Such A
State Of Things Could Not Last Long; And The Discontent Of A Large
Portion Of The People, Terminating, Through The Indiscretion Of An
Infatuated Local Government, In Actual Rebellion, Soon Produced
The Remedy.
The party generally most powerful in the Legislative
Assembly, and the members of which had been so long and
So
unconstitutionally excluded from holding offices under the
government, at once obtained the position which they were entitled,
and the people being thus given the power of governing by their
majorities in Parliament, improvements of all kinds are steadily
advancing up the present moment, and their prosperity and
contentment have increased in an equal proportion.
Had the first settlement of Canada been conducted on sound and
philosophical principles, much hardship and privation, as well as
loss of capital in land speculations, would have been saved to its
first settlers, and the country, improved and improving as it now
is, would have presented a very different aspect at the present
time. With the best intentions, the British government may be justly
accused of gross ignorance of the true principles of colonisation,
and the local governments are still more open to the accusation of
squandering the resources of the colony - its lands - in building
up the fortunes of a would-be aristocracy, who being non-resident
proprietors of wild lands, necessarily obstructed the progress of
improvement, while the people were tantalised with the empty
semblance of a free government.
No sooner did emigrants from Great Britain begin to pour into Upper
Canada, so as to afford a prospect of the wild lands becoming
saleable, than a system of land speculation was resorted to by many
of the old colonists.
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