itia officers who had been dismissed for seditious utterances.

Naturally, this situation caused much concern among the loyal people of
the country. Loyalist meetings were held in Quebec and Montreal, to
offset the _Patriote_ meetings; and an attempt was made to form a
loyalist rifle corps in Montreal. The attempt failed owing to the
opposition of the governor, who was afraid that such a step would
merely aggravate the situation. Not even Gosford, however, was blind
to the seriousness of the situation. He wrote to the colonial
secretary on September 2, 1837, that all hope of conciliation had
passed. Papineau's aims were now the separation of Canada from England
and the establishment of a republican form of government. 'I am
disposed to think,' he concluded, 'that you may be under the necessity
of suspending the constitution.'

It was at this time that the Church first threw its weight openly
against the revolutionary movement. The British government had
accorded to Catholics in Canada a measure of liberty at once just and
generous; and the bishops and clergy were not slow to see that under a
republican form of government, {65} whether as a state in the American
Union or as an independent _nation canadienne_, they might be much
worse off, and would not be any better off, than under the dominion of
Great Britain. In the summer of 1837 Mgr Lartigue, the bishop of
Montreal, addressed a communication to the clergy of his diocese asking
them to keep the people within the path of duty. In October he
followed this up by a Pastoral Letter, to be read in all the churches,
warning the people against the sin of rebellion. He held over those
who contemplated rebellion the penalties of the Church: 'The present
question amounts to nothing less than this--whether you will choose to
maintain, or whether you will choose to abandon, the laws of your
religion.'

The ecclesiastical authorities were roused to action by a great meeting
held on October 23, at St Charles on the Richelieu, the largest and
most imposing of all the meetings thus far. Five or six thousand
people attended it, representing all the counties about the Richelieu.
The proceedings were admirably staged. Dr Wolfred Nelson was in the
chair, but Papineau was the central figure. A company of armed men,
headed by two militia officers who had been dismissed for disloyalty,
and {66} drawn up as a guard, saluted every resolution of the meeting
with a volley. A wo