ers. Hincks, who was
one of the latter group, says that, before parliament met, the two
sections consulted together concerning the government, and although La
Fontaine had lost his election through a display of physical force on
the other side, Baldwin was able to lead the combined groups into
action. On June 12th, he wrote to Sydenham stating that the United
Reform Party represented the political views of the vast majority of
Canadians, that four ministers--Sullivan, Ogden, Draper, and Day--were
hostile to popular sympathies and ideals, and that he thought the
accession of Lower Canada Reformers absolutely essential to a sound
popular administration. It was a perfectly consistent, if somewhat
unhappily executed, attempt to secure {114} the absolute responsibility
of the Executive Council to the representatives of the people; and a
week later, in the Assembly, when no longer in office, he defended his
action. He believed that when the election had determined of what
materials the House of Assembly was to be composed, it then became his
duty to inform the head of the government that the administration did
not possess the confidence of the House of Assembly, and to tender to
the representative of his sovereign the resignation of the office which
he held, having first, as he was bound to do, offered his advice to his
Excellency that the administration of the country should be
reconstructed.[51]

It was the directest possible challenge to Sydenham's system.
Baldwin's claim was that, once the representatives of the people had
made known the people's will, it was the duty of the ministry to
reflect that will in their programme and actions, or to resign. As for
the governor-general, he must obviously adjust whatever theories he
might have, to a situation where colonial ministers were content to
hold office only where they had the confidence of the people.

The action of the governor-general was {115} characteristically
summary. His answer to Baldwin reproved him for a "proposal in the
highest degree unconstitutional, as dictating to the crown who are the
particular individuals whom it should include in the ministry";
intimated the extreme displeasure of his Excellency, and assumed the
letter to be equivalent to resignation.[52] To the home government he
spoke of the episode with anger and some contempt: "Acting upon some
principle of conduct which I can reconcile neither with honour nor
common sense, he strove to brin