ithin and without, might well
arouse alarm, rebuke faction and stimulate patriotism.

The election of 1863 was virtually a drawn battle. The Reformers had a
large majority in Upper Canada, their opponents a like majority in
Lower Canada, and thus not only the two parties, but the two
provinces, were arrayed against each other. The Reform government,
headed by Sandfield Macdonald and Dorion, found its position of
weakness and humiliation intolerable, and resigned in March, 1864. The
troubled governor-general called upon A. T. Fergusson Blair, a
colleague of Sandfield Macdonald, to form a new administration. He
failed. He called upon Cartier with a like result. He finally had a
little better success with Sir E. P. Tache, a veteran who had been a
colleague of Baldwin, of Hincks, and of Macdonald. Tache virtually
restored the Cartier-Macdonald government, taking in Foley and McGee
from the other side. In less than three months, on June 14th, this
government was defeated, and on the very day of its defeat relief
came. Letters written by Brown to his family during the month
preceding the crisis throw some light on the situation.

On May 13th he writes: "Things here are very unsatisfactory; no one
sees his way out of the mess--and there is no way but my
way--representation by population. There is great talk to-day of
coalition--and what do you think? Why, that in order to make the
coalition successful, the imperial government are to offer me the
government of one of the British colonies. I have been gravely asked
to-day by several if it is true, and whether I would accept. My reply
was, I would rather be proprietor of the _Globe_ newspaper for a few
years than be governor-general of Canada, much less a trumpery little
province. But I need hardly tell you, the thing has no foundation,
beyond sounding what could be done to put me out of the way and let
mischief go on. But we won't be bought at any price, shall we?" On May
18th he writes that he has brought on his motion for constitutional
changes, and on May 20th that it has carried and taken Cartier and
Macdonald by surprise. "Much that is directly practical may not flow
from the committee, but it is an enormous gain to have the
acknowledgment on our journals that a great evil exists, and that some
remedy must be found."

On June 14th Mr. Brown, as chairman of a committee appointed to
consider the difficulties connected with the government of Canada,
brought in a report rec