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STRUGGLE FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT.
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afford to give their sons a college education, so these young universities for many years had but little to do.


2. Political Abuses and Troubles.—Canada had no more wars with foreign nations, and her history, save for political troubles, since 1814 has been the history of growth in wealth, in population, and in enterprises for opening up the country for settlement, and for utilizing her natural resources. But, of political struggles, from the day she became a British colony yntil the present, she has had her full share. The war of 1812 had hardly ceased when a political struggle began which ended in rebellion and bloodshed; also, fortunately, in better and freer government. We have now to tell very briefly the causes of this strife, and how it resulted.

In Lower Canada, as already stated, great discontent was aroused by the action of the Governors and the Councils in refusing to allow the Legislative Assembly to control the expenditure of the revenue arising from timber and mining dues, the sale of Crown lands, and the taxes collected at the Custom-houses. The Assembly offered, if it were given the control of all the revenue, to provide for the necessary expenses of the Province, including the payment of the salaries of judges and other civil officers. This offer, however, the Governors and their advisers would not accept, and the Assembly then tried to stop the supplies. But the Governor took the money from the treasury, without asking permission, to pay the necessary salaries and expenses. The British Parliament was petitioned to redress these grievances, and to pass an Act giving the Legislative Assemblies the control of the expenditure of all public money. Little heed was given in England for some time to these complaints, as the Governors and their Councils generally succeeded in keeping their side of the case well before the British Government. Besides this trouble about the control of public money, there was the more serious difficulty due to the difference of race, religion, and language in the population. The British element disliked the French, and sided! with the Governors and their Councils; while the French elected the most of the members of the Assembly. The Councils were mainly British, and the Legislative Assembly, French. In 1828, an effort was made by the Home Government, by a half-measure, to settle the difficulty arising from the control of the revenue. This measure proposed