From the peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, I was enabled to make such effectual observations as convinced me that there had existed in the Constitution of the Province, in the balance of political powers, in the spirit and practice of administration in every department of the Government, defects that were quite sufficient to account for a great degree of mismanagement and dissatisfaction. The same observation had also impressed on me the conviction that, for the peculiar and disastrous dissensions of this Province, there existed a far deeper and far more efficient cause—a cause which penetrated beneath its political institutions into its social state—a cause which no reform of constitution or laws that should leave the elements of society unaltered could remove, but which must be removed ere any success could be expected in any attempt to remedy the many evils of this unhappy Province. I expected to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state: I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races; and I perceived that it would be idle to attempt any amelioration of laws or institutions, until we could first succeed in terminating the deadly animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower Canada into the hostile divisions of French and English.