ism, not to exalt
that which was true, and {227} for that cool business the glow and
fervour of prophecy were not required. We like to see our leaders
standing rampant, and with sulphurous, or at least thundery,
backgrounds. But Elgin's ironic Scottish humour forbade any pose, and
it was his business to keep the cannon quiet, and to draw the lightning
harmless to the ground. The most heroic thing he did in Canada was to
refrain from entering Montreal at a time when his entrance must have
meant insult, resistance, and bloodshed, and he bore quietly the taunts
of cowardice which his enemies flung at his head.

He was far too clear-sighted to think that statesmanship consists in
decisions between very definitely stated alternatives of right and
wrong. "My choice," he wrote in characteristic words, "was not between
a clearly right and clearly wrong course--_how easy is it to deal with
such cases, and how rare are they in life_--but between several
difficulties. I think I chose the least."[38] His kindly, shrewd, and
honest countenance looks at us from his portraits with no appeal of
sentiment or pathos. He asked of men that which they find it most
difficult to give--moderation, common-sense, a willingness to look at
both sides, and to {228} subordinate their egoisms to a wider good; and
he was content to do without their worship.

It is now possible to summarize the movement towards autonomy so far as
it was affected by the governors-general of the transition period.

The characteristic note in the earlier stages had been the domination
of the governor-general's mind by a clear-cut theory--that of Lord John
Russell. That theory was in itself consistent, and of a piece with the
rest of the constitution; and its merits stood out more clearly because
Canadian progressives had an unfortunate faculty for setting themselves
in the wrong--making party really appear as faction, investing
self-government with something of the menace of independence, and
treating the responsibility they sought in the most irresponsible way.
The British theory, too, as guaranteeing a definitely British
predominance in Canada, brought into rather lurid relief the mistaken
fervour of French-Canadian nationalism.

Yet Sydenham, who never consciously, or at least openly, surrendered
one detail of the system entrusted to him by Russell, found events too
much for him; and that which conquered Sydenham's resolution made short
work of any resistan