ishing the power of the Crown in the Canadas on a firm basis.
Among these were the repeal of the Act surrendering the revenue, the
annexation of the District of Gaspe to the Province of New Brunswick,
and the annexation of Montreal to Upper Canada. It may safely be assumed
that these ideas were not his own, and nobody who has read "Canada and
the Canada Bill,"[261] published several years later, will entertain
much doubt as to the individual from whom he derived his inspiration.

FOOTNOTES:

[236] Sir Francis afterwards denied that this challenge was addressed to
the Americans. See his despatch to Lord Glenelg dated 6th November,
1836, embodied in his _Narrative_, chap, vi. But it is quite evident
that the denial, as well as the construction there sought to be put upon
his language, was an after-thought. If, as he there asserts, "the
Americans had no more to do with the subject than the Chinese," there
was no appropriate significance whatever in his doughty defiance.

[237] See despatch of May 28th.

[238] See despatch of 21st April.

[239] _Ib._

[240] _Ib._

[241] Despatch of May 28th.

[242] Of April 28th.

[243] _Ante_, p. 281.

[244] See Dr. Rolph's _Speech to the House in Committee on the Report of
the Select Committee on the Petition of Dr. Charles Duncombe to the
British House of Commons_, delivered on Monday, January 30th, 1837.

[245] It was afterwards urged by Sir Francis that his replies to
addresses were made before, and not during the election. The plea will
not bear a moment's examination. The mischief was done by the
inflammatory and menacing tone of the replies, and the mere question of
the time of their delivery in of no importance whatever. An English
writer thus effectually disposes of this attempted defence: "Surely he
[Sir F. B. Head] must have some glimmering perception that this is not a
question of time, and that, if promises or threats are addressed to the
electoral body with regard to their exercise of the electoral franchise,
it is a matter of no importance whether this is done before or at the
time of the election. Illogical as he has proved himself, we cannot
suppose him to be so utterly destitute of the reasoning faculty as a
sincerity in this defence would imply; and we must therefore believe
that he knows the charge to be well founded, and has recourse to this
shuffling evasion in pure despair."--See _London and Westminster
Review_, vol. xxxii., No. 2, article vi.

[246]