shows how much was expected from the
establishment of a principle. Mankind has a pathetic faith in the
efficacy of political machinery, remade or remodelled, to grind out
happiness and bring in the Age of Gold. None the less, a great
political principle had been affirmed, and had been seen in triumphant
action. The new constitution was at last set on its legs, and, at
last, it really did begin to 'march.'

Shortly after the session closed Bagot's administration came to an end.
The governor was no longer young, and the factious opposition in the
colony and the want of support in England wrought upon his health and
spirits. The oncoming of the bitter Canadian winter tried severely the
shaken man. On medical advice he resigned his post, but when his
resignation was accepted he was too ill to travel. He too died at
'Alwington,' Kingston, on May 30, 1843; but the voice of rancorous
detraction was not hushed around {81} his death-bed. 'Imbecile' and
'slave' were among the milder terms of abuse. Bagot was the second
governor in swift succession to render up his life in the discharge of
his duty. And he was not the last. It was as if some blight or curse
rested on the office which made it fatal to the holder. The Canadian
treatment of Bagot, a high-minded gentleman who honestly performed a
thankless task, should make every Canadian hang his head.

Bagot's successor was Sir Charles Metcalfe. He arrived at Kingston
from the American side on March 29, 1843, in a close-bodied sleigh
drawn by four greys. His experience must have been novel since he
landed at Boston and posted overland to reach the capital of the
colony. The whole country was still deep in snow and must have
presented the strangest aspect to a man who had spent his life in the
tropics. He was received at the foot of Arthur Street by an
enthusiastic concourse of citizens, with appropriate ceremony and show.
'A thorough-looking Englishman with a jolly visage,' as he was
characterized by an eye-witness, he made a favourable first impression
upon the people of his government.

{82}

Metcalfe had received his training as a 'writer' in the old East India
Company and must have been a contemporary of Thackeray's Joseph Sedley.
He was born in India, at Lecture House, Calcutta, on January 30, 1785.
Eleven years later he entered Eton, where he at once evinced remarkable
powers of application and a marked distaste for athletic sports, two
traits which would