sweeping away of all foreign debts as the means of reducing
the calls upon their treasury. Whatever steps England may
adopt, I think she cannot, in prudence, avoid sending a strong
military force to these provinces, as they are now become of
infinite importance to her. You can scarcely conceive the
quantity of timber and spars of all kinds which are lying on
the beach, ready for shipment to England in the spring: four
hundred vessels would not be sufficient to take all away.
Whence can England be supplied with these essential articles
but from the Canadas? Bonaparte, it is known, has expressed a
strong desire to be in possession of the colonies formerly
belonging to France, and now that they are become so valuable
to England, his anxiety to wrest them from us will naturally
increase. A small French force, 4 or 5,000 men, with plenty of
muskets, would most assuredly conquer this province. The
Canadians would join them almost to a man--at least, the
exceptions would be so few as to be of little avail. It may
appear surprising that men, petted as they have been and
indulged in every thing they could desire, should wish for a
change. But so it is--and I am apt to think that were
Englishmen placed in the same situation, they would shew even
more impatience to escape from French rule. How essentially
different are the feelings of the people from when I first
knew them. The idea prevails generally among them, that
Napoleon must succeed, and ultimately get possession of these
provinces. The bold and violent are becoming every day more
audacious; and the timid, with that impression, think it
better and more prudent to withdraw altogether from the
society of the English, rather than run the chance of being
accused hereafter of partiality to them. The consequence is,