the ultras joined."[22] It was perhaps
the last remnant of this pardonable exultation which swept him over the
360 miles between Toronto and Montreal in thirty-six hours, breaking
all records for long-distance sleighing in the province.

The primary duty of the governor had now been accomplished, for he had
persuaded both local governments to accept an Imperial Act of Union,
and it might seem natural to pass over the intervening months, until
Union had been officially proclaimed, and the first Union parliament
had been elected and had met. But the _interregnum_ from February,
1840, to February, 1841, must not be ignored. In these twelve short
months he turned {93} once again to the problem of Lower Canada,
hurried on a short visit to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to settle
constitutional difficulties there, returned in a kind of triumphal
procession through the English-speaking district of Lower Canada known
as the Eastern Townships,[23] and spent the autumn in a tour through
the Western part of the newly united colony. It was only fitting that
a grateful Queen and Ministry should bestow on him a peerage;
henceforward he must appear as Baron Sydenham of Sydenham and Toronto.

But apart from these mere physical activities, he was preparing for the
culmination of his work in the new parliament. It must be remembered
not only that he distrusted the intelligence and initiative of colonial
ministers too much to dream of giving place to them, but that his
theory of his own position--the benevolent despot, secured in his
supremacy through popular management--forced on him an elaborate
programme of useful administration. He must face the new Parliament
with a good record, and definite promises. The failure of the home
ministry to include the local government clauses, which formed a
fundamental {94} part of the Union Bill, made such efforts even more
necessary than before. It had been plain to Durham and Charles Buller,
as well as to Sydenham, that, if an Act of Union were to pass, it could
only be made operative by joining to it an entirely new system of local
government. Accordingly, when opposition forced Russell to omit the
essential clauses from his Act of Union, Sydenham penned one of his
most vigorous despatches in reply. "Owing to this (rejection), duties
the most unfit to be discharged by the general legislature are thrown
upon it; powers equally dangerous to the subject and to the Crown are
assumed by the A