es, and the governing rings in
both Toronto and Quebec took furious offense. Complaints against
Durham poured into the English colonial office,--complaints, oddly
enough, that he had violated the spirit of the English Constitution by
sentencing subjects of the Crown without trial. Though every one knew
that in Canada's turbulent condition trial by jury was impossible,
Durham's political foes in England took up the cry. In addition to
political complaints were grudges against Durham for personal slight;
and it must be confessed the haughty earl had ridden roughshod over all
the petty prejudices and little dignities of the colonial magnates.
The upshot was, Durham resigned in high dudgeon and sailed for England
in November of 1838.

[Illustration: LORD DURHAM, SPECIAL COMMISSIONER TO CANADA, 1838]

On his way home he dictated to his secretary, Charles Buller, the
famous report which is to Canada what the Magna Charta is to England or
the Declaration of Independence to the United States. Without going
into detail, it may be said that it {433} recommended complete
self-government for the colonies. As disorders had again broken out in
Canada, the English government hastened to embody the main
recommendations of Durham's report in the Union Act of 1840, which came
into force a year later. By it Upper and Lower Canada were united on a
basis of equal representation each, though Quebec's population was six
hundred thousand to Ontario's five hundred thousand. The colonies were
to have the entire management of their revenues and civil lists. The
government was to consist of an Upper Chamber appointed by the Crown
for life, a representative assembly, and the governor with a cabinet of
advisers responsible to the assembly.

In all, more than seven hundred arrests had been made in Quebec
Province. Of these all were released but some one hundred and thirty,
and the state trials resulted in sentence of banishment against fifty,
death to twelve. In modern days it is almost impossible to realize the
degree of fanatical hatred generated by this half century of
misgovernment. Declared one of the governing clique's official
newspapers in Montreal: "Peace must be maintained, even if we make the
country a solitude. French Canadians must be swept from the face of
the earth. . . . The empire must be respected, even at the cost of the
entire French Canadian people." With such sentiments openly uttered,
one may surely say that th