[corns] THE TALBOT PAPERS 88 
fashion! But the old Colonel was on parade, and he remembered that 
he was one having authority. 
The reference to “the sheep with the rot,” provoked shouts of 
laughter. The Colonel was pleased, smiled, took snuff, and shook his 
finger jocularly at the audience. So also with the reference to “ the 
flagstaff,” by which was meant one of the Teeples of Malahide, who 
was remarkable for his height. The reference to “nation and denom- 
ination ” was intended to apply to the Americans and Methodists. The 
Colonel was clearly not prejudiced in favour of “d d cold-water- 
drinking societies.” As father of the settlement, he closed with the 
benediction. But he was not a Universalist. Only the elect should 
get the benefit of it, and the rest were cheerfully consigned to the place 
of punishment they deserved for their political sins. “You that are 
true British subjects ” are exclusively to be blessed. The temperance 
societies he had already “damned.” The speech is given in extenso 
from the Colonel’s own draft, and the reader is referred to the text for 
a complete understanding of this important episode. 
The political excitement was by no means allayed by the success 
of Talbot’s meeting. The Government, however, profited by it through 
the influence it produced in the rest of the province and in England. 
Mackenzie found himself confronted on his visits to Downing Street, 
as the bearer of petitions for Colborne’s removal, by counter petitions, 
with signatures exceeding the number attached to those in his charge, 
approving of Colborne’s conduct, and effusively loyal in their sentiments 
of devotion to the king. In the Talbot Settlement, as elsewhere, the 
agitation was continued, and the parties were not content to rely upon 
argument alone. Acts of violence, some of which would appear, if not 
instigated, to have been approved by Talbot, followed. In a letter to 
Hon. Peter Robinson in J anuary, 1833, he exults over the riotous acts 
of his henchmen from Dunwich. “My rebels,” he writes, “ endea- 
voured to hold a meeting at St. Thomas on the 17th, Dr. Franklin’s 
birthday, as I am informed, but in which they were frustrated by my 
loyal guards, who routed the rascals at all points, and drove them out 
of the village like sheep, numbers with broken heads, leaving their hats 
behind them, the glorious work of old Colonel Hickory. In short, 
it was a most splendid victory. Mr. Fraser, the Westlian (sic) Method- 
ist, behaved admirably on the occasion, and I scarcely think they will 
venture to call another meeting, at least not at St. Thomas. Their 
object was to form a political union, the articles of which were to elect 
the legislative council, the magistrates, ete” But the rebels, who made 
themselves obnoxious by drinking cold water and advocating revolution- 
ary sentiments so startling as those specified, did not acknowledge them- 

