e nearly all sent over from
England. Some of the principal personages among them were men of probity
and brains. Others, though possessed of a full share of brains, had but
a younger brother's portion of the other commodity. The underlings,
generally speaking, had but a slender allowance of either. They were for
the most part appointed on the recommendation of various supporters of
the Government of the day, who were thus able to provide for a number of
their needy relatives and dependants--a matter of vastly greater
importance in their eyes than the proper administration of the affairs
of a distant and newly-acquired colony. The Conquest thus proved a boon
to many servile hangers-on of public men in Great Britain, and scores of
the waifs and strays of British aristocracy began to turn their eyes
towards Canada as a possible resource in the last emergency. It was said
to be a cold and comfortless land, but it was surely preferable to the
Fleet Prison or the Marshalsea, with the alternative of starvation or
enlistment in the army. Many of these pimps and panders to the whims or
the passions of those in high station found their way to Quebec and
Montreal, and were provided for at the public expense by being installed
in places of greater or less emolument.[45]

When Upper Canada was set apart as a separate Province, in 1791, the
field of operations was considerably extended. Indeed, the Upper
Province soon came to be regarded with special favour by intending
aspirants to office, as it was in all respects an English colony;
whereas Lower Canada, in spite of all attempts to Anglicize it, remained
much more French than English. Lower Canada, indeed, remained in some
respects more French than any other part of the world, not even
excepting France itself, for in that country the Great Revolution had
swept away many effete institutions which were still retained in all
their decrepitude among the Frenchmen of the New World. Now, the French
Canadians, though most of the avenues to power and office were closed to
them, composed a vast majority of the population. They did not take
kindly to the British colonists, and declined to fraternize with them.
The latter could bear this isolation, as they were comforted by the
spoils of office, but their lives were rendered much less agreeable than
they would have been in a colony where no such disturbing elements were
known. Upper Canada was precisely such a colony. No part of Britain was
m