DESCENDING TO INFERIOR OFFICES. 183 



how, at the same time, both in the provinces and States, 

 the home or British born, when they have or fancy a 

 grievance, either public or private, become the loudest 

 and bitterest against their dishonoured mother. 



It is the new convert, or the renegade, who is always 

 the most zealous. 



A circumstance which first struck me in New Bruns 

 wick, but with which I afterwards became more familiar 

 in the States, was the acceptance of inferior offices, in 

 rank and emolument, by those who had long held the 

 highest offices their fellow-citizens could bestow. It was 

 obvious that the ideas as to what it was beneath a man, 

 in certain circumstances, to do or accept, were very 

 different here from what they are among ourselves. It 

 is easy to see, indeed, that, where public functionaries 

 are poorly paid are appointed only for a time, and have 

 no retiring pensions necessity may compel the ousted 

 party to descend and gladly accept an inferior appoint 

 ment; and where such a necessity presses upon great 

 numbers at once, it will soon banish fastidiousness, and 

 create a new public opinion, sanctioning in all and 

 recommending the course it compels. 



The society at the &quot; little court &quot; of Fredericton, as 

 the St John people sneeringly call it, consists of the 

 officers of state and of the garrison, of the clergy, the 

 judges, the professors of the university, the Government 

 employes, the medical men, and a few resident gentry 

 and local merchants, and, during the sitting of the 

 Legislature, of the members of the Legislative Council 

 and of the Assembly. It is a quiet place to live in, 

 without any great variety, and with the usual cliques, 

 parties, discontents, and private squabbles and back- 

 bitings to which all small towns are liable. 



Among the public buildings there are two which will 

 attract the stranger s attention the new Cathedral and 

 the University. The former, still unfinished at the 



