student of history closes the record with many reflections, among others that pugnacious ecclesiastics are doubtful gifts to any nation, and that religion may not seek support save in the willing hearts and generous impulses of those who truly believe its doctrines and follow its precepts.

POLITICAL COMBINATIONS AND PERMUTATIONS

It is now time to return to the fortunes of the La Fontaine ministry, at the close of the parliamentary session in 1850. They had had other troubles besides those introduced by the clergy reserves question. In spite of the difficult position with regard to the British connection in Canada, British politicians, and among them, unfortunately, Lord John Russell, insisted on speaking as though separation were an inevitable fate, and Britain coolly prepared for the catastrophe. Baldwin, whose loyalty was as steady as it was quiet, felt the unwisdom of Russell's speech acutely, and Elgin bluntly told the colonial secretary that he must renounce the habit of telling the colonies that the colonial is a provisional existence. Later in the year Merritt, who had accepted office, resigned, on the score of economy. A cry had arisen for retrenchment, and although a large and various committee had frittered away its time in making useless suggestions, and although the ministers saw clearly that the possibilities of reduction were very limited, Merritt, who had an irritable conscience on the matter, and a gift for impracticable ideas, decided to clear himself from the responsibility of extravagance by retirement.

Meanwhile parties and groups were exhibiting themselves in strange combinations and profitless freaks. Enough has been said already of the annexationist section and the British American League. Besides these there was Papineau, playing the ineffectual revolutionist in company with his four or five rouges, and MacNab, whom not even the Montreal riots had calmed down into decent conservatism. The truth was that Canada had not yet learned the methods of conducting a true opposition, and ministerial strength produced as its natural result inconsistency and lack of principle in the

opposition. How little reality the various opposing fragments possessed is revealed by such facts as, that the Independent, the only annexationist paper in Upper Canada, died in April' of inanition'; that at the end of the parliamentary session MacNab made approaches to the governor-general, whom he and his paper, the Hamilton Spectator, had previously been interested in abusing; and that in January 1852, L'Avenir, the journal through which Papineau expressed his views, found the same fate as the Independent.

Nevertheless the position of the ministry was no longer what it had been. Brown's accumulating hostility was breaking up the solidarity of reform in Upper Canada, and, by connecting violent anti-Roman views with radicalism, was beginning to endanger the connection between French and British. Here, in fact, lay the most dangerous element in the situation; and Elgin must receive credit for being the first to notice it. Aware, as he could not but be, that his impartiality and the solid wisdom of Baldwin and La Fontaine had done much to give the French section their natural place in politics, he saw that the French were naturally conservative in their outlook, and that the British Reform party, with which La Fontaine had co-operated since Union, was, under the influence of Brown and the Clear Grits,' changing its tone. If Clear-Gritism absorbs all lines of Upper Canadian liberalism,' wrote Elgin, more than a year before Macdonald understood what his new policy must be, 'the French, unless some interference from without checks the natural current of events, will fall off from them, and form an alliance with the Upper Canadian Tories.' The main political interest, then, lies in tracing the decline and fall of the reform party to the point at which a new force, liberalconservatism, takes over its duties.

THE FALL OF THE REFORM PARTY

In 1851 another step was taken towards dissolution, for the course of the year brought with it the transformation of the ministry. The commercial strain was no longer acute, and Hincks, speaking of financial conditions, was able to

dwell on the great prosperity which prevailed throughout the country, and the increase in imports since 1848. The legislative programme was no less ambitious than in former years, and the railway movement found eager support in the government. But the leaders had become restless in office. La Fontaine, as has been seen, was out of touch with Upper Canadian sentiment concerning the clergy reserves, and the rectification of seigneurial tenure opened fresh grounds for disquiet in his mind. He was a whig, in days when reformers were passing into radicalism. But Baldwin was the first to leave. Baldwin, whom the governor recognized as the most conservative man in the province and 'worth three regiments to the British connexion,' found himself equally out of touch with the reform feeling, and when William Lyon Mackenzie, whose fervours were once more permitted to express themselves in parliament, precipitated a crisis in a vote for the abolition of that Court of Chancery which Baldwin had done his best to reform, and when Baldwin's position was saved only through the votes of Lower Canada, the minister's resignation followed within a week. The following general election saw him ousted from parliament, and so there passed from public life a man of noble character, strenuous political principle, and solid practical wisdom, the most admirable public character up to that point produced in Canada. In the autumn La Fontaine followed his old comrade-in-arms, and by the end of October the new Hincks-Morin administration was complete-a second edition of the earlier cabinet, with the best financier in Canada at its head, and an amount of practical ability at its command probably superior to that of any earlier government.

Yet when parliament was dissolved on November 1, and the ministry went to the polls with a fair assurance of victory, it was still true that things had changed for the worse. George Brown redoubled his strokes. It was too apparent, he said, that Hincks and his colleagues had surrendered to the French, and he asked whether any intelligent reformer of Upper Canada could read through the list of the new ministry, and honestly say that it presented the slightest hope of a policy different from that of its predecessor.

The attack was doubly unfortunate because, in spite of Brown's suspicions, there was a change, and that change made the French alliance more difficult. Along with other reforms the ministry stood pledged to a policy of secularizing the clergy reserves-the very point which had disquieted moderates like La Fontaine. Among the new ministers, men like Rolph and Malcolm Cameron represented a very different type of politician from those of Baldwin's choice, and as Clear-Gritism entered, no matter how modified in its expression, French-Canadian sympathy must grow cool. And, with all the other considerations, there was the lessened confidence of the public in the new leader; for Hincks was neither Baldwin nor La Fontaine, men firmly trusted even by those who opposed them. It was already whispered that there was a sound financial basis for his friendship with Elgin, and that he was too good a business man to let scruples of office and leadership hinder him from seizing opportunities for private profit. For the present, however, success attended their efforts. After an election, in which Elgin could flatter himself that there were few treasonous suggestions of separation and little foolish radical talk, the ministerialists found themselves with a clear majority over all other sections, and the tories had to admit the loss of men like Henry Sherwood, John Hillyard Cameron, and William Cayley. But George Brown was now member for Lambton, and the ministers could look forward to a vocal session.

The main movement in politics-the fate of the administration becomes from this moment of so absorbing interest that it is necessary to exclude from view other subordinate issues. It may, however, be mentioned that during 1852 Derby's government held office in England, a fact by no means favourable to the Canadian ministry; that in September of the same year Hincks defined the government attitude towards the clergy reserves; and that the session, which lasted, with an adjournment, from August 19, 1852, to June 14, 1853, was perhaps the most fruitful of acts of any since the provinces had united, including among its labours an act for the increase in the number of representatives in the lower house, a redistribution act, to come into operation

in 1855, an address to obtain freedom for an elective upper chamber, and a bill on seigneurial tenure, rejected, however, in the legislative council.

But through all these labours the ministry was weakening in itself and in popular opinion. It had to face Brown's hurricane-like onslaught on the address, not the less damaging even although Brown was not yet prepared to vote for the opposition. The railway policy of the ministry was meeting with rude checks, and the line from Halifax to Quebec, which had occupied so much of its energies, was as much an event of the future as ever. Month after month the complicated private financial transactions of Hincks were involving him in a network of popular suspicions. At the beginning of 1853 the domain farm of the seigniory of Lauzon was purchased by joint owners, of whom he was one. In April shares in the Grand Trunk Railway were allotted to him under circumstances which certainly required explanation. Towards the end of the year there were rumours that the minister had introduced legislation for the improvement of the Ottawa, at a locality in which he had an interest, and there were other accusations of a similarly damaging character. The importance of these in discrediting the government may be gauged by the report of the select committee of 1855, which, while it exonerated Hincks absolutely from the charges, raised the question

whether it is beneficial to the due administration of the affairs of this country, for the ministers to purchase public lands sold at public competition, and municipal debentures, also offered in open market or otherwise ;and lastly, whether it would be advisable to increase the salaries of the Members of the Executive Council to such a figure as would relieve them from the necessity of engaging in private dealings to enable them to support their families and maintain the dignity of their position, without resorting to any kind of business transactions, while in the service of the Crown.

The conduct of the attack on the clergy reserves brought only additional weakness. As has been shown, the hands of the Canadian government were tied by the action of Britain