in favour of an
institution to which, when I had fuller opportunities, I had
endeavoured to be of use (page 179). Accept my acknowledgements for
the kindness and courtesy of your other remarks in reference to
myself.

Sir Charles Bagot did not long hold the office of Governor-General. Like
Lord Sydenham, he was unexpectedly stricken by the hand of death, at
Kingston, on the 19th May, 1843. A sketch of his life and character was
prepared by Dr. Ryerson and published in the Kingston _Chronicle_. In
that sketch he said:--

Sir Charles Bagot has created throughout the length and breadth of
United Canada the settled and delightful conviction that its
Government is henceforth to be British, as well as Colonial--and,
as such, the best on the continent of America; that Canadians are
to be governed upon the principle of domestic, and not
transatlantic, policy; that they are not to be minified as men and
citizens, because they are colonists; that they are (to use the
golden words of Sir Robert Peel) "to be treated as an integral
portion of the British Empire."

This sketch was very favourably received by the leading public men of
Canada, and, after it appeared in the _Chronicle_, was reprinted by
Stewart Derbyshire, Esq., Queen's Printer, who, in a letter to Dr.
Ryerson on the subject, said:--

Your letter in the _Chronicle_ has attracted high admiration in the
quarters most competent for criticism, and it is felt you have done
a real service to the country. Supposing your wish is to diffuse
the sentiments of your letter, I have taken the liberty of giving
it to our printers of the _Canada Gazette_ to set up in handsome
type, 8 octavo pages, and shall strike off 1,000, and send about,
giving away a good many, and putting the rest at book-stores at a
very small price. The common run of people do not value what they
do not pay for. Have I acted in this in accordance with your
wishes--or do you interdict the publication? Many extra copies of
the _Chronicle_ were struck off, and about forty copies sent to-day
to England by the steamer "Great Western." Sir Robert Peel, Lord
Stanley, and Sir Charles Buller had one each.

Dr. Ryerson assented to the republication of his letter.

* * * * *

In the light of after events, the following extract from a letter
received by Dr.