elected to the speakership of the Assembly, a challenge the Governor
answered by prorogation. Next, the Progressives demanded an elective
council, and the Government replied that such a step would mean
abandoning the province wholly to the French, who were yet unprepared
to wield complete popular power, and would moreover endanger the
interests of the English minority. The demand was formally rejected by
Lord John Russell on the return of Lord Gosford's commission in 1835.

[Illustration: TRAPPISTS AT MISTASSINI]

The fiery eloquence of Papineau now led the more ardent of his
followers to the point of rebellion; and for a time it seemed as if
Lower Canada would throw away the name for steadfast loyalty she had
earned through so many years. The rebellion of 1837, however, met with
no serious support throughout the Province of Canada; and, except as
an original centre of agitation, Quebec did not figure in it at all.
At the same time defensive measures were not omitted, the leading
citizens, both French and English, forming themselves into a regiment
at the disposal of the Governor-General. Parliament House was set
apart for a drill-hall and guard-house, and garrison duty was
performed here during the whole of an anxious winter. Montreal,
however, suffered violence at the hands of a misguided mob; and in the
country parishes the _habitants_ were harangued after Mass on Sunday
by deputies of the _Fils de Liberte_. Yet, while they punctuated these
fervent addresses with shouts of "_Vive Papineau_" and "_Point de
despotisme!_" they neither knew nor cared what the struggle for
responsible government really meant. In the parishes along the
Richelieu, indeed, Papineau and his followers made a greater
commotion; but, except in Bellechasse and L'Islet, the contented
_habitants_ of the St. Lawrence forgot the seditious procession almost
as soon as it passed. These ingenuous _enfants du sol_ had no
political aspirations beyond the preservation of their religion, their
language, and their ancient customs; and, in spite of the bitter
prophecies of peripatetic agitators, they refused to believe that
their peace and comfort and quiet life were in any real danger from
English oppression. The Government easily coped with this factitious
rising, which nowhere reached the importance of an organised revolt.
But while the military problem was soon solved, important political
results followed hard upon such palpable tokens of discontent. E