fects, the verdict must be on the whole favourable to the
colony.

Of direct malversation, or actual sordid dishonesty, there was, thanks
probably to a vigorous opposition, far less than might have been
expected. The _cause celebre_ was that of Francis Hincks, premier from
1851 to 1854, who was accused, among other things, of having profited
through buying shares in concerns with which government had dealings--a
fault not unknown in Britain; of having induced government to improve
the facilities of regions in which he had holdings, and generally of
having used his position as minister to make great private gains. A
most minute inquiry cleared him on all scores, but the committee of the
Legislative Council, without entering further into the questions,
mentioned as points worthy of consideration by Parliament, "whether it
is beneficial to the due administration of the affairs of this country
for its ministers to purchase lands sold at public competition, and
Municipal Debentures, also {316} offered in open market or otherwise;
whether the public interests require an expression of the opinions of
the Two Houses of Parliament in that respect; and whether it would be
advisable to increase the salaries of the Members of the Executive
Council to such a figure, as would relieve them from the necessity of
engaging in private dealings, to enable them to support their families
and maintain the dignity of their position, without resorting to any
kind of business transactions while in the service of the crown."[18]
Canada was passing through an ordeal, which, sooner or later, Britain
too must face. Her answer, in this case, to the dilemma between
service of the community and self-aggrandisement was not unworthy of
the mother country.

Still, in spite of the acquittal of Hincks, there were cases of
complicated corruption, and a multitude of little squalid sins. Men
like Sir Allan MacNab, who had been bred in a system of preferments and
petty political gains, found it difficult to avoid small jobbery. "He
has such an infernal lot of hangers on to provide for," wrote one
minister to another, concerning the gallant knight, "that he finds it
difficult to do the {317} needful for them all."[19] It is clear, too,
that when John A. Macdonald succeeded MacNab as Tory leader, purity did
not increase. It was no doubt easy for George Brown to criticize
Macdonald's methods from a position of untempted rectitude, and no
doubt also Brown