Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/649

 Rcid: First Earl of Diirhatn 639 The account of Durham's work in Canada occupies about one-fourth of Mr. Raid's space. When rebellion in Canada came in 1837, con- currently with Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, England was profoundly interested and only to a leading man could the work of con- ciliation be intrusted. So Durham was made Governor-General of the whole of British North America; he was given besides plenary powers in Lower Canada, where the legislature was suspended; and with great pomp and state he went to Quebec and began his task. Though ill half the time, he worked with great energy, set on foot a multitude of in- quiries, adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the French Canadians, and travelled much in the country to see and judge for himself. But in the midst of his activities came the stunning blow which ended his work. Some of the leading French Canadian rebels were in his hands. Technically they were undoubtedly guilty of treason with death as the penalty. If tried, however, before a French jury, they would not be convicted; if before a specially selected jury, there would be a charge that it was packed. Moreover Durham desired wise conciliation, not punishment. So he issued an ordinance banishing the eight principal prisoners to Bermuda under penalty of death if they returned to Canada without permission. The defect of Durham's action was twofold: he condemned men without trial, and he sent them to Bermuda, where he had no jurisdiction. As to the first point, he had been given such great authority that he probably mistmderstood its limitations ; as to the second, Melbourne's government could easily have aided him, since they had authority in Bermuda. But when Brougham attacked Durham savagely, Melbourne lamely acquiesced and sacrificed him, basely as Mr. Reid thinks. Durham stopped his work, hurried home, occupied himself busily on the long voyage with preparing his report, and died soon after its appearance. Undoubtedly this report is his greatest achievement. In spite of Durham's hurry and of its many flaws the report remains the charter of Britain's present-day colonial policy, and marks the dawn of a new era. Durham said bluntly that attempts at controlling the colonies from Eng- land had failed, that they must be trusted to govern themselves, and that greater liberty would strengthen not weaken the cohesion of the British Empire. In preparing this great state paper he had competent helpers, notably Charles Buller and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, but Mr. Reid repels with some warmth Brougham's charge that to the report Durham contributed only the six letters of his signature. He was, in- deed, not the man to use the work of others without retouching and dominating it. To him, one of the chief authors of the Reform Bill, involving the greatest political revolution perhaps that England has ever known, must be attributed the chief place in effecting another revolution which in time will change the conception of the British Empire from that of a mother-land protecting dependent colonies to that of a permanent league of free and equal nations. Assuredly the