} began to throw his main weight into an
agitation to make the Legislative Council elective. Henceforth the
plan for an elective Legislative Council became the chief feature of
the policy of the _Patriote_ party. The existing nominated and
reactionary Legislative Council had served the purpose of a buffer
between the governor's Executive Council and the Assembly. This
buffer, thought Papineau and his friends, should be removed, so as to
expose the governor to the full hurricane of the Assembly's wrath.

It was not long before Papineau's domineering behaviour and the
revolutionary trend of his views alienated some of his followers. On
John Neilson, who had gone to England with him in 1822 and with
Cuvillier and Viger in 1828, and who had supported him heartily during
the Dalhousie regime, Papineau could no longer count. Under Aylmer a
coolness sprang up between the two men. Neilson objected to the
expulsion of Mondelet from the House; he opposed the resolutions of
Louis Bourdages, Papineau's chief lieutenant, for the abolition of the
Legislative Council; and in the debate on Quesnel's bill for the
independence of judges, he administered a severe rebuke to Papineau for
language he {37} had used. Augustin Cuvillier followed the lead of his
friend Neilson, and so also did Andrew Stuart, one of the ablest
lawyers in the province, and Quesnel. All these men were politicians
of weight and respectability.

Papineau still had, however, a large and powerful following, especially
among the younger members. Nothing is more remarkable at this time
than the sway which he exercised over the minds of men who in later
life became distinguished for the conservative and moderate character
of their opinions. Among his followers in the House were Louis
Hippolyte LaFontaine, destined to become, ten years later, the
colleague of Robert Baldwin in the LaFontaine-Baldwin administration,
and Augustin Norbert Morin, the colleague of Francis Hincks in the
Hincks-Morin administration of 1851. Outside the House he counted
among his most faithful followers two more future prime ministers of
Canada, George E. Cartier and Etienne P. Tache. Nor were his
supporters all French Canadians. Some English-speaking members acted
with him, among them Wolfred Nelson; and in the country he had the
undivided allegiance of men like Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, editor of
the Montreal _Vindicator_, {38} and Thomas Storrow Brown, afterwards
one of the 'gen