Papineau returned to Canada in 1845. The greater part of his period of exile he spent in Paris, where he came in touch with the 'red republicans' who later supported the revolution of 1848. He entered the Canadian parliament in 1847 and sat in it until 1854. {132} But he proved to be completely out of harmony with the new order of things under responsible government. Even with his old lieutenant LaFontaine, who had made possible his return to Canada, he had an open breach. The truth is that Papineau was born to live in opposition. That he himself realized this is clear from a laughing remark which he made when explaining his late arrival at a meeting: 'I waited to take an opposition boat.' His real importance after his return to Canada lay not in the parliamentary sphere, but in the encouragement which he gave to those radical and anti-clerical ideas that found expression in the foundation of the _Institut Canadien_ and the formation of the _Parti Rouge_. In many respects the _Parti Rouge_ was the continuation of the _Patriote_ party of 1837. Papineau's later days were quiet and dignified. He retired to his seigneury of La Petite Nation at Montebello and devoted himself to his books. With many of his old antagonists he effected a pleasant reconciliation. Only on rare occasions did he break his silence; but on one of these, when he came to Montreal, an old silver-haired man of eighty-one years, to deliver an address before the _Institut Canadien_, he uttered a sentence which may be taken as {133} the _apologia pro vita sua_: 'You will believe me, I trust, when I say to you, I love my country.... Opinions outside may differ; but looking into my heart and my mind in all sincerity, I feel I can say that I have loved her as she should be loved.' And charity covereth a multitude of sins. {134} BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The story of the Lower Canada rebellion is told in detail in some of the general histories of Canada. William Kingsford, _History of Canada_ (1887-94), is somewhat inaccurate and shows a strong bias against the _Patriotes_, but his narrative of the rebellion is full and interesting. F. X. Garneau, _Histoire du Canada_ (1845-52), presents the history of the period, from the French-Canadian point of view, with sympathy and power. A work which holds the scales very evenly is Robert Christie, _A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada_ (1848-55). Christie played a not inconspicuous part in the pre-rebellion politics, and his volumes contain a great deal of original material of first-rate importance.