be recalled, a request which was granted. At his
last cabinet council he bade an affectionate farewell to his
ministers, and begged them to defend his memory. His best vindication
is found in the failure of Metcalfe's policy, and in the happy results
of the policy of Elgin.

The events connected with the retirement of Bagot, which were not
fully understood until the publication of Sir Robert Peel's papers a
few years ago, throw light upon the reasons which determined the
selection of Sir Charles Metcalfe. Metcalfe was asked by Lord Stanley
whether he would be able and disposed to assume "most honourable and
at the same time very arduous duties in the public service." Metcalfe
wrote to Captain Higginson, afterwards his private secretary: "I am
not sure that the government of Canada is a manageable affair, and
unless I think I can go to good purpose I will not go at all." Sir
Francis Hincks says: "All Sir Charles Metcalfe's correspondence prior
to his departure from England is indicative of a feeling that he was
going on a forlorn hope expedition," and Hincks adds that such
language can be explained only on the assumption that he was sent out
for the purpose of overthrowing responsible government. It is
certainly established by the Peel correspondence that the British
government strongly disapproved of Sir Charles Bagot's policy, and
selected Sir Charles Metcalfe as a man who would govern on radically
different lines. It is perhaps putting it rather strongly to say that
he was intended to overthrow responsible government. But he must have
come to Canada filled with distrust of the Canadian ministry, filled
with the idea that the demand for responsible government was a cloak
for seditious designs, and ready to take strong measures to preserve
British connection. In this misunderstanding lay the source of his
errors and misfortunes in Canada.

It is not therefore necessary to enter minutely into the dispute which
occasioned the rupture between Metcalfe and his advisers. On the
surface it was a dispute over patronage. In reality Baldwin and
Lafontaine were fighting for autonomy and responsible government;
Metcalfe, as he thought, was defending the unity of the empire. He was
a kindly and conscientious man, and he held his position with some
skill, always contending that he was willing to agree to responsible
government on condition that the colonial position was recognized, the
prerogative of the Crown upheld, and the gov