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The new parliament was convened for the dispatch of business, on the 15th of January, 1817, when Mr. Papineau was re-elected Speaker.

She must remain outside and now the end of it all was near. They had their breakfast, during which Mrs. Papineau said that she was becoming anxious about Hugo. Presently she would send one of the children again. Papineau wouldn't do because he knew nothing about sick people. She would go over there herself soon. If he was sick she would bring him a loaf of bread.

Suffice it to say, that Papineau has retired to solitude and reflection at his seignory, 'La Petite Nation' and that the pastoral letter, of which I enclose a copy, has been read au prône in every Roman Catholic church in the diocese.

Although the political struggle in Lower Canada before 1837 was largely racial, it was not exclusively so, for there were some English in the Patriots party and some French who declined to support it. In 1832 and 1833 Papineau suffered rebuffs in the House that could not have been pleasant to him. In 1833, for instance, his proposal to refuse supply was defeated by a large majority.

In the hope of compelling the compliance of the home government with their demands, in 1832 and the following years they refused to vote the necessary supplies; and, gaining courage, as it were, from the contemplation of their own violence, and under the guidance of a leader of French extraction, a M. Papineau, who scarcely concealed his hope of effecting the complete severance of the Lower Province from the British dominion, they proceeded to put forth farther demands, which they regarded as plausible from the apparent resemblance of the changes which they required to the system of the English constitution, but which, to use the words in which Sir Robert Peel described them, would have established "a French republic."

But, as the events of Craig's administration had clearly shown, a good deal of combustible and dangerous material lay about. In the year 1812 a young man took his seat in the House of Assembly for Lower Canada who was destined to play a conspicuous part in the history of the province during the next quarter of a century. His name was Louis Joseph Papineau.

The part assigned to Mackenzie that of "Agent and Corresponding Secretary" was an important one, and involved him in the necessity of giving up all his time and energies to the cause. In so far as his abilities enabled him to do so, he was to virtually play the same part in Upper Canada that had long been enacted by Papineau in the Lower Province.

The unfortunate rebellions which were precipitated by Louis Joseph Papineau and William Lyon Mackenzie during 1837 in the two Canadas were the results of racial and political difficulties which had gradually arisen since the organization of the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada under the Constitutional Act of 1791.

Papineau pounced upon this association as a means of making himself of importance in the eyes of his countrymen, and of gratifying his ruling passion by abusing England. In process of time, after this rather questionable start, the association waited on me with a memorial requesting the co-operation of Government, M. Papineau being one of the deputation.

Consequently many of the notable names among the Montreal business men may be found attached to annexation proclamations. Again, in spite of the great change in French opinion wrought by Elgin's acceptance of French ministers, there was a little band of French extremists, the Rouges, entirely disaffected towards England. At their head, at first, was Papineau.