might be likely to become an independent state, instead
of being merged in the Union_."[40]

Russell moved then at this period through a most interesting
development of views. His initial position was a blend of firm
imperialism and generous liberal concession, the latter more especially
inspired by Durham. As his genuine sympathies with liberty and
democracy operated on his political views, these steadily changed in
the direction of a more complete surrender to Canadian demands. But,
since, in spite of his sympathies, he still remained logical, and since
he had believed the connection to depend on {266} the
governor-general's supremacy, the modification of that supremacy
involved the weakening of his hopes of empire. If the change seem
somewhat to his discredit, his best defence lies in the fact that Peel,
who made a very similar modification of his mind on Canadian politics,
was also contemplating in these years a similar separation. "The
utility of our connexion with Canada," he said in 1844, "must depend
upon its being continued with perfect goodwill by the majority of the
population. It would be infinitely better that that connexion should
be discontinued, rather than that it should be continued by force and
against the general feeling and conviction of the people."[41] Indeed,
Russell seems to have been accompanied on his dolorous journey by all
the Peelites and not a few of the Whigs. "There begins to prevail in
the House of Commons," wrote Grey to Elgin in 1849, "and I am sorry to
say in the highest quarters, an opinion (which I believe to be utterly
erroneous) that we have no interest in preserving our colonies and
ought therefore to make no sacrifice for that purpose. Peel, Graham,
and Gladstone, if they do not avow this opinion as openly as Cobden and
his friends, yet betray very clearly that they {267} entertain it, nor
do I find some members of the Cabinet free from it."[42]

Meanwhile, the direction of colonial affairs had fallen to the writer
of the letter just quoted: from the formation of the Russell ministry
in 1846 until its fall, Earl Grey was the dominant force in British
colonial policy. Unlike Russell, Grey was not so much a politician
interested in the great parliamentary game, as an expert who had
devoted most of his attention to colonial and economic subjects.
Consciously or unconsciously, he had imbibed many of Wakefield's ideas,
and in that period of triumphant free trade, he came