arrayed against each other in the bitterest antagonism.1 Appeals to the home government were very common, but no satisfactory results were attained as long as the constitution of 1791 remained in force. In Upper Canada the financial disputes, which were of so aggravated a character in the lower province, were more easily arranged; but nevertheless a great deal of irritation existed on account of the patronage and political influence being almost exclusively in the hands of the official class, which practically controlled the executive and legislative councils.2

In Nova Scotia the majority of the house of assembly were continually protesting against the composition of the executive and legislative councils, and the preponderance therein of certain interests which they conceived to be unfavourable to reform.3 In New Brunswick, for years, the disputes between the executive and legislative powers were characterized by much acrimony, but eventually all the revenues of the province were conceded to

"I expected to find a contest between a government and a people; I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state; I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races." Lord Durham's R., p. 7.

3

2 Lord Durham's R., pp. 56-58.

Mr. Young to Lord Durham, R., p. 75, and App. At the time of the border difficulties with Maine, the Nova Scotia legislature voted the necessary supplies. "Yet," said Mr. Howe, those who voted the money, who were responsible to their constituents for its expenditure, and without whose consent (for they formed two-thirds of the Commons) a shilling could not have been drawn, had not a single man in the local cabinet, by whom it was to be spent, and by whom, in that trying emergency, the governor would be advised."

2

the assembly, and the government became more harmonious from the moment it was confided to those who had the confidence of the majority in the house. In Prince Edward Island the political difficulty arose from the land monopoly, which was not to disappear in its entirety until the colony became a part of the confederation of Canada. But when we come to review the political condition of all the provinces, we find, as a rule, "represen tative government coupled with an irresponsible execu tive, the same abuse of the powers of the representative bodies, owing to the anomaly of their position, aided by the want of good municipal institutions; and the same constant interference of the imperial administration in matters which should be left wholly to the provincial governments."3 In Lower Canada, the descendants of the people who had never been allowed by France a voice in the administration of public affairs, had, after some years' experience of representative institutions, entered fully into their spirit and meaning, and could not now be satisfied with the workings of a political system which always ignored the wishes of the majority who really represented the people in the legislature. Consequently, the discontent at last assumed so formidable a character, that legislation was completely obstructed. Eventually, this discontent culminated in the rebellion of 1837-38, which inflicted much injury on the province,

2

4

1 Lord Durham's R., p. 74.

Ibid, p. 75.

3 Lord Durham's R., p. 74.

For various accounts of this ill-advised rebellion in L. C., see Garneau, II. chaps. ii. and iii., Book 16, pp. 418-96; Christie, vols. iv. and v.; Withrow, chap. xxvii.

1

though happily it was confined to a very small part of the people. An attempt at a rebellion was also made in the upper province, but so unsuccessfully, that the leaders were obliged to fly almost simultaneously with the rising of their followers; though it was not for many months afterwards that the people ceased to feel the injurious effects of the agitation which the revolutionists and their emissaries endeavoured to keep up in the province. In the lower or maritime colonies, no disturbance occurred,' and the leaders of the popular party were among the first to assist the authorities in their efforts to preserve the public tranquillity, and to express themselves emphatically in favour of British connection.3

The result of these disturbances in the upper provinces was another change in the constitution of the Canadas. The imperial government was called upon to intervene promptly in their affairs. Previous to the outbreak in Canada the government had sent out royal commissioners with instructions to inquire fully into the state of the province of Lower Canada, where the ruling party in the assembly had formulated their grievances in the shape of ninety-two resolutions, in which, among other

Life of W. Lyon Mackenzie, C. Lindsey. Withrow, chap. xxviii.

2 "If in these provinces there is less formidable discontent and less obstruction to the regular course of government, it is because in them there has been recently a considerable departure from the ordinary course of the colonial system, and a nearer approach to sound constitutional practice." Lord Durham's R., p. 74,

* See remarks of Mr. Joseph Howe at a public meeting held at Halifax, N.S., in 1838. Howe's Life and Letters, I. 171.

2

3

things, they demanded an elective legislative council.1 Lord Gosford came out in 1835 as governor-general and as head of the commission, but the result tended only to intensify the discontent in the province. In 1837, Lord John Russell carried, in the House of Commons, by a large majority, a series of resolutions, in which the de mand for an elective legislative council and other radical changes was positively refused. In this public emergency the Queen was called upon, on the 10th of February, 1838, to sanction a bill passed by the two houses, suspending the constitution, and making temporary pro \vision for the government of Lower Canada. This act1 was proclaimed in the Quebec Gazette on the 29th of March in the same year, and, in accordance with its provisions, Sir John Colborne appointed a special council.5 which continued in office until the arrival of Lord Durham, who superseded Lord Gosford as governor-general," and was also entrusted with large powers as high commissioner "for the adjustment of certain important affairs, affecting the provinces of Upper and Lower

1 Garneau, II. 415-5. Journals, L. C., 1834, p. 310.

2 Withrow, 365. Sir C. Grey and Sir G. Gipps were associated with Lord Gosford on the Commission.

3 Eng. Com. J. [92] 305; Mirror of P., 1243-4.

4 1 and 2 Vict., c. 9; 2 and 3 Vict., c. 53.

5 Christie V., 51. The first ordinance suspended the Habeas Corpus and declared that the enactment of the council should take effect from date of passage.

6 Christie, V. 48-9. Sir John Colborne was only administrator at this time.

7 For instructions, in part, to Lord Durham and his remarks in the House of Lords on accepting the office, see Christie V., 47-50.

Canada." Immediately on Lord Durham's arrival he dissolved the special council just mentioned and appointed a new executive council.1 This distinguished statesman continued at the head of affairs in the province from the last of May, 1838, until the 3rd of November in the same year, when he returned to England, where his ordinance of the 28th of June, sentencing certain British subjects in custody to transportation without a form of trial, and subjecting them, and others not in prison, to death in case of their return to the country without permission of the authorities, had been most severely censured in and out of Parliament as entirely unwarranted by law. So strong was the feeling in the Imperial Parliament on this question, that a bill was passed to indemnify all those who had issued or acted in putting the ordinance in force.3

1 Christie, V. 150-51.

2 For debates on question, text of ordinance and accompanying proclamation, see Ibid. 158-83.

3 This bill was introduced by Lord Brougham, the severest critic of Lord Durham's course in this matter. (1 and 2 Vict., c. 112.) In admitting the questionable character of the ordinance, Lord Durham's friends deprecated the attacks made against him, and showed that all his measures had been influenced by an anxious desire to pacify the dissensions in the provinces. Christie, V. 183-94.