1891-92. ] CORRESPONDENCE OF LIEUT.-COL. COFFIN. 301 
And again a few weeks later : 
‘“‘T shall very probably part company from H. M. Ship Government, and return to 
my profession in the spring. She appears to be a crazy craft, very insufficiently 
manned, and as for the Skipper, the manner in which ‘greatness’ has been ‘thrust 
upon him’ only completes the ‘midsummer madness’ of the whole expedition.” 
Mr. Coffin, however, had reason shortly to change his opinion of Lord 
Sydenham. The new Governor proved to be a man of great ability, and 
Mr. Coffin acted under him in a number of important Commissions. 
But at the time of Lord Sydenham’s appointment, Mr. Coffin could 
not but think that the Home Government was slighting Sir John Col- 
borne, for whom he had the highest and most affectionate regard. 
Writing to Mrs. Grant, he says : 
“Sir John is really going, and for his sake I am sincerely glad of it. Considering the 
intricate game he has had to play, his political career in this Province has been most 
felicitous. His military is beyond praise. He returns universally respected and 
regretted, even by the Canadian population. He has worthily won his laurels ; long 
may he live to enjoy them. I cannot help thinking that her Majesty’s Government 
will award him on his return home with something more substantial and permanent 
than expressions of thanks. 
“T suspect much that the restoration of Judges Panet and Bedard and the 
release of Viger from prison, are among the chief reasons for relieving Sir John. 
I've a notion that the uncompromising veteran will not yield his point, that Minis- 
ters know it or conjecture as much, and anticipate this obstacle to their wishes by 
providing at once a convenient successor.” 
And writing three days after Lord Sydenham assumed the Govern- 
ment, he says: 
“In Sir John we have lost an exemplary man—a laborious and practical Governor, 
and a soldier experienced in the peculiar warfare of harassment and alarm, more 
than actual incursion, to which these Provinces have been and _ still are exposed. 
The existence of a man so singularly and peculiarly qualified to preside over the 
Government of these Provinces at this crisis, appears almost to have been a specia] 
interposition of Providence, while the blind and senseless manner in which it has been 
rejected and despised, argues equally the truth of the saying, ‘that Providence stulti- 
fies those it intends to destroy.’ ” 
Here follows an account of Mr. Coffin’s parting with the chief he loved 
so well,an account I cannot forbear from quoting, even if it reveals some 
slight measure of personal vanity in the writer : 
“T took leave of him about a week since. He was very kind and warm in his ex- 
pressions of personal kindness and remembrance. My parting with him was attended 
by circumstances of peculiar gratification to me. They afforded me a glorious triumph 
over those cubs arround me, who envious of the confidence he openly reposed in me, 
had caballed so successfully as to induce me to resign my first appointment. When 
the time for his departure arrived, he found business throng upon him which these 
fellows were incompetent to perform. He sent for me and kept me in town a week, 
