o the
aggrieved party a tempting occasion for redress. Fortunately, however,
neither the unwisdom of the English Government nor the neighbourhood
of a hostile power availed to drive or lure the Canadians into the
crooked path of rebellion. As the past had already proved, their
country's peril was sufficient to unite in hearty concord all parties,
French and English, in the defence of the common heritage; the
experience of half a century of British rule having convinced even the
survivors of the _Ancien Regime_ that however haughty or aloof
officials might be, security, order, and justice prevailed under the
British flag.

[Illustration: Lord Sydenham.
Governor General of Canada 1839-1841.]

Considering the especial temptations to treason bearing upon the
French population at this crisis, such loyal conduct is the more
praiseworthy. In the first place, it was maintained throughout a war
which was part of England's life-and-death struggle against France,
the mother-country of French Canadians. Again, apart from this natural
affinity with the chiefest enemy of England, material causes operated
yet further to strain their faith; for the enterprise of Montgomery
and Arnold was about to be resumed; and the French must choose either
to suffer the terrors of a hostile invasion, or to join the armies of
the United States in driving the British power for ever from the
Continent. Finally, as if these tests of loyalty were not enough, the
port of Quebec was invaded by English press-gangs, who terrorised the
quays of the Lower Town and kidnapped able-bodied youths of both
races. But notwithstanding so many temptations to swerve from
allegiance, when news came in June, 1812, that the Americans had
declared war against England, the loyal sentiment of the Canadians was
unanimous, the Maritime Provinces joining their forces with those of
Lower and Upper Canada to repel the invaders; and Major-General Isaac
Brock, the Lieutenant-Governor, in his speech to the Legislature of
the Upper Province, thus expressed the feeling of the entire
country:--

"We are engaged," he declared, "in an awful and eventful
contest. By unanimity and despatch in our councils, and
vigour in our operations, we may teach the enemy this
lesson, that a country defended by free men
enthusiastically devoted to the cause of their king and
constitution can never be conquered."

Thus, instead of the support on which they calculated, the invad