end to notice these absurd proceedings. They deal in
generalities, and so shall I. Of the colored citizens of Toronto I know
little or nothing; no doubt, some are respectable enough in their way,
and perform the inferior duties belonging to their station tolerably
well. Here they are kept in order--in their proper place--but their
'proceedings' are evidence of their natural conceit, their vanity, and
their ignorance; and in them the cloven foot appears, and evinces what
they would do, if they could. I believe that in this city, as in some
others of our Province, they are looked upon as necessary evils, and
only submitted to because white servants are so scarce. But I now deal
with these fellows as a body, and I pronounce them to be, as such, the
_greatest curse_ ever inflicted upon the two magnificent western
counties which I have the honor to represent in the Legislative Council
of this Province! and few men have had the experience of them that I
have. Among the many _estimable_ qualities they possess, a systematic
habit of _lying_ is not the least prominent; and the 'colored citizens'
aforesaid seem to partake of that quality in an eminent degree, because
in their famous _Resolutions_ they roundly assert that during the
Rebellion 'I walked arm and arm with colored men'--that 'I owe my
election to the votes of colored men'--and that I have 'accumulated much
earthly gains,' as a lawyer, among 'colored clients.' All Lies! Lies!
Lies! from beginning to end. I admit that one company of blacks did
belong to my contingent battalion, but they made the very worst of
soldiers, and were, comparatively speaking, unsusceptible of drill or
discipline, and were conspicuous for one act only--a stupid sentry shot
the son of one of our oldest colonels, under a mistaken notion that he
was thereby doing his duty. But I certainly never did myself the honor
of 'walking arm in arm' with any of the colored gentlemen of that
distinguished corps. Then, as to my election. Few, very few blacks voted
for me. _I never canvassed them_, and hence, I suppose, they supported,
as a body, my opponent. They took compassion upon '_a monument of
injured innocence_,' and they sustained the monument for a while, upon
the pedestal their influence erected. But the monument fell, and the
fall proved that such influence was merely ephemeral, and it sank into
insignificant nothingness, as it should, and I hope ever will do; or God
help this noble land. Poor Blackie