object of every wise Governor to extinguish.

The following extracts from private letters to Lord Grey, written within a
few months of his arrival, reflect this state of things. Though the
circumstances to which they refer are past and gone, they may not be
without interest, as affording an insight into a common phase of colonial
government.

Hitherto things have gone on well with me, much better than I hoped
for when we parted. I should have been very willing to meet the
Assembly at once, and throw myself with useful measures on the good
sense of the people, but my ministers are too weak for this. They seem
to be impressed with the belief that the regular Opposition will of
course resist whatever they propose, and that any fragments of their
own side, who happen not to be able at the moment to get what they
want, will join them. When I advise them, therefore, to go down to
Parliament with good measures and the prestige of a new Governor, and
rely on the support of public opinion, they smile and shake their
heads. It is clear that they are not very credulous of the existence
of such a controlling power, and that their faith in the efficiency of
appeals to selfish and sordid motives is greater than mine.

Nevertheless, we must take the world as we find it, and if new
elements of strength are required to enable the Government to go on,
it is I think very advisable to give the French a fair opportunity of
entering the Ministry in the first instance. It is also more prudent
to enter upon these delicate negotiations cautiously and slowly, in
order to avoid, if possible, giving the impression that I am ready to
jump down everybody's throat the moment I touch the soil of Canada.

I believe that the problem of how to govern United Canada would be
solved if the French would split into a Liberal and a Conservative
party, and join the Upper Canada parties which bear corresponding
names. The great difficulty hitherto has been that a Conservative
government has meant a government of Upper Canadians, which is
intolerable to the French, and a Radical government a government of
French, which is no less hateful to the British. No doubt the party
titles are misnomers, for the radical party comprises the political
section most averse to progress of any in the country. Nevertheless,
so it has been hitherto. The nationa