have
any real voice in the carrying-on of the Government. To one person only
did he apply for advice in every emergency. That person was not a member
of the Government, and was therefore an unsworn counsellor, under no
semblance of responsibility to anybody. He was a power behind the
throne, with all the privileges and none of the disabilities attaching
to such a position. The gentleman elevated to this anomalous dignity was
Chief Justice Robinson, Speaker of the Legislative Council, the
master-spirit of the Family Compact, and the life-long champion of those
very abuses which the "Tried Reformer" was currently supposed to have
been sent out to remove. The Councillors, old as well as new, were
treated as mere figure-heads. They were consulted about land matters and
insignificant questions of detail, but the policy and measures of the
Government seldom passed under their review, or were submitted to them
for advice.[225] Some of these measures were such as they could not
approve or sanction. His Excellency nominated two adherents of the old
official party to vacant offices upon which they had no sort of claim.
He refused the royal assent to the Felons' Counsel Bill, a measure
"demanded by justice and humanity, and passed for more than ten years,
almost unanimously, by repeated and different Houses of Assembly."[226]
The Councillors were thus made to seem responsible for acts over which
they had no control, and of which some of them, at least, highly
disapproved. The Reform party were astonished to see such things done
under the auspices of a Government of which Robert Baldwin and Dr. Rolph
were members. They however acquitted both those gentleman of having
advised such acts. It was believed by Reformers generally that the three
new Councillors were not consulted, or else that the old members, with
the umpirage of the Lieutenant-Governor, predominated.[227]

This state of things could not be allowed to continue. The Executive
Councillors consulted together, and determined upon a remonstrance with
the Lieutenant-Governor. This remonstrance was formally prepared in
writing, and sent in to his Excellency on Friday, the 4th of March. The
three old members concurred in it, and it was signed by all the six in
order of seniority. The mere fact of this concurrence affords strong
evidence of the growth of the power of public opinion in the Province.
In past times members of the Executive Council had been content to pose
as figure-