THE LIBERAL-CONSERVATIVE ALLIANCE

“The Government of the country must be carried on. It ought to be carried on with vigour. If that can be done in no other way than by mutual concessions and a coalition of parties, they become necessary. And those who, under such circumstances, assume the arduous duty of becoming parties to them, 80 far from deserving the opprobrium that is too frequently and often too successfully heaped upon them, have, in my opinion, the strongest claims upon public sympathy and support.” Letter of the Hon. Robert Baldwin to the Hon. Francis Hincks, dated 22nd September, 1854,

HE resignation took place, as already mentioned, on the morning of Friday, the 8th of September. Whither was the Governor to turn in this emergency? The ex- Ministers still commanded the vote of the most numerois and powerful of the three parties in the Assembly. As a corollary, neïither of the other two parties was

strong enough to stand alone, The Clear Grits and Rouges, though

strong in talent and energy, were possessed of too little coherence, and were moreover too few in number,* to admit of their seriously attempting, without aid from one of the other parties, to form an

Administration which could hope to command publie confidence,

They could look for no aid from the supporters of the ex-Ministry,

most of whom regarded them as deserters from sound Liberal princi-

ples, and as political agitators whom it was not safe to entrust with power. They could hope for none from the Conservatives, who were too little satisfied with the result of their temporary coalition

* Their combined force numbeved about 40 members, out of a House of 130,