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culate as a cheap commodity; and, secondly, in a collection of his speeches, to be impressed by his friend the schoolmaster, as a specimen of eloquence, on the minds of village Hampdens. Although this statesman is followed by few, and attached to none, he is too eloquent and too powerful not to command the attention of all, and presents the singular anomaly of being unable to add weight or influence to any party to which he may lend his support, and yet being the most fearful opponent in the House to those whom it may be his pleasure to attack. With respect to Canada, he was pleased to say, "Another rule prevails' Refuse all they ask ; "turn a deaf ear to every complaint; mock them "with hopes never to be realized; insult them "with rights which when they dare to use shall "be rudely torn from them; and for abiding by "the law, in seeking redress of their wrongs, "punish them by the infliction of a dictator and "a despotism."" Truisms are seldom repeated; they require but to be enounced, to be assented to. Paradoxes are more fortunate; they startle and perplex, and he who cannot originate can at least copy. I was, therefore, not surprised at hearing an humble imitation of this diatribe at a meeting of the lower orders of Edinburgh at Carlton Hill. That the audience might find

time to attend, the assembly was held by torchlight, a fitting emblem for incendiary doctrines. Tories and Whigs were alike reprobated by an orator, who, when he had exhausted the topics of domestic misrule, deplored in most pathetic terms the lot of our oppressed and enslaved brethren in Canada." If this be true of them, it is an appeal to humanity, and when in Britain was that appeal made in vain? It is, however, the character of humanity to be credulous. The mendicant impostor, aware of the fact, profits by the knowledge of it, and weaves a tale of misfortune or oppression to excite pity and extort money; the political juggler, in like manner, draws upon his imagination for facts, and having established a grievance, makes a tender of his services as a reformer.

As this charge of misgovernment has been often made of late, it is probable it will be repeated, and as it must materially modify the opinion we are to form, both of the revolt, and of the measures to be adopted hereafter in consequence thereof, I shall now proceed to controvert this assertion; but before I enter upon it, permit me to say, that I shall not treat this as a party question. As a colonist, at once a native and a resident of a distant part of the empire, I am not only unconnected with, but

perfectly independent of either of the great parties of this country, of Tories or Whigs or Radicals; nor do I consider this as a subject at all involving the principles for which they severally contend. The question is one wholly between the people of this country and the colonists, and must be considered as such; and so far from my Lord Durham's assertion being true, that there has been misgovernment, I am prepared to show, that every administration in this country, without exception, from the conquest of Canada to the present time, whether Tory or Whig, or mixed, or by whatever name they may be designated, have been actuated but by one feeling, an earnest desire to cultivate a good understanding with their new subjects of French extraction, and on one principle, a principle of concession. Canada has had more privileges and indulgences granted to it than any other of our American colonies: unpopular officers have been removed; obnoxious governors have been recalled; constitutional points abandoned to them; all reasonable changes made (or, as they would express it, grievances redressed); and the interests of commerce and of persons of British origin postponed to suit their convenience, or accommodate their prejudices; in short, every

thing has been done, and everything conceded to conciliate them, that ingenuity could devise or unbounded liberality grant, and no sacrifice has been considered too great to purchase their affections, short of yielding up the colony to their entire control; and for all this forbearance and liberality they have been met with ingratitude, abuse, and rebellion. For the truth of this assertion, I call upon France and the United States to bear me testimony. Hear the Duke de la Rochfoucault Liancourt: "No Canadian has just grounds of complaint against the British Government; the inhabitants of Canada acknowledge unanimously that they are better treated than under the ancient French government; but they love the French, forget them not, long after them, hope for their arrival, will always love them, and betray these feelings too frequently, and in too frank a manner, not to incur the displeasure of the English, who, even in Europe, have not made an equal progress with us in discarding the absurd prejudices of one people against another.

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They pay no taxes, live well, at an easy rate, and in plenty; within the compass of their comprehensions they cannot wish for any other good. They are so little acquainted with the principles of liberty, that it has cost a great

deal of trouble to establish juries in their country; they oppose the introduction of the trial by jury; in civil cases these are not yet in use. But they love France, this beloved country engages still their affections. In their estimation a Frenchman is a being far superior to an Englishman."

"The farmers are a frugal set of people, but ignorant and lazy. In order to succeed in enlarging and improving agriculture in this province, the English Government must proceed with great prudence and perseverance; for in addition to the unhappy prejudices which the inhabitants of Canada entertain in common with the farmers of all other countries, they also foster a strong mistrust against every thing which they receive from the English; and this mistrust is grounded on the idea that the English are their conquerors, and the French their brethren. There are some exceptions from this bad agricultural system, but they are few. The best cultivators are always landholders arrived from England."

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Upon the whole, the work of education in Lower Canada is greatly neglected. At Sorel and Three Rivers are a few schools, kept by the nuns; in other places men or women instruct children. But the number of schools is,

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