Brief Sketch of the Life and Times, of the Late, Hon

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Excerpt from Brief Sketch of the Life and Times, of the Late, Hon.: Louis Joseph PapineauIn 1818 he was united in what proved to be the happiest of mar riages, with Mademoiselle Julie Bruneau, eldest daughter of Pierre Bruneau, Esq., merchant, of Quebec, and member of Parliament for that city. Superior in intellect and education and personal attrae tions, endowed with a rare prudence, she was through life the best of wives and the best of mothers. A true woman, neither too for ward nor too retiring, a devoted companion and wise counsellor, sympathizing in every thought of her husband, his ideas were her ideas, his friends her friends. With admiration for his character, and full faith in his future, she clung closely to him during his stormy parliamentary career, followed him cheerfully in exile to endure its privations, and, when domiciled in his Ottawa retreat, she was there rejoicing in his relief from cares, and continuing to exhibit with him, as they had from the beginning, a most perfect example of all that is excellent and to be admired in every relation of mar ried life. Happily she lived till the storms had passed away, and their sacrifices were unfelt, to enjoy a few years' quiet repose and tranquillity in their last home, where she saw the idol of her affec tions privileged to that rest and dignified leisure for which his soul had long yearned, with those cherished companions - the books of his favorite authors - around him. At monte-bello, on the 18th August, 1862, when apparently in her usual excellent health, sur rounded by her children and grandchildren, she was suddenly stricken down, and after half an hour's illness, calmly her spirit winged its departure from a world that her whole life had so adorned.With the arrival of the Earl of Dalhousie, in June, 1820, com menced a new Parliamentary era. The offer made by the'assembly in 1810 to provide for the whole civil list, always supplemented by drafts on the British treasury, had been accepted in 1818, and our Parliament was now, when there was a deficiency of in the Provincial Chest, called upon to make good its undertaking. Thoughthe act of 1791, which gave to Canada an Assembly that might justly claim all the powers and privileges of the House of Commons, was mainly urged on by the English portion of our population who had a vague notion of its powers - rather than by the French - few of whom had any notion whatever - these English, soon finding themselves m a minority, cared not for the exercise of these powers, while too many of the French, to whom the clergy had preached quiet submission for half a century, and who were all the time charged with disaffection and seditious aspirations, feared that any opposition to the whims of the Executive might give color to the charges of their opponents. Its great value with many members was its use as an inquisition for calling to account obnoxious officials, while others were satisfied in exercising their right of enacting petty laws. Other politicians were occupied with the thousand details of private affairs, of which Mr. Papineau had none. Throwing these to the winds, with his whole soul absorbed in questions of state, he alone grasped the spirit of the British constitution in its entirety, and alone fully comprehended the positive and paramount authority in many questions conferred by the act of 1791 on the Commons House of Canada. Others were supplied with only the ruder weap ons of early warfare, he came fully armed and equipped in the strongest of constitutional armor, with the keenest of weapons, for the grand coming tournament - throughout which the Earl of Dal housie figured as the champion of colonial misrule, and Papineau as the champion of colonial emancipation.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com