From this time we hear no more of such disgraceful scenes as it has been necessary to record; but it was long before the old 'Family-Compact' party forgave the Governor who had dared to be impartial. By many kinds of detraction they sought to weaken his influence and damage his popularity; detractions probably repeated in all sincerity by many who were honestly incapable of understanding his real motives for forbearance. And as the members of this party, though they had lost their monopoly of political power, still remained the dominant class in society, the disparaging tone which they set was taken up not only in the colony itself, but also by travellers who visited it, and by them carried back to infect opinion in England. The result was that persons at home, who had the highest appreciation of Lord Elgin's capacity as a statesman, sincerely believed him to be deficient in nerve and vigour; and as the misapprehension was one which he could not have corrected, even if he had been aware how widely it was spread, it continued to exist in many quarters until dispelled by the singular energy and boldness, amounting almost to rashness, which he displayed in China. [Sidenote: Forbearance of Lord Elgin.] The more we remember the vehemence with which these injurious reports were circulated, the more remarkable appears the resolution not to yield to the provocation they involved, and the determination to accept the whole responsibility of the situation at whatever personal cost. The following letters are among those which disclose the motives of his resolute forbearance. The last of them, written to an intimate friend nearly two years later, and summing up the feelings with which he looked back on the struggles of 1849, may close the personal records of this troubled year. [Sidenote: Its motives.]