he expense of the many; which
endowed a venal and corrupt clique with a practical monopoly of
political and social power; which sowed the deadly seed of factious
strife, and stemmed the tide of Upper Canadian prosperity.

Theoretically speaking, the constitution granted to Upper Canada by the
Act of 1791 was not unfairly represented by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe
as being "the very image and transcript of that of Great Britain."[25]
We had a Legislative Council, the members whereof were appointed by the
Crown for life. This body bore some resemblance to the British House of
Lords. Next, we had a Legislative Assembly, the members whereof were
periodically elected by the people--or rather by such of the people as
possessed a sufficient property qualification to entitle them to
exercise the franchise; and this property qualification was placed so
low as almost to constitute universal suffrage.[26] The Assembly
corresponded to the British House of Commons; and these two
bodies--Council and Assembly--with the Lieutenant-Governor, constituted
the Provincial Parliament. The last-named functionary of course
corresponded to the Sovereign of Great Britain. He was appointed by the
Crown, to whom he was solely responsible. He was in no constitutional
sense responsible to either branch of the Legislature, or to both
branches combined, or to any other cis-Atlantic authority whatsoever.

With such substitutes for King, Lords and Commons, Upper Canada might
therefore be said to possess a pretty close copy of the British
constitution. But when carried into practice the resemblance failed in a
matter of the very highest import. The absence of ministerial
responsibility was an all-comprehending divergence. When a British
ministry fails to command the confidence of the electorate, as
represented by the House of Commons, resignation must follow. In other
words, the Government of the day derives its power from the people, to
whom it is responsible for the manner in which it discharges the trust
reposed in it; and the moment it fails to command public confidence it
must give way to those who possess such confidence. The test of
confidence is the vote in the House of Commons. This has been a
recognized principle of English Parliamentary Government for nearly two
hundred years; in fact, ever since the settlement of the constitution
after the Revolution of 1688. With us in Upper Canada there was none of
this ministerial responsibility. We had a