er Canada. On this he was defeated,
but with rare pertinacity he stuck to his guns, and urged his views
upon the Assembly at every opportune and inopportune moment. The
Macdonald-Cartier Government opposed the principle of representation by
population because it was not in accord with the Union Act. That Act
was a distinct bargain between Upper Canada and Lower Canada, and could
not be altered without the consent of both. On the school question
Macdonald took the ground that the clause granting separate schools to
Roman Catholics was in the Common School Act long before he became a
member of the government--having been placed there by Robert
Baldwin--and that it would be unfair and unjust arbitrarily to take the
privilege away. Moreover, he argued, on the authority of Egerton
Ryerson, a Protestant clergyman and superintendent of {56} schools for
Upper Canada, that the offending clause injured nobody, but, on the
contrary, 'widens the basis of the common school system.'

This might be good logic, and inherently fair and just. All the same,
the _Globe_ conducted its campaign with such telling effect that three
ministers lost their seats in the general elections of 1857, and the
Clear Grits came out of the campaign in Upper Canada with a majority of
six or eight.

In Lower Canada there was a different result. The appeals to sectional
and religious prejudice, which wrought havoc in the ranks of the
ministerial supporters in the upper province, had a contrary effect
among the Rouges. Their alliance with the Clear Grit party wellnigh
brought their complete overthrow. Dorion himself was elected, but his
namesake J. B. E. Dorion, commonly known as _l'enfant terrible_, was
unsuccessful, as also was Luther H. Holton, the leading
English-speaking Liberal of the province. Other prominent Rouges such
as Papin, Doutre, Fournier, and Letellier were given abundant leisure
to deplore the fanaticism of George Brown. Cartier had the
satisfaction of coming to the assistance of his colleague with {57}
almost the whole representation of Lower Canada at his back.

This brings us to the historic incident of the 'Double Shuffle.'
Shortly after the elections it became known that Her Majesty, in
response to the request of the legislature, had chosen Ottawa as the
seat of government. The announcement was somewhat prematurely made and
gave rise to a good deal of dissatisfaction. This manifested itself
when parliament met. In the ea