Dissensions of this class place in strong relief the passions and tendencies which render the endurance of the political system which we have established here, and of the connection with the mother-country, uncertain and precarious. They elicit a manifestation of antipathy between races and of jealousy between the recently united provinces, which is much to be regretted. This measure of indemnity to Lower Canada is, however, the last of the kind, and if it be once settled satisfactorily, a formidable stumblingblock will have been removed from my path. A fortnight later he adds:-- The Tory party are doing what they can by menace, intimidation, and appeals to passion to drive me to a _coup d'État_. And yet the very measure which is at this moment the occasion of so loud an outcry, is nothing more than a strict logical following out of their own acts. It is difficult to conceive what the address on the subject of rebellion losses in Lower Canada, unanimously voted by the House of Assembly while Lord Metcalfe was governor and Mr. Draper minister, and the proceedings of the Administration upon that address could have been meant to lead to, if not to such a measure as the present Government have introduced. I enclose a letter which has been published in the newspapers by A. M. Masson, one of the Bermuda exiles,[1] who was appointed to an office by the late Government. This person will be excluded from compensation by the Bill of the present Government, and he positively asserts that Lord Metcalfe and some of his Ministers assured him that he would be included by them. I certainly regret that this agitation should have been stirred, and that any portion of the funds of the province should be diverted now from much more useful purposes to make good losses sustained by individuals in the rebellion. But I have no doubt whatsoever that a great deal of property was wantonly and cruelly destroyed at that time in Lower Canada. Nor do I think that this Government, after what their predecessors had done, and with Papineau in the rear, could have helped taking up this question. Neither do I think that their measure would have been less objectionable, but very much the reverse, if, after the lapse of eleven years, and the proclamation of a general amnesty, it had been so framed as to attach the stigma of Rebellion to others than those regularly convicted before the Courts. Any kind of extra-judicial inquisition conducted at this time of day by Commissioners appointed by the Government, with the view of ascertaining what part this or that claimant for indemnity may have taken in 1837 and 1838, would have been attended by consequences much to be regretted, and have opened the door to an infinite amount of jobbing, false swearing, and detraction.