On his return to Canada, when the two provinces were now united, he became a member of the lower house and continued to take part in public life, demanding "the independence of Canada, for the Canadians need never expect justice from England, and to submit to her would be an eternal disgrace."
From 1858 to 1863 he was in the lower house of Congress, where he was noted for his strong opposition to the principles and policies of the growing Republican party, his belief that the South had been grievously wronged by the North, his leadership of the Peace Democrats or Copperheads, who were opposed to the prosecution of the war, and his bitter attacks upon the Lincoln administration, which, he said, was destroying the Constitution and would end by destroying civil liberty in the North.
He was twice prolocutor of the lower house of convocation for the province of Canterbury.
The deputies of the lower house are elected for three years directly by the people, one deputy for every 3000 male adults who can read and write.
As a legislative body the powers of the Council are co-ordinate with those of the Duma; in practice, however, it has seldom if ever initiated legislation.6 The Duma of the Empire or Imperial Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), which forms the Lower House of the Russian parliament, consists (since the ukaz of the znd of June 1907) on the 27th of April 1906, while the name and princi p le of autocracy was jealously preserved, the word " unlimited " vanished.