The news of the disallowance of the ordinance first reached Durham through the columns of an American newspaper. {112} Immediately his mind was made up. Without waiting for any official notification, he sent in his resignation to the colonial secretary. He was quite satisfied himself that he had not exceeded his powers. 'Until I learn,' he wrote, 'from some one better versed in the English language that despotism means anything but such an aggregation of the supreme executive and legislative authority in a single head, as was deliberately made by Parliament in the Act which constituted my powers, I shall not blush to hear that I have exercised a despotism; I shall feel anxious only to know how well and wisely I have used, or rather exhibited an intention of using, my great powers.' But he felt that if he could expect no firm support from the Melbourne government, his usefulness was gone, and resignation was the only course open to him. He wrote, however, that he intended to remain in Canada until he had completed the inquiries he had instituted. In view of the 'lamentable want of information' with regard to Canada which existed in the Imperial parliament, he confessed that he 'would take shame to himself if he left his inquiry incomplete.' A few days before Durham left Canada he took the unusual and, under ordinary {113} circumstances, unconstitutional course of issuing a proclamation, in which he explained the reasons for his resignation, and in effect appealed from the action of the home government to Canadian public opinion. It was this proclamation which drew down on him from _The Times_ the nickname of 'Lord High Seditioner.' The wisdom of the proclamation was afterwards, however, vigorously defended by Charles Duller. The general unpopularity of the British government, Duller explained, was such in Canada that a little more or less could not affect it; whereas it was a matter of vital importance that the angry and suspicious colonists should find one British statesman with whom they could agree. The real justification of the proclamation lay in the magical effect which it had upon the public temper. The news that the ordinance had been disallowed, and that the whole question of the political prisoners had been once more thrown into the melting-pot, had greatly excited the public mind; and the proclamation fell like oil upon the troubled waters. 'No disorder, no increase of disaffection ensued; on the contrary, all parties in the Province expressed a revival of confidence.'