is own
opinions in order that he might take the lead in the Assembly;
nevertheless he is not popular with the party that supports the
government, nor with any other, and I do not know that, strictly
speaking, he can be said to have a single follower. The same may be
remarked of every other member of the Executive Council; and although I
have much reason to be satisfied with them, and have no expectation of
finding others who would serve her Majesty better, still I do not {185}
perceive that any of them individually have brought much support to the
government."[30]

That is the confession of a man who has attempted the impossible, and
who is being forced reluctantly to witness his own defeat. The
ministry which he had created lacked the authority which can come only
from the best political talent of a people acting in sympathy with the
opinions of that people. He had, with great difficulty, found a House
of Assembly willing by a narrow majority to support him, but personal
support is not in itself a political programme, and the fallacy of his
calculations appeared when work in detail had to be accomplished. He
had reprobated party, and he found in a party--narrower in practice
even than that which he had displaced--the only possible foundation for
his authority. He had come to Canada to complete the reconciliation of
opposing races within the colony, and, when he left, the French seemed
once more about to retreat into their old position of invincible
hostility to all things British. The governor-generalship of Lord
Metcalfe is almost the clearest illustration in the nineteenth century
of the weakness of the doctrinaire in practical politics.
Unfortunately, the {186} doctrine which Metcalfe had strenuously
enforced was backed by the highest of imperial authorities, and
sanctioned by monarchy itself. In less than ten years after the
Rebellion, the renovated theory of colonial autonomy had produced a new
dilemma. It remained with Metcalfe's successor to decide whether
Britain preferred a second rebellion and probable separation to a
radical change of system.

[1] Kaye, _Life of Lord Metcalfe_, revised edition, ii. p. 313.

[2] _A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada_, by a
member of the Provincial Parliament, p. 29.

[3] Baldwin Correspondence: La Fontaine to Baldwin, 26 July, 1845.

[4] _Parliamentary Paper concerning the Canadian Civil List_ (1 April,
1844), p. 5.

[5] Metcalfe to Stanle