rt of his countrymen if he
failed to introduce a measure of this description; and secondly, that
my refusal would be taken by him and his friends {215} as a proof that
they had not my confidence." But his chief concern was to hold the
balance level, to redress an actual grievance, and to repress the fury
of Canadian Tories whose unrestrained action would have flung Canada
into a new and complicated struggle of races and parties. "I am firmly
convinced," he told Grey in June, speaking of American election
movements at this time, "that the only thing which prevented an
invasion of Canada was the political contentment prevailing among the
French Canadians and Irish Catholics"; and that political contentment
was the result of Elgin's action in supporting his ministers. A happy
chance, utilized to the full by Elgin's cautious wisdom, had enabled
him to do the French what they counted a considerable service; and the
rage and disorder of the opposition only played the more surely into
the hands of the governor-general, and established, beyond any risk of
alteration, French loyalty to him personally.[29]

From that day, with trivial intervals or incidents of misunderstanding,
the British and the French in Canada have played the political game
together. It was in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry that {216} the
joint action, within the Canadian parties, of the two races had its
real beginning; and while the traditions and idiosyncrasies of Quebec
were too ingrained and fundamental to admit of modification beyond a
certain point, Canadian parliamentary life was henceforth based on the
free co-operation of French and English, in a party system which tried
to forget the distinction of race. From this time, too, Elgin began to
discern the conservative genius of the French people, and to prophesy
that, when Baldwin's moderate reforming influence should have been
withdrawn, the French would naturally incline to unite with the
moderate Conservatives--the combination on which, in actual fact, John
A. Macdonald based his long control of power in Canada.

The nationalist question is so intermingled with the constitutional
that it is not always easy to separate the two issues. The same
qualities which settled the latter difficulty ended also French
grievances--saving common-sense which did not refuse to do the obvious
thing; _bonhomie_ which understood that a well-mannered people may be
wooed from its isolation by a little humouring;