ho were not
tainted with the sentiments he had imputed to them generally. Common
intercourse hardly existed between the French and English. The lower
class, to strengthen a word of contempt, added the word _Anglais_ to
it. The upper classes, who formerly associated with the English upper
classes, had entirely withdrawn themselves. The Canadians, generally,
were ignorant, credulous, and superstitious. He did not perceive that
they had any great vice except one. Drunkenness was the prevailing
vice. When drunk they were brutal and quarrelsome. Like other people,
suddenly freed from a state of extreme subjection, they were apt to be
insolent to their superiors. They were totally unwarlike and averse to
arms or military habits, though vain to an excess, and possessing a
high opinion of their prowess. They had been so flattered and cajoled
about their conduct, in the year 1775, that they really believed they
stood as heroes, in history, whereas no people, with the exception of a
very few individuals, behaved worse than they did on that occasion. Now
came the teachings of Mr. Secretary Ryland, which that gentleman did
not think it prudent to bore Sir James with until he had ascertained
how far the incomparable man's sentiments accorded with his own. The
Superintendent of the Church of Rome in Canada, had been designated
Roman Catholic Bishop, by other Governors, which was both dangerous and
wrong, in view of the Queen's supremacy. The Bishop did as he pleased,
in the appointment of cures. His patronage was at least equal to that
of the government. The Bishop was cautious not to perform any act that
might be construed into an acknowledgement of His Majesty's rights. He
would not obey a Proclamation of the King for a fast or thanksgiving,
but issued a "_mandat_," of his own, to the same effect, but without
the least allusion to His Majesty's authority. The arms of Great
Britain were nowhere put up in the churches. With the cures no direct
communication with the government existed. The church selected its
ecclesiastics, the Governor knew not why, from the lower orders. The
Bishop was the son of a blacksmith. The Coadjutor was brother to a
demagogue, the Speaker of the Assembly, an "avocat." The cures saw in
Buonaparte the restorer of the Catholic religion. The Legislative
Council, an object of jealousy to the Lower House, was composed of
everything that was respectable in the Province. There were about
300,000 French inhabitants t