farming, gardening, clearing and manuring land.”  If we may credit the words of Bishop Hubert of Quebec written just at this time (in 1794) the new liberties gained by the habitants did not make the seigneur’s task easier.  The good bishop makes sweeping charges of general dishonesty; of attempts to defraud the church of her tithe and the seigneurs of their dues; of bitter feuds between families and innumerable law suits.  In such conditions Nairne, as a justice of the peace, would have his hands full.

His end was drawing very near.  One of his sisters died in 1798.  This brought sad thoughts but he wrote:  “I am very thankful to have found in the world connexions who have produced such regards and sympathys.  Time seems not to be going slowly now-a-days but running fast.  I hope we are to have other times and to know one another hereafter.”  “I must make haste now,” he wrote later, in 1801, “to finish all improvements here that may be possible as I will soon be finished myself.  Crushed already under a load of years of 7 times 10 really I find the last 2 years ... heavier than 20 before that time.”  “The scenes of this life,” he had written to his old friend and neighbour Malcolm Fraser “are continually varying like the elements, sometimes cloudy, sometimes sun shine; [it] never lasts long one way or the other till night soon comes and we must then lie down and die.  Therefore all is vanity and vexation of spirit, but God will help us and most certainly some time or other bless and reward the friendly honest man.”

His last letter to his Scottish relations was intended to be a farewell: 

     Colonel Nairne to his Sister Miss M. Nairne From Murray Bay, 20th
     April, 1802.

     My Dear Madie,—­

     I shall see our friends in the world of spirits probably before any
     of you; whatever darkness we are in here I have always convinced
     myself that we shall meet again in a better place hereafter.

Although I have enjoyed good health till past 70 years of age, the agues of Holland and sometimes excessive fatigue have probably weakened parts of my inward machinery that they are now wore out and must soon finish their functions.  I can have no reason to expect to live longer than our father; I am chiefly uneasy that the event may occasion grief to my sisters, yet it ought to be less felt my being at a distance; a poor affair to grieve when it must be all your fates to follow.  I am happy that Mr. Ker understands my circumstances and my last will, and that he will be so good and so able to assist in settling it properly; I wish to follow his ideas therein in case of any difficulty, and I am likewise perfectly satisfied with all Mr. Ker’s accounts with me.  I write this letter to you to go by the first ship in case I should not be able to write later; I do not expect to be able to write to Robie Hepburn nor to Mr. Ker; nothing I can tell now from this country