_."[34] Whatever Sydenham's intentions may have
been, the actual result of his action was to secure for his party four
seats in the very heart of the enemy's country; {103} and the French
Canadians, naturally embittered, resented the governor's action as a
piece of gerrymandering, which had practically disfranchised many
French voters. Already, in 1840, under the active leadership of
Neilson of Quebec, a British supporter of French claims, an anti-union
movement had been started.[35] In July of the same year La Fontaine
visited Toronto, to canvass, said scandal, for the speaker's chair in
the united assembly; and in any case he was able to assure his
compatriots that they had sympathizers among the British in the West.
The Tory paper in Sydenham's new capital, Kingston, in a review and
forecast of the situation, settled on this Anglo-French co-operation as
one of the serious possibilities of the future;[36] and Sydenham as he
watched developments in the Lower Province, found himself growing
unwontedly pessimistic. "In Lower Canada," he wrote, "the elections
will be bad. The French Canadians have forgotten nothing and learnt
nothing by the Rebellion, and the suspension of the constitution, and
are more unfit for representative government {104} than they were in
1791. In most of the French counties, members, actuated by the old
spirit of the Assembly, and without any principle except that of
inveterate hostility to British rule and British connection, will be
returned without a possibility of opposition."[37]

The elections began on the 8th of March, and the date on which
parliament was to meet was postponed, first from April 8th to May 26th,
and then, in consequence of the continued lateness of the season,[38]
from May 26th to June 14th. The result of the elections, known early
in April, gave matter for serious thought to many, Sydenham himself not
excluded. Absolute precision is difficult, but Sydenham's biographer
has tabulated the groups as follows:

Government Members - - - - 24
French Members - - - - - - 20
Moderate Reformers - - - - 20
Ultra Reformers - - - - - 5
Compact Party - - - - - - 7
Doubtful - - - - - - - - - 6
Special Return - - - - - - 1
Double Return - - - - - - 1
--
84[39]

{105}

In the confusion of groups, Sydenham still trusted to the centre--a
party almost precisely similar to that which in 1