w one were issued, returnable on the 19th of August. Thus terminated
the first session of 1841; a more barren and unprofitable one than which
is not to be found in the annals of modern parliaments. It lasted nearly
five months, and yet all the great questions brought forward were still
in an unsettled state. It has indeed been well remarked, that "the whole
operations of this session might have been at once blotted out of the
records of parliament, with scarcely any sensible effects upon the laws
or institutions of the country."

STATE OF PARTIES.

On the dissolution of parliament both the great parties in the
state--the Conservatives and Liberals--prepared themselves for the
struggle which was immediately to ensue at the general election. The
hopes and expectations of the two parties were essentially different. On
the one hand, the Conservative party had been for some time increasing
in numbers throughout the country. Their ranks had been recruited
by those who had been accustomed to identify themselves with their
opponents, but who believed that the time was come when the exigencies
of the country demanded a strong and efficient government, and who were
willing to accord to Conservative statesmen the merit of being ready to
support all measures of real amendment; knowing that they only had the
power of carrying such measures into effect. There were, moreover,
many who although they stood aloof from the Conservative party, and
professed jealous suspicion of its future policy, who were not averse
to give it once more a trial in the possession of power. It was clear,
indeed, that the Conservative party at this period stood the highest in
the estimation of the people. The landowners and farmers were united in
their favour, and the mercantile body, alarmed at the attack which had
been made upon our West Indian and Canadian interests in the articles of
sugar and timber, agreed, too, in an anxious desire for their return to
power. The Liberal party, however, could still reckon confidently upon
the support of the Radicals; and they had an advantage even from their
recent defeat. The defeat happened in consequence of certain financial
measures which they brought forward in their budget, which measures
assumed the character of a removal of disabilities from trade. This
afforded good grounds for an appeal to the people, and an attack
upon monopoly. Land-owners and West Indian proprietors were styled
monopolists: the forme