CHAP. 1] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 13
the Council is still composed of a majority of official members,
although unless the matter is declared to be of pressing
Importance by the Governor, on certain questions the elected
members are allowed to decide the issue.
} 3. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN CANADA
The introduction of responsible government is inseparably
connected with the name of Lord Durham and his report?! of
Jan, 31,1839, on the condition of Canada, whither he went as
Special commissioner to settle the affairs of the provinces after
the abortive rebellions in both Upper and Lower Canada had
Proved the bankruptcy of the existing system of govern-
ment. In neither province had the scheme of representative
government been in the least successful. The Executive
Government had some resources apart from parliamentary
grants, in the shape of the hereditary Crown revenues and
the casual revenues, but these were small, though the Crown
OWned vast tracts of land and was potentially in possession of
the means of future greatness. On the other hand, the Legisla-
ture had no control at all over the Executive, and one part of
it, the Legislative Council, was clearly and wholly out of sym-
pathy with the other branch of it, while from members of the
Legislative Council the Governor accepted advice as to his
eXecutive actions. The result was constant friction, amidst
Which the provinces failed utterly to progress, contrasting
very Strangely with the states of the American Union to the
South of the borderline, and inviting invidious comments.
Every possible device was tried to overcome the friction :
Governors were conciliatory, Governors were dictatorial, but
both policies signally failed, and Lord Durham found himself
the face of complete breakdown of all constitutional
Bovernment : in Lower Canada, indeed, as the result of the
rebellion, the constitution had been recalled by an Imperial
* Reprinted hy Methuen in 1902. Cf. Egerton, Canada, pp. 145-53;
the report ig being edited and commented on by Sir C. Lucas. For the views
of his Opponents, and a report of a select committee of the Legislative
Counc) of Upper Canada, see Egerton and Grant, Canadian Constitutional
History, Pp. 173 seq.
