Desperate Acts Read Online Free PDF Page B

three decades ago, had
tirelessly argued for it, and had raised his son Robert to carry on
the fight, should he himself falter. “As we all know now, despite
Lord Durham’s explicit recommendation on behalf of the concept,
there is no reference to it in the terms of the Union Bill we are
expected to debate and approve.”
    “But that doesn’t mean it’s been taken off
the table,” Robert hastened to add. “My father has just returned
from an audience with His Excellency at Government House.
Father?”
    William Warren Baldwin, a striking figure at
any time, sat forward in his chair and commanded the strict
attention of the gathering. The significance of his conversation
with the man who represented the Crown and its near-absolute power
did not have to be underlined.
    “We talked for two hours,” Dr. Baldwin said.
“The Governor was extremely courteous, gracious even. He is a
merchant and a politician, in fact and by inclination. That makes
him critically different from the military governors we’ve had in
the past. He is highly intelligent, at ease with abstract ideas and
principles, and takes much pleasure in serious dialogue. At the
same time, of course, he is a man of great subtlety and possible
subterfuge.”
    He let this caveat sink in.
    “Be that as it may, he has been sent here to
get the Union Bill passed. And that fact for the first time
presents our party with the kind of advantage we have long hoped
for. His Excellency has assured me – and shown me corroborative
correspondence from his superiors in London – that some practical,
if unlegislated, form of cabinet government must evolve. He is
appalled, for example, that Sir George Arthur, as
lieutenant-governor here, has not really had a cohesive party in
the Assembly to reflect the views of his own executive. And so, Mr.
Thomson has, in effect, offered us a quid pro quo. We support the principal terms of the Union Bill and actively work
towards its approval in the Assembly in return for a promise on his
part to help us find a way to let the will of the people operate
without abridging the absolute rights of the Crown and the mother
country.”
    Although this news was not surprising, it
nevertheless silenced the room for a full minute.
    “It’s all we’ve got,” Robert said quietly.
“Even if we manage to uphold our part of the bargain.”
    “And a good part of that will entail our
deploying the kind of specific advice I’ve heard here this
evening,” Dr. Baldwin said more cheerfully. “His Excellency has
asked me to bring him arguments that are likely to persuade the
fence-sitters to jump to our side. He realizes that we here are an
essential source of these ‘persuasions’: his charm and diplomatic
skill should do the rest.”
    “And above all,” Robert said in his
barrister’s summing-up voice, “we must make sure the moderates do
not feel threatened by any of this. Francis will continue in the Examiner to call for responsible government, as any sudden
change there will be viewed with extreme skepticism. However, in
our own conduct – in the Assembly and in our day-to-day contact
with fellow citizens – we will talk only about the compelling terms
of the Union Bill itself.”
    Nothing further of any substance was left to
be said, and the meeting broke up ten minutes later. Its
participants to a man were decidedly happier at its conclusion than
they had been at its beginning.
    ***
    Robert, Francis Hincks and Marc remained to mull
over what had transpired. Dr. Baldwin, unable to stop yawning, was
relieved to see Diana Ramsay pop her head in the rear doorway and
whisper that one of the boys was awake and asking for his
grandfather. Who was most happy to oblige. And Marc, as always, was
pleased to see just how attractive a young woman Diana really was
and why Brodie was smitten with her. Besides her darkly lustrous
hair, bold brown eyes and mature figure, the intelligence and
compassion in her expression and her tender concern for