194 
are still in a great measure directed by 
the old-French’ law and customs of the 
country. The Catholic religion is fully 
tolerated and forms no ground of ea- 
clusion from political employment. Con- 
sidering this constitution under its. ge- 
neral aspect aud_bearing, it must be 
allowed to be fair; considering it as 
a free gift to a conquered country, it 
must be allowed to be liberal. Whence 
then the endless quarrels betwixt the 
several branches of it? The pertina- 
cious opposition of the Lower House to 
the Executive? Their impeachments 
and menacing resolutions? Suspension 
of all useful labours? Repeated disso- 
lutions and angry messages of gover- 
nors, and constant re-election of the 
sane hostile members? ‘This Spa 
of power and interest, this impede 
action, clearly evinces some malady in 
the constitution, for which the consti- 
tution itself furnishes no remedy. 
These violent humours have no health- 
ful vent. Many have proposed reme- 
dies, but few have taken pains to in- 
vestigate the seat and origin of the dis- 
ease, except by a suminary assumption 
that the present government did not suit 
the disposition of the Canadians, BE- 
CAUSE they were unfit for a free govern- 
ment. ~It is better to begin like good 
physicians with investigating the com- 
ponent elements of the body cerporate, 
the manner in which they are combined, 
the various sympathies or aniipathies 
by which they are attracted er repelled, 
so as to discover whether the quantum 
of force be not too great in some 
parts of the machine and too small in 
others, to keep the whole in its proper 
action. 
1. The population is eomposed of 
French, or Canadians properly so call- 
ed, and English, including Scotch and 
Irish settlers. 
This forms the first division accord- 
ing to nation or language. 
2. Property. The property of the 
soil is-almost exclusively in the hands 
of the Canadians." The commerce in 
those of the English, who have, both 
from their connexion, education and 
language, advantages which render all 
competition hupeless.t Offices of emo- 
ated settlers are too few in 
the lower province to be an exception, 
and great English land owners still fewer. 
+ Fer the conclusion drawn from this 
circumstance against the Canadian charac- 
der. Vide pamphlet of Camillus, by Mr. 
Richardson, of Moxtreal. 
- Pelitics of Lower Canada. 
| April }, 
lument and high official situations, are, 
with very few exceptions, in the hands 
of the English. The avocats are, as 
might be expected, generally Cana- 
dians, so are the mass of smal] traders, 
but. the principal store or shopkeepers 
are English. 
3. Religion. The Canadians exclu- 
sively Catholics, and the English Pro- 
testants. Here then we have the go- 
vernors and governed separated by the 
three great distinctions of language, 
property and religion. 
4. Society, or Social Intercourse. 
This is not a small point, for it often 
modifies other distinctions and sofiens 
the contrarieties of habits or -poli- 
tical discordance; here it is useless 
in these respects. The English and 
Canadians having never more than for- 
mal intercourse with each other. 
These distinctions are not however 
the immediate productive causes of the 
present political disputes. In some 
cases they act as secondary causes, but 
more generally serve as fuel and 
strength to the operation of the first 
cause, which is “ the Constitution of the 
House of Assembly.” This is purely 
democrative both in principles and 
practice. The executive having no 
means of controling or influencing elec- 
tions, the represeatatives are accord- 
ingly chosen from those classes of so- 
ciety to whom the people are known, 
and whom the people know: lawyers 
and inferior tradesmen—good or bad; 
in short the real choice of the people. 
What is the nature and intent of a 
representative body so constituted ? 
That it should be the primum mobile of 
the state; the source of all power not 
strictly executive: this is the necessary 
consequence of calling the publie will 
into action. It cannot bea subordinate 
agent; all democracies, all representa- 
tive governments have this defect: par- 
liaments must become the focus of ta- 
lents and ambition, and if they are not 
also the stepping stones to power, must 
be arrayed against it. Yn England the 
man, or body of men, whose talents or 
influence command a majority in par- 
liament must stand at the head of the 
government. It is the same inthe con- 
gress of the. United States, as weil as 
in each particular state. It isthe saine 
in France, but how is it. in Canada, 
where the election is more purely de- 
mocratical than in any of these nations 2? 
Here too it concentrates the ambition, 
IT will even say the talents of the coun- 
try; but in this point is the essential 
difference 
