The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-19
Retrospect OF Canadian Politics.

Canada, since 1887, has been subjected to as many
intestine disturbances as that Numidia the old Ro-
called the dira n,arir leon,lm The reason
has been obvious enough it was inhabited by per-
of two different races, hostile to each other
the descendants of conquerors and the conquered.
For long time the latter had suffered all the evils
incident to their position, for being the more nume-
rous, the moral influence of authority was brought
into play to repress their physical power No per-
son of French descent had been placed in office for
a long series of years, and the consequence was to
be Canadian was to be an opponent of the gov
mistake which bereft Spain of her colonies and the
Canadians were rapidly becoming the tools of a de-
signing faction. In 1887 the rebellion brought this
state of things to a crisis Neither the Canadians
nor the Tories were altogether in the wrong; and
Lord Brougham and Sir Jas. Scarlet Lord Genelg)
seem to have been aware that the Canadians, in
times of trial, in 18l2'l5, had been true to their
allegiance. This was natural enough, for their
nearest neighbors were at that time the people of
New England, in whom too much of puritansm
fingered to make it possible for any great sympathy
to exist between the people of Canada and them
selves. If desire to unite its fortunes with our
Union existed at all in Canada it was in the minds
of English, Scotch and Irish emigrants, not in the
minds of the Canadians.
The consequence of the rebellion was, the union
of Upper and Lower Canada in one province, and
the Viceroy was consequently forced to select his
officials from those who could aid him in directing
public opinion in both Upper and Lower Canada,
instead of from among clique of the descendants of
American royalist refugees and new emigrants.
Representation was fairly distributed, and not
word of complaint was heard under six successive
governors-general, though politics ran high, and
party feeling led occasionally to breaches of the
peace at elections. There was not the slightest in
dication of want of fidelity to the British crown.
The power of the Canadian French party, however,
became gradually known to the habitans themselves,
and anxious to efface all trace Of an inequality of
the two races, it passed law to compensate all
who suffered in the troubles of 1878. This the
British Canadian party opposed; and, after seeking
IN vain to intimidate the government, it burned the
public buildings and monuments, and took as its
model the brutal Lord George Gordon riots of 1880
The Tory faction denies practically that the major
ity should rule, and appeals to the British Parlia-
ment to sustain it. This the Imperial government
refuses to do, and the disappointed Tories threaten
aloud 10 cast themselves adrft from Great Britain,
and amuse themselves with making displays Of the
American flag and discussing annexation.
On the other hand there a few men who like
Lord BRoUeHAM on the other side of the water, cry
out for hrmer knitting Of the bonds of affection
between Great Britain and Canada, because a from
tier of fourteen hundred miles furnishes such fine
facilities for smuggling!