[riddell]] times of ROBERT GOURLAY 75 



"A brief but sufficient and very faithful history of the Durham 

 Administration — written a few days after receiving the above trifling 

 letter from Couper/» October, 1838," 



A Durham Ox came o'er the sea 

 And landed at Quebec ; 

 Canadians all were on their knee 

 And instant at his beck. 



The Durham Ox moved up the burn 

 To see the muckle Falls. 

 The Buffaloes, on Erie's bank, 

 Thought he was come to balls. * 



They asked if he would feed with them 

 And said their grass was good ; 

 But the Durham Ox turned round his tail 

 And down the burn he stood. 



The Durham Ox, now tethered fast 

 Upon Victoria's lea. 

 Bade Yankees come from every town 

 His mightiness to see. 



The Durham Ox looked smooth and sleek 



The Yankees, they seemed wondrous meek. 



But yet were very pawkie 



And after all the shows he made 



They thought him but a gawkie. 



And now the truth is wholly out; 

 Nor need we any longer doubt 

 So all the world may fairly laugh, 

 To think the Ox was but a Calf. 



*It will be remembered that Lord Durham gave a ball to the gentry of Buffalo 

 and they in turn expected him at a civic feast (Gourlay's note). 



Perhaps Durham never saw this effusion and if he did he probably 

 despised it. 



The next year Gourlay thought "the church itself wholly militant. 

 Episcopalians maintaining what can never be established. Presby- 

 terians more sour than ever contending for right where they have none 

 whatever.^^ Methodists so disunited that they cannot even join in a 

 respectable groan and Catholic Priests wandering about in poverty 

 because their scattered and starving flocks yield not sufficient wool 

 for the shears": and when he came to the Legislature in Toronto and 

 when the Members of the House of Assembly refused to hear him at 

 their Bar, he sought comfort by breaking out into verse again :*° — 



