Haldimand had carried on the government under its provisions
for the following six. Hamilton and Hope, successive
lieutenant-governors, had bridged the two years between
Haldimand's retirement and Carleton's second appointment.
Now Carleton was to pick up the threads and make what he
could of the tangled skein for the next five years.
Haldimand had not been popular with either of the two
chief parties into which the leading French Canadians
were divided. The seigneurs had nothing like the same
regard for a Swiss soldier of fortune that they had for
aristocratic British commanders like Murray and Carleton.
The clergy also preferred these Anglicans to such a strong
Swiss Protestant. The habitants and agitators, who were
far less favourable to the new regime, had passionately
resented Haldimand's firmness at times of crisis. But,
despite all this French-Canadian animus, he was not such
an absolute martinet as some writers would have us think.
The war with France and with the American Revolutionists
required strong government in Canada; while the influx
of Loyalists had introduced an entirely new set of most
perplexing circumstances. On the whole, Haldimand had
done very well in spite of many personal and public
drawbacks; and it was through no special fault of his,
nor yet of Hope's, that the threads which Carleton picked
up formed such a perversely tangled skein.

The troubles that now dogged the great conciliator's
every step were of all kinds--racial, religious, social,
political, military, diplomatic, legal. The confusion
resulting from the intermixture of French and English
civil laws had become a great deal more confounded since
he had left Canada eight years before. The old proportions
of races and religions to each other had changed most
disturbingly. The Loyalists were of quite a different
social class from the English-speaking immigrants of
earlier days. They wanted a parliament, public schools,
and many other things new to the country; and they were
the sort of people who had a right to have them. The
problem of defence was always a vexed one with the
inadequate military forces at hand and the insuperable
difficulties concerning the militia. The British still
held the Western forts pending the settlement of the
frontier and the execution of the treaty of peace in
full. This naturally annoyed the American government and
gave Carleton endless trouble. But more serious still
was the ceaseless western marc