and he himself felt that it must do great mischief to the members from other parts of the Province, to pass some months of each year in that ‘hot-bed of prejudice and disaffection.’  Moreover, so long as Montreal retained the prestige of being the Metropolis, it was impossible to prevent its press from enjoying a factitious importance, not only within the province, but also in England and in the States, where it would be looked upon as the exponent of the sentiments of the community at large.

Ultimately, on November 18, Lord Elgin reported to the Home Government, that after full and anxious deliberation he had resolved, on the advice of his Council, to act on the recommendation of the Assembly that the Legislature should sit alternately at Toronto and Quebec, and with that view to summon the Provincial Parliament for the next session at Toronto.  This step, ‘decided upon in this deliberate and unimpassioned manner,’ gave a useful lesson, which was not lost either upon Montreal or the rest of the Province.  Nor was this its only good effect.  ‘The arrangement,’ wrote Lord Grey in 1852, ’by which the seat of Government and the sittings of the Legislature were fixed alternately at Toronto and Quebec, has contributed not a little towards removing the feelings of alienation from each other of the inhabitants of French and of British descent.  The French Canadians have thus been brought into closer communication than formerly with the inhabitants of the Western division of the province, and an increase of mutual esteem and respect, with the removal of many prejudices by which they were formerly divided, have been the result of the two classes becoming better acquainted with each other.’[11]

[Sidenote:  Visit to Upper Canada.]

While these arrangements were under discussion, in the autumn following the stormy events above described, in spite of the threats thrown out by the extreme party, Lord Elgin, after a progress in Upper Canada in which he was accompanied by his family, made a short tour in the Western districts, the stronghold of British feeling, attended only by one aide-de-camp and a servant, ‘so as to contradict the allegation that he required protection.’  Everywhere he was received with the utmost cordiality; the few indications of a different feeling, on the part of Orangemen and others, having only the effect of heightening the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the majority of the population.

[Sidenote:  Continued animosities.]

From this time we hear no more of such disgraceful scenes as it has been necessary to record; but it was long before the old ‘Family-Compact’ party forgave the Governor who had dared to be impartial.  By many kinds of detraction they sought to weaken his influence and damage his popularity; detractions probably repeated in all sincerity by many who were honestly incapable of understanding his real motives for forbearance.  And as the members of this party,