nch and rebel domination was raised, as it had
been raised in the days of Governor Bagot. A Toronto journal
reproachfully referred to Lord Elgin's descent from "the Bruce," and
asked how a man of royal ancestry could so degrade himself as to
consort with rebels and political jobbers. "Surely the curse of
Minerva, uttered by a great poet against the father, clings to the
son." The removal of the old office-holders seemed to this writer to
be an act of desecration not unlike the removal of the famous marbles
from the Parthenon. In a despatch explaining his course on the
Rebellion Losses Bill, Lord Elgin said that long before that
legislation there were evidences of the temper which finally produced
the explosion. He quoted the following passage from a newspaper: "When
French tyranny becomes insupportable, we shall find our Cromwell.
Sheffield in olden times used to be famous for its keen and
well-tempered whittles. Well, they make bayonets there now, just as
sharp and just as well-tempered. When we can stand tyranny no longer,
it will be seen whether good bayonets in Saxon hands will not be more
than a match for a mace and a majority." All the fuel for a
conflagration was ready. There was race hatred, there was party
hostility, there was commercial depression and there was a sincere,
though exaggerated, loyalty, which regarded rebellion as the
unforgivable sin, and which was in constant dread of the spread of
radical, republican and democratic ideas.

The Rebellion Losses Bill was all that was needed to fan the embers
into flame. This was a measure intended to compensate persons who had
suffered losses during the rebellion in Lower Canada. It was attacked
as a measure for "rewarding rebels." Lord Elgin afterwards said that
he did not believe a rebel would receive a farthing. But even if we
suppose that some rebels or rebel sympathizers were included in the
list, the outcry against the bill was unreasonable. A general amnesty
had been proclaimed; French-Canadians had been admitted to a full
share of political power. The greater things having been granted, it
was mere pedantry to haggle about the less, and to hold an elaborate
inquiry into the principles of every man whose barns had been burned
during the rebellion. When responsible government was conceded, it was
admitted that even the rebels had not been wholly wrong. It would have
been straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel to say "we will give
you these free instit