PREFACE.

The following letters, originally published in the Montreal Herald, are now re-printed for sale in the Canadas, and for gratuitous distribution in the Lower Provinces and the United Kingdom. For any inaccuracies and inconsistencies, that may be discovered, the circumstances, under which the letters were almost necessarily written, may form some apology. With two trifling exceptions, they were composed amid the noise and confusion of an office open to all comers; and hardly one of them, unless as a proof, was ever read by the writer either in manuscript or in print.

HERALD OFFICE,

ADAM THOM, A. M.

1st February, 1836. }

ANTI-GALLIC LETTERS.

No. I.

MY LORD,

As Governor of Lower Canada, your lordship may be sometimes compelled to act without sufficient deliberation; as a Royal Commissioner, you are solemnly bound to collect on every point the fullest possible evidence.

The very appointment of Royal Commissioners necessarily restricts your lordship's functions as Governor within the narrowest possible limits, and justifies the English population in expecting, that no executive measure, which can be postponed, shall be carried into effect either with or without the concurrence of your lordship's fellow-Comm.issioners. But for the prevalence of certain rumours, I should not have expected, that the slightest interference of the junior Commissioners with your lordship's executive duties would have been either attempted or, tolerated. These two functionaries are only competent to inquire, and, even if competent to act, can do so only within their own sphere and after the most minute and most patient investigation. For the acts of the executive, your lordship must, therefore, be alone held responsible; and I cannot but infer from facts, without paying any attention to mere rumours, that your lordship