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Z9S^ 
 
 " S'ptt^ «pe», «pe», 
 /Sitne nihil** 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 FKOM 
 
 WILLIAM SMITH, OF MONTEEAL 
 
 TO HIS ?BIBND 
 
 JOHN BROWN, 01" LONDON, 
 
 IN WHICH IS DITAILXD 
 
 SOME OF THE GRIEVANCES 
 
 UNDER WHICH CANADA LABORS. 
 
 MONTREAL : 
 PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET. 
 
 1860. 
 
 
t 
 
 -- 
 
 i-.' 
 
TO THE PUBLISHER. 
 
 t 
 
 -- 
 
 i-' 
 
 Montreal, February 1860. 
 
 Sib, 
 
 A few days since I paid a nsit to my friend, Mr. 
 William Smith, of this city. I found him in a rather excited mood, 
 inveighing heavily against some of those laws and customs of our coun- 
 try, which, to say the least, do not tend much to facilitate enterprise, or 
 extend commerce. After some conversation, I discovered that he had 
 been writing on the subject, to a friend of his in London, and got him to 
 allow me to see the letter. 
 
 Sketchy, patently open to the most simple criticism, both as regards 
 matter and style, still it struck me as being typical of much that at the 
 present time is seething in the minds of many of our fellow Colonists, 
 and I persuaded my friend to let me have it for publication, giving him as 
 my reason, the same that I now do to you, that I wished to launch it as 
 one of the " floating straws " that he speaks of. hoping that other and 
 stronger straws may be sent after it, to show how vigorously the under- 
 current of public opinion runs towards the fact that a great and sweeping 
 change must be made, ere Canada fulfils great destinies, nearer at hand, 
 perhaps, than may be at once apparent. 
 
 I am. Sir, 
 
 Yours Obediently, 
 
 COLIN CLAXTON. 
 
^ 
 
A Letter from William Smith, of Mordreal, to Us Friend^ 
 
 John Beown, of London. 
 
 ii 
 
 Montreal, February 1860. 
 
 In your last letter, my dear John, you say that Canadai 
 rather "enquired" about at home just at present, that our Railways, 
 our Ocean Steamers, and our Bridge, have brought us prominently 
 forward, and that we poor Colonists were " ne'er more bruited in men's 
 mouths than now," so that you, wishing to be au fait on one of the 
 topics of the day, and possibly having an eye to a future investment in 
 Canadian Consols, write to me to know how we are getting on, how our 
 new protection principles seem to work, what are those " crying evils " 
 that I alluded to in my last, and what the ideas of plain men like myself, 
 who have thrown their little fortunes and efforts into the game, as to the 
 remedies that should be applied. 
 
 John, you have asked nic more in those few lines, than liours and days 
 of incessant toil could answer, and for more than able heads, and clever 
 financiers have as yet found themselves competent to solve. You have 
 shown me too, how little we are known in England, how ignorant you 
 are of the difl&culties we are hemmed in by, of the numberless shades of 
 politics and politicians that exist, of our imperfect legislature, of our worse 
 than imperfect judicature, of our diverse interests, religions, and sects, and 
 of the continual struggle that has to be made, against these and other mis- 
 fortunes; to progress, instead of retrograde, — I say, John, your questions 
 lead me to the conclusion, that you are ignorant of these things, or you 
 would not have asked me to answer in the space of a letter, what volumes 
 "nd thp- 'oen of " read^ writer would fail to describe^ I cannot T>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.