lly accomplished about a quarter of a
century later. Such an union would have made the united party all
powerful. It would have swept away the Compact, together with the
long-standing abuses which had grown up under their rule, and the united
party would quietly have assumed the reins of power with an overwhelming
majority at its back. There would thus have been no _raison d'etre_ for
the Radical element, which would necessarily have been absorbed, or
would at least have ceased to be an important factor in political life.

These things, however, were not to be. Neither of the parties primarily
interested made any advances to the other, and each was left to pursue
its own line of policy. As a consequence the moderate Conservatives
henceforth voted as one man. They saw the Radical element assuming an
importance which, as they believed, was fraught with far greater danger
to the commonwealth than was likely to arise from the continued
ascendency of the Compact. They gave the official party a qualified
support, merely because they regarded them as the less of two evils, and
their votes at the general election of 1830 resulted in the return of a
considerable majority of candidates favourable to the official body.

[Sidenote: 1831.]

The Reformers could no longer hope to obtain justice, even in the
Assembly, where they had exerted a predominating influence during the
last two Parliaments. So long as they had had control of the Lower House
they had possessed the shadow of power without the reality. Even the
shadow had been better than nothing; but of this shadow they were
henceforth to be deprived. They had not only sustained numerical defeat.
Some of their most trusted leaders had been beaten at the polls, and
were no longer able to raise their voices in Parliament. Robert
Baldwin's defeat in York has already been mentioned.[148] His father had
suffered a similar fate in Norfolk. In Middlesex John Rolph and Captain
Matthews had been succeeded by Colonel Mahlon Burwell and another
adherent of the Compact. Lennox and Addington had again returned Bidwell
and Perry, but, owing to the changed complexion of the House, there was
no possibility of the former's re-election to the Speaker's chair. Among
other triumphs scored by the official party were the return of the
Solicitor-General, Christopher A. Hagerman, for Kingston; of the
Attorney-General, H. J. Boulton, for Niagara; of William B. Robinson
(brother of the Chief Justice) fo