ommendations were clear and specific. He maintained that harmony
would be restored "not by weakening but strengthening the influence of
the people on its government; by confining within much narrower bounds
than those hitherto allotted to it, and not by extending, the
interference of the imperial authorities on the details of colonial
affairs." The government must be administered on the principles that
had been found efficacious in Great Britain. He would not impair a
single prerogative of the Crown, but the Crown must submit to the
necessary consequences of representative institutions, and must govern
through those in whom the representative body had confidence.

These principles are now so well established that it is hard to
realize how bold and radical they appeared in 1839. Between that time
and 1847, the British government sent out to Canada three governors,
with various instructions. Whatever the wording of these instructions
was, they always fell short of Durham's recommendations, and always
expressed a certain reluctance to entrusting the government of Canada
unreservedly to representatives of the people.

From 1842 to 1846 the government in Great Britain was that of Sir
Robert Peel, and it was that government which set itself most
strongly against the granting of autonomy to Canada. It was
Conservative, and it probably received from correspondents in Canada a
good deal of misinformation and prejudiced opinion in regard to the
aims of the Reformers. But it was a group of men of the highest
character and capacity, concerning whom Gladstone has left on record a
remarkable testimony. "It is his conviction that in many of the most
important rules of public policy, that government surpassed generally
the governments which have succeeded it, whether Liberal or
Conservative. Among them he would mention purity in patronage,
financial strictness, loyal adherence to the principle of public
economy, jealous regard to the rights of parliament, a single eye to
the public interest, strong aversion to extension of territorial
responsibilities, and a frank admission of the rights of foreign
countries as equal to those of their own."

With this high estimate of the general character of the Peel
government must be coupled the undoubted fact that it entirely
misunderstood the situation in Canada, gave its support to the party
of reaction, and needlessly delayed the establishment of
self-government. We may attribute this in part