, under some differences with respect to time and mode of
election, would be a greater check on ill-considered legislation than
the Council as it is now constituted. Baldwin is very unwilling to
move in this matter. Having got what he imagines to be the likest
thing to the British constitution he can obtain, he is satisfied, and
averse to further change. In this instance I cannot but think that he
mistakes the shadow for the substance. I admire, however, the
perseverance with which he proclaims, '_Il faut jeter l'ancre de la
constitution_,' in reply to proposals of organic change; though I
fully expect that, like those who raised this cry in 1791, he will
yet, if he lives, find himself and his state-ship floundering among
rocks and shoals, towards which he never expected to steer.

Three years later he held the same language to the Duke of Newcastle.
Writing on March 26, 1853, to inform him that the Bill for increasing the
representation had been carried in the Assembly by a large majority, he
adds:--

The Lords must be attended to in the next place. The position of the
second chamber in our body politic is at present wholly
unsatisfactory. The principle of election must be introduced in order
to give to it the influence which it ought to possess; and that
principle must be so applied as to admit of the working of
Parliamentary Government (which I for one am certainly not prepared to
abandon for the American system) with two elective chambers. I have
made some suggestions with this view, which I hope to be able to
induce the Legislature to adopt.

When our two legislative bodies shall have been placed on this
improved footing, a greater stability will have been imparted to our
constitution, and a greater strength, I believe, if England act
wisely, to the connection.

[Sidenote: The Act passed.]

The question did not come before the British Parliament till the summer of
1854, after Lord Elgin's visit to England, during which he had an
opportunity of stating his views personally to the Government. At his
instance they brought in a Bill to enable the Colonial Legislature to deal
with the subject; and the measure was carried, with few dissentients,
although vehemently denounced by Lord Derby in the House of Lords. The
principles of colonial policy which Lord Durham had expressed so powerfully
in 1888, and on which Lord Grey