of the great body
of which I speak would soon have carried the day against their
_judgment_.
And what is the result? 700,000 French reconciled to England--not
because they are getting _rebel money_--I believe, indeed, that
no _rebels_ will get a farthing; but because they believe that
the British Governor is just. 'Yes;' but you may say 'this is
purchased by the alienation of the British.' Far from it; I took the
whole blame upon myself; and I will venture to affirm that the
Canadian British never were so loyal as they are at this hour; and,
what is more remarkable still, and more directly traceable to this
policy of forbearance, never, since Canada existed, has party-spirit
been more moderate, and the British and French races on better terms
than they are now; and this, in spite of the withdrawal of protection,
and of the proposal to throw on the colony many charges which the
Imperial Government has hitherto borne.
Pardon me for saying so much on this point; but _'magna est
veritas.'_
[1] _I.e._ one of the rebels of 1837, who had been banished to Bermuda
by Lord Durham.
[2] One of the Conservative papers of the day wrote:--'Bad as the payment
of the rebellion losses is, we do not know that it would not be better
to submit to pay twenty rebellion losses than have what is nominally a
free Constitution fettered and restrained each time a measure
distasteful to the minority is passed.'
[3] 'I confess,' he wrote in a private letter of the same date, 'I did not
before know how thin is the crust of order which covers the anarchical
elements that boil and toss beneath our feet.'
[4] 'When he entered the Government House he took a two-pound stone with
him which he had picked up in his carriage, as evidence of the most
unusual and sorrowful treatment Her Majesty's representative had
received.'--Mac Mullen, p. 511.
[5] 'Cabs, caleches, and everything that would run were at once launched in
pursuit, and crossing his route, the Governor-General's carriage was
bitterly assailed in the main street of the St. Lawrence suburbs. The
good and rapid driving of his postilions enabled him to clear the
desperate mob, but not till the head of his brother, Colonel Bruce,
had been cut, injuries inflicted on the chief of police. Colonel
Ermatanger, and on Captain Jones, commanding the escort, and ev
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