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r6tend to do this, or to answer categorically to your questions, but I will from the point of view taken b/ myself arul others, and they are ^ery many, who are at present standing by, sketch to you the events that arc occur- ring, the facts, sad facts, that exist, and the hopes that we entertain for the future. To do this, I must carry back your historical recollections to just one hundred years years gone by, to the date when the dropeau hlanc was hauled down, and was replaced by the British banner, since that date the Anglo-Saxon race in Canada have, in comparison to their fellow country- men of French extraction, increased in more than double ratio, and since the union of the Provinces, represent in the Upper House just two to one, (36 to 18,) and in the Lower nearly the same proportion, in the figures 85 to 45 ; yet with this fact staring you in the face, does it not seem incredible, it is however no less true, that the British majority, an immense majority too, as regards not only numbers, but wealth and still more intelligence, (and I speak with all due respect of my French coun- trymen) should be under the domination of French institutions, submit to French customs, be legislated for in the French tongue, and bow down to French laws, laws too, of which the bases are not of the present day, but were designed for a handful of colonists, and petty traders one hun- dred years ago ; let these laws have been pruned and altered, let it be, that these institutions have been modified : can these laws, can these in- stitutions, blackletter in their spirit as in their type, be fitted either root or branch, for the merchants, British merchants, who now champ at them ; or for the striving British farmer, who from between his plough- stilts, curses the exactions that he has to submit to ? It would be vain, John, to cite to you the daily examples of the evils to which these things give rise, they must be apparent; or to the grind- ing and gnashing of teeth of those, who see themselves, a vast majority, subjected to foreign customs and legislation, in a land where the flag of their fathers claims dominion, that flag of England around which, what- ever betides, old associations or the tales of their sires still command them to rally, or if need be to die. Among the more intelligent of the French population, there are many who acknowledge the existing evils, there are many who would strive to eradicate it, they see with us, John, ' 1^ i ■ l> i that we should no longer live in the shadow of the past, but in the light of the present, and the hope of the future. How then, you will ask, have these things arisen, how is it that they are not changed ? To answer, I must again lead you back a hundred years, to the date when conquering Britain tried the experiment of grafting the English oak on the French jargonelle, instead of planting the offshoot of her royal tree in ground, where, in process of time, ex- panding branches would shelter its weaker neighbour; expediency has gone on confirming the error then committed, and expediency at the present day, in the shape of (so called) responsible Government, shrinks from applying the necessary remedies which might cure the evil, but would risk the alienation of a numerous body, who, bound by the most intimate ties of nationality and religion, generally vote together, and whose very ideas have to be propitiated, to sustain in power whatever ministry may chance to be in the ascendant ; this is the plain sad fact, as well known, as it is openly admitted. Thus we have here, in Lower Canada, as our primary evil, what may be summed up in three or four words which our brethren of French extraction are continually dinning into our ears : " Lois, langue, et institutions.'^ Do not imagine, John, that what I have sketehed to you are the whole of our crying evils, here, in " Bas Canada," (concerning which alone I have been speaking at pre?ent) ; w© have many more, both here and in the Upper Province; there, as here, paid legislation, corrupt elections, party politics, and sectional strife rear their heads rampant (although there indeed, the drag of the anden regime presses not, as on us,) there, difficult doubtless as it is to patch up evils, there may be amelioration ; not so however with us ; not changed, not modified, but swept away must be our abuses ; we must have laws and institutions which, superseding the rotten fabrics at present existing, and which more in accordance with British feelings and British enterprise, will be com- potent to render justice, punish fraud, and establish mercantile security. From what I have briefly described to you, John, and knowing as I have hinted, that other ills are behind, you may fancy that I am despair- ing of the country in which I have fixed my lot, and that I have no hope 8 for better things to come. Far from correct would be this conclusion. What the country has done, fettered as she is, is the foreshadowing of what she is still to do, and of the great destinies that await her. Straws, floating straws, are showing the direction of men's thoughts ; the party, aye, the great party of the country, the one which setting a^ide religion or sect, vested interests or different nationality, goes for Queen, Country, and Progress : that party I say is arousing; changes have taken place, greater ones are preparing; woe be to those who resist that stream of progress which now dammed up by a frail barrier must soon burst forth' Our rottenness is on the bark, the heart of the tree is sound, its vitality is unimpaired, a hundred years clogged aa they have been, have brought forth great results, what may not the next cycle untrammelled produce ? Invest then our Consols, John, do it with confidence and security; for the old country, my idea was as you know Free Trade, for this new country, Protection. Judicious protection is our necessity; the grown man requires stronger meats than the growing child ; protection will es- tablish our manufactures, increase our immigration, and provide, John, for the payment of your Consol's interest, and then when you and other Britons on your side of the water, having a direct interest in the Britons on this side, hear, which you soon will, their great cry to the Imperial government to aid in loosing the irons that are now eating into them, then you at home wiU enforce the cry that we make out here, and turn our dream of the future into a glorious reality. I will trespass on you no longer at present, John, with our grievances and our hopes, but asHng you to note and help our " good time com- ing >> Believe me, Your atttached friend, WILLIAM SMITH.