hen
impossible to disturb the policy fixed by the imperial government, and
that the only course open to them, if they hoped "to keep the
colonies," was to repeal the navigation laws, and to allow them "to
turn to the best possible account their contiguity to the States, that
they might not have cause for dissatisfaction when they contrasted
their own condition with that of their neighbours."

Some years, however, passed before the governor-general saw his views
fully carried out. The imperial authorities, with that extraordinary
indifference to colonial conditions which too often distinguished them
in those times, hesitated until well into 1849 to follow his advice
with respect to the navigation laws, and the Reciprocity Treaty was
not successfully negotiated until a much later time. He had the
gratification, however, before he left Canada of seeing the beneficial
effects of the measures which he so earnestly laboured to promote in
the interests of the country.

CHAPTER IV

THE INDEMNIFICATION ACT

The legislature opened on January 18th, 1849, when Lord Elgin had the
gratification of informing French Canadians that the restrictions
imposed by the Union Act on the use of their language in the public
records had been removed by a statute of the imperial parliament. For
the first time in Canadian history the governor-general read the
speech in the two languages; for in the past it had been the practice
of the president of the legislative council to give it in French after
it had been read in English from the throne. The session was memorable
in political annals for the number of useful measures that were
adopted. In later pages of this book I shall give a short review of
these and other measures which show the importance of the legislation
passed by the LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry. For the present I shall
confine myself to the consideration of a question which created an
extraordinary amount of public excitement, culminated in the
destruction of valuable public property, and even threatened the life
of the governor-general, who during one of the most trying crises in
Canadian history, displayed a coolness and patience, an indifference
to all personal considerations, a political sagacity and a strict
adherence to sound methods of constitutional government, which entitle
him to the gratitude of Canadians, who might have seen their country
torn asunder by internecine strife, had there been then a weak and
pass