; and the
foundation of a provincial university in Toronto deeply interested one
who had something of {137} Canning's wit and literary inclinations.
But politics usually claimed all his attention. The Union of the
Provinces, and the Imperial supremacy, had to be defended against their
assailants; the vacant places in the Executive Council had to be
filled, as nearly as was possible in harmony with the wishes of the
community; and whatever the character of that council might be, it
would have to face the test of criticism from an Assembly, which had
already striven not unsuccessfully with Sydenham. In his attempt to
answer these various problems, Bagot was at his worst in finance. He
had not the requisite business training, and entirely lacked Sydenham's
knowledge, boldness, and precision. In the correspondence over the
mode in which the province should dispose of the British loan of
L1,500,000, Stanley's views show a clearness and force, lacking in
those of Bagot; and in the one really unfortunate episode of the year,
his want of financial skill drew on the governor-general's head the
remonstrances of both Stanley and the Treasury authorities. To escape
financial difficulties in Canada, Bagot had anticipated the loan, by
drawing on British funds for L100,000, and the Treasury did not spare
him. "He ought," wrote the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "to have {138}
considered those (difficulties) which must arise here from the
presentation of large drafts at the Treasury, for which Parliament had
made no provision; and for which, as Parliament was not sitting, no
regular provision could be made. The situation to which the Treasury
is reduced is this: either to protest the bills for want of funds, or
to accept the bills, and find within thirty days the means of paying
them."[11] This incident furnished to Stanley fresh proof, if any were
needed, of Bagot's inexperience. An anxious and mistrustful temper
appears in all his despatches to Bagot; but, in fact, with little
justification. He never learned how completely the governor for whom
he trembled was his master in the art of governing a half-autonomous
colony.

As early as March, Bagot had begun to feel that the views of the
Cabinet in Britain were impracticable: and that even the Civil List
might not be so easily defended as Stanley imagined. "I know well by
what a slender thread the adhesion of the colony will hang whenever we
consent to leave the matter entirel