invasion. The satisfaction arising from our success was to us
adequate recompense...."

Temptations to treason had been multiplied; for besides many
grievances at home, the French inhabitants were constantly exposed to
the emissaries of the United States, who preached specious doctrines
of liberty throughout the parishes of Quebec; and it was indeed
fortunate that the unique influence of the Catholic clergy, powerfully
led by Bishop Plessis, was actively exerted on the side of loyalty,
just as at a later time they earned a sincere tribute from Lord
Durham, and "a grateful recognition of their eminent services in
resisting the arts of the disaffected."

"I know of no parochial clergy in the world," wrote Lord
Durham, "whose practice of all the Christian virtues,
and zealous discharge of their clerical duties, is more
universally admitted, and has been productive of more
beneficial consequences.... In the general absence of any
permanent institutions of civil government, the Catholic
Church has presented almost the only semblance of
stability and organisation, and furnished the only
effectual support for civilisation and order."

But the loyalty of the French population, which would not permit them
to take advantage of the foreign difficulties of their rulers, was
soon to be further tried and shaken through a prolonged period of
political agitation.

[Illustration: General Earl Cathcart.
Governor General of Canada 1846-1847.]

CHAPTER XXI

THE MODERN PERIOD

The history of Quebec in the period succeeding the war of 1812 is a
long record of internecine strife, due to certain conditions of the
Canada Act of 1791, a measure halting midway between military rule and
responsible government. The Act had been well intended, and it was,
maybe, a necessary stage in constitutional development; but its
immediate result was to organise opposing factions into formal
assemblies, each bent on checking the policy of the other, and
bringing the government of the country to a deadlock. On one side, the
interests of the English were identified with the Legislative Council,
a body appointed by the King for life, and owing no responsibility to
the suffrages of the people; while, on the other, a French majority
ruled in the popular assembly, whose authority, powerful in influence,
impotent in administration, controlled neither the executive officers
nor financial affairs. Accordingly, the disput