tions and fighting under false colours-the British professing exclusive loyalty to the Crown of England, and the Canadians pretending to the character of reformers. Nay, I am inclined to think that the true principles and ultimate objects of both parties, taken apart from the question of race, are exactly the reverse of what each of them professes, or, in other words, that the British (always excluding the body of officials) are really desirous of a more responsible Government, while the Canadians would prefer the present form of Government, or even one of a less democratic character. I shall have more to say on this head presently, having mentioned the subject here only for the purpose of citing another fact which tends to prove the existence of a deep-rooted national sentiment on both sides. Such a contradiction between the real and avowed principles of each party could not have occurred if all the people had been of one race, or if every other consideration had not given way to the sentiment of nationality.

This general antipathy of the Canadians towards the British, and of the British towards the Canadians, appears to have been, as it were, provided for at the conquest of the province, and by subsequent measures of the British Government. If Lower Canada had been isolated from other colonies, and so well peopled as to leave little room for emigration from Britain, it might have been right at the conquest to engage for the preservation of French institutions, for the existence of a "Nation Canadienne ;" but, considering how certain it was that, sooner or later, the British race would predominate in the country, that engagement seems to have been most unwise. It insured such a strife as has actually taken place; for, notwithstanding the division of Canada into two provinces, for the purpose of isolating the French, the British already predominate in French Canada, not numerically of course, but by means of their superior energy and wealth, and their natural relationship to the powers of Government.

It was long before the Canadians perceived that their nationality was in the course of being over-ridden by a British nationality. When the Constitutional Act bestowed on them a representative system, they were so little conversant with its nature, and so blind to the probable results of British emigration, that they described the constitution as a "machine Anglaise pour nous taxer," and elected to the House of Assembly almost a majority

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of Englishmen. But with the progress of British intrusion they at length discovered, not only the uses of a representative system, but also that their nationality was in danger; and I have no hesitation in asserting that of late years they have used the representative system for the single purpose of maintaining their nationality against the progressive intrusion of the British race. They have found the British pressing upon them at every turn, in the possession of land, in commerce, in the retail trade, in all kinds of industrious enterprize, in religion, in the whole administration of government, and though they are a stagnant people, easily satisfied and disinclined to exertion, they have naturally resisted an invasion which was so offensive to their national pride.

The British, on the other hand, impeded in the pursuit of all their objects, partly by the ancient and barbarous civil law of the country, and partly by the systematic opposition of the Canadians to the progress of British enterprize, have naturally sought to remove those impediments, and to conquer, without much regard to the means employed, that very mischievous opposition. The actual result should have seemed inevitable. The struggle between the two races, conducted as long as possible according to the forms of the constitution, became too violent to be kept within those bounds. In order to preserve some sort of government, the public revenue was disposed of against the will of the Canadian people represented by their Assembly. The consequent rebellion, although precipitated by the British from an instinctive sense of the danger of allowing the Canadians full time for preparation, could not, perhaps, have been avoided; and the sentiment of national hostility has been aggravated to the uttermost, on both sides, by that excessive inflammation of the passions which always attends upon bloodshed for such a cause, and still more by this unusual circumstance, that the victorious minority suffered extreme fear at the beginning of the contest, and that the now subdued majority had been led to hope everything from an appeal to force.

There seems to me only one modification of this view of the subject. The employment by the Canadians of constitutional and popular means for their national purpose, has taught some of them, consisting chiefly of the most active and able, higher political views than such as

belong to the question of nationality. These men are not at heart friendly to the barbarous institutions of their ancestors, but would readily adopt a more enlightened system, if they could do so without losing their own importance. Their necessary dependence on the prejudiced mass has alone restrained them from joining in many of the views for the improvement of the country which are entertained by the British. They have also learned to estimate the practical abuses of Government which affect all classes, and to wish for many reforms without reference to Canadian nationality. They even had, to some extent, succeeded in disseminating their opinions amongst the mass of their countrymen, and they are not unlikely to play a valuable and distinguished part under any new system of government that may put an end to the strife between hostile races; but, unfortunately, their number is so small as scarcely to affect my opinion of the temper of the Canadian people.

Supposing my view of that subject to be correct, your Lordship will readily understand that the bulk of the Canadian people are as disaffected as ever, and that the British part of the population regard the Canadians with vindictive jealousy. The Imperial Government is distrusted by both parties; by the Canadians because they fear, or rather expect in gloomy silence, that advantage will be taken of their late rebellion to remove the very causes of dissension, by giving a British character to the institutions and laws of the province, so that there shall no longer be any serious impediment to British colonization and enterprize; and by the British, on the other hand, because they doubt whether the Imperial Government will ever sufficiently understand the state of parties here, to approve of the great changes which must inevitably take place, if another period of legislative strife, and perhaps another rebellion, are to be averted.

And here I must notice a fact of great importance. The more discerning of the Canadians are perfectly aware that if the authority of the United States should ever extend to this country, whether by means of war or of a peaceful union, the peculiar institutions, and even the language, of French Canada would be extinguished as soon as possible, yet are they willing, with the exception perhaps of a considerable portion of the clergy, to incur the loss of all that they have held most dear, in order to

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gratify the sentiment of vengeance that has now got possession of them. I would not exaggerate the amount of the sacrifice that they are willing to make for the sake of revenge. It is right to add, therefore, that, in my opinion, they almost despair, come what may, of preserving those ancient usages and that distinct nationality, in defence of which they have struggled so many years.

But be this as it may, whether they are moved by a sentiment of mere vengeance, or by revenge mixed with despair, I am well convinced that an American invasion of this province would be highly acceptable to most of them.

Satisfied of the disaffected temper of the Canadians as a people, I have naturally taken pains to acquire correct information as to the state of feeling in the United States as respects these colonies and the mother country.

All reports concur in assuring me that the present government of the Union, and a vast majority of the American people, are decidedly adverse to a rupture with England. Having already conveyed this assurance to your Lordship, I need not dwell upon it here; but there are points in the state of American feeling towards these colonies, and especially near the frontier, of so much moment as to require particular notice.

In the first place, although some persons in the States, and the more so if they have visited this country, are aware of the true nature of the late rebellion, it is a common opinion in America that the contention in this province has been between the executive government on the one hand, supported by a minority, and the majority of the people, without distinction of race, on the other; and that the subject of disagreement has been, practical grievances and general principles similar to those which formed the matter of dispute between England and her old colonies in America.

As their fathers rebelled in defence of those old English charters of local self-government, which placed local taxation and revenue at the sole disposition of popular assemblies, so they think that the Canadian majority was justified in withholding supplies, and in resisting by force the violation of their constitution by the British Parliament.

They believe, in a word, that the majority in Lower Canada has contended for the maintenance of popular rights, and that arbitrary government is the aim of the minority. The mistake is easily accounted for it is

only on the spot that one learns how the subject of strife in Lower Canada has been a question of nationality; everywhere else the false professions and designations employed by both parties, combined with the plain fact that the contest has been between a majority and a minority, is apt to mislead the inquirer, by keeping out of view the distinction of races. If the whole subject were understood by Americans, they would probably sympathize with those who are of the same origin as themselves, who resemble them in numerous particulars, and who seek objects which, if this country were under American rule, would be unhesitatingly accomplished, as similar objects have been attained in the Dutch colony of New York, and the French colony of Louisiana.

case.

There is no people under the sun to whom the feudal institutions and most defective civil laws of the Canadians would be more intolerable, than to the Anglo-Saxon race of the United States. But they have misunderstood the They have fallen into the not uncommon mistake of confounding means with ends. Believing that the means employed by the Canadians, in the Assembly, were constitutional and popular, and seeing that the British, being in a minority, necessarily clung to the local executive and the imperial authority; above all, regardless of the accident (for so it may be termed with respect to the question of nationality) by which the Canadians happen to constitute a majority, Americans have supposed that the objects of both parties in the colony were of the same nature respectively, as the means on which each party has relied. An ever active sentiment of national pride is, perhaps, the most remarkable feature in the American character. It might have been foreseen, therefore, that the Americans, proudly recollecting the origin and progress of their own revolutionary war with England, should sympathize with the Canadians, or rather with the majority, who happen to be Canadians. Whether they may ever comprehend the false position assumed by both parties in this colony, I will not venture to predict; but so long as their view of the subject shall remain unchanged, they will, I believe, continue to sympathize with that side which has the air of contending for democratic principles and popular objects, and to wish that it may prevail over the other, which appears in the light of an oppressive minority.