onary ideas with a crude force which influenced
thousands too ignorant to detect its fallacies; and Mackintosh in his
_Vindiciae Gallicae_ expounded in polished sentences the position of the
whig sympathisers with the revolution. Neither undid the effect of
Burke's work. Of the well-to-do of all classes there was scarcely one
man in twenty who did not become an ardent anti-jacobin.

[Sidenote: _RUPTURE BETWEEN BURKE AND FOX._]

Stimulated by the success of the _Reflections_, Fox lost no opportunity
of declaring his admiration of the revolution in parliament, and his
followers irritated Burke by thwarting his attempts to reply. At last
the crisis came during a debate on a bill for the government of Canada.
After the settlement of the United Empire Loyalists in western Canada,
the demands of the British colonists for the repeal of the Quebec act of
1774 became urgent. Pitt recognised the value of the French population
as a conservative force, a check on revolt, and in order to do justice
to both peoples, introduced a bill dividing the dominion into two
provinces, Upper and Lower Canada, each with its own governor, elective
assembly, and legislative council. Burke supported this measure, which
was passed, and is known as the constitutional act of 1791. Fox objected
to the principle of the bill on the ground that the French and English
inhabitants should coalesce, and to two special provisions in it, one
that the sovereign might grant hereditary titles with a right to sit in
the council, the other reserving certain crown lands for the support of
the protestant clergy. He blamed the proposal to revive titles of honour
in Canada when they had been abolished in France, and jeered at Burke's
lament in the _Reflections_ on the extinction of the spirit of chivalry
among the French. A few days later, on May 6, Burke, after much baiting
by Fox's party, spoke strongly of the danger of French propagandism, and
declared that at the risk of the desertion of friends he would exclaim
with his latest breath, "Fly from the French constitution!" "There is no
loss of friends," Fox whispered. "Yes," he said, "there is a loss of
friends. I have done my duty at the price of my friend; our friendship
is at an end." When Fox rose to reply the tears trickled down his
cheeks. The rupture was permanent. Burke stood alone. His former friends
treated him as a renegade, and the whig newspapers showered abuse upon
him. His answer was a powerful vindicat