CANADIAN NOMS-BE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 339 



tlierefore, you may be satisfied. I had overlooked Mr. McKenzie, 

 who is one of our octogenarians." 



The most concise way in which I can explain who Mr. Richardson, 

 the writer of the letters signed " Veritas " was, will be to copy the 

 inscription on a marble tablet on the outer wall of the " Richardson 

 Wing " of the General Hospital at Montreal. It reads as follows : — 

 ■"This building was erected A.D. 1852, to commemorate the public 

 and private virtues of the Hon. John Richardson, a distinguished 

 merchant of this City, and Member of the Executive and Legislative 

 Councils of the Province. He was the first President of this Hos- 

 pital, and a liberal contributor to its foundation and support. He 

 was born at Portsoy, North Britain, and died 18th May, 1831, aged 

 76 years." 



Veritas closes his series of letters with this paragraph : " It was 

 my intention to have given also a sketch of Sir George's civil adminis- 

 tration ; but reflecting that it has been already so ably depicted by 

 !Nerva, in his admirably written allegory, I shall for the present not 

 prosecute that intention." The " allegory " of Nerva was contained 

 in a series of letters, professedly on Irish affairs, addressed to the 

 Herald, in which Canada was adumbrated by Ireland, Sii* George 

 Prevost by Earl Fitzwilliam, and Sir George's predecessor, Sir James 

 'Craig, by Lord Westmoreland. Sir George's marked policy of con- 

 .ciliation as a civil governor is therein roundly condemned, but 

 evidently from the point of view of a narrow conservatism : a policy, 

 it must be remembered, enjoined by Sir George's masters in England, 

 with distinct reference to the immediate crisis, when Canada was 

 about to be exposed to an invasion, and required for its safety a 

 people, so far as possible, united. " Between two systems of govern- 

 ment proposed for adoption," Nerva observes, " theorists may often 

 find it difficult to determine the claims to preference ; because the 

 peculiar defects of each may be compensated by peculiar advantages ; 

 but where a system of government is already established, there are 

 certain rules for its exercise from which the experience of practical 

 politicians will pronounce all deviation to be improper and hazardous. 

 Of these rules, the most universally admitted is, that all changes 

 should be gradual, not abrupt ; should be necessary, not experimental. 

 But Earl Fitzwilliam began his innovations upon his entrance into 

 .-ofl5.ee, without waiting to ascertain whether Lord Westmoreland's 

 measures were adapted to the situation of the country ; without in- 



