in the defeat of the bill; it also
showed {27} them clearly that a deep-laid plot had menaced the rights
and liberties of the French-Canadian people; and their anger was roused
against what Neilson described as 'the handful of _intrigants_' who had
planned that _coup d'etat_.

On returning to Canada Papineau gave vent to his discontent in an
extraordinary attack upon Lord Dalhousie, who had become governor of
Canada in 1819. Dalhousie was an English nobleman of the best type.
His tastes were liberal. He was instrumental in founding the Literary
and Historical Society of Quebec; and he showed his desire for pleasant
relations between the two races in Canada by the erection of the joint
monument to Wolfe and Montcalm in the city of Quebec, in the governor's
garden. His administration, however, had been marred by one or two
financial irregularities. Owing to the refusal of the Assembly to vote
a permanent civil list, Dalhousie had been forced to expend public
moneys without authority from the legislature; and his
receiver-general, Caldwell, had been guilty of defalcations to the
amount of L100,000. Papineau attacked Dalhousie as if he had been
personally responsible for these defalcations. The speech, we are told
by the chronicler Bibaud, recalled in its violence the {28} philippics
of Demosthenes and the orations against Catiline of Cicero.

The upshot of this attack was that all relations between Dalhousie and
Papineau were broken off. Apart altogether from the political
controversy, Dalhousie felt that he could have no intercourse with a
man who had publicly insulted him. Consequently, when Papineau was
elected to the speakership of the Assembly in 1827, Dalhousie refused
to recognize him as speaker; and when the Assembly refused to
reconsider his election, Dalhousie promptly dissolved it.

It would be tedious to describe in detail the political events of these
years; and it is enough to say that by 1827 affairs in the province had
come to such an impasse, partly owing to the financial quarrel, and
partly owing to the personal war between Papineau and Dalhousie, that
it was decided by the _Patriotes_ to send another deputation to England
to ask for the redress of grievances and for the removal of Dalhousie.
The members of the deputation were John Neilson and two French
Canadians, Augustin Cuvillier and Denis B. Viger. Papineau was an
interested party and did not go. The deputation proved no less
successful