England considers, and has for years considered, our present
relations to her both burdensome and unprofitable.' Another said: 'It
is admitted, I may almost say, on all hands, that Canada must
eventually form a portion of the Great American Republic--that it is a
mere question of time.' There follows a list of some nine hundred
names, beginning with John Torrance and ending with Andrew Stevenson.
There are French names as well as English. Some bearers of those names
to-day are not proud of the fact that they are to be found in that
list. One Tory refused to sign the manifesto: his monument bears the
inscription, 'A British subject I was born, a British subject I will
die.'

The manifesto was supported by various pamphleteers and journalists.
Elgin records his fear of the 'cry for Annexation spreading like
wildfire through the province.' But it did not spread 'like wildfire.'
The original impulse, which may have been partly 'petulance,' seemed to
spend itself. Not all English opinion was in favour of 'cutting the
painter'; and one of the most determined {136} opponents of Annexation
was that very alert politician, the young Queen. Equally determined
was the governor-general of Canada. 'To render Annexation by violence
impossible, and by any other means, as improbable as may be, is,' he
wrote, 'the polar star of my policy.' When he could, he showed clearly
enough what his policy was. The manifesto of the Annexationists
contained not a few names of men holding office under the government,
magistrates, queen's counsel, militia officers, and others. Elgin had
a circular letter sent to these eminently respectable persons holding
commissions at the pleasure of the Crown, asking pertinently if they
had really signed the document in question. Some affirmed, and some
denied; others, again, questioned the governor's right to make the
inquiry. He then removed from office all who did not disavow their
signatures as well as those who admitted them. His action had an
excellent effect and showed that he was no weakling. He was warmly
supported by the colonial secretary, Earl Grey. Hitherto he had been
only a peer of Scotland, but now, in token of the government's
approval, was made a peer of the United Kingdom. Soon the commercial
conditions, {137} which had no small part in the political discontent,
began to mend.

[Illustration: The Earl of Elgin. From a daguerreotype]

The services of Hincks to his adopted count