political causes which are
ever and anon at work to disturb calculations, which would have been
accurate enough for quiet times, but which are insufficient for
others. I think, therefore, that I have established the truth of the
proposition, that men who aspire to exercise a directing and
controlling influence in any pursuit or business, should be
distinguished by a knowledge of principles and general laws. But it is
in the acquisition of this knowledge, and more especially in its
application to the occurrences of daily life, that the chief necessity
arises for the exercise of those high moral qualities, with the
importance of which I have endeavoured, in these brief remarks, to
impress you.

[1] _Our Colonies_: an Address delivered to the members of the
Mechanics' Institute, Chester, Nov. 12, 1855, by the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, M.P.

[2] See the _Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration_, by
Earl Grey: a work in which the records of a most important period of
colonial history are traced with equal ability and authority.

[3] MacMullen's _History of Canada_, p. 497.

[4] Lord Grey's _Colonial Policy_, &c., i. 207.

[5] MacMullen's _History of Canada_.

[6] A pamphlet was published by a member of the Legislative Council,
denouncing this and similar instances of 'horrible and heartless
conduct' on the part of landed proprietors and their 'mercenary
agents;' but it was proved by satisfactory evidence that his main
statements were not founded in fact.

[7] Lord Grey's _Colonial policy_.

[8] See Papers presented to Parliament, May, 1848; or Lord Grey's
_Colonial Policy_, i. 216.

[9] _I.e._ Member of the Provincial Parliament.

[10] Lord Grey's _Colonial Policy,_ i. 220. Lord Grey was one of the
few statesmen who were blameless in the matter, for he voted against
the Act of 1843, in opposition to his party.

[11] The personal annoyance which he felt on this occasion was only a phase
of the indignation which was often roused in him, by seeing the
interests and feelings of the colony made the sport of party-speakers
and party-writers at home; and important transactions in the province
distorted and misrepresented, so as to afford ground for an attack, in
the British Parliament, on an obnoxious Minister.--_Vide Infra_,
p. 113.

[12] 'A knowledge' wrote Sir F. Bruce, 'of what he was