Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/446

 Hincks's private residence was destroyed by the mob. The bill, however, was maintained by the imperial government.

In October 1851, on the retirement of Robert Baldwin, Hincks assumed the office of premier. His chief French colleague was Augustin Morin, and this ministry is usually known as the Hincks-Morin administration. The repeal of the English corn laws and other imperial legislation had given a great impetus to the exportation of Canadian cereals. Hincks energetically sought to satisfy the consequent demand for an extended railway system in Canada. During the autumn session of 1852, for instance, no less than twenty-eight railway bills were passed. State lands were set aside for future railway lines. The Municipal Loan Fund Act was passed to enable municipalities to borrow money for the development of local resources. Hincks strongly favoured the scheme of an intercolonial railway, but it came to nothing, although in 1852 he visited England in order to press its importance on the imperial government, and to obtain the guarantee of an imperial loan. Hincks, however, gave every aid to carrying out the Grand Trunk Line of Upper Canada. In 1854 he and Lord Elgin negotiated at Washington the reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States, which removed all restrictions in trade between the two countries so far as unmanufactured products of the soil, the forest, the mine, and the sea were concerned. But the treaty was only temporary, and on its lapse in 1865 was not renewed. The Hincks-Morin ministry also passed the Parliamentary Representation Act, which raised the number of members of the lower house from 84 to 130, 65 for each province. It also rearranged the electoral districts on a fairer basis. As premier, Hincks, who has been styled the Colbert of Canada, greatly developed the economic resources of the colony. But his schemes increased the public indebtedness, and there followed a long series of annual deficits in the revenue.

As early as 1848 it had become evident that the Canadian liberal party was disunited. Hincks and his friends having secured responsible government showed some hesitation in applying themselves to the two most important articles of their programme—the secularisation of the clergy reserves and the abolition of the seigneurial tenures of Lower Canada. The more advanced section of the liberal party, consisting of younger men known as ‘Clear Grits,’ and headed by George Brown, editor of the ‘Toronto Globe,’ soon began to express dissatisfaction with the premier, which was formulated in a series of public letters which Brown addressed to Hincks before the general election of 1851. Hincks had shown every consideration for the religious sentiments of his Lower Canadian Roman catholic allies, and Brown accused him of fostering Roman catholic aggression. In dealing with the clergy reserves Hincks sought in correspondence with the English colonial office to obtain the repeal of the act which vested their disposal in the imperial parliament, and suggested a cautious measure which, while satisfying the Upper Canada liberals, should not alarm the Roman catholic inhabitants of the lower province. Hincks's failure to obtain the repeal of the Imperial Act and a strong expression in one of Lord Elgin's despatches about the leaders of the agitation greatly increased his unpopularity with the ‘Clear Grits.’ Meanwhile he declined to recognise a convention of extremists meeting in his own constituency of Oxford, who demanded that he as their representative should solely act by their instructions.

On 9 June 1853 a religious faction-fight, known as the Gavazzi riot, took place at Montreal. Owing to an accident the soldiery fired on the crowd, by which five persons were killed and forty wounded. The government were accused of having shown a grossly unfair preference for the Roman catholics, and Hincks was universally denounced by the Orangemen. In 1853 the imperial parliament surrendered their right of disposing of the clergy reserves, but when the Canadian legislature met on 13 June 1854 no mention was made in the queen's speech of intended action on this question or on that of the seigneurial tenures of Lower Canada. Hincks explained that he did not feel justified in legislating on such topics in an expiring house, which had been expressly declared to be an inadequate representation of the people. An amendment censuring the ministry was carried, Lord Elgin dissolved parliament, and in the ensuing elections, although Hincks retained his seat, many of his supporters were beaten by the ‘Clear Grits,’ and in the first debate in the new parliament the ministers found themselves in a minority and resigned. The new government under Sir Allan McNab, mainly formed of conservatives, was supported by Hincks and many followers, and the secularisation of the clergy reserves and the abolition of the seigneurial tenures of Lower Canada were carried out.

A few months after his resignation Hincks sailed for England. From 1855 to 1862 he was governor of Barbadoes and the Windward Islands, being the first colonial statesman appointed to a colonial governorship. From 1862 to 1869 he was governor of British