Bagot was ordered by the British government to resist the strengthening demands for responsible government. As an important concession, however, Bagot did allow the leading Canadian colonial politicians Robert Baldwin and Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine to form a ministry, on the basis of their parliamentary majority. Lafontaine, as a French-Canadian leader, had suffered abusive treatment by the British under the previous governor general, Lord Sydenham, who had died in office in 1841. This was the beginning of what became known as "representative government" in Canada. Bagot's leadership was an important step forward in establishing more amicable relations between the colonizing British and French.