ently in the ascendant throughout the Province; but, as during the
preceding Parliament, the exertions of the majority in the Assembly
could do little for Reform under the existing state of the constitution.
The Lieutenant-Governor responded with curt ambiguity to the Assembly's
Address, and cemented his alliance with the Compact by refusing to grant
the prayer of the petition for the release of Collins. The Government
submitted to one defeat after another with dogged sullenness, but with
undiminished contempt for the idea that successive defeats imposed upon
them any obligation to resign.

The session of 1829 was a noisy and quarrelsome one. Hardly had
Mackenzie taken his seat before he began that system of inquiry and
agitation which he thenceforward pursued throughout the whole of his
career as a member of Parliament. He instituted an investigation into
the management of the Provincial Post Office, conducted an inquiry as to
the privileges of members of the Assembly, and as to the behaviour of
certain returning officers, and generally busied himself with important
matters of detail. He displayed precisely the same characteristics as a
legislator that he had displayed as the conductor of a newspaper--great
energy and vigilance, accompanied by a critical and fault-finding
spirit, and an almost entire absence of tact and discretion. He gave
wanton and unnecessary offence to those who differed from him in
opinion, not only on important political questions, but even on
comparatively insignificant matters of every-day occurrence. His
coadjutors found that, independently of the sincerity or insincerity of
his intentions, his judgment was not to be trusted. He could be misled
by any _ignis fatuus_ that displayed a bright light, and was led into
many a Serbonian bog from which he was not extricated without serious
difficulty. Some men have an unerring instinct which, even in the
absence of calm judgment or mature reflection, commonly leads them in
the right path. Mackenzie's first conceptions, on the contrary, were
almost invariably erroneous; and he had a perverse habit of frequently
clinging to an idea once formed, even when experience and deliberation
had proved it to be unsound.[141] At other times his opinions were as
changeable as the hue of the chameleon. In short, he was a creature of
impulse, and too often acted upon the motto of "First fire--then
inquire." This was perhaps a misfortune rather than a fault, and under