--Henry Dundas, afterwards
first Viscount Melville. Dundas, indeed, was half inclined
to snub Carleton. Simcoe desired to establish military
posts wherever he thought they would best promote immediate
settlement, a policy which would tend to sap both the
government's resources and the self-reliance of the
settlers. He also wished to fix the capital at London
instead of York, now Toronto, and to make York instead
of Kingston the naval base for Lake Ontario. Thus the
friction continued. At length Carleton wrote to the Duke
of Portland, Pitt's home secretary, saying: 'All command,
civil and military, being thus disorganized and without
remedy, your Grace will, I hope, excuse my anxiety for
the arrival of any successor, who may have authority
sufficient to restore order, lest these insubordinations
should extend to mutiny among the troops and sedition
among the people.' That was in November 1795. The
government, however, took no decisive action, and next
year both Carleton and Simcoe left Canada for ever.

When this unfortunate quarrel began (1793) Canada was in
grave danger of being attacked by both the French and
the American republics. The danger, however, had been
greatly lessened by Jay's Treaty of 1794 and was to be
still further lessened (1796) by the transfer of the
Western Posts to the United States and by the presidential
election which gave the Federal party a new lease of
power, though no longer under Washington. Had Carleton
remained in Canada these felicitous events would have
offered him a unique opportunity of strengthening the
friendly ties between the British and the Americans in
a way which might have saved some trouble later on. But
that was not to be.

To understand the dangers which threatened Canada during
the last three years of Carleton's rule we must go back
to February 1793, when revolutionary France declared war
on England and there then began that titanic struggle
which only ended twenty-two years later on the field of
Waterloo. The Americans were divided into two parties,
one disposed to be friendly towards Great Britain, the
other unfriendly. The names these parties then bore must
not be confused with those borne by their political
offspring at the present day. The Federals, progenitors
of the present Republicans, formed the friendly party
under Washington, Hamilton, and Jay. The Republicans,
progenitors of the present Democrats, formed the unfriendly
party under Jefferson, Madison,