getting that Great Britain could swallow them up at a
mouthful, and that the Americans would, if John Bull did not. The
proclamation of General Nelson or Brown, or some such patriot, set the
affair in its true point of view. No longer any religion was to be
predominant; the feudal laws were to be abolished; and the celebrated
ninety-two resolutions, which had cost Papineau and his legion so much
care and anxiety, were swept away as if they were dust. A Jack Cade
had started up, whose laws were to be administered at the point of the
bayonet.

The eyes of the leading French Canadians, gentlemen of education, were
soon opened, and the vision of glory evaporated into thin air. But
still they felt themselves oppressed, they enjoyed not the coveted
rights of subjects of England; and accordingly the successive
governments of Lord Durham, Lord Sydenham, and Sir Charles Bagot were
eras of political struggles to obtain it.

Lord Metcalfe had had experience in colonies of long standing, had
been successful, bore the character of a just, patient, and decided
man, and had wealth enough to cause his independence to be respected.

The fight for supremacy between the ultra-tory and ultra-radical
parties became fiercer and more fierce, and it was dolefully augured
that the province was lost to England, as he would not yield to the
haughty demands of the first, nor to the threats and menaces of the
latter.

When the Baldwin ministry was dismissed, even cautious people were
heard to say, that new troubles were at hand; and the ultra-tories did
not scruple to avow that the country was in danger, unless they were
readmitted to power.

Placed between these belligerents, Lord Metcalfe, who kept his own
counsel to the last secret and undivulged, steered a course which has
hitherto worked well. He chose a medium party, and removed the seat of
government to Montreal, not in the heart of French Canada, as it is
supposed in England, but within a few miles of British Canada and
close to the eastern townships, where a British population is
dominant, whilst in the city itself British interests surpass all
others; it being the heart and lungs of the Canadian mercantile world,
whilst it has the advantage of easy steam communication with Quebec,
the seat of military power, and with Upper Canada, both by the St.
Lawrence and the Rideau Canals.

The French, no longer neglected and seeing the seat of government
permanently located in their country,