ain by a Frenchman.
The funeral {130} of the chance victim was made a political
demonstration. LaFontaine was actually tried for complicity in the
accident, but was acquitted. Montreal underwent something like a Reign
of Terror; a murderous clash between French and English might come at
any moment. Elgin was urged to proclaim martial law and put down mob
rule by the use of troops. Wisely he refused to go to such extremes.
The city authorities themselves should restore order, and at last they
did so with their thousand special constables. Those April riots of
'49 cost Montreal the honour of being the capital of Canada, and
ultimately caused the transformation of queer little lumbering Bytown
into the stately city of Ottawa, proudly eminent, with the halls of
legislature towering on the great bluff above the glassy river.

Of Elgin's conduct during this long-drawn ordeal it is almost
impossible to speak in terms of moderate praise. He must have been
less or more than human not to feel bitterly the insults heaped upon
him. The natural man spoke in the American who 'could not understand
why you did not shoot them down'; and also in the Canadian {131} who
'would have reduced Montreal to ashes' before enduring half that the
governor endured. But Elgin acted not as the natural man, but as the
Christian and the statesman, He refused to meet violence with violence;
and he refused to nullify the principles of popular government by
bowing before the blast of popular clamour. But a more unpopular
governor-general never held office in Canada.

{132}

CHAPTER V

THE PRINCIPLE ESTABLISHED

The storm raised by the Rebellion Losses Bill did not soon sink to a
calm. It did not end with rabbling the viceroy, burning the House of
Parliament, homicide, and mob rule in the streets of Montreal. In the
British House of Commons the whole matter was thoroughly discussed.
Young Mr Disraeli, the dandified Jewish novelist, held that there were
no rebels in Upper Canada, while young Mr Gladstone, 'the rising hope
of those stern and unbending Tories,' proved that there were virtual
rebels who would be rewarded for their treason under the Canadian
statute. In a letter to _The Times_ Hincks showed, in rebuttal, that
rebels in Upper Canada had already received compensation by the Act of
a Tory government. Who says A must also say B. Between the arguments
of Gladstone and Hincks it is perfectly clear that the Rebellion Losses
B