42 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



picion that he had no intention of making or recommending the 

 change; so far as careful search can discover he does not seem to 

 have even transrhitted the suggestion to the Secretary of State. Thus 

 arose the settled conviction that he feared that a Legislative Council 

 in which the people were predominant would declare in favour of 

 union with Canada. The British Columbian spoke out fearlessly, as 

 usual: "The paragraph as a whole is far, very far, from satisfactory. 

 .... We fear the concluding sentence leaves us little to expect from 

 Governor Seymour in the direction of more liberal institutions .... 

 Mark the words, 'if any.' What do they mean ? A Council, two- 

 thirds Government officials passes a resolution asking for a change in 

 the constitution so as to reverse the order of things, and give pre- 

 ponderance to the popular element, and yet the Governor plainly 

 intimates, with as much indifference as possible, that the recom- 

 mendation is not likely to go beyond his own waste paper basket."^ 

 The Colonist opined that "the apathy, carelessness, indifference, and 

 want of energy of one man, backed though he be by most honorable 

 officials, will not long keep back a country which has such natural 

 advantages as our own; the people must sooner or later have the 

 principal voice in the Government of the «country, with or without 

 Confederation. "2 



The favourable resolution of 1867 had lain in the Governor's 

 hands for over six months before he saw fit to forward it to Downing 

 Street; the resolution of 1868, which was antagonistic in fact if not 

 in verbiage, he sent forward within a fortnight after the close of the 

 session. In the accompanying dispatch he used this strange expression : 

 "Desiring on the whole to see the project carried out I can not be blind 

 to the great difiiculties which obstruct its progress."^ Two months 

 later, he, on second thought apparently, transmitted a copy of De- 

 Cosmos' proposed Address embodying tentative terms of union. 

 "The motion, your Grace will see," says the Governor, "was lost. 

 There is, however, a feeling with many persons in this Colony that the 

 best hopes of its progress are to be found in an intimate union with 

 Canada. The difficulties, however appear to me to be in the present 

 state of things almost insuperable and the advantages remote." 

 And this from the man who had, only two months before, expressed 

 himself as upon the whole desirous of seeing the scheme carried out. 



Nowhere in his correspondence does Governor Seymour attempt 

 to inform the Home Authorities upon the growth of public opinion in 



1 May 9, 1868. 



îSept. 15, 1868. 



' Confederation Papers, p. 13. 



