udiciary. Finally, he made a plea for the
reconciliation of the French and English races in the country, whom he
described as 'the offspring of the two foremost nations {51} of
mankind.' Not even the most extreme of the _Patriotes_ could fail to
see that Lord Gosford was holding out to them an olive branch.

Great dissatisfaction, of course, arose among the English in the colony
at Lord Gosford's policy. 'Constitutional associations,' which had
been formed in Quebec and Montreal for the defence of the constitution
and the rights and privileges of the English-speaking inhabitants of
Canada, expressed gloomy forebodings as to the probable result of the
policy. The British in Montreal organized among themselves a volunteer
rifle corps, eight hundred strong, 'to protect their persons and
property, and to assist in maintaining the rights and principles
granted them by the constitution'; and there was much indignation when
the rifle corps was forced to disband by order of the governor, who
declared that the constitution was in no danger, and that, even if it
were, the government would be competent to deal with the situation.

Nor did Gosford find it plain sailing with all the French Canadians.
Papineau's followers in the House took up at first a distinctly
independent attitude. Gosford was informed {52} that the appointment
of the royal commission was an insult to the Assembly; it threw doubt
on the assertions which Papineau and his followers had made in
petitions and resolutions. If the report of the commissioners turned
out to be in accord with the views of the House, well and good; but if
not, that would not influence the attitude of the House. They would
not alter their demands.

In spite, however, of the uneasiness of the English official element,
and the obduracy of the extreme _Patriotes_, it is barely possible that
Gosford, with his _bonhomie_ and his Burgundy, might have effected a
modus vivendi, had there not occurred, about six months after Gosford's
arrival in Canada, one of those unfortunate and unforeseen events which
upset the best-laid schemes of mice and men. This was the indiscreet
action of Sir Francis Bond Head, the newly appointed
lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, in communicating to the
legislature of Upper Canada the _ipsissima verba_ of his instructions
from the Colonial Office. It was immediately seen that a discrepancy
existed between the tenor of Sir Francis Bond Head's instructions an