to office resolute
to administer the colonies on free-trade principles. It said much for
the fixity and consistency of his ideas of colonial administration
that, unlike Russell, Buller, and others, he had not been misled by the
Metcalfe incident. "The truth is," he said of Metcalfe, "he did not
comprehend responsible government at all, nor from his Indian
experience is this wonderful."[43]

The most comprehensive description of the Grey regime is that it
practised _laissez faire_ principles in colonial administration as they
never had been {268} practised before. Under him Canada first enjoyed
the advantages or disadvantages of free trade, and escaped from the
shackles of the Navigation Laws. Grey and Elgin co-operated to bring
the Clergy Reserve troubles to an end, although the Whigs fell before
the final steps could be taken. Grey secured imperial sanction for
changes in the Union Act of 1840, granting the French new privileges
for their language, and the colony free control of its own finances.
But all these were subordinate in importance to the attitude of the new
minister towards the whole question of Canadian autonomy, and its
relation to the Imperial Parliament. That attitude may be examined in
relation to the responsibility of the Canadian executive, the powers of
the Imperial Parliament, the occasions on which these powers might be
fitly used, and the bearing of all the innovations on the position of
Canada within the British Empire.

Grey's policy with regard to Responsible Government was simple. As
Canadians viewed the term, and within the very modest limits set to it
by them, he surrendered the whole position. So much has already been
said on this point in connection with Elgin, that it need not be
further elaborated. Yet, since there might linger a suspicion that the
{269} policy was that rather of the governor than of the minister,
Grey's position may be given in a despatch written to Sir John Harvey
in Nova Scotia, before Elgin went to Canada.

"The object," wrote Grey, "with which I recommend to you this course is
that of making it apparent that any transfer, which may take place, of
political power from the hands of one party to those of another is the
result, not of an act of yours, but of the wishes of the people
themselves, as shown by the difficulty experienced by the retiring
party in carrying on the government of the Province according to the
forms of the Constitution. To this I atta