Although the Canadian population was at this time poor, rude, and dispersed, it presented in some respects features usually characteristic of older and more prosperous communities. The emigration from whence it mainly sprung contained within itself the embryo forms of organization; nobility, clergy, merchants, and peasants were sent out from the fatherland, and commissioned especially for their several offices. No voluntary influx of ambitious, truculent, but energetic men swelled the population or disturbed the fatal repose of the young nation; no free development was permitted to its infant form, but, clothed in the elaborate garments of maturer years, the limbs were cramped, and the goodly proportions of nature dwarfed into a feeble frame. No safety-valve offered itself to the quick spirit of the young Canadian; military rank was limited to the favorites of the powers at home; mercantile success was debarred by vile and stupid monopolies; territorial possessions were unattainable but by interest or wealth: here the proud man, for a time, chafed and murmured, and at length strode away to the Far West, and sought the irresistible attractions of free and savage life. No colony was ever governed by a succession of more able and excellent men than that of New France, perhaps none (except Algiers) has been apparently so much indebted to the mother country in tender infancy; none ever exhibited more thorough failure. A fertile soil, invigorating climate, and unsurpassed geographical advantages also offered themselves to the men of France; royal liberality and power lent them every aid; but, clogged by the ruinous conditions of their ecclesiastic and feudal organization, healthy action was impeded, and the seed, thus freely sown and carefully tended, grew up into a weak and sickly exotic. Experience has amply proved, as wisdom might have suggested, that in colonies, certainly, "the best government is that which governs least." When bold and vigorous men struggle forth from among the crowded thousands of the old communities, let them start in a fair race in the land of their adoption; the difficulties are great, let high hope cheer them; Nature there only opens her rich stores and bestows her treasures to brave and patient industry; the uncertain seasons, the Indian, and the wolf, are check and tax sufficient. The fatal error of despotic restraint cost France Canada by conquest, and cost us the noblest land God ever gave to man, by the deeper disgrace of a deserved and violent divorce.