189} -92.] CORRESPONDENCE OF LIEUT.-COL, COFFIN. 299 
At the request of Sir John Colborne, Mr. Coffin gave up his position 
as Assistant Civil Secretary, and accepted that of Stipendiary Magistrate 
in what had been one of the most disquieted districts. His reception by 
the peuple was not a kindly one, and his success in restoring good fecling 
was not as great as in his generous enthusiasm he had expected it 
would be. 
Writing from Sainte Marie de Monnoir, Sept. 23rd, he gives us the 
following account : 
‘‘] was on the point of being stationed at Belceil, in the centre of your rebellious 
Censitaires, when it was unfortunately discovered that Sainte Marie was a more dis- 
agreeable and a more turbulent place, and I was sent there forthwith, as I sometimes 
flatter myself, into honorable banishment like Lord Bloomfield to Stockholm. This 
extensive and populous seigniory is unquestionably most disaffected. To you who are 
acquainted with the habits and character of the Canadian peasantry, one trait alone 
will suffice. Not one man in twenty will salute me, or offer the slightest mark of 
recognition or respect. Most of them look very sulky, and many will not even look at 
all. Now this speaks volumes. Still I do not despair. I have only just begun. The 
country has been without law or justice or even the appearance thereof, except in very 
heinous cases, for years, and even in them justice was administered at such a distance, 
that practically the people have known nothing of its operation or of its effect. 
I have made the Police and the Magistracy respected, I believe feared, hereabouts, 
but I doubt if my authority is popular. ‘This is, however, a matter about which I care 
little just now. I hope that time will produce the natural good results of justice united 
with firmness and kindness wherever it can be beneficially exercised.” 
Lord Durham had remained in this country only five months, yet in 
that short time he had examined very thoroughly into the causes of dis- 
content, and his report sent in on his return to England is one of the 
most valuable and statesmanlike documents ever presented on Colonial 
affairs. “In each and every Province,” he wrote, “the representatives 
were in hostility to the policy of the Government, and the administration 
of public affairs was permanently in the hands of a Ministry not in har- 
mony with the popular branch of the Legislature.” 
_ The principal recommendations made by Lord Durham were a Federa- 
tion of all the Provinces, an intercolonial railway, and an Executive 
Council responsible to the Assembly. Failing a complete Federation, 
the immediate union of Upper and Lower Canada was strongly urged. 
The report was vigorously condemned by the members of the Family 
Compact in Upper Canada, but for the most part was received with warm 
approval. Mr. Coffin’s views are given in a letter dated April 17th, 1839: 
“T do not suppose that you have plunged very deeply into this document of the ab- 
dicated Autocrat. My attention has, of course, been chiefly directed to his view of the 
affairs and present condition of the Lower Province, with which in the main I am 
much pleased. He has separated the real from the ostensible cause of quarrel and 
