[Sidenote:  Opinions in England.]

And, in effect, the next post from England came laden with speeches and newspaper articles, denouncing, in no measured terms, the ’suicidal folly of rewarding rebels for rebellion.’  A London journal of influence, speaking of the British population as affected by the measure in question, said:—­ ’They are tolerably able to take care of themselves, and we very much misconstrue the tone adopted by the English press and the English public in the province, if they do not find some means of resisting the heavy blow and great discouragement which is aimed at them.’  Such passages were read with avidity in the colony, and construed to mean that sympathy would be extended from influential quarters at home to those who sought to annul the obnoxious decision of the local Legislature, whatever might be the means to which they resorted for the attainment of that end.  It may be doubted, however, whether any extraneous disturbance of this kind had much to do with the volcanic outburst of local passions which ensued, and which is now to be related.

[Sidenote:  The Bill is passed,]

The Bill was passed in the Assembly by forty-seven votes to eighteen.  On analysing the votes, it was found that out of thirty-one members from Upper Canada who voted on the occasion, seventeen supported and fourteen opposed it; and that of ten members for Lower Canada, of British descent, six supported and four opposed it.

These facts (wrote Lord Elgin) seemed altogether irreconcilable with the allegation that the question was one on which the two races were arrayed against each other throughout the province generally.  I considered, therefore, that by reserving the Bill, I should only cast on Her Majesty and Her Majesty’s advisers a responsibility which ought, in the first instance at least, to rest on my own shoulders, and that I should awaken in the minds of the people at large, even of those who were indifferent or hostile to the Bill, doubts as to the sincerity with which it was intended that constitutional Government should be carried on in Canada; doubts which it is my firm conviction, if they were to obtain generally, would be fatal to the connection.

[Sidenote:  and receives the Royal Assent.]

Accordingly, when, on April 25, 1849, circumstances made it necessary for him to proceed to Parliament in order to give the Royal Assent to a Customs Bill which had that day passed the Legislative Council, he considered that, as this necessity had arisen, it would not be expedient to keep the public mind in suspense by omitting to dispose, at the same time, of the other Acts which still awaited his decision, among which was the ’Act to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838.’  What followed is thus described in an official despatch written within a few days after the event:—­