Meanwhile addresses numerously signed came pouring in to the Governor from
all quarters, expressing entire confidence in the Administration, and
unbounded regret for the indignities to which he had been subjected.
Lord Elgin, however, felt bound to tender his resignation to the Home
Government. Meanwhile the Bill which had caused such an explosion in the
colony, was running the gauntlet of the British Parliament. On June 14th
it was vehemently attacked in the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone himself
describing it as a "measure for rewarding rebels." The strongest pressure
had already been put upon Lord Elgin to induce him to refuse the Royal
Assent to the Bill. To do so would have been to place himself in direct
collision with his Parliament, and this he steadily refused to do. The Home
Government, represented by Lord Grey, firmly supported him, approved his
policy, and shortly afterwards conferred upon him a British peerage as an
acknowledgment of the unshaken confidence of the Queen. Being urgently
pressed to remain in office as Governor-General he consented, and the more
readily because the agitation soon quieted down.
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