"Her Majesty's Government could not fail to notice the wide difference which exists between the circumstances which have taken place in Lower Canada, and the recent events in Upper Canada. So far as can be collected from the information now before me, the chief motive which influenced the instigation of the disturbance in Upper Canada appears to have been the view of plunder, and the offences which they perpetrated, seem to bear comparatively little of a political character." Lord Glenelg's grasp of the situation in Upper Canada may be inferred from the above passage and Sir George Arthur proceeds to enlighten him. Several sentences from his despatch deserve quoting in full, since they show how readily Sir George Arthur had embraced the Tory point of view. "In Upper Canada, the same pretensions to patriotism--the same assertions of republican Principles--the same accusations against the Government of Tyranny and Corruption--were put forth as the ground and justification of the Rebellion as in the Lower Province. In Lower Canada, the right was insisted on, of the popular Branch of the Legislature sullenly to refuse acting as a legislative Body, and to bring to a complete stop all beneficial operations of Government, and to assert a supremacy inconsistent with the relations of a Colony with the parent state. "In Upper Canada arms were taken up with the avowed purpose of assisting the Lower Canadians, and of asserting the same principles as applicable to this Colony. In Upper Canada the majority of the Assembly were attached to British Institutions; but this Majority was asserted to have been brought about by unconstitutional means on the part of Government, and the use which the revolutionary Party had made of a majority in Parliament when they had it, was precisely the same here as in Lower Canada: namely, to coerce the Government by a refusal to grant the necessary supplies. The Revolutionists in neither province hoped by themselves to overthrow the Government. They alike solicited foreign aid, and by its means expected to accomplish those designs...." It may easily be seen from the above quotation that Sir George Arthur misunderstood the political situation in both Upper and Lower Canada. He failed entirely to appreciate the aims of the Reformers and considered them a grave menace to the security of British rule in Canada. So imbued was he with the point of view of what he terms the "Constitutional Party" that he believed the rebel leaders, including Lount and Matthews, had proved "not only that they were determined, with their own hands, to execute the foulest deeds in furtherance of their project of subverting the Government; but they had encouraged a class of dissolute and vagrant Foreigners to join in their enterprise, who, they well knew, would not hesitate to inflict upon the inhabitants of this Province, if they could have subjugated them, the most barbarous atrocities."[15]