e between the Assembly
and the English ascendency, or "Family Compact," soon resolved itself
into a struggle for and against responsible government.

[Illustration: CITY HALL, QUEBEC]

An insoluble problem was now presented to successive
governors--Sherbrooke, Richmond, Dalhousie, Kempt, Aylmer, Gosford.
All in turn addressed themselves to the work of pacification, and all
retired baffled by that racial egotism which granted favours with airs
of patronage, or met continued concessions with ever increased
demands. The English were naturally apprehensive of a French
dominance, which might prove dangerous to the security of
constitutional union; the French Canadians were too keenly alert for
signs of tyranny, too suspicious of a power sullied by nepotism and
greed of office. Of all the long series of viceroys, perplexed,
discomfited, yet honourably bent on doing their duty to both races and
to the constitution, one of the wisest was Sir John Cope Sherbrooke,
to whom Prevost resigned the reins of government in 1815. He early saw
the expediency of liberal measures, and his wise administration led
moderate men to believe that a peaceful era of constitutional progress
was forward. Unhappily, however, these hopes were dashed by the
succession of the Duke of Richmond two years later--a chivalrous but
uncompromising advocate of the extreme views of his party in England.
The Duke, however, almost atoned for the political narrowness of his
administration by the stimulus he brought to the social life of the
capital and the sincerity of his belief that by personal influence he
could harmonise contending factions. Under his magnificent patronage
Chateau St. Louis became once more the scene of lavish hospitality.
Dinners, dances, and theatricals were the order of the day; and
fashionable officers, issuing from their quarters in the citadel,
found distractions in St. Louis Street and the Grande Allee, due
compensation for all they had left at home. For the exiled sportsman,
too, there was the racecourse on the Plains of Abraham, riding to the
hounds on the uplands of Lorette, snipe at Sillery Cove, and ducks on
the St. Charles Flats.

[Illustration: LIEUT.-COLONEL JOHN BY, R. E.
(Founder of Bytown, now Ottawa)]

With pomp and circumstance the Duke of Richmond made progress through
his dominions, everywhere speaking, entertaining, endeavouring to
conciliate. He travelled up the St. Lawrence by steamer and thence by
canoes along the