ly the dangers of
his predecessor's policy. "The distinction," he wrote at a later date,
"between Lord Metcalfe's policy and mine is twofold. In the first
place he profoundly distrusted the whole Liberal party in the
province--that great party which, excepting at extraordinary
conjunctures, has always carried with it the mass of the
constituencies. He believed its designs to be revolutionary, just as
the Tory party in England believed those of the Whigs and Reformers to
be in 1832. And, secondly, he imagined that when circumstances forced
the party upon him, he could check these revolutionary tendencies by
manifesting his distrust of them, more especially in the matter of the
distribution of patronage, thereby relieving them in a great measure
from that responsibility, which is in all free countries the most
effectual security against the abuse of power, and tempting them to
endeavour to combine the role of popular tribunes with the prestige of
ministers of the crown."[3]

The danger of a crisis was the greater because, as has been shown,
Metcalfe's anti-democratic policy had been more than the expression of
a personal {193} mood. It was the policy of the British government.
After Metcalfe's departure, and Stanley's resignation of the Colonial
office, Gladstone, then for a few months Colonial Secretary, assured
Cathcart that "the favour of his Sovereign and the acknowledgment of
his country, have marked (Metcalfe's) administration as one which,
under the peculiar circumstances of the task he had to perform, _may
justly be regarded as a model for his successors_."[4] In truth, the
British Colonial office was not only wrong in its working theory, but
ignorant of the boiling tumult of Canadian opinion in those days;
ignorant of the steadily increasing vehemence of the demand for true
home rule, and of the possibility that French nationalism, Irish
nationalism, and American aggression, might unite in a great upheaval,
and the political tragedy find its consummation in another Declaration
of Independence.

But Elgin was allowed little leisure for general reflections; the
concrete details of the actual situation absorbed all his energies.
Since Metcalfe's resignation, matters had not improved. There was
still an uncertain majority in the House of Assembly, although, in the
eyes of probably a {194} majority of voters, the disorders of the late
election had discredited the whole Assembly. But the ministry had gone
on