ature in Canadian politics. The plea of self-interest, the
most powerful weapon, perhaps, which the friends of British connection
have wielded in times past, has not only been wrested from my hands,
but transferred since 1846 to those of the adversary. I take the
liberty of mentioning a fact, which seems better to illustrate the
actual condition of affairs in these respects than many arguments. I
have lately spent several weeks in the district of Niagara. Canadian
Niagara is separated from the state of New York by a narrow stream,
spanned by a bridge, which it takes a foot passenger about three
minutes to cross. The inhabitants are for the most part U.E.
loyalists,[2] and differ little in habits or modes of thought and
expression from their neighbours. Wheat is their staple product--the
article which they exchange for foreign comforts and luxuries. Now it
is the fact that a bushel of wheat, grown on the Canadian side of the
line, has fetched this year in the market, on an average, from
9_d_. to 1_s_. less than the same quantity and quality of
the same article grown on the other. Through their district council, a
body elected under a system of very extended suffrage, these same
inhabitants of Niagara have protested against the Montreal annexation
movement. They have done so (and many other district councils in Upper
Canada have done the same) under the impression that it would be base
to declare against England at a moment when England has given a signal
proof of her determination to concede constitutional Government in all
its plenitude to Canada. I am confident, however, that the large
majority of the persons who have thus protested, firmly believe that
their annexation to the United States would add one-fourth to the
value of the produce of their farms.

I need say no more than this to convince your Lordship, that while
this state of things subsists (and I much fear that no measure but the
establishment of reciprocal trade between Canada and the States, or
the imposition of a duty on the produce of the States when imported
into England, will remove it), arguments will not be wanting to those
who seek to seduce Canadians from their allegiance.

Shortly afterwards he writes to Lord Grey:--

It is not for me to dispute the point with free-traders, when they
allege that all parts of the