first official acts was to give
to the Anglican Church a numerical superiority to which it had no valid
claim. As in Upper Canada, at that time, there was a combination or
compact, composed of descendants of English Tories or of the Loyalists
of 1783, who belonged to the Anglican Church, and were opposed to
popular government. Two men were now becoming most prominent in
politics. One of these was Mr. James William Johnston, the son of a
Georgia Loyalist, an able lawyer, gifted with a persuasive tongue which
chimed most harmoniously with the views of Sir Colin. On the other side
was Mr. Joseph Howe, the son of a Loyalist printer of Boston, who had no
such aristocratic connections as Mr. Johnston, and soon became the
dominant influence in the Reform party, which had within its ranks such
able and eloquent men as S.G.W. Archibald, Herbert Huntington, Lawrence
O'Connor Doyle, William and George R. Young, and, very soon, James Boyle
Uniacke. Sir Colin Campbell completely ignored the despatches of Lord
John Russell, which were recognised by Sir John Harvey as conferring "an
improved constitution" upon the colonies. In February, 1840, Mr. Howe
moved a series of resolutions, in which it was emphatically stated that
"no satisfactory settlement of questions before the country could be
obtained until the executive council was remodelled," and that, as then
constituted, "it did not enjoy the confidence of the country." The
motion was carried by a majority of eighteen votes, in a house of
forty-two members, and indeed, so untenable was the position of the
executive council that Mr. James Boyle Uniacke, a member of the
government, retired, rather than vote, and subsequently placed his
resignation in the hands of the lieutenant-governor, on the ground that
it was his duty to yield to the opinions of the representative house,
and facilitate the introduction of a better system of government, in
accordance with the well-understood wishes of the people. From that time
Mr. Uniacke became one of Mr. Howe's ablest allies in the struggle for
self-government. Sir Colin, however, would not recede from the attitude
he had assumed, but expressed the opinion, in his reply to the address
of the legislature, that he could not recognise in the despatch of the
colonial secretary of state "any instruction for a fundamental change in
the colonial constitution." The assembly then prayed her Majesty, in a
powerful and temperate address, to recall Sir Colin