sions at home, there is no good reason why it should not be equally fortunate abroad; if those who are the most clamorous, are first attended to, because they are the most distinctly heard, why may not the colonists learn to exalt their voices also, in hopes of similar success?-as the old cock crows so does the young. The English have long held themselves up as models, and such distinguished people must not be surprised if they who ape their manners, occasionally copy some of their follies also. The force of example is too strong to be restrained by precept. These financial disputes extended over the whole period of the administration of the Duke of Richmond, Lord Dalhousie, and Sir James Kempt, with more or less intensity, according to the supply of fresh fuel furnished by irritating matter of an extraneous nature. Complaints soon multiplied upon complaints; public meetings were held; violent speeches made, valiant resolutions passed; and, finally, delegates chosen to demand a redress of grievances from the Imperial Parliament.

When the delegates arrived in this country, they found public opinion with them. It is the interest, as well as the duty of the English to govern their colonies justly and kindly; and no man but a Frenchman would affirm that their inclination requires the incitement of either. Their

complaints were referred to a committee composed of persons by no means indisposed towards the petitioners, who, after a patient and laborious investigation of the subjects in dispute, made a report, which was acknowledged by the assembly to be both an able and an impartial one, and quite satisfactory. It will be unnecessary to recapitulate the subjects referred, or to transcribe the report, because both the one and the other will be best understood by a minute of Lord Aberdeen, to which I shall hereafter allude more particularly, in which he distinctly proves that the recommendations of that committee, so far as depended upon the government, were most strictly and fully complied with. By adopting this course, I shall be able to spare you a great deal of useless repetition.

The manner in which the report of the committee was received by the dominant party in Canada, the praise bestowed upon its authors, and the exultation they expressed at their success, deceived the government as to the source of these noisy demonstrations of pleasure. They conceived it to be the natural impulse of generous minds towards those who had thus kindly listened to their solicitations, and liberally granted even more than they had required. But they knew not their men. It was the shout

of victory that they mistook for the plaudits of loyalty. It was not designed to greet the ears of benefactors with grateful acknowledgments, but to wound the feelings of their neighbours with the cheers of triumph. They devoted but little time to mutual congratulations. Sterner feelings had supplied the place of rejoicing. They set themselves busily to work to improve their advantage; and, having established themselves in the outworks which were thus surrendered to them, they now turned their attention to storming the citadel. While government was engaged in carrying into execution the recommendations of the committee with as much dispatch as the peculiar state of politics in Great Britain at that time permitted, the assembly put themselves in a posture of complaint again. Fourteen resolutions were passed, embodying some of the old and embracing some new grievances, and an agent appointed to advocate their claims.

While representations in the name of the whole population were thus sent to England, expressing only the sentiment of one portion of the people, the settlers of British origin were loud in their complaints that they were unrepresented, and that they had no constitutional means of being heard. Fearing that this re

monstrance, which was so well founded, might be redressed in the same quarter to which they had applied so successfully for relief themselves, the assembly affected to listen to their petitions, and made a new electoral division of the province. Territories inhabited principally by persons of French origin, they divided into numerous small counties; while others, where a large body of those of British origin resided, they so divided that, by joining that territory with another more numerous in French inhabitants, the votes of the British were rendered ineffectual. The proportion stood thus:

Of the extreme partiality of this division there never has been but one opinion in the colonies, until they were so fortunate as to be favoured with the distinction drawn by the commissioners, who admitted that its operation was a practical exclusion, but exonerated the bill from a charge of unfairness-an instance of even-handed justice (deciding in favour of both parties) which ought to have won them the praise of all men. In addition to this exclusion, so extraordinarily designated as unjust but not unfair, they established the quorum of the house for the transaction of business at forty, being only four less than a moiety of the whole body. The large number thus required to be present to constitute a house still further depressed the influence of the minority, and enabled the majority to deprive them of their parliamentary privileges at pleasure, by rendering the transaction of business impossible, except when it suited the convenience of the stronger party to allow it.

Having disposed of the complaints of the British settlers in a way to prevent them from being troublesome in the house, they returned to the consideration of their own grievances; and that the motives actuating the party might not be disclosed, and to prevent any member