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ls who composed that party were smarting under a sense of injury and injustice inflicted upon them by the Home Government, and by that party in the Home Government by whose policy their own ascendency in the colony had, as they considered, been undermined. Nor was it possible to deny that there was some ground for their complaints. By the Canada Corn Act of 1843 not only the wheat of Canada, but also its flour, which might be made from American wheat, had been admitted into England at a nominal duty. The premium thus offered for the grinding of American wheat for the British market, caused a great amount of capital to be invested in mills and other appliances of the flour trade. 'But almost before these arrangements were fully completed, and the newly built mills fairly at work, the [Free-Trade] Act of 1846 swept away the advantage conferred upon Canada in respect to the corn-trade with this country, and thus brought upon the province a frightful amount of loss to individuals, and a great derangement of the Colonial finances.'[10] Lord Elgin felt deeply for the sufferers, and often pressed their case on the attention of the Secretary of State. [Sidenote: Discontent due to Imperial legislation.] I do not think that you are blind to the hardships which Canada is now enduring; but, I must own, I doubt much whether you fully appreciate their magnitude, or are aware of how directly they are chargeable on Imperial legislation. Stanley's Bill of 1843 attracted all the produce of the West to the St. Lawrence, and fixed all the disposable capital of the province in grinding mills, warehouses, and forwarding establishments. Peel's Bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue which Canada expected to derive from canal dues, and ruining at once mill-owners, forwarders, and merchants. The consequence is, that private property is unsaleable in Canada, and not a shilling can be raised on the credit of the province. We are actually reduced to the disagreeable necessity of paying all public officers, from the Governor-General downwards, in debentures, which are not exchangeable at par. What makes it more serious is, that all the prosperity of which Canada is thus robbed is transplanted to the other side of the lines, as if to make Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder England is to the chil
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