In 1825 he was appointed a Major-General; and in 1828 he first came to Canada as Lieutenant-Governor, when the chief interest in his life, so far as Canadian readers are concerned, may be said to have begun. He succeeded Sir Peregrine Maitland, who had been transferred to Nova Scotia. He arrived in Canada in November, 1828, and at once assumed charge of the Administration. His predecessor had left him a very undesirable legacy in the shape of great popular discontent. It was announced that Sir John had come over with instructions to reverse Sir Peregrine Maitland's policy, and to govern in accordance with liberal principles. The general elections of that year testified plainly enough that the people of Upper Canada were moving steadily in the direction of Reform, and if Sir John had acted in accordance with the instructions he had received from headquarters a good deal of subsequent calamity might perhaps have been averted. But the new Governor was essentially a military Governor. He had been literally "a man of war from his youth." His character, though in the main upright and honourable, was stern and unbending, and his military pursuits had not fitted him for the task of governing a people who were just beginning to grasp the principles of constitutional liberty. He allied himself with the Family Compact, and was guided by the advice of that body in his administration of public affairs. Parliament met early in January, 1829, and it soon became apparent that Sir John Colborne's idea of a liberal policy was not sufficiently advanced to meet the demands of the Assembly. There is no need to recapitulate in detail the arbitrary proceedings to which the Governor lent his countenance during the next few years. The prosecution of Collins and of William Lyon Mackenzie, and the setting apart of the fifty-seven rectories, have often been commented upon, and but little satisfaction is to be derived from repeating those oft-told grievances. Upon the whole, Sir John Colborne's Administration of Upper Canadian affairs cannot be said to have been much more beneficent than was that of his predecessor. With good intentions, he was constitutionally unequal to the requirements of the position in which he found himself placed. His course of action was very distasteful to the Reform Party, but he continued to govern the Upper Province until 1835, when he solicited his recall. His request was acceded to. His successor, Sir Francis Bond Head, arrived in January, 1836, and Sir John was just about to sail from New York for Europe, when he received a despatch appointing him Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Canada. He consequently returned, and took up his quarters at Quebec, the capital of the Lower Province, where he adopted such prompt measures for the defence of the country as the exigencies of the times demanded. On the breaking out of the Rebellion he was once more in his proper element, and showed that