osition on the part of those who did
not revel in its smiles or share in its plunder. Loud murmurings began
to make themselves heard against the delay and partiality in the
land-granting department, and against the corrupt manner in which the
public affairs of the Province generally were carried on. Before the
close of Governor Hunter's _regime_ these murmurings had become loud
enough to occasion no little disquiet to some of the officials who had
most reason to dread enquiry and investigation. The abuses were greater
in some branches of the service than in others, but peculation prevailed
to a greater or less extent almost everywhere. The Indian department was
notorious for the corruption of its officials. A sum of sixty thousand
pounds sterling was annually granted by the Imperial Government for
distribution among the various tribes, and for the payment of agents and
interpreters. The distribution among the Indians chiefly took the form
of commodities which had a particular fascination for the mind of the
noble savage--such commodities, for instance, as muskets, powder,
bullets, knives, tomahawks, hatchets, blankets, spangles, pocket
mirrors, and--last, but by no means least--fire-water. The opportunities
which this grant afforded for peculation and plunder were too tempting
to be resisted. The agents and their subordinates, from highest to
lowest, owed their positions to their servility and usefulness to those
in authority. So long as they proved serviceable and obedient to their
masters, there was not much likelihood of their being called to serious
account for any iniquities they might commit towards Mohawk or Seneca,
Oneida or Mississauga. By way of consequence, the Indians were robbed and
the Government was robbed; and the robbers, feeling secure of protection
from their superiors, plied their nefarious traffic with impunity.[51]
There were equally culpable but less notorious abuses of power in other
branches of the service. Probably not one in ten of these ever came to
light, but from time to time there were awkward revelations which could
not be suppressed. All these things combined to beget a widespread lack
of confidence in the official clique. The want of confidence, not
without good reason, extended even to the administrators of the law. The
judges, as already mentioned, held office at the will of the Executive,
and, at least in some instances, were shamelessly servile and corrupt.
This led to their dicta bei