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sociable, cheerful and hospitable, and distinguished for a courtesy and real politeness, which pervades every class of society;" but an uninstructed, inactive, unprogressive people"-"an old and stationary society, in a new and progressive world." At the same time, he ascribes the responsibility of this state of things, so far as it may be true, to "the continued negligence of the British Government," which "has left the mass of the people without any of the institutions which would have elevated them in freedom and civilization”—which "has left them, without the education, and without the institutions of local self-government, that would have assimilated their character and habits, in the easiest and best way, to those of the Empire of which they became a part." There exists among them a remarkable equality of properties and conditions. "A few seignorial families possess large, though not often very valuable properties; the class entirely dependent on wages is very small; the bulk of the population is composed of the hard-working yeomanry of the country districts, commonly called habitans, and their connexions engaged in other occupations." Among these he says, that "it is impossible to exaggerate the want of education." "The common assertion, however, that all classes of the Canadians are equally ignorant, is perfectly erroneous"-for, he says, he knows no people among whom the higher kinds of elementary education are really extended to a larger proportion of the population; so that on a comparison of the two portions of the population it has resulted, even now, that, although the leaders of the British party possess "a practical sagacity, tact, and energy in politics," in which their opponents are said to be "deplorably deficient," yet "the greater amount of refinement, of speculative thought, and of the knowledge that books can give," the Report is forced to admit, "is, with some brilliant exceptions, to be found among the French"-the countrymen and brethren of these much

In this place we take pleasure in recording a passing tribute of admiration to the distinguished accomplishments of a gentleman who has been made the object of a great deal of flippant and ignorant abuse by the English portion of our American press-and our readers need not be told to how large a proportion of the Whig press, especially of our commercial cities, this designation is properly applicable. We refer to Mr. PAPINEAU, who by common consent may be regarded as the representative of the French Canadian population. From some considerable opportunity of knowledge and personal judgment, we are fully justified in saying, that Mr. Papineau is one of the first men of the times. Amiable, polished, and courteous, his acquisitions are on a par with his eminent natural power and capacity of intellect. It is difficult to start a subject of conversation, in any department of literature, science, or politics, on which he does seem peculiarly qualified to shine-and that not by the slightest seeming effort or desire for display, but as luminous bodies shine, in all directions, simply because such is the law of their nature. His language is (in the English, as much as his native tongue) remarkably elegant, precise, and forcible, while perfectly easy and natural; rendering him; with the vigorous clearness of the tide of thought which flows transparently through his conversation, one of the most eloquent and persuasive of speakers. When to these attributes we add

abused Canadians. For this, little thanks are due to the British Government; but to "the piety and benevolence of the early [French] possessors of the country," who founded in the semineries and colleges established in the cities, and in other central points, institutions of which the well-endowed means have been actively directed, in the hands of the Catholic clergy, to the promotion of education, and which turn out every year between two and three hundred highly educated young men. Almost all of these are members of the family of some habitan, selected for superior quickness for a superior education; who return to their families, and (the military and naval professions, and every avenue of civil ambition, being closed to the colonist-) contribute to swell the already vastly over-stocked professions of advocate, notary and surgeon. In this state of things he finds the solution of what he terms "the extraordinary influence of the Canadian demagogues,"

"Thus the persons of most education in every village belong to the same families and the same original station in life, as the illiterate habitan whom I have described. They are connected with them by all the associations of early youth, and the ties of blood. The most perfect equality always marks their intercourse, and the superior in education is separated by no barrier of manners, or pride, or distinct interests, from the singularly ignorant peasantry by which he is surrounded. He combines, therefore, the influences of superior knowledge and social equality, and wields a power over the mass, which I do not believe that the educated class of any other portion of the world possess. To this singular state of things I attribute the extraordinary influence of the Canadian demagogues. The most uninstructed population any where trusted with political power is thus placed in the hands of a small body of instructed persons, in which it reposes the confidence which nothing but such domestic connexion, and such a community of interests, could generate. Over the class of persons, by whom the peasantry are thus led, the Government has not acquired or ever labored to acquire influence; its members have been thrown into opposition by the system of exclusion, long prevalent in the colony; and it is by great simplicity and kindness, both of character and manners-a perfect purity of domestic life-a rare generosity and philosophic candor towards his opponents, as remarkably transparent in his conversation under circumstances little calculated to foster such a tone of sentiment-an earnest patriotism-an incorruptible integrity, both of private and public character-all the severe virtue (to quote an expression of one who was no blindly partial judge) of a Cato, with a mind deeply imbued with the spirit of the liberal political philosophy of the age-we shall not be surprised at what Lord Durham styles "the extraordinary influence" such a man has been able for many years to exert in the Assembly of Lower Canada; though it by no means follows that these qualities which have made him so consummate a parliamentarian should make the same individual exactly the man for a physical revolution. It was the remark of a distinguished American Snator, founded on an acquaintance dating many years back, that he had never met with a foreigner so thoroughly conversant with the history, the literature, the principles and the men of our American politics, as Mr. Papineau; and we may here allude, in passing, to the fact that Mr. Papineau's opinions fully sustain and sympathize with the general policy of the late and present Democratic Administrations, with which he is very familiar, and especially in the great struggle for a financial reform, vitally important to the best interests, moral and material, of the country, in which both have been so deeply engaged.

their agency that the leaders of the Assembly have been enabled hitherto to move as one mass, in whatever direction they thought proper, the simple and ductile population of the country. The entire neglect of education by the Government has thus, more than any other cause, contributed to render this people ungovernable, and to invest the agitator with the power which he wields against the law and the public tranquillity."

On this subject of education, the testimony of Lord Durham fastens a scalding responsibility on the long course of British Colonial misrule, which has produced a result of general popular ignorance so little in accordance with either the natural tendency or capacity of the native population. That the Canadians are not in fault, is evident from his own admissions. "The people themselves," he says "are not indifferent, or opposed to such a scheme," (the establishment of a general and sound system of education.) "I was rejoiced that there existed among the French population a very general and a great desire to provide means for giving their children those advantages which had been denied to themselves," and "the population of either origin would be willing to submit to local assessments for this purpose." The following is all the credit which he is able to give the Government for what it has done towards the discharge of this highest of the duties of legislation:

"I am grieved to be obliged to remark, that the British Government has, since its possession of this province, done or even attempted nothing for the promotion of general education. Indeed the only matter in which it has appeared in connexion with the subject, is one by no means creditable to it. For it has applied the Jesuits' estates, part of the property destined for purposes of education, to supply a species of fund for secret service, and for a number of years it has maintained an obstinate struggle with the assembly in order to continue this misappropriation."

The following extract sheds a strong light upon the origin and growth of that" national hostility" of which he treats, again casting on the "British ascendancy" a disgraceful responsibility for all the consequences of disorder, with even the mutual errors and wrongs on points of detail which naturally grow out of such civil discussions:

"

Among this people, the progress of emigration has of late years introduced an English population, exhibiting the characteristics with which we are familiar, as those of the most enterprising of every class of our countrymen. The circumstances of the early colonial administration excluded the native Canadian from power, and vested all offices of trust and emolument in the hands of strangers of English origin. The highest posts in the law were confined to the same class of persons. The functionaries of the civil government, together with the officers of the army, composed a kind of privileged class, occupying the first place in the community, and excluding the higher class of the natives from society, as well as from the government of their own country. It was not till within a very few years, as was testified by persons who had seen much of the country, that this society of civil and military functionaries ceased to exhibit towards the higher order of Canadians an exclusiveness of demeanor, which was more revolting to a sensitive and polite people than the monopoly of power and profit: nor was this national favoritism discontinued, until after repeated complaints and an angry contest, which had excited passions that concession could not allay. The races had become enemies ere a tardy justice was extorted: and even then the Government discovered a mode of

distributing its patronage among the Canadians, which was quite as offensive to that people as their previous exclusion."

He then proceeds to illustrate further this point of "national hostility" by the separate education of youth-the difference of language, leaving both parties subject to much misconception and misrepresentation of each other-the almost total absence of social intercourse between the races-the extreme rarity of intermarriages (though formerly this was not the case)-a marked division of society, preventing the conflicting opinions which divide it from coming into direct contact, in political personal controversies-and the total want of combination for public objects. "They cannot harmonize," says the Report, "even in associations of charity. The only public occasion on which they ever meet is in the jurybox; and there they meet only to the utter obstruction of justice." There is but little sympathy, Lord Durham says, between the bulk of the English population and the "Officials," as the clique is termed, which has been from time immemorial in possession of the Executive Government; and he thus states the cause which has thrown them into a singular alliance. The Assembly were thought to exhibit a jealousy of the influx and success of the English; and instead of promoting emigration, enterprise and the accumulation of wealth, rather to incline to cast obstacles in their way. The English were for urging on extensive schemes of internal improvement, as the first object to which all the efforts of legislation should direct themselves; while the Assembly refused to increase the burthens of the country by imposing taxes to meet such proposed expenditures, or to direct to that object any of the funds formerly devoted to other purposes. Some of the works, indeed, which the assembly authorized and encouraged, were undertaken on a scale of due moderation, and successfully perfected. But to the great work of rendering the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa navigable through their whole extent, they exhibited, it is stated, an invincible repugnance-though, the Report continues:

"It is true that there was considerable foundation for their objections to the plan on which the Legislature of Upper Canada had commenced some of these works, and to the mode in which it had carried them on; but the English complained, that, instead of profiting by the experience which they might have derived from this source, the Assembly seemed only to make its objections a pretext for doing nothing. The applications for banks, railroads and canals were laid on one side until some general measures could be adopted with regard to such undertakings; but the general measures thus promised were never passed, and the particular enterprises in question were prevented. The adoption of a registry was refused on the alleged ground of its inconsistency with the French institutions of the Province, and no measure to attain this desirable end, in a less obnoxious mode, was prepared by the leaders of the Assembly. The feudal tenure was supported, as a mild and just provision for the settlement of a new country; a kind of assurance given by a committee of the Assembly, that some step should be taken to remove the most injurious incidents of their scignoral tenure, produced no practical results; and the enter prises of the English were still thwarted by the obnoxious laws of the country.”

The Assembly being at the same time in collision with the Executive Government, the latter gladly threw itself on this powerful and energetic minority; who combined with it from perfectly dif ferent motives, and with perfectly different objects, against a common enemy.

"The English desired reform and liberal measures from the Assembly, which refused them, while it was urging other reforms and demanding other liberal measures from the Executive Government. The Assembly complained of the oppressive use of the power of the Executive; the English complained that they, a minority, suffered under the oppressive use to which power was turned by the French majority. Thus a bold and intelligent Democracy was impelled, by its impatience for liberal measures, joined to its national antipathies, to make common cause with a government which was at issue with the majority on the question of popular rights. The actual conflict commenced by a collision between the Executive and the French majority: and as the English population rallied round the Government, supported its pretensions, and designated themselves by the appellation of "loyal," the causes of the quarrel were naturally supposed to be much more simple than they really were; and the extent of the division which existed among the inhabitants of Lower Canada, the number and nature of the combatants arrayed on each side, and the irremediable nature of the dispute, were concealed from the public view."

And after the armed collision into which the two races have been brought, with all "the melancholy scenes exhibited in the progress of the contest, or the fierce passions which held an unchecked sway during the insurrection, or immediately after its suppression," the following is the picture which he draws of the present relative attitudes of the two portions of the population:

"Removed from all actual share in the government of their country, they brood in sullen silence over the memory of their fallen countrymen, of their burnt villages, of their ruined property, of their extinguished ascendency, and of their humbled nationality. To the Government and the English they ascribe these wrongs, and nourish against both an indiscriminating and eternal animosity. Nor have the English inhabitants forgotten in their triumph the terror with which they suddenly saw themselves surrounded by an insurgent majority, and the incidents which alone appeared to save them from the unchecked domination of their antagonists. They find themselves still a minority in the midst of a hostile and organized people; ap

* Lord Durham calls this collision a "treasonable attempt of the French party to carry its political objects into effect by an appeal to arms." This, we are satisfied, is entirely unjust and untrue. It is true that events were rapidly ripening towards that consummation, and this whole Report teems with abundant evidence of accumulated misgovernment and oppression on the part of the British ascendency fully to justify the resort to the ultima ratio of "the divine right of insurrection," to cast off so burthensome and galling a thraldom of foreign dominion. But we have amply shown, in our former Articles on this subject, that it is upon the Government party that the responsibility of the outbreak of November, 1837, properly rests. There was no contemplation of, and not the slightest preparation for, an immediate "appeal to arms." This is an all-important point in the consideration of this general subject, and we beg our readers to bear it fully in mind. We have met with no attempts entitled to notice, to controvert the evidence and statements, establishing this point, contained in our former Articles, and therefore are not called upon at present for any further illustration of it, but are entitled to assume it as proved and established.

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