ce Bagot may have dreamed of offering. Metcalfe
was wrong {229} in suspecting a conscious intention in Sydenham's later
measures, but he was absolutely right when he wrote, "Lord Sydenham,
whether intending it or not, did concede Responsible Government
practically, by the arrangements which he adopted, although the full
extent of the concession was not so glaringly manifested during his
administration as in that of his successor."[39]

Canadian conditions were, in fact, evolving for themselves a new
system--Home Rule with its limits and conditions left as vague as
possible--and that new system contradicted the very postulates of
Russell's doctrine. It was only when the system of Russell became
incarnate in a governor, Lord Metcalfe, and when the opposing facts
also took personal form in the La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry, that both
in Canada and Britain men came to see that two contradictory policies
faced each other, and that one or other alternative must be chosen. To
Elgin fell the honour not merely of seeing the need to choose the
Canadian alternative, but also of recognizing the conditions under
which the new plan would bring a deeper loyalty, and a more lasting
union with Britain, as well as political content to Canada.

[1] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847. It
would be wrong to call Cathcart the "acting governor-general"; yet
apart from military matters that term describes his position in civil
matters not inadequately.

[2] Walrond, _Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin_, p. 424. "During a
public service of twenty-five years I have always sided with the weaker
party."

[3] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey on Grey's Colonial Policy,
8 October, 1852.

[4] Gladstone to Cathcart, 3 February, 1846. The italics are my own.

[5] W. H. Draper to the Earl Cathcart, in Pope, _Life of Sir John
Macdonald_, i. pp. 43-4.

[6] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 24 February, 1847.

[7] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 26 April, 1847.

[8] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, enclosing a note from
Col. Tache, 27 February, 1847.

[9] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 28 June, 1847.

[10] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Grey to Elgin, 7 May, 1847.

[11] _Ibid._: Elgin to Grey, 27 March, 1847.

[12] Elgin-Grey Correspondence: Elgin to Grey, 13 July, 1847.

[13] _La Revue Canadienne_, 21 December, 1847.

[14] The speech of the governor-general in proroguing Parliament,