He accepted it, not in the spirit of mere selfish ambition, but with a deep sense of the responsibilities attached to it, which he portrayed in earnest and forcible words at a public dinner at Dunfermline:—­

To watch over the interests of those great offshoots of the British race which plant themselves in distant lands; to aid them in their efforts to extend the domain of civilisation, and to fulfil that first behest of a benevolent Creator to His intelligent creatures—­’subdue the earth;’ to abet the generous endeavour to impart to these rising communities the full advantages of British laws, British institutions, and British freedom; to assist them in maintaining unimpaired, it may be in strengthening and confirming, those bonds of mutual affection which unite the parent and dependent states—­these are duties not to be lightly undertaken, and which may well claim the exercise of all the faculties and energies of an earnest and patriotic mind.

It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the end of the year.  In the interval he became engaged to Lady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the first Earl of Durham.  They were married on November 7th, and in the first days of the year 1847 he sailed for America.

[1] It is impossible not to be struck with the applicability of
    these remarks to the condition of the agricultural poor in some parts
    of England, and the question of extending among them the benefits of
    education.

[2] Vide inf. p. 156.

[3] See the speech of Mr. W.E.  Forster, at Leeds, May 20, 1869.

CHAPTER III.

CANADA.

State of the colony—­first impressions—­provincial politics—­’responsible government’—­Irish immigrants—­upper Canada—­change of ministry—­French habitants—­the French question—­the Irish—­the British—­Discontents; their causes and remedies—­navigation laws—­retrospect—­speech on education.

[Sidenote:  View of the state of Canada.]

In passing from Jamaica to Canada, Lord Elgin went not only to a far wider sphere of action, but to one of infinitely greater complication.  For in Canada there were two civilised populations of nearly equal power, viewing each other with traditionary dislike and distrust:  the French habitans of the Lower Province, strong in their connexion with the past, and the British settlers, whose energy and enterprise gave unmistakable promise of predominance in the future.  Canada had, within a few miles of her capital, a powerful and restless neighbour, whose friendly intentions were not always sufficient to restrain the unruly spirits on her frontier from acts of aggression, which might at any time lead to the most serious complications.  Moreover, in Canada representative institutions were already more fully developed than in any other colony, and were at this very time passing through the most critical period of their final development.