ople; and the idea is current that,
at the appointed time, he will return, at the head of an immense army,
and re-establish "La Nation Canadienne."] But there is great reason to
doubt whether his name be not used as a mere watchword; whether the
people are not in fact running entirely counter to his councils and
policy; and whether they are not really under the guidance of separate
petty agitators, who have no plan but that of a senseless and reckless
determination to show in every way their hostility to the British
Government and English race. Their ultimate designs and hopes are
equally unintelligible. Some vague expectation of absolute independence
still seems to delude them. The national vanity, which is a remarkable
ingredient in their character, induces many to flatter themselves with
the idea of a Canadian Republic; the sounder information of others has
led them to perceive that a separation from Great Britain must be
followed by a junction with the great confederation on their southern
frontier. But they seem apparently reckless of the consequences,
provided they can wreak their vengeance on the English. There is no
people against which early associations and every conceivable difference
of manners and opinions have implanted in the Canadian mind a more
ancient and rooted national antipathy than that which they feel against
the people of the United States. Their more discerning leaders feel
that their chances of preserving their nationality would be greatly
diminished by an incorporation with the United States; and recent
symptoms of Anti-Catholic feeling in New England, well known to the
Canadian population, have generated a very general belief that their
religion, which even they do not accuse the British party of assailing,
would find little favour or respect from their neighbours. Yet none
even of these considerations weigh against their present all-absorbing
hatred of the English; and I am persuaded that they would purchase
vengeance and a momentary triumph by the aid of any enemies, or
submission to any yoke. This provisional but complete cessation of
their ancient antipathy to the Americans, is now admitted even by those
who most strongly denied it during the last spring, and who then
asserted that an American war would as completely unite the whole
population against the common enemy, as it did in 1813. My subsequent
experience leaves no doubt in my mind that the views which were
contained in my