conduct for which his only
apology must be the half-hearted, doubtful policy of the imperial
authorities with regard to the province, and his own inability to
understand the fundamental principles of responsible government.

Lord Metcalfe's successor was Lord Cathcart, who had served with
distinction in the Peninsular War, and was appointed with a view to
contingencies that might arise out of the dispute between England and
the United States on the Oregon boundary question, to which I shall
refer in another chapter. He pursued a judicious course at a time when
politics were complicated by the fact that the industry and commerce of
the country were seriously deranged by the adoption of free trade in
England, and the consequent removal of duties which had given the
preference in the British market to Canadian wheat, flour and other
products. What aggravated the commercial situation was the fact that the
navigation laws, being still in force, closed the St. Lawrence to
foreign shipping and prevented the extension of trade to other markets
so as to compensate Canadians for the loss of that with the parent
state. Lord Cathcart was recalled within less than a year, when all
prospect of war with the United States had disappeared, and was followed
(1847) by a civil governor, the Earl of Elgin, who was chosen by the
Whig ministry, in which Lord John Russell was prime minister, and Earl
Grey the secretary of state for the colonies. It had dawned upon English
statesmen that the time had come for giving the colonists of British
North America a system of responsible government without such reserves
as had so seriously shackled its beginnings. In all probability they
thought that the free-trade policy of England had momentarily weakened
the ties that had bound the colonies to the parent state, and that it
was advisable to follow up the new commercial policy by removing causes
of public discontent in the province.

Lord Elgin was happily chosen to inaugurate a new era of colonial
self-government. Gifted with a judicial mind and no ordinary amount of
political sagacity, able to originate as well as carry out a
statesmanlike policy, animated, like Lord Durham--whose daughter he had
married--by a sincere desire to give full scope to the aspirations of
the people for self-government, so far as compatible with the supremacy
of the crown, possessed of eloquence which at once charmed and
convinced, Lord Elgin was able to establish on sure f