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As I have reason to believe that the most important of my despatches from Upper Canada were, contrary to usual custom, submitted for the decision of the Cabinet, I am perfectly sensible that the publication of this volume must draw upon me the whole force of the Government.

The despatches it contains were almost, without exception, written either during the day, while I was constantly interrupted, or late at night, when I was tired. Several were actually despatched in the rough draught; and such was the pressure of public business, that I had seldom time to revise them.

The general plan of my communications to the Colonial Office was unequivocally to explain the expected result of my proposed measures, which, having been long ago carried into effect, must now be tested by the triple ordeal of the future, present, and past; and, as it has so happened that this volume has been published with extraordinary celerity (it has been printed in a week), I think it cannot be denied that—as I have no political connexion with any party, as I do not address myself to any party, and as there does not exist in either House of Parliament a single member who can stand up and say that, directly {iv} or indirectly, I have in any way solicited his assistance on this or on any subject,—I can have but little to support me in an unequal contest but the justness of my cause.

I have neither explanations nor professions to offer. Why do I publish these despatches? Am I actuated by public principle or private feeling? What do I expect to gain by the course I am adopting? Will it be of any service to the country in general, or to our North American colonies in particular?

To all of the above questions one answer will suffice. Reader, peruse the volume, and then judge for yourself. Its copyright I have presented to my worthy publisher; and having now, as I have long wished to do, submitted to the country the result of my experience in the administration of the government of Upper Canada, I abandon it to find its own level among the mass of Reports and Documents which are already struggling to obtain the consideration of the public.