The way the matter was handled by then co-prime ministers of the united Province of Canada, Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin, helped develop the Canadian democratic tradition.

The episode is characterized by divisions in pre-Confederation Canadian society concerning whether Canada was the North American appendage of the British Empire or a nascent sovereign nation.

Though there was public concern this might be a crushing blow to the reform movement, Lafontaine persevered despite the opposition, and would continue in his role developing the tenets of Canadian federalism – "peace, order, and good government".

[citation needed] In 1843, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Canadian Corn Act, which favoured Canada's exports of wheat and flour on the UK markets through the reduction of duties.

The protectionist policy of Lord Stanley and Benjamin Disraeli, in continuity with Great Britain's colonial practice during the first half of the 19th century, was overturned in 1846, by the repeal of the Corn Laws and the promotion of free trade by the government of Robert Peel.

[3] In February 1849, the introduction in Parliament of an indemnity bill only aggravated the discontent of a part of the population who had watched the passing of a series of legislative measures by the reformist majority, which took power in beginning of 1848, about a year before.

In 1845, the Draper-Viger government set up, on November 24, a commission of inquiry into the claims the inhabitants of Lower Canada had sent since 1838, to determine those that were justified and provide an estimate of the amount to be paid.

The general election of January 1848 changed the composition of the House of Assembly in favour of the opposition party, the moderate reformists led by Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine.

On January 29, 1849, Lafontaine moved to form a committee of the whole House on February 9 to "take into consideration the necessity of establishing the amount of Losses incurred by certain inhabitants in Lower Canada during the political troubles of 1837 and 1838, and of providing for the payment thereof".

Tory MPPs Henry Sherwood, Allan MacNab and Prince attacked the legitimacy of the proposed measure, stating that it rewarded the "rebels" of yesterday and constituted an insult to the "loyal" subjects who had fought against them in 1837 and 1838.

Certain liberal MPPs, including Louis-Joseph Papineau and Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, opposed the amendment because, according to them, it resulted in the recognition, by the government, of the legality of the military court created by former acting governor John Colborne in order to speedily execute the prisoners of 1839.

Some of the protesters began throwing eggs and rocks at him and his aides[15]: 82 [16] and he was forced to climb back into his carriage in haste and return to Monklands at gallop speed, while some of his assailants pursued him in the streets.

The editor in chief of The Gazette, James Moir Ferres, published an Extra which contained a report of the incident involving Lord Elgin, and invited the "Anglo-Saxons" of Montreal to attend a mass meeting to be held at 8:00 pm on Place d'Armes.

The Extra read: When Lord Elgin – he no longer deserves the name of Excellency – made his appearance on the street to retire from the Council Chamber, he was received by the crowd with hisses, hootings, and groans.

[17]Between 1,200 and 1,500 were reported to have attended the meeting (which in the end took place on Champ-de-Mars) to hear, by the gleam of torch light, the speeches of orators protesting vigorously against Lord Elgin's assent to the bill.

Perry claimed to have accidentally set fire to the room himself when he hit the gas chandelier suspended on the ceiling with a brick, aiming for the clock that was directly above the Speaker's chair.

[18]: 95  Four people, Colonel Wiley, a Scotsman named McGillivray, an employee of the parliament, and the uncle of Todd, who was responsible for the libraries, and Sandford Fleming,[22]: 168  who later became a renowned engineer, saved the portrait of Queen Victoria hanging in the hall leading to the lower house.

[30] Lafontaine was not present that morning, because he attended the wedding of lawyer Joseph-Amable Berthelot, his associate in legal practice, who was marrying the adoptive daughter of judge Elzéar Bédard.

Four of the speakers of the Champs-de-Mars meeting, James Moir Ferres, editor in chief and principal owner of The Montreal Gazette, William Gordon Mack, lawyer and secretary of the British American League, Hugh E. Montgomerie, trader, Augustus Heward, trader and courtier, as well as Alfred Perry, five persons in total, were arrested and charged with arson early in the morning of April 26[31]: 783  by the police superintendent William Ermatinger.

[33] A procession of omnibuses and cabs transported them in triumph from the prison to the front door of the Bank of Montreal, on Place d'Armes, where they addressed their partisans and thanked them for their support.

Returning toward downtown Montreal, the men broke windows on the boarding house where Baldwin and Price resided[35] as well as those of McNamee's Inn,[18]: 66  two buildings forming the corner of the Catholic Cemetery street.

[31]: 785 A group of Tory leaders including George Moffatt and Gugy convened a new public meeting of the "Friends of Peace" on Champ-de-Mars on Friday April 27 at 12:00 pm.

On the morning of April 27, the authorities informed the population that men who would show up at 6:00 pm in front of the dépôt de l'ordonnance on rue du Bord-de-l'Eau would receive arms.

[31]: 786 During a public meeting on Place du Castor on that night, general Charles Stephen Gore stepped on the hustings and dispersed the crowd by swearing on his honour that the new constables would be disarmed by morning.

[37] While not necessarily supportive of the acts of violence shaking the town of Montreal, the conservative circles of British Canada publicly expressed their contempt for the representative of the Crown.

[31]: 787 After the ceremony for the presentation of the address, the governor and his escort returned to Monklands by taking rue St-Denis in order to avoid conflict with the crowd still demonstrating against his presence.

[15]: 86  Earl Grey, to the contrary, believed that his replacement would be harmful and would have the effect of encouraging those who violently and illegally opposed the authority of his government, which continued to receive the full support of the Westminster cabinet.

The government party delegated Francis Hinks, who left Montreal on May 14,[42] to represent the point of view of the governor, his Executive Council, and the majority of the members in both Houses of Parliament.

On June 14, John Charles Herries, a Tory member of the House of Commons for Stamford, presented a motion to disavow the Rebellion Losses Act assented by the Earl of Elgin on April 25.

[45]: 90 The Tory press gave great coverage of the death of Mason, and, on the August 18, a grand funeral procession marched on Craig, Bonsecours and Saint-Paul street, as well as on Place Jacques-Cartier, before going toward the English cemetery.