ry at this time were of the
greatest value. A financier as well as a journalist, he was able to
secure the capital needed for the great public works, and to set the
resources of Canada before the British investor in a most convincing
way. The Welland Canal was completed; the era of railway development
began. Immigration increased and business began to lift its head. In
1849 the last of the old Navigation Laws, which forbade foreign ships
to trade with Canada, were repealed. They were an inheritance from the
imperialism of Cromwell, but were now outworn. Although the Maritime
Provinces did not benefit, the port of Montreal began to come to its
own, as the head of navigation. In 1850 nearly a hundred foreign
vessels sought its wharves.

The next session of parliament was held in Toronto, according to the
odd agreement by which that city was to alternate with Quebec as the
seat of government. Every four years the government with all its
impedimenta was to migrate from the one to the other. The Liberal
party was soon to find that a crushing {138} victory at the polls and a
puny opposition in the House were not unmixed blessings. It began to
fall apart by its own sheer weight. A Radical wing, both English and
French, soon developed. The 'Clear Grit' party in Upper Canada was
moving straight towards republicanism, and so was Papineau's _Parti
Rouge_, with its organ _L'Avenir_ openly preaching Annexation.
Canadian eyes were still dazzled by the marvellously rapid growth of
the United States. American democracy was manifestly triumphant, and
Canada's shortest road to equal prosperity lay through direct
imitation. Salvation was to be found in the universal application of
the elective principle, from policeman to governor. This was before
the unforeseen tendencies of democracy had startled Americans out of
their attitude of self-complacent belief in it, and converted them
first into thoroughgoing critics, and then into determined reformers of
the system that they once thought flawless. The legislation of the
session of 1849-50 has still measures of value. Canada for the first
time assumed full control of her own postal system. The principle of
separate schools for Roman Catholics was confirmed, a measure which
reveals Canada in sharp contrast to the {139} United States, where
sectarian teaching is excluded from a state-aided school system. Not a
single bill was 'reserved,' which the Globe called a fact
'unprec