name--the Lafontaine-Baldwin, the Hincks-Morin, the
Tache-Macdonald, the Brown-Dorion, the Macdonald-Sicotte. This was the
reason why every ministry had its attorney-general east for Lower
Canada and its attorney-general west for Upper Canada. In his speech
on confederation Sir John Macdonald said that although the union was
legislative in name, it was federal in fact--that in matters affecting
Upper Canada alone, Upper Canadian members claimed and usually
exercised, exclusive power, and so with Lower Canada. The consolidated
statutes of Canada and the consolidated statutes of Upper Canada must
be sought in separate volumes. The practice of legislating for one
province alone was not confined to local or private matters. For
instance, as the two communities had widely different ideas as to
Sabbath observance, the stricter law was enacted for Upper Canada
alone. Hence also arose the theory of the double majority--that a
ministry must, for the support of its general policy, have a majority
from each province.

But all these shifts and devices could not stay the agitation for a
radical remedy. Some Reformers proposed to dissolve the union. Brown
believed that the difficulty would be solved by representation by
population, concerning which a word of explanation is necessary. When
the provinces were united in 1841, the population of Lower Canada
exceeded that of Upper Canada in the proportion of three to two. "If,"
said Lord Durham, "the population of Upper Canada is rightly estimated
at four hundred thousand, the English inhabitants of Lower Canada at
one hundred and fifty thousand, and the French at four hundred and
fifty thousand, the union of the two provinces would not only give a
clear English majority, but one which would be increased every year by
the influence of English emigration, and I have little doubt that the
French, when once placed by the legitimate course of events in a
minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality." But he added
that he was averse to every plan that had been proposed for giving an
equal number of members to the two provinces. The object could be
attained without any violation of the principles of representation,
such as would antagonize public opinion, and "when emigration shall
have increased the English population of the Upper Province, the
adoption of such a principle would operate to defeat the very purpose
it is intended to serve. It appears to me that any such electoral
ar