he character of the political
community within which the question was raised; the fortunes and policy
of the governors-general concerned in the discussion; the modifications
introduced into British political thought by the Canadian agitation;
and the consequences, in England and Canada, of the firm establishment
of colonial self-government.

[1] Burke, _Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol_.

[2] Sir C. P. Lucas, _Introduction to Lord Durham's Report_, p. 266.

[3] Its latest statement may be found in Sir C. P. Lucas's admirable
edition of _Lord Durham's Report_, Oxford, 1912.

[4] I omit from my reckoning the brief and unimportant tenure of office
by the Earl Cathcart, who filled a gap between Metcalfe's retirement
and Elgin's arrival.

{8}

CHAPTER II.

THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY.

To understand the political evolution of Canada it is essential to
begin with a study of the elements of Canadian society. Canadian
constitutionalists would have written to better purpose, had they
followed the example of the Earl of Durham, in whose _Report_ the
concluding practical suggestions develop naturally from the vivid
social details which occupy its earlier pages, and raise it to the
level of literature. In pioneering communities there is no such thing
as the constitution, or politics, _per se_; and the relation between
the facts, sordid and mean as they often are, of the life of the
people, and the growth of institutions and political theories, is
fundamental.

Canadian society, in 1839 and long afterwards, was dominated by the
physical characteristics of the seven hundred miles of country which
stretched from Quebec to the shores of Lake Huron, with {9} its long
water-front and timid expansion, north and south; its forests
stubbornly resisting the axes of the settlers; its severe extremities
of heat and cold; the innumerable inconveniences inflicted by its
uncultivated wastes on those who first invaded it; and the imperfect
lines of land communication which multiplied all distances in Canada at
least four-fold. It was perhaps this sense of distance, and difficulty
of locomotion, which first impressed the settler and the visitor. To
begin with, the colony was, for practical purposes, more than a month's
distance from the centre of government. Steam was gradually making its
way, and the record passage by sailing ship, from Quebec to Portsmouth,
had occupied only eighteen days and a half,[1] but sails were still