to cut their way out of it. No honest man can desire that we should remain as we are; and what other way out of our difficulties can be suggested but a genuine legislative union, with representation by population-a federal union-or a dissolution of the present union? I am sure that a dissolution cry would be as ruinous to any party as (in my opinion) it would be wrong. A federal union, it appears to me, cannot be entertained for Canada alone, but when agitated must include all British America. We will be past caring for politics when that measure is finally achieved. I can hardly conceive of a federal union for Canada alone. What powers should be given to the provincial legislatures, and what to the federal? Would you abolish county councils? And yet if you did not, what would the local parliaments have to control? Would Montreal like to be put under the generous rule of the Quebec politicians? Our friends here are prepared to consider dispassionately any scheme that may issue from your party in Lower Canada. They all feel keenly that something must be done. Their plan is representation by population and a fair trial for the present union in its integrity; failing this, they are prepared to go in for dissolution, I believe, but if you can suggest a federal or any other scheme that could be worked, it will have our most anxious examination. Can you sketch a plan of federation such as our friends below would agree to, and could carry? If so, pray let us have it as soon as you conveniently can. I perfectly agree with you in all you say about Sandfield. He has assuredly put his foot in it. I had a letter from his brother to say that whatever Sandfield did, he would be found right side up.

and

The Hastings dinner has had a good effect. The ministerialists calculated confidently on and were surprised to find they had made such a mistake. The truth is, I might say I feel alarmed at finding myself among so extreme a set of people!

Another day, and no government! We have strong rumours to-night that a government is formed, but I don't believe a word of it. Sidney Smith, Malcolm Cameron, and Cayley are the names of the hour, but very certainly neither of the first two can be returned, and where Cayley is to find a seat puzzles everyone. My own impression is that Mr. John A. Macdonald sees no further through the woods this night than he did a month ago, but I may be mistaken. John Hillyard Cameron says they will meet parliament with the offices unfilled so as to embarrass the opposition, and throw on us the responsibility of losing a session to the country. No doubt it would be much more difficult to arrange a new government with parliament in session than during a recess.

What say you to Bytown as the seat of government? I think it the second worst place in all Canada, and would a million times prefer Montreal.

Will it be possible to upset the decision? In our present position, with representation by population unsettled, I think the best move would be Toronto and Montreal alternately. With that conceded, I don't care much where the seat of government goes, provided Quebec and Bytown are not the places.

That was indeed a most amusing paragraph in the Gazette. How it got there I cannot conceive, but I am informed it has done me some good in Lower Canada, as people begin to hope that I am not so savage as I was supposed to be. No doubt the Starnes' conversation was the origin of the matter, but how that reached the proportions of a "proposal for political alliance" I cannot think. We were exercised here as to the best mode of opening communications with our friends in Lower Canada. Mr. Dorion and his friends have so frequently repudiated our policy, that we were unwilling to go direct to the mark by opening correspondence; your

Starnes

arrival here ended all difficulty as to communicating with the Rouges. While at Belleville I got a telegram from John Simpson, to say Starnes was with him, and he would like that I would wait over a night as I returned; this I had to decline. As the train came up Starnes and Simpson came to the station and went to the junction with us. said he and his friends (Sicotte, I suppose) were prepared to adopt the full anti-state church ticket, and admitted representation by population must come, and they were prepared to concede it, but how to do that and be returned for Lower Canadian constituencies they could not see. 1 endeavoured to put the measure in the most favourable light, and said that so long as we had the principle admitted, we were willing to have reasons concerning details. We parted before much had passed; the idea of forming any alliance was not even spoken of for a moment. So far as I was concerned, my effort was to make Starnes a convert to our views, and the folly of resisting them; I was not thinking of the men to carry them, but of the thing to be carried.

The only remark that went beyond this was an observation by Starnes that if I supposed he and his friends thought any more of the Upper Canada side of the government than I did it was a great mistake. He added that our views on the ad valorem duties were much more to their minds than the others' views. Thus you have the whole of this famous 'negotiation." If Starnes had not mentioned it to you I would not have felt at liberty to repeat what passed, though the affair was not worth secrecy or publication, in itself.

I will be glad to hear from you as soon as convenient.

HON. L. H. HOLTON, Montreal.

Yours faithfully,

GEORGE BROWN.

LETTER TO MR. HOLTON.

TORONTO, Sept. 17, 1858.

MY DEAR HOLTON, -I am afraid you will never pardon my apparent carelessness for it is only apparent.

I am out of health, worn out, driven to death, and cannot bring my mind to the most ordinary exertion. I ought to give up all business for a month at least, but it is very difficult to do so.

I entirely agree with you as to the necessity of sending a memorandum to the colonial office, and as to the propriety of the policy shadowed forth in your letter. I had arranged to go down to Montreal to discuss this matter; but I got so ill that I had to give it up and go to the St. Catharines baths.

I propose that we meet here before or after the great Hamilton demonstration, on Thursday next, to settle what we are to do. Dorion, McGee, and yourself, will of course be there, but it would be very desirable that Drummond and Lemieux should also be present. Drummond's defeat was very provoking, but cannot be helped. It is very important to have him returned. If you have not seen your way to a seat, I will talk with you when you come about one here. Your splendid victory in Montreal has greatly strengthened us, and will help much in the House.

We are in trouble here about the Upper House election. Our friends are much divided on personal grounds; for myself, I shall vote for Romaine. The run will be close, as neither candidate carries much enthusiasm with him.

You can have no idea how earnest and general the enthusiasm is for the Brown-Dorion government all over Western Canada, west of Kingston. I have never seen anything like it. Head and his fellow conspirators are proportionately condemned.

McGee's course has made him eminently popular. He is received like a prince in every direction.

Be sure and bring our friends to the Thursday dinner.

Yours faithfully,

HON. L. H. HOLTON, Montreal.

LETTER TO MR. HOLTON.

GEORGE BROWN.

GLOBE OFFICE, TORONTO, July 8, 1859.

MY DEAR HOLTON,-I trust the Laberge affair did us no harm in Lower Canada, and especially that it did not affect Dorion injuriously, for that would indeed grieve me. He has always acted so manfully and generously that it would pain me deeply to know that I should have been the means of compromising him. I could not help coming out on that unfortunate tenure business. The ill-advised speeches of some friends on the back benches rendered it absolutely necessary. I should have been greatly damaged had I not spoken as I did. Between ourselves, Laberge did me the best service in attacking me as he did. People were beginning to believe that I had sold Western Canada to Lower Canada for the sake of party success. I think some of the actors rue it already. They thought that I had committed a grand error in coming out for the constitutional changes, and some of them freely denounced me and the whole scheme. But already the wonderful success the movement has met with from all parties has effected a change. I had a letter from Foley on Tuesday, in which he refers to the whole affair at the close of the session and since, and winds up thus: "You may rely upon it, that henceforth you will not have the shadow of a cause of complaint."

My firm conviction is that we should merge all our questions in the one great issue of a change of constitution. It will elevate the tone of politics, cast aside petty vexatious issues, and be a tremendous card at next election, come when it may. 1 cannot see why it should be less successful below than here.

We propose having a Convention here in the fall, and if representatives from Lower Canada could attend it, the effect would be admirable.

There is an impression among ministerialists that Sir E. Head has had notice he will be retired, but how the change will now affect matters remains to be seen. The ministry was nearly finished on Lake Huron without the aid of the Clear Grits. Little as I owe them, I would not like them to go off in that way.

Will the Whig government last? Have not the Rads been cruelly sold? If Bright and Cobden work their hands well I really think Pam. has done them a service. Did you see much of Cobden? I hope he will not accept. It is the case of Rolph and Cameron precisely.

The crops are looking on the whole well. Frost has done much damage, but as there was a greater breadth sown the yield will be an average one. There is an unusual anxiety about the crops this year; we are made to feel our dependence on the farm very directly in such times as these. Business

is very dull and money scarce, but the true elements of recovery are at work, hard labour and frugality.

I intend going to the sea coast for a few days, and will take Montreal n my way, as I much desire to have a long talk with you.

If the York vacancy occurs there will be no trouble in arranging for your return if you will accept a seat for a West Canada constituency. Yours most truly,

HON. L. H. HOLTON, Montreal.

LETTER TO MR. HOLTON.

GEORGE BROWN.

TORONTO, May 2, 1861.

I

MY DEAR HOLTON, -Except a short note to D. A. Macdonald, thanking him for keeping F straight, this is the first time I have put pen to tried to write in ink, but it was like the scrawl of paper for nine weeks. an old man of eighty. You must therefore be content with pencil. I have had a hard time of it. The disease had fastened upon me long before it became fully developed, and was undoubtedly caused by the great exertions I had to make to put my house in order, for there was no mercy. I thank Providence, I was not driven to my bed until the ship was safe inside the breakers in comparatively smoother water than it has known for years.

The paragraphs that appeared in the Globe about me were utterly absurd. When the inflammation of the pleura was overcome and the congestion of the liver reduced, I was to be well immediately, and I really felt I would be astir in a few days. The feeling was only the buoyancy of fever; as it lowered, my utter prostration soon appeared. Then I had to take nourishing food; but the digestive powers were so sadly impaired, that stimulants alone could be used. At present I am greatly better, and A frightful cough still hangs, and I suffered a slight return of the congestive attack. The doctors want me to be off the moment I can stand the fatigue of journeying. I have resolved to go to the water cure establishment at Clifton Springs, near Rochester. I think a week or two there will set me on my feet again.

am able to ride out for an hour.

I am ashamed of all this egotism, but I wanted to have some friends reconcile the statements of the Globe with my real condition.

All

May 8th.-So far I had written on the 2nd, when I had to stop from weariness. On Friday I had a consultation of physicians, which ended, I am sorry to say, unfavourably to my hopes of a speedy recovery. concurred in saying I must consider myself laid aside from business for some months, and that the utmost care must be taken to avoid falling into a state of permanent ill health.

I need not say how distressed I am by all this for myself and the party, as ministers are sure to take advantage of it in their election arrangements. Well, there is no help for it-nothing but submission, with the determined resolution that nothing shall be wanting to secure as speedy a recovery as possible.

I need not tell you how disgusted I am that Galt's bundle of misstatements should have escaped scathless. Of all the scandalous productions I ever met with, his opening chapter to the Public Accounts and his speech in opening the Budget are the worst. Such downright deceit I never met with from any man in a high position. I dictated an article for the Globe on the true balance for 1860, and another on the amount of the public debt;

perhaps you noticed them. I intended following them up with a complete analysis of his other statements, but have not strength to go at it. Did you notice his division of the rise of the public debt into three epochs: the amount during Hincks' administration, the amount during Cayley's, and the amount during his own? By barefaced jugglery he makes his own show but $5,000,000, when in fact it has been $23,000,000. Observe he takes credit for the full amount of the Sydenham loan, though, in fact, more than one-half of it was lying in London when he took office, and so on. It is utterly scandalous that out of 128 men not one rose to cast his false statements in his teeth. That disclosure by Dorion is most frightful. In any well-governed country it would be enough to produce a revolution. Yours ever faithfully,

HON. L. H. HOLTON, Montreal.

GEORGE BROWN.

LETTER TO MR. HOLTON.

TORONTO, Feb. 19, 1862.

MY DEAR HOLTON,-I congratulate you on the victory in the west. It really looked hopeless for some weeks, but now things promise well. There will be lots of northern men now; but, after all, have not the events of the last few months rather lowered your estimate of our neighbours? Has it not shown that there is something more needed to make up a great people than sharpness in business and agreeable social qualities? Has it not raised your estimate of the value of military power; of the faculty of commanding masses of men? Has it not proved the advantages of the people being taught to obey those placed in authority over them? I wish we had a chance to talk this over.

And so we are to have a session at last. What is to be the result of it? I am satisfied there is great disorganization in the ministerial camp. Vankoughnet has arrived by the Asia, and is expected to be gazetted Chancellor immediately. I greatly doubt his accepting it. If he does not Burns is to go into an equity court and Morris to become a puisne judge. John Ross openly declares he will not go to Quebec. He means to remain President of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, but he may lose that. Mr. Brydges is regularly installed in the Grand Trunk. He is trying to accomplish an increased postal subsidy by private arrangement with the members. I suspect the ministry have discovered they cannot carry it and are unwilling to risk trying it. What about the Intercolonial subsidy? The repudiation scheme, if they had one, has been fairly exploded. No one dreams here now that it can be touched, and even Hamilton is to cash up. I think the Globe has done good service to the state in that matter. The speakership is still subject of debate. I think Mr. Drummond the best man we can run, and I hope he will consent. What of Sicotte? Did you see or hear anything of him? I have seen a number of people from Waterloo county, and I feel confident he could be elected there without any trouble, should Foley elect to sit for Perth. I hear, however, that he talks of sitting for Waterloo. Singularly enough, I was strongly urging the necessity of having you in the House a few days ago among a party of our friends, when offered to resign for you. I have no doubt he means it, but we will see when the House meets if Foley comes to that determination. The Midland Division Convention gave Mr. McMaster the nomination, and I think he will accept. Mr. McGee was here some days, and I saw much of him; I was much pleased with him. He promised to see Dorion and you, and tell you all that is going on. What about the seat of government? Had our policy best be to stand