The plan of sending out a new Governor free from any previous association with either of the parties, or any of the recent transactions in the colony, was, probably, the wisest that could have been adopted. Unfortunately, it was in some degree marred by the choice of the statesman sent out, Lord Durham, a man of unquestioned ability, but of an extraordinarily self-willed and overbearing temper. He drew up a most able report of the state of the provinces, combined with recommendations of the course to be pursued toward them in future, so judicious that subsequent ministers, though widely differing from his views of general politics, saw no better plan than that which he had suggested; but, unhappily, the measures which he himself adopted, especially with respect to the treatment of those who had been leaders in the late rebellion, were such manifest violations of law, that the government at home had no alternative but that of disallowing some of them, and carrying a bill of indemnity for others. He took such offence at their treatment of him, though it was quite inevitable, that he at once resigned his appointment and returned home. But the next year the Queen sent down a message to the Houses recommending a union of the two provinces (a measure which had been the most important, and the very foundation, of his suggestions), and Lord John Russell introduced a bill which, as he described its object, he hoped would "lay the foundation of a permanent settlement of the affairs of the entire colony." The main feature of the government policy was the formation of "a legislative union of the two provinces on the principles of a free and representative government," and the establishment of such a system of local government as amounted to a practical recognition of the principle so earnestly repudiated, as we have seen, by Lord John Russell a year or two before. It was not, perhaps, fully carried out at first. Lord Sydenham, who had succeeded Lord Durham, reported to the home government, as the result of a tour which he had taken through a great part of the country, that in the whole of the Upper Province, and among the British settlers of the Lower Province, "an excellent spirit prevailed, and that he had found everywhere a determination to forget past differences, and to unite in an endeavor to obtain under the union those practical measures for the improvement of the country which had been too long neglected in the struggle for party and personal objects." But of the French Canadians he could not give so favorable a report. Efforts were still made by some of the old Papineau party to mislead the people; but he was satisfied they would not again be able to induce the peasantry to support any attempt at disturbance. It was natural that that party should still feel some soreness at the utter failure of their recent attempts and the disappointment of their hopes; and affairs took the longer time in being brought into perfect order and harmony through a strange mortality which took place among the first Governors-general. Lord Sydenham died the next year of lockjaw, brought on by a fall from his horse; Sir Charles Bagot was forced to retire in a state of hopeless bad health after an administration equally brief; two years later, Sir Charles Metcalfe, who succeeded him, returned home only to die; and it was not till a fourth Governor, Lord Elgin, succeeded to the government that it could be said that the new system, though established five years before, had a fair trial.
Fortunately, he was a man admirably qualified by largeness of statesman-like views and a most conciliatory disposition for such a post at such a time; and he strictly carried out the scheme which was implied by the bill of Lord John Russell, and to a certain extent inaugurated by Lord Sydenham, selecting his advisers from the party which had the confidence of the Legislative Assembly, and generally directing his policy in harmony with their counsels; so that under his government the working of the colonial constitution was a nearly faithful reproduction of the parliamentary constitution at home. Such a policy was in reality only a development of the principle laid down by Pitt half a century before, and warmly approved by his great rival, that "the only method of retaining distant colonies with advantage is to enable them to govern themselves."[255] And since that day similar constitutions have been established in our other distant dependencies as they have become ripe for them-in New Zealand, the Cape, and the Australian colonies-almost the only powers reserved to the home government in those colonies in which such constitutions have been established being that of appointing the governors; that of ratifying or, if necessary, disallowing measures adopted by the colonial government; and, in cases of necessity, that of prescribing measures for the adoption of the local Legislatures, and even of compelling such adoption, in the event of any persevering opposition. The act of 1850, which established a constitution in Victoria, went even farther in the privileges it conferred on the colonists, inasmuch as it gave power to the Legislative Council to alter some of its provisions, and even to remodel the Legislative Council and Assembly. It may be doubted whether this last concession did not go too far, since in more than one important instance the government of that great colony has availed itself of it so liberally as to render it necessary to pass a fresh act of Parliament to enable her Majesty to give her royal assent to some of the changes which the Assembly had enacted.[256] Indeed, it cannot be said that the system has worked in every part or on every occasion quite as well as might have been hoped; nor can it be denied that the colonies have occasionally claimed a power of independent action in opposition to the home Parliament in a way to try severely the patience of the home government. After the British Parliament had adopted the policy and system of free-trade, the Canadian Assembly adhered to the doctrine of protection so obstinately that it actually established a tariff of import duties injurious to the commerce of the mother country, and apparently intended as a condemnation of its principles. But its contumacy showed how wholly different was the spirit of the British government from that which had prevailed in the last century; for though the home government had unquestionably the right of disallowing the offensive tariff, it forbore to exercise it; and, probably, by this striking proof that it considered a complete recognition of the principle of local self-government more important than any trifling financial or commercial advantage, contributed greatly to implant in Canada and all the colonies that confidence in the affectionate moderation of the home government which must be the strongest, if not the only indissoluble, bond of union.