he election went in favour of
the governor-general, although Metcalfe took too favourable a view of
the situation when he reported the avowed supporters of government as
46, as against 28 avowed adversaries. At best his majority could not
rise above six. Yet even so, the decision of the country still seems
astonishing. There was the unflinching Tory element at the centre; and
the British members from Lower Canada. Ryerson had used his great
influence among the Methodists, and, since the cry was one of loyalty
to the Crown, many waverers {181} may have voted on patriotic grounds
for the government candidates. Metcalfe's reputation, too, counted for
him, for he had already become known as more than generous, and one of
his successors estimated that he spent L6,000 a year in excess of his
official income. "It must be admitted," he himself wrote to Stanley,
"that this majority has been elected by the loyalty of the majority of
the people of Upper Canada, and of those of the Eastern townships in
Lower Canada."[25]

The government, and presumably also the governor-general, were accused
of having secured their victory by doubtful tactics, and Elgin reported
in 1847 that his Assembly, which was that of the 1844 election, had had
much discredit thrown on it on the ground that the late
governor-general had interfered unduly in the elections.[26] Neither
side had been perfectly scrupulous in its methods of warfare, and it is
not necessary to blame Metcalfe for the misguided zeal and cunning of
his Ministers and his country supporters. Be that as it may, the
governor-general had won a hard-fought victory--Pyrrhic as it proved.

Throughout this political warfare, Metcalfe had {182} been sustained by
the strong support of the home government. The cabinet announced
itself ready to give him every possible support in maintaining the
authority of the Queen, and of her representative, against unreasonable
and exorbitant pretensions.[27] In the debate on the troubles, which
Roebuck introduced on May 30th, 1844, all the leading men on either
side, Stanley, Peel, Russell, and Buller, warmly supported the
governor, Russell and Buller being as strong in their reprobation of
the demands of the council as Stanley himself.[28] And the chorus of
approval culminated in the letters from Peel and Stanley, which
announced the conferring of a peerage on Metcalfe "as a public mark of
her Majesty's cordial approbation of the judgment, ability