The Report consists of four parts. The {22} first, and by far the
largest, portion deals with Lower Canada, as the main storm centre.
The second is concerned with Upper Canada; the third, with the Maritime
Provinces and Newfoundland. Having diagnosed the disease in the body
politic, Durham proposes a remedy. The fourth part is an outline of
the curative process suggested.

'I expected to find a contest between a government and a people; I
found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.' In that one
sentence Durham precises the situation in Lower Canada. Nothing will
surprise the Canadian of to-day more than the evidence adduced of 'the
deadly animosity' which then existed between the two races. The very
children in the streets fought, French against English. Social
intercourse between the two was impossible. The Report shows the
historical origin and carefully traces the course of this 'deadly
animosity.' It finds much to admire in the character of the French
habitant, but spares neither his faults nor the shortcomings of his
political leaders. It shows that the original racial quarrel was
aggravated by the conduct of the governing officials, both at home and
in Canada, until the French took up arms. {23} The consequences were
'evils which no civilized community can long continue to bear.' There
must be a 'decision'; and it must be 'prompt and final.'

In Upper Canada Durham found a different situation. There the people
were not 'slavish tools of a narrow official clique or a few
purse-proud merchants,' but 'hardy farmers and humble mechanics
composing a very independent, not very manageable, and sometimes a
rather turbulent democracy.' The trouble was that a small party had
secured a monopoly of power and resisted the lawful efforts of moderate
reformers to establish a truly democratic form of government.
Ill-balanced extremists had taken up arms; but the sound political
instinct of the vast majority was against them. Here, too, the
original difficulties had been complicated by official ignorance in
England and the unwisdom of authorities on the spot. The result was
that these 'ample and fertile territories' were in a backward, almost
desperate, condition. Their poverty and stagnation were a depressing
contrast to the prosperity and exhilarating stir of the great American
democracy.

The other outlying provinces presented no {24} such serious problems.
There were various anomalies and di