rgely in population than the French
Canadian section. The particular measure which the French Canadians
had pressed for so many years on the British Government, an elective
legislative council, was conceded. When a few years had passed the
Canadian legislature was given full control of taxation, supply, and
expenditure, in accordance with English constitutional principles. The
clergy reserves difficulty was settled and the land sold for public or
municipal purposes, the interest of existing rectors and incumbents
being guarded. The great land question of Canada, the seigniorial
tenure of Lower Canada, was disposed of by buying off the claims of the
seigniors, and the people of Lower Canada were freed from exactions
which had become not so much onerous as vexatious. Municipal
institutions of a liberal nature were established, and the people of
the two Canadian provinces exercised that control of their local
affairs in the {368} counties, townships, cities, and parishes which is
necessary to carry out public works indispensable to the comfort,
health, and convenience of the community, and to supplement the efforts
made by the legislature, from time to time, to provide for the general
education of the country. With the magnificent system of public
schools now possessed by Ontario must always be associated the name of
Dr. Egerton Ryerson, a famous Methodist, the opponent of Mackenzie's
seditious action, and for many years the superintendent of education.
In Nova Scotia it was chiefly through the foresight of Sir Charles
Tupper, when premier, that the foundations were laid of the present
admirable system. During the same period the schools of New Brunswick
and Prince Edward Island were also placed on an excellent basis. In
the maritime provinces no express legal provision was made for separate
or denominational schools, as in Upper and Lower Canada--schools now
protected by the terms of the federal union of 1867. The civil
service, which necessarily plays so important a part in the
administration of government, was placed on a permanent basis.

The anxiety of the British Government to bury in oblivion the
unfortunate events of 1837-38 was proved by an amnesty that was granted
soon after the union of 1841, to the banished offenders against the
public peace and the Crown. William Lyon Mackenzie, Louis Joseph
Papineau, and Wolfred Nelson came back and were elected to Parliament,
though the two first never exercised an