June 3, was denying, with the approval of
all but the Radicals, the possibility of responsible government as
emphatically as ever. Durham seems to have partially converted him in
the summer, for in introducing the Act itself in 1840 he cautiously
committed himself to the plan of instructing the Canadian Governor to
include in his Executive Council, or Cabinet, men expressly chosen
because they possessed the confidence of the Assembly. But the Act as it
stood, ignoring this vital change, was impeccably Conservative, and on
that account went through. In some points it seemed, without good
reason, to be even reactionary, and was regarded in that light with
displeasure by the Radicals, with satisfaction by Whigs and Tories.
While confirming the control of revenue by the Assembly, in return for a
fixed civil list, it took away from the Assembly, and vested in the
Executive, the power of recommending money votes, and it also retained
the Legislative Council or Upper Chamber as a nominated, not as an
elective, body. Provided that the Executive had the confidence of the
representative Assembly or Lower House, the first point was perfectly
sound, and the second was not vital; but there was no security for the
condition precedent other than Russell's vague outline of subsequent
policy. While the supreme power of the King, acting with or without the
Governor, was reaffirmed in the most vigorous terms, there was not a
word in the Act about the composition of the Executive Council or its
relation to the Assembly.

In Canada much the same misconceptions prevailed, and promoted the
acceptance of the Act by the supporters of the old ascendancies. The
question of the Union and the question of responsible government, both
raised by Lord Durham's Report, became inextricably confused, and the
various petitions and resolutions of the time reflect this confusion.
The French opposed the Union and supported responsible government on the
same grounds, and in almost identical terms, as the Irish opposed, and
still oppose, their Union with Great Britain, and ask for responsible
government in Ireland. Moderate Britishers supported both proposals, but
the extremists of the old ascendancy bitterly denounced the whole theory
of responsible government, Union or no Union. Their views are ably and
incisively set forth by a Committee of the old Legislative Council of
Upper Canada, that is, by the members of the "family compact," in a
protest signed and