of the Loyalist farmers who migrated to Upper Canada in
1783. All that can be said is that the Loyalists were
most numerous among those classes which had most to lose
by the change, and least numerous among those classes
which had least to lose.

Much labour has been spent on the problem of the numbers
of the Loyalists. No means of numbering political opinions
was resorted to at the time of the Revolution, so that
satisfactory statistics are not available. There was,
moreover, throughout the contest a good deal of going
and coming between the Whig and Tory camps, which makes
an estimate still more difficult. 'I have been struck,'
wrote Lorenzo Sabine, 'in the course of my investigations,
with the absence of fixed principles, not only among
people in the common walks of life, but in many of the
prominent personages of the day.' Alexander Hamilton,
for instance, deserted from the Tories to the Whigs;
Benedict Arnold deserted from the Whigs to the Tories.

The Loyalists themselves always maintained that they
constituted an actual majority in the Thirteen Colonies.
In 1779 they professed to have more troops in the field
than the Continental Congress. These statements were no
doubt exaggerations. The fact is that the strength of
the Loyalists was very unevenly distributed. In the colony
of New York they may well have been in the majority. They
were strong also in Pennsylvania, so strong that an
officer of the revolutionary army described that colony
as 'the enemies' country.' 'New York and Pennsylvania,'