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When the new governor arrived at Montreal on January 29, 1847, it was soon apparent that all his peaceful energies would be called into active service. In the interregnum Cathcart had held office, appointed to face a crisis in Anglo-American relations in which it seemed desirable to vest supreme civil and military authority in the same hands. The crisis being over, he had, perhaps most wisely, followed a policy of inactivity. Such a policy, however, his ministers found it impossible to imitate. The Metcalfe struggle was still a matter of living politics. Draper’s cabinet was both feeble and divided, and the fact was now fairly obvious that the majority in the lower house did not represent the feeling in the country. Apart from the actual weakness of the ministry, there were many awkward political facts which Elgin must face and solve. It was still true that the lines of party distinctions concerned, not alternative policies on the basis of an accepted constitution, but the actual character of central constitutional principles; so that a party defeat savoured of a general revolution, and the reform party might be accused of subverting the commonwealth. Conservatives still formed the party of British domination, and reform had an aspect in which it seemed over friendly to the French. The small numbers and petty issues of the two houses gave government a personal and irritable temper, and the struggle for existence, which kept many sound men fast bound to farm or office, tended to throw politics into the hands of ‘land-jobbers, swindlers, young men who wish to make a name when starting into life.’

There were many vexed questions waiting for solution, chief among them the clergy reserves, which had awakened into vigorous life during the session of 1846, and government had neither a policy nor a secure majority. Even imperial events seemed to be bearing down on Canada to effect her destruction, for 1846 had been the year of Peel’s commercial revolution, and Canada had paid more dearly than any other part of the Empire for the triumph of free trade. The same year, too, saw the lowest depths in misery yet reached in Ireland, and squalid masses of immigrants, poverty-stricken, tainted with disease, and full of hatred against the land which seemed to be driving them from home, were pouring into Canada, and at once straining the resources of Canadian administration and kindling feelings of resentment against England.

It was impossible to do more than just hold ground. Early in the year overtures had been made to the French, but Morin had declined Elgin’s advance, and Taché assured him that he had found no disposition among his countrymen to ally themselves with the ministry. A reorganization of the cabinet, in which the most notable changes were the retirement of Draper and the entrance of John A. Macdonald into office as receiver-general, enabled them to face parliament on June 2; but the speech, which hinted and suggested without giving any definite promise of a programme, revealed the poverty, in ideas and strength, of the tory government. The opposition, advancing to the attack under cover of Durham’s name, moved for more legislative activity, suggesting education and municipal reorganization as fit subjects for attention; but they were still too weak in the lower house, and the government triumphed, even if only by two votes. As late as June 28 Elgin believed that, if the party remained loyal, they might hold their own, but party loyalty and public support were both absent. On July 28 the house was prorogued; on December 6 it was dissolved, and the government went to the country, knowing that defeat lay in store for it. Before the tory ascendancy vanished the ministry had attempted, by compromise, to save something for their educational policy; only to be defeated by the obstinacy of the Bishop of Toronto.

The new year opened with a great political change. The election had gone hopelessly against the government. Even in Upper Canada they were in a minority of twenty and the French formed a solid phalanx in opposition. From the imperial point of view it seemed ominous that Papineau, the centre of French disaffection, should once more have entered politics, and been elected; still more so that, to the still inexperienced judgment of the governor-general, the French had not yet distinctly enough declared their alienation from him.