PREFACE. SOME years since I left Lower Canada, the country of my birth, and have, from that period, resided chiefly in England. Here I have had both time and opportunity to reflect upon the state of the various colonies which belong to the British Empire, and of that which to me is most interesting-my native country. Her present political situation has occupied a large portion of my thoughts; the want of correct information among the people of England, respecting that situation, has been long to me a subject of deep regret and solicitude; and, at length, in the absence of others more competent to the task, I have summoned resolution to hazard an explanation of the affairs of my country, persuading myself, that the candid statements of a Canadian by extraction may diminish, if they cannot destroy, the many unfavour |