ways hold in grateful recollection the
names of those men who did such good service for their country during
these momentous years from 1812 to 1815. Brock, Tecumseh, Morrison,
Salaberry, McDonnell, Fitzgibbon, and Drummond are among the most
honourable names in Canadian history. Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen,
Canadians, Indians, were equally conspicuous in brilliant achievement.
A stately monument overlooks the noble river of the Niagara, and
recalls {337} the services of the gallant soldiers, Brock and McDonell,
whose remains rest beneath. A beautiful village, beyond which
stretches historic Lundy's Lane, recalls the name and deeds of
Drummond. As the steamers pass up and down the St. Lawrence they see
on the northern bank the obelisk which the Canadian Government has
raised on the site of the battlefield where Morrison defeated Boyd. On
the meadows of Chateauguay, another monument has been erected by the
same national spirit in honour of the victory won by a famous
representative of the French Canadian race, who proved how courageously
French Canadians could fight for the new regime under which they were
then, as now, so happy and prosperous.

{338}

XXIV.

POLITICAL STRIFE AND REBELLION.

(1815-1840.)

The history of the twenty-five years between the peace of 1815 and the
union of the Canadas in 1840, illustrates the folly and misery of
faction, when intensified by racial antagonisms. In Lower Canada the
difficulties arising from a constant contest for the supremacy between
the executive and legislative authorities were aggravated by the fact
that the French Canadian majority dominated the popular house, and the
English-speaking minority controlled the government. "I found," wrote
Lord Durham, in 1839, "two nations warring in the bosom of a single
state; I found a struggle not of principles but of races." It is true
that some Englishmen were found fighting for popular liberties on the
side of the French Canadian majority. Mr. John Neilson, who was for
years editor of the _Quebec Gazette_, was a friend of the French
Canadians, and in close sympathy with the movement for the extension of
public rights, but he was never prepared to go beyond {339} the
legitimate limits of constitutional agitation and threaten British
connexion. On the other hand, Dr. Wolfred Nelson, descended from a
loyalist stock, was one of the leaders of the majority that controlled
the assembly of Lower Canada, and did not