of local autonomy was subject to certain limitations, and that
these limitations no action of the Provincial Legislature could affect.
Nor did he admit that his own responsibility to the Crown could be
modified by the existence of a responsibility on the {122} part of his
ministers to the Canadian people. Moreover, his own imperious temper
and sense of superior enlightenment made him act in the very spirit of
his doctrine with a resolution which few imperial servants of his time
could have surpassed. It may be then that the final resolutions, and
especially the last of them, were marked by a gentler mode of
expression than before, but they were actually a reaffirmation of
Sydenham's early views, and were quite consistent with the initial
despatch of the colonial secretary.

The end was now near. Sydenham had already applied for and received
permission, first to leave Canada, should his health require that step,
and then, to resign. He had delayed to act on this permission, until
he should see the end of the session, and the accomplishment of his
ambitions. But, on September 4th, a fall from horseback inflicted
injuries which grew more complicated through his generally enfeebled
condition, and he died on Sunday, September 19th. On the preceding
day, one of the most useful and notable sessions in the history of the
Canadian Parliament came to an end.

Both by his errors, and by his acts of statesmanship, Sydenham
contributed more than any other {123} man, except Elgin, to establish
that autonomy in Canada which his theories rejected. Before
self-government could flourish in the colony, there must be some solid
material progress, and two years of incessant legislation and
administrative innovation, all of it suggested by Sydenham, had turned
the tide of Canadian fortunes. It was necessary, too, that some larger
field than a trivial provincial assembly with its local jobs should be
provided for the new adventure in self-government; and Sydenham not
only engineered a difficult Act of Union past all preliminary
obstacles, but, of his own initiative, gave Canada the local
institutions through which alone the country could grow into
disciplined self-dependence.

But even his errors aided Canadian development. Acting for a
government in whose counsels there was no hesitation, Sydenham
expounded in word and practice a perfectly self-consistent theory of
colonial government. It was he who, by the virility of his thou