Canada and the Canadians, Vol. 2 | Page 7

in his valedictory
address.
This, with the enormous outlay of nearly two millions during the revolt,
the cost of the Rideau Canal and fortifications, and the money spent by
an army of from 8 to 10,000 men, has thrown capital into Canada
which has caused it to assume a position which the most sanguine of its
well-wishers could never have anticipated ten years ago.
Its connection with England, therefore, instead of being a "baneful" one,
as a misinformed partizan stated, has been truly a blessing to it, and
proves also, beyond a doubt, that, now it is about to have an
uninterrupted water-communication from the oceans of Europe, Asia,
and Africa, to the fresh-water seas of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan,
and Superior, its resources will speedily develop themselves; and that
its people are too wise to throw away the advantages they possess, of
being an integral portion of the greatest empire the world ever had, for
the very uncertain prospects of a union with their unsettled neighbours,
although incessant underhand attempts to persuade them to join the
Union are going on.
Taxation in Canada is as yet a name, and a hardship seldom heard of
and never felt. Perfect freedom of thought in all the various relations of
life exists; there is no ecclesiastical domination; no tithes. The people
know all this, and are not misled by the furious rhodomontades of
party-spirit about rectories, inquisitorial powers, family compacts, and
a universal desire for democratic fraternization; got up by persons who,
with considerable talents, great perseverance and ingenuity, ring the
changes upon all these subjects, in hopes that any alteration of the form
of government will place them nearer the loaves and fishes, although I
verily believe that many of the most untiring of them would valiantly
fight in case of a war against the United States.
A more remarkable example, I believe, has never been recorded in
history than the fate of William Lyon Mackenzie, a man possessing an
acuteness of mind, powers of reasoning, and great persuasiveness, with
indefatigable research and industry, such as rarely fall to obscure and
ill-educated men.

Involving Canada in a civil war, which he basely fled before, as soon as
he had lighted its horrid torch; as soon, in fact, as he had murdered an
old officer, whose services had extended over the world, and who was
just on the verge of what he hoped would be a peaceful termination of
his toils in his country's cause; as soon as he had burned the houses of a
widow who had never offended him, and of a worthy citizen, whose
only crime in his eyes was his loyalty; and as soon as he had robbed the
mail, and a poor maidservant travelling in it, of her wages. This man
fled to the United States, was received with open arms, got a ragged
army to invade Canada, then in profound peace with the citizens, who
protected him.
His failure at Navy Island is known too well to need repeating. He
wandered from place to place, sometimes self-created President or
Dictator of the Republic of Canada, sometimes a stump orator,
sometimes in prison, sometimes a printer, sometimes an editor, abusing
England, abusing Canada, abusing the United States; then a
Custom-house officer in the service of that Republic; then again a
robber, a plunderer of private letters, left by accident in his office,
which he, without scruple, read, and without scruple, for political
purposes, published.
Reader, mark his end. It teaches so strong a lesson to tread in the right
path that it shall be given in his own words, in a letter which he wrote,
on the 11th of November last year, to the "New York Express"
newspaper.
He would be pitied, indeed, were it not that the widow and the orphan,
the houseless and the maimed, cry aloud against the remorseless one.
How many there are now living in Canada, whose lives have been
rendered miserable, from their losses, or from injured health, during the
watchings and wardings of 1837, 1838, 1839, during the long winter
nights of such a climate, during the rains and damps of the spring and
of the fall time of the year, and during the heats of an almost tropical
summer. Heat, wet, and cold, in all their most terrible forms, were they
exposed to. The young became prematurely old. The old died. Peace to
their souls! Requiescant in pace!

In the "New York Express" of the 11th November, we find a letter
signed by Mr. Mackenzie, in which he endeavours to justify himself.
What has particularly engaged our attention are the following
paragraphs:--
"If an angel from heaven had told me, eight years ago, that the time
would come in which I would find myself an exile, in a foreign
land--poor, and