Colonial Despatches

After serving as a colonial administrator in India and as governor in Jamaica, Charles Metcalfe was appointed governor-in-chief of the province of Canada in 1843 and remained at that post until October 1845. During this period, he clashed with Canadian reformers Robert Baldwin and Louis La Fontaine on the nature and prerogatives of the colony's government, still in the shadow of the suppression of the Rebellions of 1837-1838. For these actions the British government conferred a Barony on Metcalfe, but historian J. M. S. Careless contends that the governor inadvertently contributed to the full implementation of the La Fontaine–Baldwin version of responsible government by failing to produce a viable alternative.

• 1. Donald R. Beer, Metcalfe, Charles Theophilus, Dictionary of Canadian Biography.