Politics. 45 



fied in revolting, and warmly espoused their cause. 

 Later many changed their opinions, shocked, as 

 every one was, at the death of the king and 

 queen, and the atrocious massacres which took place 

 in France. Yet some not only approved of the 

 revolution abroad, but were so disgusted with our 

 mal-administration at home, to which they attributed 

 our failure in the war in Holland and else wt ere, 

 that great dissatisfaction and alarm prevailed 

 throughout the country. The violence, on the 

 other hand, of the opposite party was not to be 

 described, the very name of Liberal was detested. 



Great dissensions were caused by difference of 

 opinion in families ; and I heard people pre- 

 viously much esteemed accused from this cause 

 of all that was evil. My uncle William and my 

 father were as violent Tories as any. 



The Liberals were distinguished by wearing their 

 hair short, and when one day I happened to say 

 how becoming a crop was, and that I wished the 

 men would cut off those ugly pigtails, my father 

 exclaimed, " By G , when a man cuts off his 

 queue, the head should go with it/' 



The unjust and exaggerated abuse of the Liberal 

 party made me a Liberal. From my earliest 

 years my mind revolted against oppression and 

 tyranny, and I resented the injustice of the world 



