



Produced by Al Haines










[Frontispiece: Burning of the Parliament Buildings, Montreal, 1849.
From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys]





THE WINNING OF

POPULAR GOVERNMENT


A Chronicle of the Union of 1841


BY

ARCHIBALD MACMECHAN





TORONTO

GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY

1916




  Copyright in all Countries subscribing to
  the Berne Convention




  TO

  ROBERT ALEXANDER FALCONER

  PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
  STUDENT OF HISTORY AND ENCOURAGER
  OF HISTORIANS




{ix}

CONTENTS

                                                        Page

   I. DURHAM THE DICTATOR ..............     1
  II. POULETT THOMSON, PEACEMAKER ..........    25
 III. REFORM IN THE SADDLE..............    66
  IV. THE GREAT ADMINISTRATION............    97
   V. THE PRINCIPLE ESTABLISHED ...........   132
      EPILOGUE....................   161
      BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE..............   166
      INDEX .....................   167




{xi}

ILLUSTRATIONS


BURNING OF THE PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, MONTREAL, 1849    _Frontispiece_
  From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys.

THE EARL OF DURHAM.................  _Facing page_ 6
  After the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

LORD SYDENHAM ...................        "      34
  From an engraving by G. Browning in M'Gill
    University Library.

SIR CHARLES BAGOT .................        "      74
  From an engraving in the Dominion Archives.

SIR CHARLES METCALFE................        "      82
  After a painting by Bradish.

CHARLES, EARL GREY.................        "      98
  From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

SIR LOUIS H. LAFONTAINE ..............        "     108
  After a photograph by Notman.

THE EARL OF ELGIN .................        "     136
  From a daguerreotype.




{1}

CHAPTER I

DURHAM THE DICTATOR

  And let him be dictator
  For six months and no more.

The curious sightseer in modern Toronto, conducted through the
well-kept, endless avenues of handsome dwellings which are that city's
pride, might be surprised to learn that at the northern end of the
street which cuts the city in two halves, east and west, bands of armed
Canadians met in battle less than a century ago.  If he continued his
travels to Montreal, he might be told, at a certain point, 'Here stood
the Parliament Buildings, when our city was the capital of the country;
and here a governor-general of Canada was mobbed, pelted with rotten
eggs and stones, and narrowly escaped with his life.'  And if the
intelligent traveller asked the reason for such scenes, where now all
is peace, the answer might be given in one word--Politics.

To the young, politics seems rather a stupid {2} sort of game played by
the bald and obese middle-aged, for very high stakes, and governed by
no rules that any player is bound to respect.  Between the rival teams
no difference is observable, save that one enjoys the sweets of office
and the mouth of the other is watering for them.  But this is, of
course, the hasty judgment of uncharitable youth.  The struggle between
political parties in Canada arose in the past from a difference in
political principles.  It was a difference that could be defined; it
could be put into plain words.  On the one