ry against free trade. Their conduct affords an illustration
of the unmitigated selfishness of Toryism. Give them everything they
can desire and they are brimful of loyalty. They will shout paeans till
they are sick, and drink goblets till they are blind in favour of
'wise and benevolent governors' who will give them all the offices and
all the emoluments. But let their interests, real or imaginary, be
affected, and how soon does their loyalty evaporate! Nothing is now
talked of but separation from the mother country, unless the mother
continues feeding them in the mode prescribed by the child."

Some time afterwards, Lord Elgin, in his communications to the home
government, said that the Canadian millers and shippers had a
substantial grievance, not in the introduction of free trade, but in
the constant tinkering incident to the abandoned system of imperial
protection. The preference given in 1843 to Canadian wheat and to
flour, even when made of American wheat, had stimulated milling in
Canada; but almost before the newly-built mills were fairly at work,
the free trade measure of 1846 swept the advantage away. What was
wrong was not free trade, but Canadian dependence on imperial tariff
legislation.

Elgin was one of the few statesmen of his day who perceived that the
colonies might enjoy commercial independence and political equality,
without separation. He declared that imperial unity did not depend on
the exercise of dominion, the dispensing of patronage, or the
maintenance of an imperial hot-bed for forcing commerce and
manufactures. Yet he conceived of an empire not confined to the
British Islands, but growing, expanding, "strengthening itself from
age to age, and drawing new supplies of vitality from virgin soils."

With Elgin's administration began the new era of self-government. The
legislature was dissolved towards the close of the year 1847, and the
election resulted in a complete victory for the Reformers. In Upper
Canada the contest was fairly close, but in Lower Canada the
Conservative forces were almost annihilated, and on the first vote in
parliament the government was defeated by a large majority. The second
Baldwin-Lafontaine government received the full confidence and loyal
support of the governor, and by its conduct and achievements justified
the reform that had been so long delayed, and adopted with so many
misgivings. But the fight for responsible government was not yet
finished. The cry of Fre