THE HON. ROBERT BALDWIN.
(Continued from Volume I.)
The unmerited reproach which had been brought upon the Reform Party was not the only disadvantage under which it laboured at this period. Not only was it subjected to public obloquy, and to the bitter taunts of its foes; but it contained discordant and irreconcilable elements within itself. It was for a time threatened with utter ruin. During the progress of the year 1838, Robert Baldwin set himself dilligently to work to reconcile such discordant elements as were capable of assimilation, and to reconstruct the party on a consistent and definite basis of constitutional reform. The watchword of the reconstructed party was "Responsible Government." In May of the same year Lord Durham arrived in Canada, in the double capacity of Governor-General and of Her Majesty's Commissioner for the purpose of enquiring into and reporting upon our political institutions. After spending nearly six months in the country he returned home and compiled his elaborate report, in which he recommended the establishment of Responsible Government and the legislative union of the two Provinces. The subsequent history of these recommendations belongs more appropriately to the life of Lord Durham than to that of Robert Baldwin. At present it will be sufficient to record the fact that most of Lord Durham's recommendations with reference to Canadian affairs were adopted by the Home Government, and that during the session of 1839 a Bill providing for the union of Upper and Lower Canada, was introduced into the Imperial Parliament. It was found, however, when the details of the measure came up for discussion in the Commons, that the House had not sufficient facts before them to enable them to deal with it satisfactorily. It became necessary to shelve the matter until the following session, and to send out to Canada some capable man to obtain the required information. The man fixed upon for this mission was Mr. Charles Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, who
