be allowed to resign, and
recommending the appointment of a governor whose hands were 'not
pledged as mine are to a mild and conciliatory line of policy.'

Two alternatives were now open to the British ministers--either to make
a complete capitulation to the demands of the _Patriotes_, or to deal
with the situation in a high-handed way. They chose the latter course,
though with some hesitation and perhaps with regret. On March 6, 1837,
Lord John Russell, chancellor of the Exchequer in the Melbourne
administration and one of the most liberal-minded statesmen in England,
introduced into the House of Commons ten resolutions dealing with the
affairs of Canada. These resolutions recited that since 1832 no
provision had been made by the Assembly of Lower Canada for defraying
the charges for the administration of justice or for the support of the
civil government; that the attention of the Assembly had been called to
the arrears due; and that the Assembly had declined to vote a supply
until its demands for radical political changes were satisfied. The
resolutions declared that though both the bodies in question might be
improved in respect of their composition, it {59} was inadvisable to
grant the demand to make the Legislative Council elective, or to
subject the Executive Council to the responsibility demanded by the
House of Assembly. In regard to the financial question, the
resolutions repeated the offer made by Lord Aylmer and Lord
Gosford--namely, to hand over to the Assembly the control of the
hereditary, territorial, and casual revenues of the Crown, on condition
that the Assembly would grant a permanent civil list. But the main
feature of the resolutions was the clause empowering the governor to
pay out of the public revenues, without authorization of the Assembly,
the moneys necessary for defraying the cost of government in the
province up to April 10, 1837. This, though not exactly a suspension
of the constitution of Lower Canada and a measure quite legally within
the competency of the House of Commons, was a flat negative to the
claim of the Lower-Canadian Assembly to control over the executive
government, through the power of the purse or otherwise.

A long and important debate in Parliament followed on these
resolutions. Some of the chief political leaders of the day took part
in the discussion. Daniel O'Connell, the great {60} tribune of the
Irish people, took up the cudgels for the French Canadians.