ch great importance; I have
therefore to instruct you to abstain from changing your Executive
Council until it shall become perfectly clear that they are unable with
such fair support from yourself as they have a right to expect, to
carry on the government of the province satisfactorily, and command the
confidence of the Legislature.... In giving all fair and proper
support to your Council for the time being, you will carefully avoid
any acts which can possibly be supposed to imply the slightest personal
objection to their opponents, and also refuse to assent to any measures
which may be {270} proposed to you by your Council, which may appear to
you to involve an improper exercise of the authority of the Crown for
party rather than for public objects. In exercising however this power
of refusing to sanction measures which may be submitted to you by your
Council, you must recollect that this power of opposing a check upon
extreme measures, proposed by the party for the time in the Government,
depends entirely for its efficacy upon its being used sparingly and
with the greatest possible discretion. A refusal to accept advice
tendered to you by your Council is a legitimate ground for its members
to tender to you their resignation--a course they would doubtless
adopt, should they feel that the subject on which a difference had
arisen between you and themselves was one upon which public opinion
would be in their favour. Should it prove to be so, concession to
their views must sooner or later become inevitable, since it cannot be
too distinctly acknowledged that it is neither possible nor desirable
to carry on the government of any of the British Provinces in North
America, in opposition to the opinion of the inhabitants."[44]

In strict accordance with this plan, Grey gave {271} Elgin the most
loyal support in introducing responsible government into Canada, and,
in a note written not long after Papineau had once more awakened the
political echoes with a distinctly disloyal address, he expressed his
willingness to include even the old rebel in the ministerial
arrangement, should that be insisted on by the leaders of a party which
could command a majority.[45]

Complete as was the concession made by Grey to local claims, it would,
nevertheless, be a grave error to think that he left no space for the
assertion of imperial authority. No doubt it was part of his system to
reduce to a minimum the occasions on which interfere