he various racial elements of British
North America during its formative stage. Frenchmen, Englishmen,
Scotsmen from the Lowlands and Highlands, Irishmen and Americans, united
to support the British connection. The character of the people,
especially in Upper Canada, was strengthened from a national point of
view by the severe strain to which it was subjected. Men and women alike
were elevated above the conditions of a mere colonial life and the
struggle for purely material necessities, and became animated by that
spirit of self-sacrifice and patriotic endeavour which tend to make a
people truly great.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EVOLUTION OF RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT (1815--1839)

SECTION I.--The rebellion in Lower Canada.

Responsible government in Canada is the logical sequence of the
political struggles, which commenced soon after the close of the war of
1812-15. As we review the history of Canada since the conquest we can
recognise "one ever increasing purpose" through all political changes,
and the ardent desire of men, entrusted at the outset with a very
moderate degree of political responsibility, to win for themselves a
larger measure of political liberty in the management of their own local
affairs. Grave mistakes were often made by the advocates of reform in
the government of the several provinces--notably, as I shall show, in
Lower Canada, where the French Canadian majority were carried often
beyond reason at the dictation of Papineau--but, whatever may have been
the indiscretions of politicians, there were always at the bottom of
their demands the germs of political development.

The political troubles that continued from 1817 until 1836 in Lower
Canada eventually made the working of legislative institutions
impracticable. The contest gradually became one between the
governor-general representing the crown and the assembly controlled
almost entirely by a French Canadian majority, with respect to the
disposition of the public revenues and expenditures. Imperial statutes,
passed as far back as 1774-1775, provided for the levying of duties, to
be applied solely by the crown, primarily "towards defraying the
expenses of the administration of justice and the support of the civil
government of the province", and any sums that remained in the hands of
the government were "for the future disposition of parliament." Then
there were "the casual or territorial revenues," such as money arising
from the Jesuits' estate