to Rebels, of British as opposed to French, and of Upper Canadians as opposed to Lower; and thus to provoke from various parts of the province the expression of not very temperate or measured discontent.  I am occasionally rated in not very courteous language, and peremptorily required to dissolve the Parliament which was elected only one year ago, under the auspices of this same clamorous Opposition, who were then in power.  The measure itself is not indeed altogether free from objection, and I very much regret that an addition should be made to our debt for such an object at this time.  Nevertheless, I must say I do not see how my present Government could have taken any other course in this matter than that which they have followed.  Their predecessors had already gone more than half-way in the same direction, though they had stopped short, and now tell us that they never intended to go farther.  If the Ministry had failed to complete the work of alleged justice to Lower Canada which had been commenced by the former Administration, M. Papineau would most assuredly have availed himself of the plea to undermine their influence in this section of the province.  The debates in Parliament on this question have been acrimonious and lengthy, but M. Lafontaine’s resolutions were finally passed by a majority of fifty to twenty-two.

Dissensions of this class place in strong relief the passions and tendencies which render the endurance of the political system which we have established here, and of the connection with the mother-country, uncertain and precarious.  They elicit a manifestation of antipathy between races and of jealousy between the recently united provinces, which is much to be regretted.  This measure of indemnity to Lower Canada is, however, the last of the kind, and if it be once settled satisfactorily, a formidable stumblingblock will have been removed from my path.

A fortnight later he adds:—­

The Tory party are doing what they can by menace, intimidation, and appeals to passion to drive me to a coup d’Etat.  And yet the very measure which is at this moment the occasion of so loud an outcry, is nothing more than a strict logical following out of their own acts.  It is difficult to conceive what the address on the subject of rebellion losses in Lower Canada, unanimously voted by the House of Assembly while Lord Metcalfe was governor and Mr. Draper minister, and the proceedings of the Administration upon that address could have been meant to lead to, if not to such a measure as the present Government have introduced.

I enclose a letter which has been published in the newspapers by A. M. Masson, one of the Bermuda exiles,[1] who was appointed to an office by the late Government.  This person will be excluded from compensation by the Bill of the present Government, and he positively asserts that Lord Metcalfe and some of his Ministers assured him that he would be included by them.