[howay] GOVERXOR SEYMOUR AND CONFEDERATION 43 



favour of Confederation; nowhere does he marshall the facts and 

 arguments on its behalf; nowhere does he urge action by the Iraperial 

 authorities or press the settlement of the question; nowhere does he 

 favour its discussion even as preparatory for the day of decision; 

 nowhere does he take the real part of a colonial governor in moulding 

 the views of his people. All must simply drift along, or perhaps wait 

 languidly, and all discussion be adjourned until, first, this obstacle 

 and, then, that shall have been overcome. Little wonder that he was 

 referred to in the press as one of those who in heart were opposed to 

 Confederation. The belief had now become firmly fixed, and it was 

 well-founded, that he and his nominees, the official members of the 

 Legislative Council, were determined to balk the popular desire. 

 The main basis of that desire, as has been already hinted, lay in the 

 hope of escape from the annual deficits and the consequent burden of 

 increasing taxation. It is true that the leaders in the movement had 

 vision of a united Canada stretching from sea to sea ; but the populace 

 saw in it, chiefly, a relief from their present and pressing pecuniary 

 burdens. Thus it happened that the form of government, the civil 

 list, and the alleged maladministration of colonial affairs took their 

 places in the Confederation discussion. Seymour gave no sign of 

 re-constituting the Legislative Council in accordance with the resolu- 

 tion; nor even of carrying into effect his own intention, expressed in 

 his celebrated Paris letter, of adding two unofficial members to his 

 Executive Council. From the Governor downward, it was freely 

 conceded by all the officials that the immediate admission of the colony 

 upon the terms set forth in the DeCosmos Address or on some similar 

 terms would be an unquestionable advantage; and one or two were 

 frank enough to admit that the great difficulty in the way was the 

 probable loss of their emolument.^ The press now began to utter 

 grave warnings to the Governor that as he had the pow^er to reduce 

 the civil list he was expected to do so; that, while thus decreasing the 

 weight of taxation, he must give greater scope for the effective ex- 

 pression of public opinion; and that the colonial business must be 

 administered in the interests of the whole people and not in the special 

 interests of the officials.^ 



During the summer of 1868 public meetings all over the colony 

 pronounced in favour of immediate union ; and in many instances went 

 further and passed resolutions condemning the action of the Council 

 and the want of action of the Governor, At such a meeting held in 

 Cariboo on 1st July, Mr. J. S. Thompson, who was later chosen as the 



* British Columbian, Aug. 5, 1868. 

 » Id., Aug. 26, 1868. 



