Baldwin on, 110-11
+    Conflict over, in first Union Parliament, 107 _et sqq._
+    Durham in favour of, 61
+    Effect on Struggle of admission of French to Office, 148 _et sqq._
+    Elgin's work for, 191, 197 _et sqq._
+    Grey's attitude to, 268-71, and views on British Intervention, 271
+    Hindrances to, 65-8
+    Impetus given to, by the Durham Report, 249
+    Limitations on, views of Russell and others, 101, 135, 175
+    Opponents of, 60
+    Patronage crisis in relation to, 169-70
+    Practical concession of, by Sydenham and Bagot, 146, 155, 157,
+      175, 228-9
+    Russell's policy and, 101, 135, 175, 260-2, final upshot of, 262
+    Stanley's attitude to, 129, 130-1
+    Supporters of, 61, 64, 178, 268-71
+    Views on, of Arthur, Cartwright, and the Family Compact, 60-1 _et
+      sqq._; of Bagot, 139 _et sqq._; of Elgin, 123-4, 192, 202; of
+      Metcalfe, 164 _et sqq._, 175; of Sydenham, 87, 88, 101
+    Training for, Russell on, 263
+
+  _Responsible Government for the Colonies_, Buller's pamphlet on,
+      234-5, 236, 240-3
+
+  Retaliation, as Trade weapon, 272, Grey's views on, 273-4
+
+  _Revue Canadienne, La_, on Papineau, and Political Moderation
+      (1847), 199
+
+  Richardson, Major, on Sydenham's success, 107-8 _&n._
+    Book-sales of, 40
+
+  Rideau Military Canal route, 11
+
+  Rioting, Political, 65-8, 179-80, 206, 208, 227, 320, 326
+
+  Road and River Communication in early days, 9 _et sqq._
+
+  Robinson, John Beverley, 27; tribute by, to Methodism, 46-7
+
+  Roebuck, John Arthur, M.P., Debate on Canada introduced by, 182;
+      and Separation, 281, 282
+
+  Rolph, Dr. John, on the Clergy Reserves, 51-2
+
+  Roman Catholicism in Lower Canada, 14-17, 31-2, 41-2; of Scottish
+      and Irish Settlers, 42
+
+  _Rouges_, the, of Lower Canada, Politics of, and Annexation views,
+      301, 302, 305, 331, 338
+
+  Rush-Bagot Treaty, the, 126
+
+  Russell, Lord John, as Colonial Secretary, policy of, 128, 164,
+      235, 259-67; and the Act of Union, 94; Baldwin on, 339; and
+      Federation, 196-7; and the Government of Canada, 70 _et sqq._,
+      110, 228-9; Leader of British Reformers, 295; Political
+      evolution of, 262-6, 280; Separation anticipated by, 278
+
+  Russellite Whigs, use made by, of the Durham Report, 258 _et sqq._
+
+  Ryerson, Egerton, and Canadian Education, 35; in Defence of
+      Metcalfe, 174; and Methodism, 180
+
+  Ryerson family, value of, to Canada, 18
+
+
+  S
+
+  St. Benoit, Village of, and the Rebellion Losses Bill, 214
+
+  St. Lawrence River, Rapids on, 10
+
+  Salaries of Executive, in relation to Political purity, 316
+
+  Schools, early, 32 _et sqq._
+    Convent, 16, 31
+    Problem of, 307, 309
+
+  Scott, R. W., and the Separate Schools Act, 309
+
+  Scotsmen as Settlers, 23, 27-9, 42, 45; Keenness for Education,
+      33-7; Links of, with Scotland, 44, 45; Loyalty of: a
+      striking instance, 338; Noteworthy names among, 23
+
+  Sectarianism and Education, 34, 35, 36
+
+  Secularization, Advocates of, 64, 90
+
+  Seignorial tenure difficulties, 95-6, 306
+
+  Self-government, Colonial, _see_ Autonomy, _and_ Responsible
+      Government
+
+  Separate Schools Act (Scott's), how carried, 307
+
+  Separation, Anticipations of, 166, 200, 231, 248, 266, 274, 278
+      _et sqq._, 282, of British Tories, 253, 254, 255, 256
+    Four disbelievers in, 278, 291
+    Military views on, 290
+    Possibility as affected by Autonomy, 323 _et sqq._
+    Russell's views at different times, 262, 263, 265
+
+  Settlers, _see_ Half-pay officers, Irish, Population, Scotsmen,
+      Squatters, United Empire Loyalists, _&c._
+
+  Sherman, General, 290
+
+  Sherwood, Henry, Solicitor-General, Bagot and, 144; Elgin and,
+      194; Retirement of, 250
+
+  Sicotte-Macdonald Ministry, and the "Double majority," 309
+
+  Simcoe, Lieut.-General John Graves, 19
+
+  Single-party Government, Canadian tendency to, 298-9
+
+  Small, J. E., in Office, 150
+
+  Smith, Professor Goldwin, and his party, Separationists, 289
+
+  Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in Canada, 43
+
+  Sovereign, the, True relations with Canadian people, 327
+
+  Squatters, 22, 29
+
+  Stanley, Lord, as Colonial  Secretary, relations with Bagot and
+      Canada, 127, 128 _et sqq._, 156, 217, 236, 250-2; Hincks'
+      indictment of, 170; Separation anticipated by, 278
+    on Bagot's diplomatic services, 127; on the Tie between Great
+      Britain and the Colonies, 139-40
+
+  Statesmanship, Elgin's conception of, 227
+
+  Statesmen, Canadian, Loyalty of the more eminent, 339 _et sqq._
+
+  Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, Influence of, at the Colonial Office,
+      234-7, 238; Views of, on Separation, 237 _&n._
+
+  Stephen, Sir Leslie, 236 _&n._
+
+  Strachan, Dr. John, Bishop in Toronto, 36, 89, 133; and the
+      Anglican Church, 43; and the Clergy Reserve question, 49, 50,
+      52, 54, 90, 92; and Education, 35, 36; and Methodism, 45
+
+  Strickland family, the, as Colonists, 19
+
+  Strickland, Lieut.-Colonel Samuel, and Mackenzie's Rebellion, 55;
+      on Unsuitable Colonists, 19-20
+
+  Sullivan, Robert Baldwin, 113
+
+  Suburbs, and the Electorate, 102
+
+  Sydenham, Lord (Rt. Hon. Charles Poulett Thomson), as
+      Governor-General, 54, 57, 65, 70; Raised to Peerage, 53;
+      Characteristics, 76-8, 107-8, 131, 141; and his Coalition of
+      Moderates, 113, 141, 298; Debt to, of Canada, 122-5, 132, 133;
+      Despatches of, 325; Episodes and course of his rule, 78 _et sqq._;
+      the Fall of the Family Compact, 63; Practice of, Bagot's action
+      contrasted with, 149; Relations with French Canadians, 58, 141,
+      162; Religious distribution of members of his Council (1841),
+      47; Responsible Government practically granted by, 107, 228-9,
+      his own views as worded by Harrison, 119-20, Metcalfe on, 164-5;
+      and Russell's system, 260; Settlement by, of Clergy Reserve
+      Question, 53, 54; Sleigh-journey, record breaking 11-12, 92;
+      Success with the Act of Union, 92
+    on Baldwin's action in the First Union Parliament, 44-5; on
+      Business in a Colonial Parliament, 65-6; on the Clergy Reserve
+      question, 53-4; on Early Travel in Canada, 10; on the French
+      Anti-Union movement, 103-4; on Party names, 56, 295
+
+
+  T
+
+  Tache, Colonel Sir Etienne Pascal, 195, 307; and Federation, 303
+
+  Talbot, Colonel, in Canada, 19
+
+  Tariffs, Canadian, and the Home country, 327-8
+
+  Taxation, Canadian, Independence in, asserted, 287, 328
+
+  Taylor, Sir Henry, Influence of, at the Colonial Office, 235; on
+      Russell as Chief Secretary, 236
+
+  Teachers, Lack of, in early days, 33-5
+
+  Terrebonne, and La Fontaine's election, 117
+
+  Thomson, Poulett, _see_ Sydenham, Lord
+
+  Three Rivers, 13
+
+  _Times, The_, and Canadian affairs, 232-3
+
+  Toronto, 65; Anglicanism in, 43; Journey to (1839), 10; King's
+      College at, 36; Population of (1824-46), 13, 24; Social
+      characteristics (_circ._ 1846), 26
+
+  Toronto, Bishop in, _see_ Strachan
+
+  Toronto University, set on foot by Bagot, 36, 136
+
+  Tory Party
+    British, and Colonial aspirations, 217, 247 _et sqq._; Separation
+      anticipated by, 278, 279, 329; Views analogous to those of
+      Canadian Tories, 295
+    Canadian (_see also_ Family Compact), Annexationist views of,
+      204, 220, Elgin's methods with, 221, 222, 295-6, 334 _et sqq._
+
+  Toryism of the French Canadians, _see_ French Canadians, Political
+      views of
+
+  Towns, Large and Small, Characteristics of (_circa_ 1846),
+      25 _et sqq._
+
+  Trade between Canada and the U.S.A., as affected by Free Trade, 272,
+      Grey's views on, 273
+    and Colonial relations, Views on, of Bright and Cobden, 284
+
+  Trade-regulation, formerly Controlled by the Crown, 327
+
+  Trade-relations of Canada with Great Britain after Autonomy, 327-8
+
+  _Trent_ episode, 288
+
+
+  U
+
+  Ulstermen as Settlers, 21
+
+  Ultra-Reformers party (1841), 105
+
+  Union, Act of, Acceptance by both Provincial governments, 92;
+      French-Canadian attitude to, 57-8; Guarantees, desired by
+      Stanley, 152; Grey's Changes in, as affecting the French,
+      268; Serious Omission in, 93-5
+
+  Union of Canada, Lord John Russell's instructions on, 71
+    First Parliament of, 100; Elections (and other preliminaries),
+      101; Results, 104; Groups in, 59, 100, 104-5; Sydenham's
+      successes, and struggles against the Autonomy party, 106
+      _et sqq._; Work of the First Session, 106
+    Second, Bagot's, forecasts on, 140-1
+
+  United Empire Loyalists, origin, characteristics, and views of,
+      17-20
+
+  United Reform Party, Baldwin on, 113
+
+  Unity
+    Forces conducing to Education, 16, 31 _et sqq._; Politics, 31;
+      Religion, 31, 32, 40 et seq.
+    Forces retarding, Physical, 8-13, 24, 28-9; Racial, 13, 20-3,
+      24; Religious, 34-5; Social, 24
+
+  University Question, in Upper Canada (1845), 184
+
+  Universities of Canada, 36-8 _&n._1, 136
+
+  Upper Canada, Arrested Development of, Sydenham's plans in aid,
+      98-100; Educational Efforts in, 33 _et sqq._; Methodism in,
+      45-7; Population increase of, 24; Radicalism of, 32; and
+      the Union, 83-9
+
+  Upper Canada College, 35, 50
+
+
+  V
+
+  _Vendus, Les_, 142
+
+  Viger, Jacques, French Canadian politician, 59; and the Rebellion,
+      142; Rival to La Fontaine, 171; in Metcalfe's Council, 177, 194
+
+  Voluntary Principle in matters Ecclesiastical, pros and cons of,
+      51-2
+
+
+  W
+
+  Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, _Art of Colonization_ by, 239; Enthusiasm
+      of, for Immigration, 97; Influence of, on British views on
+      Colonization, 237 _et sqq._; Influence on Grey, 267
+    on Baldwin's position at Metcalfe's arrival, 162; on the Patronage
+      crisis, 170-1
+
+  Wardens, Canadian, appointment of, 118
+
+  Washington, Elgin's diplomacy at, 221
+
+  Wellington, Duke of, opposition of, to Canadian Union, 249-50, 280
+
+  West Indies Slave question, 235
+
+  Whig party, Evolution from, of the Liberal Party, 280-1; Separation
+      views of, 266, 278, 280
+
+  Women of the _habitants_, 16, 31
+
+
+
+
+  GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+  BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: In the index entry "Non-Separationists, the four,
+278, 491", "491" is clearly incorrect since there are not that many
+pages in the book.  It is unknown what this number should have been.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of British Supremacy & Canadian
+Self-Government, by J. L. Morison
+
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