n Durham's ordinance; but instead of that he disallowed the ordinance,
and passed an Act of Indemnity for all those who had had a part in
carrying it out. Without waiting to hear Durham's defence, or to
consult with him as to the course which should be followed, the Cabinet
weakly surrendered to an attack of his personal enemies. Durham was
betrayed in the house of his friends.

The news of the disallowance of the ordinance first reached Durham
through the columns of an American newspaper. {112} Immediately his
mind was made up. Without waiting for any official notification, he
sent in his resignation to the colonial secretary. He was quite
satisfied himself that he had not exceeded his powers. 'Until I
learn,' he wrote, 'from some one better versed in the English language
that despotism means anything but such an aggregation of the supreme
executive and legislative authority in a single head, as was
deliberately made by Parliament in the Act which constituted my powers,
I shall not blush to hear that I have exercised a despotism; I shall
feel anxious only to know how well and wisely I have used, or rather
exhibited an intention of using, my great powers.' But he felt that if
he could expect no firm support from the Melbourne government, his
usefulness was gone, and resignation was the only course open to him.
He wrote, however, that he intended to remain in Canada until he had
completed the inquiries he had instituted. In view of the 'lamentable
want of information' with regard to Canada which existed in the
Imperial parliament, he confessed that he 'would take shame to himself
if he left his inquiry incomplete.'

A few days before Durham left Canada he took the unusual and, under
ordinary {113} circumstances, unconstitutional course of issuing a
proclamation, in which he explained the reasons for his resignation,
and in effect appealed from the action of the home government to
Canadian public opinion. It was this proclamation which drew down on
him from _The Times_ the nickname of 'Lord High Seditioner.' The
wisdom of the proclamation was afterwards, however, vigorously defended
by Charles Duller. The general unpopularity of the British government,
Duller explained, was such in Canada that a little more or less could
not affect it; whereas it was a matter of vital importance that the
angry and suspicious colonists should find one British statesman with
whom they could agree. The real justification of the