CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 343 



over; nor would it have been courteous to treat his name and his 

 inducements as nothing. I think it a piece of misjudged egotism to 

 mix the name of a public writer up with his arguments ; it always is 

 calculated to mislead, and at the best is loss of time and of printing 

 materials, which now bid fair to be too much in request to be wasted. 

 The above are my sentiments, Sir," the writer says to the editor of 

 the Examiner, the journal in which the letters first appeared, "but 

 as they are also the opinion of hundreds of thousands as good loyal 

 Canadians, I have no right to the monopoly. I therefore. Sir, with 

 all deference to your readers, subscribe myself your and their humble 

 servant, Legion — for We are Many." I now quote an elaborate dis- 

 crimination between despotism and constitutional government, with 

 an ironical statement of the merits of the former under certain 

 circumstances, and a repudiation of the doctrine that rulers in free 

 countries can proceed safely and satisfactorily without having regard 

 to public opinion and considerations of party. "A party may be 

 defined for our present purpose," Legion observes, " as a number of 

 persons professing an opinion or opinions in which they agree ; oppo- 

 site parties, as two parties each respectively agreeing amongst its 

 own members, and opposing the opinion or opinions - of the other 

 party. As the whole of a community is rarely of one opinion, the 

 opinion of the majority, or of those forming the largest party, is, for 

 the purpose of government, said to be public opinion ; at least it is 

 the opinion which for all practical purposes must be taken to be 

 public opinion. What is just, and right, and good," Legion goes on 

 to say, " may be the object of a despotic as well as of a free govern- 

 ment. ISTo one dreams of alleging that absolute power in the ruler 

 is inconsistent with good government. All I need maintain is, that 

 absolute power in the ruler is inconsistent with all our notions of 

 free institutions. An absolute ruler may, with the best intentions, 

 look within his own breast for the rules of right and wrong — to his 

 own reason for his policy ; and if his mind be better constituted, 

 and his means of information greater than that of all others, his 

 government may be better and wiser than any government influenced 

 by popular opinion. To such a potentate, it is true praise to say of 

 him that he possessed an inflexible determination to administer his 

 government without regard to party, because the opinions which 

 make parties are beneath his consideration. He judges, he thinks, 

 he rules for himself; he puts down public opiaion, for it is but an 



