overwhelming majority of three to one, and have thus learned
to contest national questions by legitimate means, has made a far greater stride in political advancement, than Quebec with its boundaries shrunk to return members to a packed Assembly. On the other hand, things have been done which the Whig Reforming Governor refused to do : a bill to insure freedom of elections, to shorten their duration, and to multiply the number of polling-places, which was " reserved " or indefinitely postponed by Lord SYDEN■ HAM, has received Sir CHARLES BAGOT'S assent. This measure is a very striking illustration of the changed position of the country. The long duration of elections and the paucity of polling, places gave opportunity to wholesale intimidation, especially in Lower Canada; rioters were brought from a distance, and the polling- booth was kept for days together almost in a state of siege. In that manner, during the late Governor's administration, the electors of Terrebonne were, notoriously prevented from returning the re- presentative whom they had chosen, Mr. LAFONTAINE, now a lead- ing man in the Cabinet, but then an Opposition Member • and this very session, the return of Mr. LAFONTAINE'S colleague, Mr. BALD: WIN, has been prevented by similar means in one of the last elections under the old law. We perceive, then, that the French Canadians and their friends have suffered in two very remarkable instances from violence at elections ; that the" Liberal" Anti-French Ultra- British Government refused to arrest that violence ; that the French- Canadian Government of the Conservative Sir. CHARLES BAGOT have effectually interfered. When the party came into power, we anticipated that they would acquire some of the Conservative ten- dencies of all parties in power ; and their first session, short as it has been and few as have been its measures, has sufficed to show that their interests and inclination are on the side of order.
There is an interesting converse to this position. The Legisla- tive Couneil, the 'Colonial quasi House of Peers, which received its character from Lord SYDENHAM'S creations, has a majority sympa- thizing, though perhaps not so strongly as a more independent set of people might, with the minority in the other House. It used to be a reproach to the Revolutionary House of Assembly in Lower Ca- nada, that it "tacked "incongruous measures to others in order to force the appended measure through Parliament by tying it to one upon which all three Estates were agreed. Lord SYDENHAM'S Anti-Revutionary Council have borrowed that discredited and dis- orderly trick from the extinct contumacious Assembly. A bill was passed to amend the new election-law' by including two elec- tions which were about to take place, but for which the writs had been issued before the new law passed ; and to that bill the Coun- cil "tacked" a general system of registration ! Their conduct was warmly denounced by many of the Ministerialists in the other Chamber; and it might have led to a collision between the two branches of the Legislature, had not the session quickly terminated. With remarkable moderation, the French Canadian Ministerialists took no part in the discussion on the conduct of their old opponents. Some persons propose to prevent a renewal of the dispute by swamping the Council with new creations.
