But it may be urged that he roused the French, insulted them, excluded them, and almost precipitated a new French rising. Undoubtedly he was an enemy to French claims, but, at the time, most of these claims were inadmissible. The French had brought the existing system of local government to a standstill. Few of those who took part in the Rebellion had any reasonable or adequate conception of a reformed constitution. As a people they had set themselves to obstruct the statesmen who came to assist them, and to oppose a Union which was doubtless imperfect as an instrument of government, but which was a necessary stage in the construction of a {125} better system. Here again Sydenham aimed at carrying out a perfectly clear and consistent programme, the political blending of the French with the British colonists. Unfortunately that programme was impossible. It had been constructed by men who did not understand the racial problem, and who, even if they had understood it, would not have accepted the modern solution. Yet French nationalism, between 1839 and 1841, had certain negative lessons still to learn. As, in Upper Canada, Robert Baldwin discovered from his opposition to the governor-general the methods and limits of parliamentary opposition, so La Fontaine, the worthiest representative of French Canada, began in these years to substitute constitutional co-operation with the reformers of the West, for the old sullen negative nationalism which had failed so utterly in 1837, as the most suitable means for maintaining the rights of his people. [1] I disregard Cathcart's tenure of office. For all practical purposes it was merely that of an acting governor. [2] Instructions to the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 7 September, 1839. [3] _Ibid._ [4] Lord John Russell to the Rt. Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, 14 October, 1839. [5] Lord John Russell to the Right Hon. C. P. Thomson, 16 October, 1839. [6] Greville, _A Journal of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV._, iii. p. 330. [7] Quoted from _The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, 19 October, 1839. [8] _Lord Durham's Report_ (Lucas), ii. p. 307. [9] Poulett Scrope, _Life of Lord Sydenham_, p. 148. [10] Poulett Scrope, p. 168. [11] _Journals of the Special Council of Lower Canada_, 13 November, 1839. [12] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 18 November, 1839. [13] Sir John Colborne to Lord Normanby, 19 August, 1839. [14] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December 1839. [15] Poulett Scrope, pp. 148-9. [16] The Right Hon. C. P. Thomson to Lord John Russell, 15 December, 1839. [17] _Ibid._ [18] Poulett Scrope, p. 163. [19] _Correspondence relative to the Reunion of Upper and Lower Canada_ (23rd March, 1840), p. 20. [20] _Ibid._ p. 33. [21] Sydenham to Russell, 13 January, 1841. [22] Poulett Scrope, p. 164.