trations upon St. Patrick's day at Montreal, Kingston,
and Toronto, where the two parties, Protestant and Catholic, exhibited
no party emblems, no flags but loyal ones, and where the ancient
enmity between the rival houses of Capulet and Montague, the Green and
the Orange, appeared to have vanished before the approaching arrogant
demands of a newly-erected Imperium.

Independence may exist to a great extent in Canada. Gourlay figured
it, twenty years ago, by placing the word in capitals on the arch
formed by the prismatic hues of the cloud-spray of Niagara. He could
get no better ground than a fog-bank to hoist his flag upon, and the
vision and the visionary have alike been swallowed up in oblivion.

Canada does not hate democracy so very totally and unequivocally as my
excellent friend, Sir Francis Head, so tersely observed, but Canada
repudiates annexation.

That a great portion of the population of this rapidly advancing
colony feel a vast pride in imagining themselves about to become
ranked among the nations of the world, I entertain not the shadow of a
doubt; but that the physical and moral strength of Canada desire
immediate separation from England, or annexation to the republic
presided over by President Polk, is about as absurd a chimera as that
of Gourlay and the spray of Niagara. The rainbow there, splendid as it
is, owes its colours to the sun.

The mass in Canada is soundly British; and, having weighed the
relative advantages and disadvantages of British principles and laws
with those of the United States, the beam of the latter has mounted
into the thin air of Mr. Gourlay's vision. The greatest absurdity at
present discoverable is in the ideas of unfortunate individuals, who
imagine themselves placed near the pivot desired by the philosopher,
and that they possess the lever which is to move the solid globe to
any position into which it may suit them to upheave it.

A poor man by origin, and with some talent, suddenly becomes the Sir
Oracle of his village; and, because the Governor-General does not
advance his _protege_ or connexions, or because he does not imagine
that the welfare of the province hinges upon his support, turns sulky,
and obtaining, by very easy means, a seat in the Assembly, becomes all
at once an ultra on the opposite side of the question.

In all new countries ambition gets the better of discretion, but
fortunately soon finds its natural level: the violent ultra-tory, and
the viole