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arsenic. Whether the effect will be more complete than it was before, time will show. God bless you, my dearest sister. Deer Park must be beginning to be delightful. When I think how happy I was and should have been there, and afterwards at Stoke Gifford, it requires the conviction that I have acted according to duty to reconcile me to the sacrifice that I have made. God grant that we may all meet again, and enjoy a renewal of the same happiness.

"Your affectionate,

"C. T. METCALFE."

He arrived at Kingston on the afternoon of the 29th of March. The streets were lined with troops; and the whole male population of the place turned out to greet him.* If the enthusiasm with which he was received could have soothed his anxieties, he would have derived solace from these demonstrations --but he knew, as he passed along the streets of Kingston, that there was a period of trouble and excitement before him. On the following day he was sworn in as Governor-General of the Canadas and their dependencies.

* The following passage of a letter, written at the time by a newspaper correspondent, describes the manner of Metcalfe's reception:-"Sir Charles Metcalfe arrived about half an hour ago. He came from the American side, in a close-bodied sleigh drawn by four greys. He was received, on arriving at the foot of Arthurstreet (Ives' Wharf), by an immense concourse of people. The military escort was composed of a detachment of the Incorporated Lancers, and the guard of honor from the 23rd Regiment. Notwithstanding the repeated disappointments as to the time of the arrival, the male population of the place turned out en masse to greet Sir Charles,

which they did with great enthusiasm. The various branches of the Fire Department, the Mechanics' Institution, and the National Societies, turned out with their banners, which, with many sleighs decorated with flags, made quite a show. The streets from Daley's Hotel to the Governor's residence were lined by the military. Sir Charles, after a turn through two or three streets, from the place of his landing, accompanied by the procession, went to his residence. Sir Charles Metcalfe is a thorough-looking Englishman, with a jolly visage. He looks older than he really is, but this may proceed from the fatigues of his very rough journey."

CHAPTER XIV.

[1843-1845.]

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA.

The Canadian Constitution-Responsible Government-How to be Interpreted-State of Parties-The Executive Council-Beginning of Difficulties -Rupture with the Council-Provincial Addresses-Formation of a New Council-General Election-The New Session-Metcalfe's Difficulties.

AND now Sir Charles Metcalfe began to look the difficulties of his position fairly in the face. They were great; and he scarcely hoped to overcome them. But he addressed himself to his work in a quiet, resolute spirit, with the calm consciousness of a man knowing that he was about to do his best, in all honesty and sincerity, and that there were no personal considerations to cause him to swerve one hair's breadth from the path of duty. He had not come to Canada to serve himself-but to serve the State. If he failed, therefore, his failure would have been forced upon him; it would not be selfincurred.

The more closely he looked at the difficulties before him, the more formidable they appeared to be. He found, indeed, that they were far greater and more complicated than those which he had

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overcome, by the mere force of an honest purpose and a conciliatory spirit, on the distracted WestIndian island. They were formidable because they were only to be subdued either by evolving a crisis, which for a time must have convulsed the colony, or by a sacrifice of principle to which it was not in the nature of such a man to submit. The partyspirit which was rending Jamaica on his arrival startled the Indian Governor. He said that it was impossible to conciliate one party without offending another. But in Canada the curse of faction appeared before him so swollen and exaggerated, that he wondered the evils with which he had contended during his former Government had ever disquieted him at all.

His first care on establishing himself in Kingston was to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the character of the Government over which he was commissioned to preside. He found in Canada a Legislature embracing, as in Jamaica, three constituent parts:-the Governor, or representative of the Crown; the Legislative Council, nominated by the Crown; and the Representative Assembly, elected by the people. But there was a very important difference, in respect of the manner in which the Government was practically administered, between the West-Indian island and the North-American province; for whereas in the former the Legislative and Executive Council was one, and the office-holders of whom it was composed retained their places during good-conduct, in the latter there was a separate Executive Council,

holding office virtually by the sufferance of the popular branch of the Legislature, though nominally appointed by the Crown. This Executive Council was composed of members of both Houses -principally of the Lower House, to which they declared themselves directly responsible.

This, in fact, was that Responsible Government of which subsequently so much was heard in all discussions on Canadian affairs. The responsibility was the responsibility of the Executive Council to a majority in the House of Assembly. They professed to govern the province through that majority. They represented, indeed, the representatives of the people, and, therefore, governed through and for the community. So far was this theory of Responsible Government sufficiently sound-but when it came to be reduced to practice there were some obtrusive difficulties in the way of its successful application. And among the most difficult questions which suggested themselves was this-What, under such a state of things, was to become of the GovernorGeneral ?

This question filled Metcalfe's mind; and when he addressed himself to its solution, it was natural that he should have considered, in the first instance, how his predecessors had dealt with the difficulties which he was now called upon to encounter. The name of Responsible Government was, at all events, nothing new to the North-American Colonies. It had been talked of by Lord Durham; and tried by Lord Sydenham and Sir Charles Bagot-how and with what result the new Governor-General now

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clearly described, on the 24th of April, in his first confidential despatch to the Colonial Office:

"Lord Durham's meaning," he wrote, "seems to have been that the Governor should conduct his administration in concordance with the public feeling, represented by the popular branch of the Legislature, and it is obvious that without such concordance the Government could not be successfully administered. There is no evidence in what manner Lord Durham would have carried out the system which he advocated, as it was not brought into effect during his administration. Lord Sydenham arranged the details by which the principle was carried into execution. In forming the Executive Council he made it a rule that the individuals comprising it should be members of the popular branch of the Legislature, to which I believe there was only one exception; the gentleman appointed to be President being a member of the Legislative Council. Lord Sydenham had apparently no intention of surrendering the Government into the hands of the Executive Council. On the contrary, he ruled the Council, and exercised great personal influence in the election of members to the Representative Assembly. I am not aware that any great change took place, during that period of the administration of Sir Charles Bagot, which preceded the meeting of the Legislature-but this event was instantly followed by a full development of the consequences of making the officers of the Government virtually dependent for the possession of their places on the pleasure of the Representative body. The two extreme parties in Upper Canada most violently opposed to each other coalesced solely for the purpose of turning out the office-holders, or as it is now termed, the Ministry of that day, with no other bond of union, and with a mutual understanding that having accomplished that purpose, they would take the chance of the consequences, and should be at liberty to follow their respective courses. The French party also took part in this coalition, and from its compactness and internal re-union formed its greatest