ged
in the great provincial university. But this is to anticipate.
Baldwin's bill had reached its second reading, when the ministry blew
up.

In the end of November the inevitable clash occurred. Metcalfe was no
believer in responsible government as understood by the Reformers; and
he was determined to uphold the prerogative of the Crown. For one
thing, he was not going to surrender the right of appointment. He had
made several appointments without consulting his ministers. When, on
his own authority, he appointed a clerk of the peace, they determined
to make it a test case. They considered that, by {91} ignoring them,
he had violated an important constitutional principle; and when they
were unable to convince him cf this in a personal conference, they
resigned in a body (with a single exception) on November 26, 1843.
This produced what is known as the Metcalfe Crisis. In a formal
statement before the House the Reformers took the ground that they
could not be 'responsible' for appointments made without their
knowledge. The governor was to act on their advice; but he had acted
without giving them a chance to advise him. Metcalfe, on the other
hand, maintained that the Reformers wanted him to surrender the
patronage of the Crown 'for the purchase of parliamentary support.' He
opposed patronage for party purposes. Let the long history of
political appointments since that day, of patronage committees, attest
that the governor was partly in the right. The formal statements of
both sides in the dispute were at once made public and produced a
popular furore, second in intensity only to that which had led up to
and attended the rebellion. Sydenham's confidence that his work could
not be undone by any successor seemed for a time ill-founded.

The resignation of the ministry was only {92} the opening gun in a
political campaign, the object of which was to drive the governor from
office. On laying the reasons for their action before the House the
ministry received an enthusiastic vote of confidence; but their
resignation took effect, and on the ninth of December the Assembly was
prorogued. Both parties then set the battle in array against the
coming election. An agitation of almost unparalleled violence began.
Public meetings, banquets, speeches, pamphlets, newspapers, all
contributed not so much to agitate as to convulse the country. For all
his easy manner Metcalfe was an indomitable fighter, and into this, hi