could be successfully combined....To suppose that such a
system would work well there, implied a belief that the French Canadians
have enjoyed representative institutions for half a century, without
acquiring any of the characteristics of a free people; that Englishmen
renounce every political opinion and feeling when they enter a colony,
or that the spirit of Anglo-Saxon freedom is utterly changed and
weakened among those who are transplanted across the Atlantic[3]."

[3: For the full text of Lord Durham's report, which was laid before
Parliament, 11 February, 1839, see _English Parliamentary Papers_ for
1839.]

In June, 1839, Lord John Russell introduced a bill to reunite the two
provinces, but it was allowed, after its second reading, to lie over for
that session of parliament, in order that the matter might be fully
considered in Canada. Mr. Poulett Thomson was appointed governor-general
with the avowed object of carrying out the policy of the imperial
government. Immediately after his arrival in Canada, in the autumn of
1839, the special council of Lower Canada and the legislature of Upper
Canada passed addresses in favour of a union of the two provinces. These
necessary preliminaries having been made, Lord John Russell, in the
session of 1840, again brought forward "An act to reunite the provinces
of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the government of Canada," which was
assented to on the 23rd of July, but did not come into effect until the
10th of February in the following year.

The act provided for a legislative council of not less than twenty
members, and for a legislative assembly in which each section of the
united provinces would be represented by an equal number of
members--that is to say, forty-two for each or eighty-four in all. The
number of representatives allotted to each province could not be changed
except with the concurrence of two-thirds of the members of each house.
The members of the legislative council were appointed by the crown for
life, and the members of the assembly were chosen by electors possessing
a small property qualification. Members of both bodies were required to
hold property to a certain amount. The assembly had a duration of four
years, subject of course to be sooner dissolved by the governor-general.

Provision was made for a consolidated revenue fund, on which the first
charges were expenses of collection, management and receipt of revenues,
interest of public debt, payment