!'?4 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA! 
diately, the plan of building the fort was re¬ 
linquished for the time. The block-house on 
these provinces, and those of the adjoining states, are not 
Formed for a close intimacy with each other. 
The bulk of the people of Upper Canada are refugees, 
who were driven from the States by the persecution of th» 
republican party 3 and though the thirteen years which have 
passed over have nearly extinguished every spark of resent¬ 
ment against the Americans, in the breasts of the people of 
England, yet this is by no means the case in Upper Canada 3 
it is there common to hear, even from the children of the 
refugees, the most gross invectives poured out against the 
people of the States 3 and the people of the frontier states, 
in their turn, are as violent against the refugees and their 
posterity 3 and, indeed, whilst Canada forms a part of the 
British empire, I am inclined, from what I have seen and 
heard in travelling through the country, to think that this 
spirit will not die away. In Lower Canada the same acri¬ 
monious temper of mind is not observable amongst the 
people, excepting indeed in those few parts of the country 
where the inhabited parts of the States approach closely to 
those of the province 3 but here appears to be a general dis¬ 
inclination amongst the inhabitants to have any political 
connection with the people of the States, and the French 
Canadians affect to |iold them in the greatest contempt. 
Added to this, the prevalent language of the lower province, 
which has remained the same for almost forty years, not¬ 
withstanding the great pains that have been taken to change 
it, and which is therefore likely to remain so still, is another 
obstacle in the way of any close connection between the 
people of the lower province and those of the States. Even 
in conducting the affairs of the provincial legislative assem¬ 
bly, notwithstanding that most of the English inhabitants 
are well acquainted with the French language, yet a con¬ 
siderable degree of difficulty is experienced from the gene- 
