l system, intended to amuse the
colonists, served no other end than to irritate and exasperate men who
had penetration enough to detect the mockery, and whose self-respect
made them abhor the sham."[218]

In an early paragraph of these instructions, Lord Glenelg had objected,
on behalf of His Majesty's Government, to any resort on the part of the
Assembly to that ulterior measure--the stoppage of the supplies--to
which allusion had been made in the Address of that body, and had
referred to it as a proceeding to be justified only by an extreme
emergency. He concluded with an expression of earnest hope that the
representatives of the Upper Canadian people would receive with
gratitude and cordiality this renewed proof of His Majesty's paternal
solicitude for the welfare of his loyal subjects in the Province, and
that, laying aside all groundless distrusts, they would cheerfully
cooeperate with the King and the Lieutenant-Governor in advancing the
prosperity of "that interesting and valuable portion of the British
Empire."

As already mentioned, the full text of the instructions was communicated
by the new Lieutenant-Governor to the Upper Canadian Assembly. Apart
from the fact that this proceeding was not warranted either by usage or
express permission, it was short-sighted and unwise, for the
instructions were not such as to be by any means satisfactory, either to
the official party or the Opposition. The Opposition perceived that,
under a cover of many fair words and specious phrases, there was very
little substantial concession. To the official party it seemed that the
spirit of concession was manifested much too strongly, and as the
appointment of Sir Francis Head had been hailed by the Reformers as a
triumph, anything in the nature of concession, filtered through such a
medium, was naturally regarded with strong suspicion. As for Sir Francis
himself, his mind seems to have been for some weeks in a chaotic state.
He had not been installed in office many days before he had a succession
of private interviews with several leading members of the Reform party.
In the course of a conversation with Mr. Bidwell, who, it will be
remembered, was Speaker of the Assembly, he for the first time became
aware that the Report of the Grievance Committee was not recognized by
the Reform party as being a complete exposition of the case as between
the Home Government and themselves.[219] He soon after had an interview
with Mackenzie, who