GOVERNMENT OF CANADA. THE state of Canada demands prompt and
effective attention. There is a Ministerial crisis : indeed there may be said to have been a Ministerial crisis ever since the Liberal Ministry broke up, in the dispute with Sir Charles Metcalfe about responsible government. The crisis in Canada is attended by the agitation of certain broad political questions that go to affect not only the internal peace of that colony but the closeness of its adhesion to the Mother-country. We may look for the causes of Sir Charles Metcalfe's compara- tive failure in the antecedents of his North American mission.
In the East Indies he was distinguished for the ability and be- nevolence with which he wielded the arbitrary power reposed by the Indian Government in its official subordinates. He was ap-
pointed to succeed the kind but hotheaded Anti-Slavery Gover- nor, Sir Lionel Smith, in Jamaica. The Blacks expected to find the new man a perfect contrast to their old friend : they found him no such thing, but a man equally desirous of benefiting his fellow creatures with whatsoever tint of skin, and enforcing the law with a mild Christian tone of address highly conciliatory to their feelings. They respected his firmness and loved his kind- ness. On the other hand, the planters, instead of being disap- pointed at not finding in Sir Charles a " slave-driver," found him as firm and dignified as they could desire, while he succeeded in touching their hearts. He established peace in Jamaica. In that mission, however, he encountered no political question, properly so called. Politics were quite subordinate and inci- . dental to the social and commercial questions. When he went to Canada, he found little astir in the way of commercial ques- tions, nothing in the way of social questions ; but all was poli- tics. This lay, out of the course of his experience. He had proved an excellent administrator, a kind arbitrator • but he had displayed no peculiar ability or attainments as a politician. He displayed none in Canada. His official ability helped to make affairs go on more smoothly than they might ; his personal worth induced the colonists to suffer a considerable suspense in their own political action ; his malady powerfully excited their sym- pathies, and procured for him, as a.personal indulgence, a forbear- ance extraordinary in a people denied the fruits of that for which they had struggled even to the pitch of civil war and rebellion. And when they saw the kind old man leaving their shores " to die," they could not restrain their pity, and they spoke to him in terms of respect that almost seemed to imply ap- proval of his rule. No such feeling, however, was in their minds. Sir Charles Metcalfe, on succeeding Sir Charles Bagot as Governor-General, had found the question of Ministerial respon- sibility to the Representative Chamber in a half-settled state : he failed at once to master the subject himself and to make the colonists understand his really honest intentions ; and he left the question more unsettled than he found it, after having re mained in abeyance throughout his governorship. Meanwhile, many men, of more or less political honesty, more or less desirous of promoting peace, consented to take office without a settlement on that cardinal point. M. Viger and some of the French party braved obloquy in the attempt to bring about a better state of matters by quiet and gentle means ; Mr. Draper and others of the old Tory party consented to take office merely as a matter of routine, to work the government of the province as well as they could. Such adventurers in that sea of troubles could never muster men enough to make up a complete Cabinet ; and in pro- portion to the apparent completeness of their own corps rose the waves of turbulent and threatening discontent in the country. Lord Cathcart took the command on military grounds ; he has left the political question untouched, while the political disorder, for want of any real supervision, has greatly increased. The Cabinet has once more approached a nominal completeness ; and the angry sounds revive at that sign of official settling down without settlement of the great political question. The new Governor to be appointed by the Whigs must take it up where Sir Charles Bagot left it, and must really settle it with- out further delay. Difficulties have grown up. The colonists, new to the practice of responsible government, raised untoward ques- tions as to the degree of deference which the Representative of the Sovereign ought to show to the Representative Chamber in the distribution of patronage ; and by a want of thoroughly compre- hending the subject, and a mistrusting hesitation, Lord Metcalfe suffered the dispute to become a substantive cause of difference— an episode in the question of responsible government demanding prior solution. Some difficulty is anticipated in defining the bounds of Imperial and Colonial practice, and in laying down a rule for the purpose. None need be laid down. It will fully suffice if the Governor for the time being honestly fulfil the con- dition laid down in Lord Durham's Report—to govern the colony in accordance with the well understood wishes of the colonists as expressed by their elected representatives. Let him, in fact, govern the colony through his local Ministers ; and let them hold , their places only so long as they possess the confidence of the majority in the Representative Chamber. It is true that, even then, all sources of dissension may not be extinguished : the colonists may not always choose Ministers suitable to the actual state of Ira- penal affairs ; the Crown may not always find the engines ready to work out its will even in legitimate objects : but such differences will lie within the scope and influence of official discretion ; they will raise no broad popular constitutional questions, but will merely for a time oppose an obstacle to the progress of the particular measure at issue. Such partial "hitches frequently occur in this country, without bringing Magna Charta in issue, or threatening to excite rebellion. We too get on well enough without any defined rule as to the distribution of Crown patron- age ; which is not always made in accordance with Ministerial or Parliamentary views. The thing wanted in Canada is a Go- vernor who understands the question and will honestly set the principle of responsible government at work, without any more set rules or declarations. Lord Elgin is named as the future Governor. Tried only ia
the field of Jamaica, he may be said to be little tried for Canada ; but he is highly spoken of, as intelligent, earnest, young, active— and may we hope bold ?
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