[BouriINoT] DUNDURN AND BURLINGTON HEIGHTS 23 
more to address that experience had improved, than to knowledge which 
taste had not cultivated. He did not darken counsel with any originality 
of argument, or embarrass his judgment with any superfluity of reasoning. 
He sought to carry his point as a statesman, in the same way in which he 
had carried positions as a soldier. The military bearing, the free speech, 
and the strong hand which had befriended him in his youth, were not aban- 
doned in his prime. Arguments which might be best exemplified in action 
were precisely those which he was most skilful in using. He knew wherein 
he excelled and wherein he did not excel, and this self-knowledge instructed 
him that there was a time to be silent as well as a time to speak, a time 
when ignorance could be pleasantly concealed by an eloquent gesture or an 
expressive wink, but when it might be uncomfortably exposed by more intel- 
ligible language. Silence was valuable as the casket is valuable, because it 
was regarded as the covering of something sufficiently precious to justify for 
its concealment a costly enclosure. With such powers were prominently 
allied one unquestionable peculiarity, the offspring alike of temperament and 
of genius. He rarely saw difficulties and he never deemed them to be insur- 
mountable. His instinct seemed to inform him how they could be overcome 
even when he was not able to explain by what process. This bright faculty 
of always seeing an untroubled horizon, of being able to trust in his luck 
when he could not rely on his calculations, enabled him to gain the confi- 
dence, and in a wonderful degree to influence the course of men who were 
certainly his superiors in all else than in what we may describe as force of 
character. But with these natural talents, popular manners and a deter- 
mined will there were associated embarrassing tastes—tastes which, though 
too exhaustive for his means, seemed to be essential to his happiness. His 
nature was wrought of sunshine and geniality. It was his custom to say 
‘that he had lived every day of his life,’ and no one would have challenged 
his statement had he added that he frequently forestalled to-morrow that he 
might enjoy to-day. The inconvenience of such a practice was, there is 
reason to believe, very sensibly felt by him through life; but at the outset 
of his career his generous and jovial disposition aided a determination which 
incidently made him what he was. 
“His nature abounded in noble qualities and his opinions were as gen- 
erous as his nature. His temper, though occasionally warm, was invariably 
good. His inspiration, therefore, was not derived from resentment, for he 
rarely spoke with an angry brow. He was tolerant towards the conscien- 
tious scruples of other men, and was not painfully excited by the wayward- 
ness or diversity of human opinion. He was only exacting when such opinions 
were subversive of order and government, and especially when they menaced 
the supremacy of the British Crown in Canada, or threatened to disturb the 
political connection of these provinces with the parent state. In such in- 
stances he neither gave nor expected quarter. With all the energy of which 
he was capable, he would stamp out every treasonable sentiment and put 
down every treasonable person. The loyalists, with whom he sympathized 
and whose opinions he shared, had fought for a foothold in America; and 
he thoroughly agreed with them in their determination to keep what they 
had acquired. Neither should it be overlooked that it lay within the means 
-of the malcontents if they liked not the rule of monarchical England to cross 
the border and enjoy that of republican America. He was too ardent a lover 
