pire with its separate parts bound to
each other by a general freedom of trade. Besides all this, he had a
firm trust that the evils which other nations less free than Britain
might for a time inflict on her trade by their prohibitions, would
shortly end, since all would be convinced by the example of Britain and
would follow it. Under these circumstances he set imperial policy
against local prejudice, and wrote to his governor-general: "I do trust
you will be able to prevent the attempt to enter upon that silliest of
all silly policies, the {274} meeting of commercial restrictions by
counter restrictions; _indeed it is a matter to be very seriously
considered, whether we can avoid disallowing any acts of this kind
which may be passed_."[48]

In spite, then, of the present thoroughness of Grey's conversion to the
Canadian position with regard to Home Rule, there was for him still an
empire operating through the Houses at Westminster and the Crown
ministers, and striking in, possibly on rare occasions, but, when
necessary, with a heavy hand. To such a man, too, belief in the
permanence of empire was natural. There are fewer waverings on the
point in Grey's writings than in those of any of his contemporaries,
Durham, Buller, and Elgin alone excepted. He had, indeed, as his
private correspondence shows, moments of gloom. Under the strain of
the Montreal riots, and the insults to Elgin in 1849, he wrote: "I
confess that looking at these indications of the state of feeling
there, and at the equally significant indications to the feelings in
the House of Commons, respecting the value of our colonies, I begin
almost to despair of our long retaining those in North America; while I
am persuaded that to both parties a hasty separation will be a very
serious {275} evil."[49] Elgin's robust faith, and perfect knowledge,
however, set him right. Indeed, in tracing the growth of Grey's
colonial policy, it is impossible for anyone to mistake the evidences
of Elgin's influence; and the chapter on Canada in his _Colonial
Policy_ owes almost more to Elgin than it does to the avowed author.
His final position may be stated thus. The empire was to the advantage
of England, for, apart from other reasons, her place among the nations
depended on the colonies, and the act of separation would also be one
of degradation. The empire was an unspeakable benefit to the colonies:
"To us," he once wrote in a moment of doubt, "except the loss