re he knew that he would encounter little or no
opposition he was much more outspoken than where the feeling was less
favourable to him. Wherever he felt that he could carry his audience
with him, he boldly advocated separation from the mother-country, and
the establishment of elective institutions under an independent
Government; though he took care to deprecate any appeal to physical
force,[282] and generally advocated a money payment to the British
Government as the price of a full release and quittance of all Imperial
claims upon the colony. He employed all the paraphernalia which he
thought likely to impress the people, and banners bearing revolutionary
inscriptions were freely displayed from the platform in neighbourhoods
where such a course was deemed safe. Lount, Gibson, Nelson Gorham and
others occasionally reinforced him by their presence and their oratory.
These gentlemen were all gifted with more than ordinary powers of
expression. The subject-matter was one which they all had deeply at
heart, and upon which they could speak with never-failing freshness and
vigour. The audiences were sometimes moved to rapturous demonstrations
of applause. Even in communities where the popular sentiment was less
enthusiastic the recommendations embodied in the Declaration were
generally assented to, and local vigilance committees were formed.
Delegates to the proposed Toronto convention were appointed, but the
date of holding it was for the time left open. About seventy of these
delegates were appointed in the Home District alone. The necessity for
making common cause with the Lower Canadian Opposition in their efforts
to establish civil and religious liberty was vehemently pressed by the
speakers, and commonly recognized by the audiences. Any reference on the
part of the speakers to what "our brethren in Lower Canada" were doing
for the cause of liberty was almost certain to evoke applause. A trusted
emissary--Jesse Lloyd of Lloydtown--acted as a medium of communication
between the Radical leaders in the two Provinces, and passed to and fro
from time to time with despatches and intelligence between Papineau and
Mackenzie. By this and other means the Lower Canadian leaders were from
first to last kept promptly informed of the progress of the movement in
the Upper Province.

Sometimes--not often--Mackenzie met with considerable opposition. The
idea of separation from Great Britain was a stumbling-block to a few
even of the ul