duced, and the taking farewell of Captain Sinclair did not dispose
them to be very lively. A few words were exchanged now and then, but the
conversation drooped. Emma spoke of Captain Sinclair's expectations and
projects.

"We never know what may come in this world of change, my dear Emma,"
said Mr. Campbell. "All Captain Sinclair's plans may be overthrown by
circumstances over which he has no control. How seldom do we meet with
results equal to our expectations. When I was practicing in my
profession, I little expected that I should be summoned to take
possession of Wexton Hall; when once in possession, as little did I
expect that I should be obliged to quit it, and to come to these
desolate wilds. We are in the hands of God, who does with us as He
thinks fit. I have been reading this morning, and I made the observation
not only how often individuals, but even nations, are out in their
expectations. I do not know a more convincing proof of this than the
narration of events, which from their recent occurrence, can hardly yet
be considered as history, has offered to me. Perhaps there never was so
short a period in which causes have produced effects so rapidly, and in
which, in every case, the effects have been directly opposite to what
short-sighted mortals had anticipated. It was in 1756, scarcely forty
years ago, that the French, being in possession of the provinces,
attempted to wrest from us those portions of America which we occupied.
What was the result? After a war which, for cruelty and atrocity, is
perhaps unequaled in history, both parties employing savages, by whom
the French and English were alternately tortured and burned to death,
France, in attempting to obtain all, lost all, and was compelled, in
1760, to surrender its own provinces to Great Britain. Here is one
instance in which affairs turned out contrary to the expectations of
France.

"Now again: At no period was England more prosperous or more respected
by foreign nations than at the close of the war. Her prosperity made her
arrogant and unjust. She wronged her colonies. She thought that they
dared not resist her imperious will. She imagined that now that the
French were driven from the Canadas, America was all her own, whereas it
was because the French _were_ driven from the Canadas that the colonies
ventured to resist. As long as the French held this country, the English
colonists had an enemy on their frontiers, and consequently looked up to
Eng