force of trusting, in a self-governing community, even those who had once striven against the British rule with arms--the final proof in any man that he has come to understand the secrets, at once of Empire, and of constitutional government. There is little more to tell of Bagot's rule, for {156} the last months of his life were spent in a struggle to overcome extreme bodily sickness in the interest of public duty; and Stanley himself, in the name of the Cabinet, expressed his admiration for the gallantry of his stand. To the end, he held himself justified in his political actions, and if there were moments when he questioned whether Stanley would see things in a reasonable light, he possessed the perfect confidence of his Canadian ministers, who did not neglect his injunction to them to defend his memory.[27] Nevertheless the irritation of the Colonial Secretary was neither unnatural nor unjustifiable. He confidently expected that separation from England would be the immediate consequence of a surrender to the reform party in Canada; and he believed that Bagot had made that surrender. In the latter opinion he was correct. There are times when the party of reaction sees more clearly than their opponents the scope and consequences of innovation, however blind they may be to the developments which by their parallel advance check the obvious dangers; and Sir Charles Metcalfe, whom Stanley sent to Canada to stay the flowing tide, has furnished the most accurate negative criticism of {157} the Bagot incident: "The result of the struggle naturally increased the conviction that Responsible Government was effectually established, new Councillors were forced on the governor-general.... The Council was no longer selected by the governor. It was thrust on him by the Assembly of the people. Some of the new members of the Council had entered it with extreme notions of the supremacy of the Council over the governor; and the illness of Sir Charles Bagot, after this change, threw the current business of administration almost entirely into their hands, which tended much to confirm these notions."[28] It fell to the lot of this critic to attempt to correct Bagot's mistakes. [1] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841. [2] _Ibid._ [3] Bagot Correspondence: Stanley to Bagot, 17 May, 1842. The term _Bagot Correspondence_ is used to denote the letters to and from Bagot, other than despatches, in the possession of the Canadian Archives. [4] Stanley to Bagot, 8 October, 1841. [5] _Ibid._ [6] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 18 October, 1842. [7] Bagot to Stanley, 26 September, 1842. [8] Bagot Correspondence: Harrison to Bagot, 11 July, 1842 [9] Bagot Correspondence: W. H. Draper to Bagot, 18 May, and 16 July, 1842. [10] Bagot Correspondence: Murdoch to Bagot, 3 September, 1842. [11] Goulburn to Stanley, 16 September, 1842. [12] Bagot Correspondence: Bagot to Stanley, 26 March, 1842. [13] Stanley to Bagot, 27 May, 1842.