1 76 THROUGH THREEFOLD TENSION 



the chief centre of business and the largest city 

 of the colony. The distress among the people 

 was peculiarly severe at this centre, and the ma 

 terial for a riotous assemblage was peculiarly 

 plentiful. Montreal was, moreover, the chief 

 seat of the English interest in Lower Canada, 

 and the place in which the fear of French 

 ascendancy was keenest. In 1849 a consider 

 able group of influential men at Montreal 

 were indicating a willingness to go even so far 

 as separation from the British connection if 

 that should prove the only means of escape from 

 the evils that threatened or actually beset them. 

 To understand the source of this extreme coun 

 sel it is necessary to look at the larger aspects 

 of the free-trade reform and of Manchesterism 

 in general so far as it affected the English-speak 

 ing world. 



The protective system that Peel destroyed 

 in 1846 was based primarily upon the purpose 

 of benefit to the people of Great Britain, but 

 it by no means disregarded the interests of 

 the British subjects who lived in the colonies. 

 Both customs and navigation laws included 

 many and intricate provisions designed to give 

 to the colonists advantages over all the world 

 save the favored producers and merchants of 



