LXX VIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
so unsparingly criticised by Lord Durham, such are the primary causes 
of discontent. 
Mr. Ezriotrs LETTrER. 
“Quebec, 24th Oct., 1835. 
“My Dear Taytor,—People have been accustomed in England to 
hear of only two parties in Canada, the English and the French, but there 
are in fact three parties, the official, the English and the French, besides 
some important French classes altogether distinct from the party which 
goes by that name. 
“ The official, or as the French term it, Bureaucratic party, is com- 
posed of a few old men holding the highest offices. They seem to be 
fond of privilege, jealous of interference, and ready to hold office at any 
inquiry into the popular allegations. Most of them are dull, and those 
who are the reverse are said to be interested. It is of very little conse- 
quence what they are. Whatever influence they may have formerly 
exercised through the instrumentality of weak governors, they are now 
destitute of any of the real elements of power, having neither connections 
at home (England) nor weight in the province. If there be a body in 
the world, which may, without fear, be handled according to its merits, 
that is the high official party of Canada. In the province itself it is very 
difficult to say by which great divisions of the people it is detested the 
most. Very different from this feeble corps is the real ‘ English party.’ 
It is composed of almost all the merchants, with an admixture of consider- 
able landholders, and of some of the younger and more intelligent civil 
officers. It possesses much wealth and still more credit, and in addition 
to these it has all that mutual confidence and that precision and unity of 
purpose, which, to do our countrymen justice, they know better than any 
other people how to confer on political associations. This imposing body, 
moreover, has great advantage at the present moment in the moderation 
of tone which it can assume in contrast to the violence of its adversaries, 
thus gaining the good-will, if not the overt support, of the numerous 
portion of society which prefers security and a tranquil life to everything 
else. Yet [ do not like the English party. It is fully as ambitious of 
dominion as the French party, and in my opinion, prepared to seek it by 
more unscrupulous means. Whenever either of the two at the present 
moment speaks of separation, I look upon it as a mere bombast or artifice 
to bend the course of government, but, depend upon it that if ever these 
heats in Lower Canada should go so far as to hazard the connection with 
the mother-country, the English will be the foremost to cut the tie. 
They, of the two parties, are by far the best disposed to sympathize with 
republican institutions. 
‘They are the most rancorous, for they remember the power they 
have lost, and hate their rivals as a sort of usurpers.” 
How singularly this letter written sixty years ago reads, especially 
