Lord M.would criticise books, throw out a remark or two on the British Constitution, make some passing reflections on human life, and tell story after story of the great people of the eighteenth century.

Then there would be business a despatch perhaps from Lord Durham in Canada, which Lord M.would read.

But first he must explain a little.

"He said that I must know that Canada originally belonged to the French, and was only ceded to the English in 1760, when it was taken in an expedition under Wolfe: 'a very daring enterprise,' he said.

Canada was then entirely French, and the British only came afterwards...