so
much the intrinsic merit of those views, still less was it the extent
to which we acted upon them, which won for us the favour of those
races; we owed that mainly to the uncompromising hostility, the bitter
denunciations, and the unmeasured violence which the promulgation of
those views provoked from those who were regarded by them as their
oppressors. I used often to say to my Scotch friends in Lower Canada,
when they were heaping every indignity upon me, and even resorting to
open violence (for there they did not hold their hands off), 'You are
playing my game. I want to win the confidence of the French Canadians;
but I know the nature of that people: they are touchy and suspicious
as races who feel that they are inferior, and believe that they are
oppressed; invariably are. By measures of simple justice towards them
(and beyond that line I do not intend to proceed an inch), I despair
of being able to effect my object; but if you continue for a year to
act as you are now acting, denouncing me as your enemy and their
friend, and proving the sincerity of your belief by outrage and
violence, you will end by convincing them that I am to be trusted, and
I shall win the day.'--The result proved the accuracy of this
prediction.

The feeling of the natives of India towards Canning was in some
measure due to a similar cause. The clamour for blood and
indiscriminate vengeance which raged around him, and the abuse poured
upon him because he would not listen to it, imparted in their eyes to
acts which carried justice to the verge of severity the grace of
clemency.

[Sidenote: (2) Consideration for native chiefs.]

I could give you plenty of proofs of this.... The following sentences
occur in a letter written from Delhi during our recent panic, by an
officer.... 'The native force here is much too small to be a source of
anxiety, and unless they take the initiative it is my opinion that
there can be no important rising. The Mussulmans of Delhi are a
contemptible race. Fanatics are very rare on this side of the Sutlej.
The terrors of that period when every man who had two enemies was sure
to swing are not forgotten. The people declare that the work of Nadir
Shah was as nothing to it. His executions were completed in twelve
hours. But for months after the last fall of Delhi, no one was sure