40 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
ner and obliging in conduct;”’ possessing a lady-like self-possession 
which enabled them to answer questions “ with the ease and politeness 
of higher life, without relinquishing the simplicity of manners appro- 
priate to their condition.” The habitant was litigious, but probably 
this was the safety valve of his French nature. He was impulsive, and 
ready to resent any insult to his faith, language, or other institutions. 
He was easily led by men like Papineau who touched their racial feel- 
ings by rhetorical flashes. 
In the foregoing pages I have given only that superficial view of 
French Canada which would impress a traveller while passing through 
the province; but if he remained for any length of time and studied its 
economic and political conditions, he would not be surprised at the ab- 
sence of enterprise and industrial development. It was a “war of 
races,” to use Lord Durham’s apt phrase, that stifled activity in a pro- 
vince dominated by Papineau for years. Nearly one hundred and 
fifty thousand people of British origin resided in this section—a British 
people animated for the most part by the spirit of energy natural to 
their race. What prosperity Montreal and Quebec: enjoyed as com- 
mercial communities was due to the enterprise of British merchants. 
The timber trade was chiefly in their hands and the Bank of Montreal 
was founded by this class in 181%—or seven years before the Bank of 
Upper Canada was established in Toronto. As political strife increased 
in bitterness, the differences between the races became accentuated. 
Papineau alienated all the British by his determination to found a 
Nation Canadienne, in which the British would occupy a very in- 
ferior place. Lord Durham shows in very expressive language the com- 
pleteness of this racial division. The two parties “combined for no 
publie object, and could not harmonize even in associations of charity.” 
The French Canadian looked “ with jealousy and dislike on the increase 
and prosperity of what they regarded as a-foreign and hostile race.” 
They “ opposed registry offices as inconsistent with the French institu- 
tions of the province.” The Eastern Townships, where the French race 
had no footing, “ were seriously injured by the refusal of necessary im- 
provements, and it was not until 1829 they could obtain a representation 
in the Assembly. When the representation of the province was in- 
creased in 1830, only one English name was retained out of the thirteen 
that had been given to the counties in 1791. Immigration was opposed 
“as a plan for developing the growth of English wealth and increasing 
their influence in the province in the future.” Even the difficulties 
with Upper Canada and the neglect to improve the navigation of the 
St. Lawrence up to the province line was largely influenced by the 

