I have to thank the Dominion Archivist, Dr. A. G. Doughty, for many kindnesses, and more especially for permitting me to read the Elgin-Grey Correspondence. To my friends, Mr. K. K. M. Leys, of University College, Oxford, Dr. Adam Shortt, Ottawa, and Professor W. D. Taylor, of Queen's University, Kingston, I am indebted for advice and information. Mr. James MacLehose and Dr. George Neilson made the final stages of printing easy by their generous assistance. The opinions which I express are my own, occasionally in spite of my friends' remonstrances.
J. L. MORISON.
INNELLAN, ARGYLLSHIRE,
May, 1919.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | [INTRODUCTORY ] | 1 |
| II. | [THE CANADIAN COMMUNITY ] | 8 |
| III. | [THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD SYDENHAM ] | 70 |
| IV. | [THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: SIR CHARLES BAGOT ] | 126 |
| V. | [THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD METCALFE] | 158 |
| VI. | [THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL: LORD ELGIN] | 187 |
| VII. | [BRITISH OPINION AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY] | 230 |
| VIII. | [THE CONSEQUENCES OF CANADIAN AUTONOMY] | 293 |
| [INDEX ] | 347 |
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
There are antinomies in politics as in philosophy, problems where the difficulty lies in reconciling facts indubitably true but mutually contradictory. For growth in the political world is not always gradual; accidents, discoveries, sudden developments, call into existence new creations, which only the generous logic of events and the process of time can reconcile with pre-existing facts and systems. It is the object of this essay to examine one of these political antinomies—the contradiction between imperial ascendancy and colonial autonomy—as it was illustrated by events in early Victorian Canada.