were at their worst, and when his Tory opponents chose
support of that disloyal movement as the means of insulting their
governor, he took stern measures for repressing an unnatural evil. "We
intend," {221} he wrote in November, 1849, after an annexation meeting
at which servants of the State had been present, "to dismiss the
militia officers and magistrates who have taken part in these affairs,
and to deprive the two Queen's Counsels of their silk gowns." But he
relied mainly on the positive side of his policy, and few statesmen
have given Canada a more substantial boon than did Elgin when, just
before his recall, he went to Washington on that mission which Laurence
Oliphant has made classic by his description, and concluded by far the
most favourable commercial treaty ever negotiated by Britain with the
United States.

There is perhaps a tendency to underestimate the work of his
predecessors and assistants in preparing the way, but no one can doubt
that it was Elgin's persistence in urging the treaty on the home
Cabinet, and his wonderful diplomatic gifts, which ultimately won the
day. Oliphant, certainly, had no doubt as to his chief's share in the
matter. "He is the most thorough diplomat possible--never loses sight
for a moment of his object, and while he is chaffing Yankees, and
slapping them on the back, he is systematically pursuing that
object";[32] and again, "There was concluded in {222} exactly a
fortnight a treaty, to negotiate which had taxed the inventive genius
of the Foreign Office, and all the conventional methods of diplomacy,
for the previous seven years."[33]

It was a long, slow process by which Elgin restored the tone of
Canadian loyalty. Frenchmen who had dreamed of renouncing allegiance
he won by his obvious fairness, and the recognition accorded by him to
their leaders. He took the heart out of Irish disaffection by his
popular methods and love of liberty. Tory dissentients fell slowly in
to heel, as they found their governor no lath painted to look like
iron, but very steel. To desponding Montreal merchants his reciprocity
treaty yielded naturally all they had expected from a more drastic
change. It is true that, owing to untoward circumstances, the treaty
lasted only for the limited period prescribed by Elgin; but it tided
over an awkward interval of disaffection and disappointment.

He did more, however, than cure definite phases of Canadian
disaffection; his influence through E