g about this union (between Upper and
Lower Canadian reformers), and at last, having as he thought effected
it, coolly proposed to me, on the day before Parliament was to meet, to
break up the Government altogether, dismiss several of his colleagues,
and replace them by men whom I believe he had not known for 24
hours--but who are most of them thoroughly well known in Lower Canada
as the principal opponents of any measure for the improvement of the
province."[53]

The crisis once passed, Sydenham hoped, and not without justification,
that Baldwin would carry few supporters over to the opposition, and
{116} that the Assembly would settle quietly down to enact the measures
so bountifully set out in the opening speech. The first day of
Assembly saw the party of responsible government make a smothered
effort to state their views in the debate on the election of a speaker.
On June 18th, an elaborate debate, nominally on the address, really on
the fundamental point, found the attorney-general stating the case for
the government, and Baldwin and Hincks pushing the logic of responsible
government to its natural conclusion. Baldwin once more grappled with
the problem of the responsibility of the members of council, and the
advice they should offer to the governor-general. He admitted freely
that unless the representative of the sovereign should acquiesce in the
measures so recommended, there would be no means by which that advice
could be made practically useful; but this consideration did not for a
moment relieve a member of the council from the fulfilment of an
imperative duty. If his advice were accepted, well and good; if not,
his course would be to tender his resignation.[54]

{117}

The government came triumphantly out of the ordeal, and all amendments,
whether affecting the Union, or responsible government, were defeated
by majorities, usually of two to one. "I have got the large majority
of the House ready to support me upon any question that can arise,"
Sydenham wrote at the end of June; "and, what is better, thoroughly
convinced that their constituents, so far as the whole of Upper Canada
and the British part of Lower Canada are concerned, will never forgive
them if they do not."[55]

But the enemy was not so easily routed. There had been much violence
at the recent elections; and, among others, La Fontaine had a most just
complaint to make, for disorder, and, as he thought, government
trickery had ousted hi