majorities in both
houses; but while there seemed no valid reason for disallowing it,
Elgin suspected trouble--indeed, at first, he viewed the measure with
personal disapproval.[20] He might have refused permission to bring in
the bill; but the practical consequences of such a refusal were too
serious to {207} be accepted. "Only imagine," he wrote, "how difficult
it would have been to discover a justification for my conduct, if at a
moment when America was boiling over with bandits and desperadoes, and
when the leaders of every faction in the Union, with the view of
securing the Irish vote for the presidential election, were vying with
each other in abuse of England, and subscribing funds for the Irish
Republican Union, I had brought on such a crisis in Canada by refusing
to allow my administration to bring in a bill to carry out the
recommendation of Lord Metcalfe's commissioners."[21] He might have
dissolved Parliament, but, as he rightly pointed out, "it would be
rather a strong measure to have recourse to dissolution because a
Parliament, elected one year ago under the auspices of the present
opposition, passed by a majority of more than two to one a measure
introduced by the Government." There remained only the possibility of
reserving the bill for approval or rejection at home. A weaker man
would have taken this easy and fatal way of evading responsibility; but
Elgin rose to the height of his vocation, when he explained his reason
for acting on his own {208} initiative. "I should only throw upon her
Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the popular eye here)
on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which rests, and ought I think
to rest, on my own shoulders."[22] He gave his assent to the bill,
suffered personal violence at the hands of the Montreal crowd and the
opposition, but, since he stood firm, he triumphed, and saved both the
dignity of the Crown and the friendship of the French for his
government.

The other instance of his skill in combining Canadian autonomy with
British supremacy is less important, but, in a way, more extraordinary
in its subtlety. As a servant of the Crown, he had to furnish
despatches, which were liable to be published as parliamentary papers,
and so to be perused by Canadian politicians. Elgin had therefore to
reckon with two publics--the British Parliament, which desired
information, and the Canadian Parliament, which desired to maintain its
dignity and freedom.