Colonel of Militia ... I employ
myself without doors in farming, gardening, clearing and manuring land."
If we may credit the words of Bishop Hubert of Quebec written just at
this time (in 1794) the new liberties gained by the habitants did not
make the seigneur's task easier. The good bishop makes sweeping charges
of general dishonesty; of attempts to defraud the church of her tithe
and the seigneurs of their dues; of bitter feuds between families and
innumerable law suits. In such conditions Nairne, as a justice of the
peace, would have his hands full.

His end was drawing very near. One of his sisters died in 1798. This
brought sad thoughts but he wrote: "I am very thankful to have found in
the world connexions who have produced such regards and sympathys. Time
seems not to be going slowly now-a-days but running fast. I hope we are
to have other times and to know one another hereafter." "I must make
haste now," he wrote later, in 1801, "to finish all improvements here
that may be possible as I will soon be finished myself. Crushed already
under a load of years of 7 times 10 really I find the last 2 years ...
heavier than 20 before that time." "The scenes of this life," he had
written to his old friend and neighbour Malcolm Fraser "are continually
varying like the elements, sometimes cloudy, sometimes sun shine; [it]
never lasts long one way or the other till night soon comes and we must
then lie down and die. Therefore all is vanity and vexation of spirit,
but God will help us and most certainly some time or other bless and
reward the friendly honest man."

His last letter to his Scottish relations was intended to be a farewell:

_Colonel Nairne to his Sister Miss M. Nairne From Murray Bay, 20th
April, 1802._

My Dear Madie,--

I shall see our friends in the world of spirits probably before any
of you; whatever darkness we are in here I have always convinced
myself that we shall meet again in a better place hereafter.

Although I have enjoyed good health till past 70 years of age, the
agues of Holland and sometimes excessive fatigue have probably
weakened parts of my inward machinery that they are now wore out
and must soon finish their functions. I can have no reason to
expect to live longer than our father; I am chiefly uneasy that the
event may occasion grief to my sisters, yet it ought to be less
felt my being at a distance; a poor affair to