ned all his mind in private letters, the official
communications which passed between them were necessarily very reserved.
The following extract illustrates well this peculiarity in the position of
a British Colonial Governor, who has two popular Assemblies and two public
presses to consider:--

Perhaps you may have been annoyed by my not writing officially to you
ere this so as to give you communications to send to Parliament. All
that I can say on that point is, that I have got through this
disagreeable affair as well as I have done only by maintaining my
constitutional position, listening civilly to all representations
addressed to me against the measure, and adhering to a strict reserve
as to the course which I might deem it proper eventually to pursue. By
following this course I have avoided any act or expression which might
have added fuel to the flame; and although I have been plentifully
abused, because it has been the policy of the Opposition to drag me
into the strife, no one can say that I have said or done anything to
justify the abuse. And the natural effect of such patient endurance is
now beginning to show itself in the moderated tone of the organs of
the Opposition press. You will perceive, however, that I could not
possibly have maintained this position here, if despatches from me
indicating the Ministerial policy had been submitted to the House of
Commons. They would have found their way out here at once. Every
statement and opinion would have formed the subject of discussion, and
I should have found myself in the midst of the _melee_ a
partisan.

To counteract the violent and reckless efforts of the Opposition, Lord
Elgin trusted partly to the obvious reasonableness of the proposal under
discussion, but more to the growth of a patriotic spirit which should lead
the minority to prefer the rule of a majority within the province to the
coercion of a power from without. Something also he hoped from the effect
of the many excellent measures brought in about the same time by his new
Ministry, 'the first really efficient and working Government that Canada
had had since the Union.' Nor were these hopes altogether disappointed.
Writing on April 12 he observed, that a marked change had taken place
within the last few weeks in the tone both of the press[2] and of the
leaders of the party, some of whom had given him to understand, thr