a mind resolute to
administer to every British subject equal rights; and an austere
refusal to let an {217} arrogant and narrow-minded minority claim to
itself a kind of oligarchic glory at the expense of citizens who did
not belong to the Anglo-Saxon stock.

There is a third aspect of Elgin's work in Canada of wider scope than
either of those already mentioned, and one in which his claims to
distinction have been almost forgotten--his contribution to the working
theory of the British Empire. Elgin was one of those earlier sane
imperialists whose achievements it is very easy to forget. It is not
too much to say that, when Elgin came to Canada, the future of the
British colonial empire was at best gloomy. Politicians at home had
placed in front of themselves an awkward dilemma. According to the
stiffer Tories, the colonies must be held in with a firm hand--how
firm, Stanley had illustrated in his administration of Canada. Yet
Tory stiffness produced colonial discontent, and colonial discontent
bred very natural doubts at home as to the possibility of holding the
colonies by the old methods. On the other hand, there were those, like
Cobden, who, while they believed with the Tories that colonial
home-rule was certain to result in colonial independence, were
nevertheless too loyal to their doctrine of political liberty to resist
colonial claims. They looked to an immediate but {218} peaceful
dissolution of the empire. It seemed never to strike anyone but a few
radicals, like Durham and Buller, that Britons still held British
sentiments, even across the seas, and that they desired to combine a
continuance of the British connection with the retention of all those
popular rights in government which they had possessed at home. A
Canadian governor-general, then, had to deal with British Cabinets
which alternated between foolish rigour and foolish slackness, and with
politicians who reflected little on the responsibilities of empire,
when they flung before careless British audiences irresponsible
discussions on colonial independence--as if it were an academic subject
and not a critical issue.

Elgin had imperial difficulties, all his own, to make his task more
complicated. Not only were there French and Irish nationalists ready
for agitation, but the United States lay across the southern border;
and annexation to that mighty and flourishing republic seemed to many
the natural euthanasia of British rule in North Ameri