jected. The
earnestness of these gentlemen presented itself to him in the light of
importunity, if not of impertinence. He could hardly be expected to
sympathize very strongly with their unconquerable zeal for principles
which he did not understand: which he was perhaps incapable of
understanding. Then, Sir Francis was an eminently social personage, and
the social qualities of the leaders of Upper Canadian Reform were not of
a high order. To them, small talk across the walnuts and the wine seemed
utterly incongruous in view of the momentous public questions which were
urgently pressing for a solution. In this particular they presented a
marked contrast to the leading spirits of the Compact. The Robinsons,
Hagermans and Sherwoods, one and all, could not only advise the
Lieutenant-Governor on the affairs of the Province, but could be
pleasant and entertaining companions. They were not very different from
the county magistrates and other officials with whom he had been
accustomed to confer in his capacity of a poor-law commissioner. They
were moreover exceedingly diplomatic. They saw the importance of winning
him to their side, and governed themselves accordingly. They lost no
opportunity of making themselves agreeable to him. Instead of boring him
with what, to his understanding, seemed abstruse speculations on
executive responsibility and an elective Legislative Council, they
scouted such doctrines as myths begotten in the moody brains of
unpractical and discontented men. The wide knowledge, long experience
and specious eloquence of the Chief Justice enabled him to present the
Tory side of these arguments with much plausibility. Sir Francis soon
became convinced that the issue was not merely between two sides of
colonial politics, but between monarchy and republicanism, between
loyalty and disloyalty, between Great Britain and the United States. As
he afterwards declared, he believed that he was "sentenced to contend on
the soil of America with Democracy,[228]" and that if he did not
overpower it, he would himself be compelled to succumb. Having brought
himself to this conclusion, he not unnaturally preferred the _role_ of
the hammer to that of the anvil. It was surely better to strike than to
be struck. Acting on this principle, he made a complete surrender of
himself to the Family Compact, and from that time forward was in all
essential respects guided by their counsels. His rashness and
impetuosity sometimes led him to