ABSTRACT
I N the Australasian colonies and at the Cape Lord Grey was dealing with colonies into which the representative principle had been introduced imperfectly or not at all, and in which its introduction was complicated either by a difficult native problem, or on the other hand by the existence of an effective Imperial control of lands and of a system of convict transportation. In the North American colonies these complicating factors were absent: they had been for many years accustomed to representative government, and in Canada and Nova Scotia at least the all-important question had long been that of control of the Executive. The Peel Ministry, as we have seen, had professed to be anxious as far as possible to govern Canada in accordance with the wishes of the people, but had fought hard against government by party, had refused to allow the power of the Crown, through its local representative the Governor-General, to be used for party purposes, and had confused the issues by attempting to set 'republican' institutions against 'monarchical' and by judging all parties by their own criterion of 'loyalty'. The result had been that the party which was prepared to govern on these terms was in office with a hardly won majority in the House of Assembly. On the other hand the French were as much in opposition as in Lord Sydenham's time; the Ministry was weak in personnel and its majority was precarious in the extreme; and the Liberals were looking forward with confidence to the results of elections which could not be much longer delayed.
