867 was called
Liberal-Conservative. This centre he hoped to create out of moderate
Conservatives who had enlarged their earlier views, and moderate
Reformers who anxiously desired to see Sydenham's proposed improvements
carried out.[40] A shrewd observer, himself a member, and
appreciatively critical of Sydenham's work, counted at least five
parties in the new parliament. Three of these groups came from Upper
Canada--the Conservatives under Sir Allan MacNab; the Ministerialists,
that is the Reformers and moderate Conservatives, under the
Attorney-General Draper, and the Secretary Harrison, and the
ultra-reformers who looked to Robert Baldwin for guidance. From Lower
Canada came the French nationalists, with some British supporters,
under Morin, Neilson, and Aylwin, and the defenders of the Union
policy, chiefly British, but with a few conservative French allies.
"The division lists of the session 1841," writes the same observer,
"cannot fail to strike anyone acquainted with the state of parties, as
extraordinary. Mr. Baldwin on several occasions voted with
considerable {106} majorities in opposition to the Government, while as
frequently he was in insignificant minorities. There was a decided
tendency towards a coalition with the Reformers of French origin, on
the part of Sir Allan MacNab and the Upper Canada Conservatives. The
Ministerial strength lay in the support which it received from the
British party of Lower Canada, and from the majority of the Upper
Canada Reformers."[41] Well might Sydenham speak of the delusive
nature of the party nicknames borrowed by his legislators from England.

Whatever were the characteristic faults of the parliament in 1841,
sloth was not one of them. All through the summer it worked with
feverish energy. Writing to his brother at the end of August, Sydenham
boasted--"The five great works I aimed at have been got through--the
establishment of a board of works with ample powers; the admission of
aliens; a new system of county courts; the regulation of the public
lands ceded by the Crown under the Union Act; and lastly the District
Council Bill. I think you will admit this to be pretty good work for
one session, especially when superadded to half a dozen minor measures,
as well {107} as the fact of having set up a government, brought
together two sets of people, who hated each other cordially, and
silenced all the threatened attacks upon the Union, which were expected
to be