Was not the union of the provinces carried without their consent, and with a view of subjecting them to the British?  Papineau, their press, and other authorities, are constantly dinning this into their ears, so no wonder they believe it.

Again, our mercantile and commercial classes are thoroughly disgusted and lukewarm in their allegiance.  You know enough of colonies to appreciate the tendency which they always exhibit to charge their misfortunes upon the mother-country, no matter from what source they flow.  And indeed it is easy to show that, as matters now stand, the faithful subject of Her Majesty in Canada is placed on a worse footing, as regards trade with the mother-country, than the rebel ’over the ‘lines.’

The same man who, when you canvass him at an English borough election, says, ’Why, sir, I voted Red all my life, and I never got anything by it:  this time I intend to vote Blue,’—­addresses you in Canada with ’I have been all along one of the steadiest supporters of the British Government, but really, if claims such as mine are not more thought of, I shall begin to consider whether other institutions are not preferable to ours.’  What to do under these circumstances of anxiety and discouragement is the question.

As to any aggressions from without, I shall throw the responsibility of repelling them upon Her Majesty’s troops in the first instance.  And I shall be disappointed, indeed, if the military here do not give a very good account of all American and Irish marauders.

With respect to internal commotions, I should like to devolve the duty of quelling them as much as possible upon the citizens.  I very much doubt whether any class of them, however great their indifference or disloyalty, fancy the taste of Celtic pikes, or the rule of Irish mob law.

Happily the dangers which there seemed so much reason to apprehend were dispelled by the policy at once firm and conciliatory of the Governor:  mainly, as he himself was never wearied of asserting, owing to the healthy and loyal feeling engendered in the province by his frank adoption and consistent maintenance of Lord Durham’s principle of responsible government.  It was one of the occasions, not unfrequent in Lord Elgin’s life, that recall the words in which Lord Melbourne pronounced the crowning eulogy of another celebrated diplomatist:—­’My Lords, you can never fully appreciate the merits of that great man.  You can appreciate the great acts which he publicly performed; but you cannot appreciate, for you cannot know, the great mischiefs which he unostentatiously prevented.’

[Sidenote:  Navigation Laws.]

In the course of the discussions on the Repeal of the Navigation Laws, to which reference is made in the foregoing letters, an incident occurred which attracted some attention at the time, and which, as it could not be explained then, ought, perhaps, to be noticed in this place.