\\£ : ' LOWER CANADA. COPIES OR EXTRACTS OF CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. (PRESENTED BY HER MAJESTY’S COMMAND.) Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 23 December 1837. [Price 1$. 3d.] SCHEDULE. No. 1— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, li March 1837 ; (two Enclosures) - - _ . _ _ _ & No. 2.-Extmc^of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, - -p. 8 No. 3.- Extract of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 22 March 1837; ( one Enclosure) - - . _ _ _ _ TpS No. 4. Extrac^of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, ‘ - - - p. 8 No. 5 — Copy Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 9 F1 1 * - - - p. 9 No. e.-Ex^raa of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, No. 7—Copy^of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street! 1 37 ~ * 10 No. 8.-Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, Pn 1 * - - - P. 13 No. 8.- Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, o May 1837 - p. 13 No. 10.— Extract of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, and dated Downing- street, 13 June 1837 No. 11— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street 29 June 1837 - & pi3 No. 12— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, “ * * * p. 14 No. 13. -Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 14 U y 1 37 * * ‘ J * - p. 15 No. 14— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, Huy 1 37 - . - ! p.i8 No. 15.— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 14 July No. 16— Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 25 May 1837; (one Enclosure) . , - p 20 No 17 -Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, Quebec, 10 June 1837 - - - . . m _ _ - p 2 6 No. 18 —Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis Quebec, 15 June 1837 ; (one Enclosure) - - - - _ . - p2b No. 19— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street 22 July 1837 - p.27 No. 20 — Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street 25 July 1837 - p.28 No. 21. — Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, marked “Confidential ” and dated Castle St. Lewis, 26 June 1837; (three Enclosures) ... p_ 2 g No. 22.— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing street 22 August 1837 - p.29 No. 23. — Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis 4 July 1837 - - - - p. 30 No. 24. — Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, Quebec, 11 July 1837; (one Enclosure) - - r - - . -p. 31 No. 25.- Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street. 27 August 1837 - p. 33 No. 20. —Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 25 July 1837 p. 33 No. 27.— Copy ot a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis Quebec, 7 August 1837 ; (two Enclosures) - - - - - - * P> 35 A 2 No. 28. [ iv ] s C H E D U L E — continued. No 30._C.py Of O De.P»f *- **. “ G “ fOT -' ^ “^TTS Ko 30 MS Ko. 29 . C°Py^ bec , jg ^ U g USt 1837 ; ( one Enelosiire) - ' Lewis Ko 30 Cony of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg dated Castle St. Le , No. 30-Copy ebec> ^ | ugust i837 . (four Enclosures) - ig No 31 -Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glene g, ate as^ • ^ No. 31 . ^ < Q*[ ebec o 0 August 1837 ; (one Enclosure) - . . t No. 32.— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earfof Gosford, dated Do.nmg-streeL No. 33 . Extractof a Despatch the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Le^is, 2 September 1837 - _ . , N. 30 ,-Copy of , Do.pa.ch fton, the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Cattle St. Lew^ Quebec, 5 October 1837; (one Enclosure) - - - . f No. 37 Copy of a Despatch fton, Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Dowotng-s.reeh 18 November 1837 - No. 38 . Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 10 October 1837 - No 39 —Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lems, NO. ^--™ebec, ^ ^ (four Enclosures) 63 No. 40 - Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, _ dated Castle St. Lewis, Quebec, 19 October 1837 No 41 -Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, W °- 25 October is 3 7 5 (three Enclosures) P -73 No. 42 . Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, Quebec, 21 October 1837 ; (four Enclosures) • P* No 43— Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 30 October 1837 ; (three Enclosures) P ‘ 4 No 44.— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 27 November 1837 - - ~ ^ No 45.— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to Lieut.-general Sir J. Colborne, k.c.b., dated Downing-street, 27 November 1837 94 No. 46 .— Extract of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 6 November 1837; (six Enclosures) 9 + No 47.— Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, Quebec, 9 November 1837; (five Enclosures) p. 102 No. 48 .— Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to Lieut.-general Sir J. Colborne, k.c. b., dated Downing-street, 6 December 1837 No. 49.— Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 14 November 1837 - -- -- -*-*** P - 10 7 No. 50 . Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 23 December 1837 10 7 No 51 .— Copy of a Despatch from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, - - -- • - - - *• • ' . . . . - p. 108 Quebec, 2* November 1837 ; (six Enclosures) COPIES or EXTRACTS of Correspondence relative to the A* fairs of Lower Canada. — No. 1.— (No. 185.) Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 11 March 1837. My Lord, Although I am unable at the present moment to enter, as fully as the occasion might seem to require, into an explanation of the reasons for the course which his Majesty s Government have felt it their duty to adopt in relation to the affairs of Lower Canada, nor into a statement of the duties which will conse- quently devolve on your Lordship, I feel it incumbent on me to avail myself of the first opportunity which has offered since the affairs of Lower Canada' have been brought before 1 he House of Commons, of informing you of the proceedings of Parhament with reference to this subject. - n JJ)®. 6th instant Lord John Russell proposed to The House of Commons, in a Committee of the whole House, the series of Resolutions, of which I enclose a c°py lor your Lordship s information. As an amendment to the fourth Resolu- tion, it was moved to substitute a Declaration, that it is expedient that the Legisla- tive Council of Lower Canada be made elective. The debate was continued by adjournment to the 8th instant, when, upon a division, the amendment was rejected by a majority of 318 to 56. After several divisions on questions of adjournment The House ultimately divided on the main question, when the ori- H4 to 1 6° IUtl ° n ’ res P ectm § the Legislative Council, was carried by a majority of I transmit to you the lists of the several divisions which took place on this J™ p h r * Urt r P. r ? ceedin S s were then deferred until the evidence taken ^ T A 1 ? I™ S ?! 7 C r nuttee of 1834 ’ t0 which wfewmce had been made in the debate, should have been printed. The pressure of public business may perhaps, render it impossible to resume the question until after the Easter holidays ; but it is the intention of his Majesty’s Government to incur no delay \\hich is not absolutely indispensable, in obtaining the decision of The House of Commons on the remaining Resolutions. The debate, indeed, on the fourth resolution was by no means confined to the single though important question to which it specifically relates, and the expression of the opinion of so laree a majority of J he House of Commons in the recent divisions, though formally deci- si/i ;.°ng of that single Resolution, may fairly be assumed as expressing the sense o lne House on the general nature of the demands which have been preferred by the House of Assembly of Lower Canada. The result will, 1 trust, have a salutary e ect in the rovince, in showing that, after having evinced the fullest disposition to concede every just and reasonable demand, his Majesty’s Government are secure in the support of Parliament, in resisting pretensions dangerous to the interest of the community, and at variance with the constitution itself, and with he relations between a dependency of the British Empire and the Parent State appear / r0m the debate whlch took P la ce on the recent occasion that although prepared to meet with firmness the emergency which has unhaonilv arisen, Ins Majesty’s Government will not advance beyond the precise limits o^ the necessity which requires and justifies their interference with the privileges of the Canadian legislature, although it might be maintained by some, that stronger measures were demanded by the exigency of Canadian affairs & Your Lordship will perceive from the Resolutions, that it is proposed that nrn- vision should be made for the payment of the salaries of the public officers in WCa^only t0 t ie * ° th 0t A P nl next 11 forms no part of the policy of lus Majesty s Government to supersede the functions, or to interfere with the SSSf"* 1 r^ eS ' 0f ,he ll0USe 0f As *»»'y of the ProWn'eto a gLS extent than, under the pressing urgency of existing circumstances, has appeared to them unavoidable. It is their earnest hope that no future appeal to Parliament may be rendered necessary, by a continued abstinence on the part of the Assembly /2 * A 3 from No. 1. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 11 March 1837. No. 1 . Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 1 1 March 1837* 6 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE from the exercise of those — ^ch £eS Legislature has been intius , contract the indispensable expen- resolved to endeavour, J those resources which are now suo- diture of the Province wi t\ ^ Ucable to this purpose. ject to the control of the Cro 11 R tg of the Commissioners, be safcl> J These funds may, as appears from 1 From that sum your Lord- estimated at from 28,000 1 Xges which are enumerated in the ship will be able to defray the vanous cdj^ ^ 2800(H . may be Minute subjoined to this and management, there will remain taken as clear from all charges o , app iicable to any unforeseen but a surplus of 2,6001. P e r. a " n r„,av C your duty to incur.' Even allowing necessary expenditure which 1 ^ ^ incons , dera v,l e surplus of a few hundred ^uXpe'r — 'for the P^^^tte'StnuL^ in 7e important objects unprovided for ^ Province, but for which his appropriations made by the , fS~«w»Wea imperatively called upon to provide, Majesty’s Government do not feel ther^elves impure the part of in the absence of any such appropna 1 ’ sibllit yf or the personal and public SonvtiSe * evil P must, for the present at least, he 'fPOsal to which I have referred. restricting the expenditure of the Amongst the immediate effects of 1 thus resmcti ^ mbered 1 ^ TOt of any Government to objects of pnmarj n y future payment of those public security which the Government can offer for ™ at the dispoS al of officers whose salaries cannot be de ^ tbat immediate notice should he the Crown; it follows - engagement for their given to such officers, that as his J have hitherto discharged can no further remuneration, the duties wh h 1 1 > . the performance of these ST YtZTb“T 8k ed hereafter by supplies to be granted for that purpose by the to you at the earliest 5 I have thought it essential to address this c ° m ^ U ^ a ° d Y ur Lordship may moment at which it has been m my ^ p . lor ’ y0 ur guidance so soon as confidently rely on receiving , decision of Parliament on those I shall be enabled to communicate to you the decision m ^ ^ of ^ points which still remain to e n ^ deep re oi’et that you should be Canada. In die meantime I ^an oidy « “Xufnature, Ind involving called to the dischaige of du , n f responsibility. The personal esteem which at the same time no ordinary ^ of aU ^ art ies in the Province your Lordship appears to have . endeavour to moderate the will, I trust, tend to strengthen your ^ t and assistance of all violence of *«**™W^^ and recognize in those who aclmowledge^e impartially inte ntions of his Majesty to MiTSSr U fo” the intereSs aud we, fare of a,l Casses of his Majesty’s subjects in the colony. j have> &c Enclosure 1, in No. 1. RFSOLimONS intended to be proposed by Lord [Johu M, in a Committee of K LbU L » the whole House, relative to the Affairs of Canada. v . - vt , i That since the 31st day of October, in the year 1832, no provision has been made Enel, l, in No. l. 0 f the Province of Lower Canada for defraying the charges of the admi- nistration of justice, and for the support of the civil government within the said Provmce, D D is ( igdc Inli- ne'' and AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. ; wiI > on ? e 10 , th of April now next ensuing, be required, for defraying in full the charges aforesaid to that day, the sum of 142,160/. 14 s. 6d. ymg in ^ p a Session of L the Legislature of Lower Canada, holden at the city of Quebec in the said I royince, in the months of September and October 1836, the Governor of the of the Hou^ofAs^ mV?"?? *p 1S ^Lijcsty’scommands, recommended to the attention ot the House of Assembly thereof the estimates for the current year, and also the accounts lit Wafe!tv’s a confiden^’firf' tb ° f the , , C ' vil g^ernment, and signified to the said House ms Majesty s confidence that they would accede to the application which he had been ommanded to renew for payment of the arrears due on account of the public service and for the funds necessary to carry on the civil government of the Province. P ’ ( , 3 r Tllat the ® aid H ° us « of Assembly, on the 3d day of October 1836, by an Address to the Governor of the said Province, declined to vote a supply for the purposes aforesaid and of tlmsSp ddreSS> a i fte i re I en i Dg a former Address of the saidHofise to the Governor of the said Province, declared that the said House persisted, amongst other things Tn the , 0 . f , ul Elective Legislative Council, and in demanding the repeal of a certain Act pa.sed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in favour of the North American Land Company; and by the said Address, the said House of Assembly further adverted to the demand made by that House of the free exercise of its control over all the benches o? he cwwr t £r e ; nment; by th V aid Address, the said House of AiSmbly furt£ WtW that . rt Incum }> en t on them m the present conjuncture to adjourn their deli- k v! his Majesty s Government should by its acts, especially by rendering the second branch of the Legislature conformable to the wishes and iants of tL Znle have rn t‘ ? a VV^ e n xisting state ° f Lower Canada, it is unadvisable to make the Legislative adnnw f at Prov \ nce an Plective Bod y 5 but that it is expedient that measures ^ adopted for securing to that branch of the Legislature a greater degree of public com 5. That while it is expedient to improve the composition of the Executive Council in of Assenfoly^of that Province? 516 t0 * t0 the res P onsibdlt y d ^anded by the House hat the 1 t gal tltIe °/ the North American Land Company to the land holden by the said Company, by virtue of a grant from his Majesty, under the public seal of the said Province and to the privileges conferred on the said Company bv the Act for that purpose made m the fourth year of his Majesty’s reign, ought to be maintained inviolate. ? P na 7‘ Vi***? ’? ex P. edient that, so soon as provision shall have been made by law to be twin f y th r L j g ,' S i atUre °\ the sa,d Province of Lower Canada for the discharge of lands “ r and services, and for removing any doubts as to the incidents of the tenuie of land in free and common soccage in the said Province, a certain Act made and passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Fourth commonly called “ The Canada Tenures Act and so much of another Acfpassed fo the relatr a to 0f tlm%1n d late reign, commonly called “ The Canada Trade Act,” as * c * e tenures of land m the said Province, should be repealed savino* recited Acts* ^ PerS ° nS nghtS in them vested under or b y virtue of the said 8. That for defraying the arrears due on account of the established and customarv charges of the administration of justice and of the civil government of the c<>7i p y after applyiLr for ,h„t SrSS 10th day of April 1837, be in the hands of the Keceiver-general of the said Provir,ce la'id^rovTr bis Majesty’s hereditary, territorial and casual revenue, the Governor of the said Province be empowered to issue from and out of any other part of his Maiestv’! rXV^ he ' andS ° f the Pcceiver-general of the said Province such further^ sums i42, .Jo! e7“ ary ,o ,he »•>-“' ° f 9. That it is expedient that his Majesty be authorized to place at the disnosal of the Ug'slature of .he sa.d Prince the Jet ’proceeds of hi. Many’s and casual revenue arising within the same, in case the said Legislature shall see fit ^ grant to his Majesty a civil list for defraying the necessary charge! of tlm administration of justice, and for the maintenance and unavoidable expenses of ceflain of the principal offices of the civil government of the said Province. principal ottices 10. That great inconvenience has been sustained by his Majesty’s subjects inhnhi'tmo- the Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada from the or regulating and adjusting questions respecting the trade and commerce of the raid Pro vinces, and divers other questions wherein the said Provinces have a common interest arid" it is expedient that the Legislatures of the said Provinces respectively be authorized to make provision for the joint regulation and adjustment of such the,? commL mtereste 72. A 4 No i. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Go&ford, 1 1 March 1837. Enel. 1, in So. 1. Enclosure No. 1. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 11 March 1837. Enel. 2, in No. 1. CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE Enclosure 2, in No. 1. MINUTE. Salary to Governor - Ditto to Judges Gaols and Maintenance of the Peace - Salaries of Executive Councillors Ditto - - Civil Secretary - Contingencies of his office - Attorney-general’s salary - Solicitor-general’s ditto - Law Officers’ contingencies - - - - Judges’ Circuit Allowances - - Pensions Retired Allowances ------ Expense of managing Crown Lands and Reserves £. s. - 4,500 - - 10,000 - - 5,000 - 900 - 500 - 500 - 300 - 200 - - 1,800 - 375 - 550 - 112 10 - 2,400 - £. 27,137 10 — No. 2.— Extract of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , XT dated Downing-street, 6 March 1837. No. 2. ° Lord Glenelg to I trust there is no serious danger of any public commotion, still less of any Earl of Gosford, armed resistance. But as a measure of precaution, we shall probably strengthen 6 March 1837. military force very shortly by the temporary addition of two regiments, and the “ Inconstant” frigate will appear in the St. Lawrence as soon as the naviga- tion is open. —No. 3.— No. 3: Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 22 March 1837. Extract of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 22 March 1837. Mv last private letter will have led you to expect a reinforcement of the garrison in Lower Canada, by the addition of two regiments. Since I made that communication to you, I have ascertained that it would not be possible to detach such a force without inconvenience, and making a demonstration which might be productive of much greater evil than it could prevent. But I also find that in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, there are between 2,000 and 3,000 men, who, in case of need, might he drawn from those provinces for your assistance. I have scarcely any apprehension that you will require them ; but should it be necessary, you will transmit the enclosed letter to Sir C. Campbell, who will immediately despatch them to your aid. I should also wish you to keep Sir Francis Head informed of your proceedings and intentions on this subject. The discussion of the Canada Resolutions has been inevitably postponed till after the Easter holidays ; it will be resumed at the earliest possible moment. I shall take the first opportunity of bringing on the subject in the House of Lords. Enclosure in No. 3. Sir, Downing-street, 22 March 1837. Enel, in No. 3. ^ have his Majesty’s commands to desire that you will immediately comply with any requisition which may be addressed to you by the Earl of Gosford, for detaching to his assistance any of his Majesty’s Troops under your command in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Prince Edward’s Island. T , „ 1 have, &c. Sir Colin Campbell, (signed) Glenelg. &c. &c. &c. — No. 4.— Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, No. 4. dated Castle St. Lewis, 8 March 1837. toLord G^enele • A , FE . ELIN( ! of dissatisfaction with the Assembly, in regard to its proceedings 8 March 1837. ’ ! n the last short session - is spreading, but not gone to such an extent as to induce me to suppose that a dissolution at this moment would be desirable ; but it an appeal was now made to the people, I am sure what is termed the majority in AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. in the Assembly would experience a diminution in their ranks ; but, under existing Eart circumstances, I see no positive substantial good to result from a dissolution. t0 Lord Glenelg, Recourse might be had to such a measure when you have determined on the line 8 RJarch lS 37. you mean to adopt for relieving the Province from its present state of embarrass- ment. Coercion, abruptly adopted, might prove fatal, and such a step is therefore to be deprecated, nor can it be justified, except as a dernier ressort after all attempts of a constitutional character shall have failed ; but liberality, I am sure will not be lost sight of by the present Government in any course that may be taken, and whatever is arranged should, I think, be in its character, as far as circumstances will admit, conditional, and made to appear as an act of necessity threatened° ° n ' y *° eV “ S with which ‘'"country is oppreS and tJc™ 1 Send y0U ’ very soon > the names of those I think qualified for the — No. 5 . — (No. 20.5.) Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford dated Downmg-street, 29 April 1837 . My Lord, I have the honour to inform you that the Resolutions on the affairs of Lower r.°' ?\ hav^all W° P} ffi° f w Jj^ h transmitted to you in my Despatch of the 11 th ult., Earl of Gosford, have all been affirmed by 1 lie House of Commons after a very full discussion and 2 9 A P riI l8 37- m those instances in which divisions took place, by large majorities. I enclose for your Lordship s information, extracts from the votes and proceedings of The House containing a statement of the several divisions which have taken place on this subject since I last addressed you. The introduction of the Bill to be founded on their Resolutions must be postponed until after the opinion of The House of Lords shall have been taken on them ; but I have every reason to anti- cipate that it will be submitted to Parliament within a very short period So soon as the Resolutions shall have been disposed of by The House of Lords 1 shall address to your Lordship full instructions on the steps which should be adopted under existing circumstances, especially with reference to the composi- tion of both the Legislative and Executive Councils ; I regret that, owing to the delay which has occurred in passing the Resolutions, arising in great measure from the pressure of public business, I have been compelled to withhold these instructions for a longer period than I anticipated, but your Lordship mav relv on receiving them m ample time to enable you to prepare for the meeting of the Legislature ; whether that meeting should be postponed until the time when the law will require that a Session should be held, or should be fixed for an earlier time is a question which must depend to a certain degree on local circumstances of which your Lordship will have the means of obtaining a far more accurate' acquaintance than I can ; I shall, however, distinctly advert to this point in connexion with the other matters on which I shall have to address your Lordshin and I only refer to it now that you may be aware chat it will not be overlooked and that your own attention may be directed to it in the mean time, with a view to the sound exercise of that discretion which it may probably be expedient tn leave in your Lordship’s hands with regard to it. 1 I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. — No. 6.— Extract of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing- street, 29 April 1837 . In declining to act at once on the recommendations which you submitted in last year for an extensive alteration in the composition of the two tinn ; trUSt , 1 need not assure you that nothing was further from my inten- n than to imply the slightest disapprobation of the course which you had taken n transmitting to me those recommendations ; on the contrary, I received them as an additional proof of the earnest desire which you have alwavs evinced, to leave no constitutional means untried to effect an adjustment of the unhappy differences ' B which No. 6. I.ord Glenelg to Eurl of Gosford, 2y April 1837. No. 6. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, ^9 April 1837. 10 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE . . i 1 an lrmo . ..p-i tated and distracted the Province. The sole ground of my which have so long ag t recommendations was, that his Majesty s it was indispensable to consider the whole of the main questions in dispute at one and the same time, aftei they should have received from the Commissioners a full and final Report on the topics which Aad been referred to them. That time has now arrived, and you will have already been informed that it is our intention to advise his Majesty to make an addition to the Legislative Council, by a careful selection of men of property, character and in u- eSfe in the Province, of liberal views, and entitled to the respect and conhdence of the public, but not committed to the extreme opinions to which I am willing to hope from your recent information, many who have hitherto countenanced them are not disposed pertinaciously to adhere. We are also fully prepared to sanction a reconstruction of the Executive Council. So soon as the Resolutions which lia e now been affirmed by large majorities of The House of Commons shall have been sanctioned by The House of Lords, I shall address to you full instructions as to the course which it will be expedient for you to adopt. In the mean time, 1 shall be most anxious to receive the list ot names referred to in the postscript ot your letter, and I trust that I shall then be enabled at a very early period to transmit to you the requisite authority for summoning such gentlemen to the Councils as, after mature consideration, shall appear fully qualified for this important trust. I need not here repeat the regret and reluctance with which the Government have felt themselves bound to propose to Parliament the adoption ot a course which they would gladly have avoided, had any less objectionable means been within their reach of satisfying those claims, the urgency of which has been so forcibly and repeatedly pressed on us by the Commissioners. In yielding to the necessity thus imposed on us, we have not been insensible to the obligation which we fully admit of conceding to the Assembly whatever in their demands was not inconsistent with the integrity of the Empire and the good faith of the British Parliament. In the policy to be hereafter pursued, I trust that the errors of past times will be avoided, and that his Majesty’s subjects of all classes in Lower Canada will recognize an earnest desire on the part of the Imperial Government to promote, by a just, liberal and impartial administration of public affairs, the welfare and prosperity of the Province, and to meet the deliberate wishes of the inhabitants to the fullest extent which is compatible with their relation to this country. In the present unhappy state of feeling between contending parties, I need scarcely observe that great caution and circumspection must he requisite, in order to avoid the risk of widening existing differences and increasing heats and jealousies, which I am well aware it is your constant aim to mitigate and allay. I am fully alive to the responsibility which rests on you, and to the difficulties which must present themselves at so critical a moment, especially in the selection of individuals for offices of trust and confidence, but I am happy in being able to rely on the judgment and discretion which you have hitherto evinced. No. 7 . I ord Glenelg to Earl of Gofsford, 22 May 1837. (No. 210 .) —No. 7.— Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, Downing-street, 22 May 1837. dated My Lord, I have the honour to inform you that the Resolutions on the affairs of Lower Canada, which you are already aware had been adopted by The House of Commons, having been subsequently communicated at a conference to The House of Peers, have been assented to by their Lordships without a division. In pursuance of those Resolutions, it is the intention of his Majesty’s Govern- ment immediately to introduce into Parliament a Bill, which, in addition to the authority with which it is proposed to invest the Governor to discharge the arrears due for the various public services in the colony, will embrace such of the other topics comprised in the Resolutions as require a legislative sanction. In the meantime, and until you receive the direct sanction of an Act of Par- liament, you will not consider yourself at liberty to depart from the ordinary course to be observed in the appropriation of any portion of the public revenue which has hitherto been subject to the control of the provincial legislature. The opinion, indeed, which has already been so clearly expressed by both Houses of the Imperial Parliament, as to the necessity of investing you with this authority, leaves no room for doubt as to the result of the proposal of the requisite enact- ment AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. i , No. 7. ment lor this purpose ; but his Majesty’s Government are still willing to hope that Lord Glenelg to the exercise of the power to be intrusted to you may not be rendered unnecessary EarlofGosford, by the intervention of the provincial legislature. To avoid the necessity of 22 May l837 ' violating one ol the great principles ot the Canadian constitution, we have been willing to make every sacrifice excepting that of the honour of the Crown and the integrity of the Empire ; and even now we are anxious that the experiment should be tried, whether yet a possibility remains of reconciling the assertion of those permanent interests with the maintenance of the principles of the Par- liamentary Charter of 1791. The interval which must elapse before the proposed Bill can have passed both Houses of Parliament and have been transmitted to your Loidship, affords an opportunity, of which his Majesty’s Government are happy to avail themselves, of inviting the House of Assembly to reconsider the course by which they have attempted to enforce their demands, after they shall have been made acquainted with the deliberate opinion of both Houses of Parliament on the several points at issue. I cannot but entertain the hope that this opinion, expressed in the most decisive manner, after full and protracted discussion, may not be without its due weight on the deliberations of the House of Assembly, and that they will feel that they are best consulting the interests committed to their care by receding from the extreme ground which they have recently taken, and by co-operating with his Majesty’s Government and the Imperial Parliament in effecting those salutary improvements in the provincial government, and the working of the existing constitution, from which real and important benefits may accrue to all classes of his Majesty’s subjects in Lower Canada. The King would not authorize your Lordship to submit to the Assembly any proposal derogatory from the high estimation which justly attaches to the representatives of the Canadian people ; but his Majesty is assured that no real dishonour or well-founded reproach would be incurred by the House if that which has been refused to the executive government, acting alone and unsupported by the British Parliament, should be conceded to the united voice of the imperial legislature. In this hope, and resolved to omit no possible effort for reconciling these differences, his Majesty commands me to instruct your Lordship, on the receipt of this Despatch, to convene the provincial legislature for the earliest day at which it can be conveniently called together. It is, indeed, possible that cir- cumstances with which I am unacquainted, but of which your Lordship will be in possession, may render a strict adherence to this injunction inexpedient. In that case a discretion will, of course, remain with you as to the precise period lor which the legislature should be summoned. Any delay, however, not imperatively demanded by the force of such circumstances appears to me undesirable. You will communicate to them, on their meeting, the proceedings which have taken place in Parliament, and the Resolutions which have been adopted on the affairs of Lower Canada ; you will express to them the deep regret and reluct- ance with which his Majesty's Government have yielded to the necessity of invoking the interference of Parliament, in order to meet the pressing difficulties which other resources had failed to remove in the administration of the affairs of the Province. You will further express to the House of Assembly the anxious hope that you may not be compelled to exercise the extreme power with which Parliament has declared its intention of investing you, in order to discharge the arrears due for public services in the colony, for the payment of which the faith ot the Crown has been repeatedly pledged. You will inform them, that the chief object with which they are called together at present is, that before the Bill founded on the Resolutions shall reach Lower Canada, they may have an opportunity of rendering that part of it which rests on the 8th Resolution unnecessary and inoperative, by a grant of the supplies requisite for the pui poses for which it is intended to provide. You will further express to them the earnest desire of his Majesty’s Government to co-operate with them in the removal ot every obstacle to the beneficial working of the existing consti- tution, and in the correction of every defect which time and experience have developed in the laws and institutions of the Province, or in the administration of its government. You will assure them of a prompt attention on the part of his Majesty s Government to every representation which may proceed from them tending to effect improvements of this nature, calculated to strengthen the connexion subsisting between this country and Lower Canada, by the promo- tion ol the welfare and the interests of all classes of his Majesty’s subjects in * ' 2 * - b 2 the No. 7. Lord Glenelg to Earl ofG.isford, 22 May 1837. 12 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO TIIE the colony. I trust, also, that you will be enabled to appeal to the alterations which may have been made in the composition of the council, as _^P™ of of ^e sincerity with which his Majesty’s Government are disposed to carry into effect the intentions which they have expressed on this head. With reference how- ever to this particular branch of the subject, I must defer any more explicit observations until I shall have received from your Lordship the communication which you have given me reason to expect at an early period, and which, I trust I shall receive in ample time to enable me to address you further respecting it before the meeting of the Legislature. There are other topics which will readily suggest themselves to your own mind as fit to be introduced into vour communication to the Legislature on its meeting ; and I may probably have occasion to refer to this subject in the interval which must elapse before the commencement of the session. I have, however, felt it my duty to give you this general outline of the nature of the speech with which I think it will be desirable that you should address them in his Majesty’s name. It may perhaps be necessary that I should also advert to three contingencies, for either of which your Lordship should be prepared: First. In pursuance of the Resolution with which they separated, the House of Assembly may refuse to meet in sufficient numbers for the transaction of business, or haying met, to proceed to business, or they may resume their legislative duties in the same spirit of resistance which they formerly manifested. Secondly. The House may proceed to business without any avowed spirit of resistance, but their subse- quent proceedings may afford convincing evidence of an intention to postpone to an indefinite or remote period a decision on the application which you will have submitted to them for payment of the arrears. Thirdly. The House may, at their meeting, give proof of a more conciliatory disposition, and may justify the hope that the continuance of the session will issue in the satisfactory adjust- ment of the questions in debate. In the first or the second of these events, it will be alike your duty to proceed to a prorogation. Unfortunate as the necessity of adopting that measure may be, it is yet of light moment compared with that of appearing to fail in decision and fixedness of purpose in the present posture of affairs in Lower Canada. Your Lordship will pursue whatever course may seem best adapted to render it known to the parties more immediately concerned, that if this effort to obtain the co-operation of the Assembly shall fail, the powers w r ith which you may be intrusted by Parliament will infallibly be brought into exercise. If, on the other hand, the House shall meet in such a spirit as to justify the hope of a satisfactory termination of the questions in debate, and should, within a reasonable time, provide for the payment of the arrears, his Majesty’s Govern- ment would most sincerely share in the satisfaction which I am convinced your Lordship would feel in the necessity having been happily removed for the adoption of that extreme and ultimate remedy which the Parliamentary Resolu- tions contemplate. It is further necessary that your Lordship should be prepared to act decisively regarding the demand which the Assembly will , of course, renew for their con- tingent expenses, if they should proceed to the despatch of public business. Under ordinary circumstances, I should regard the admission of this demand as hardly capable of debate. But in the present posture of affairs, it must be admitted cautiously, and not without due reserve. I cannot admit that the Government would be justified, far less that it is bound to give its sanction to the unlimited issue of public funds for the contingencies of the House of Assembly, while that House refuses or fails to provide for any other of the ordinary civil expenditure of the Province. To any application of this nature, therefore, the answer should in substance be, an avowal of your willingness to issue a moderate sum for the immediate expenditure of the House. Further supplies for this purpose should only be issued from time to time, as the exigencies of the public service may demand. It would be right also to consider whether the House should not be required to render an account of the expenditure of the sums already issued for contingencies. There are not wanting motives, at once weighty and obvious, for checking any mismanagement of these funds; while, on the other hand, to with- hold them, so as to impede the free exercise of the functions of the House of Assembly, would be at once useless and unjustifiable. j ^ ave (signed) Glenelg. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 13 — No. 8 . — Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenda dated Castle St. Lewis, 18 April 1837. of your proceedings ; however, you may rely on mv taking every precaution. Lord Glenel S> As to armed resistance, I see no ground for apprehending any thing of the kind. 18 Apnl l837 ' I shall act with all possible vigilance ; at the same time avoid all demonstration of alarm. I shall retain your letter to Sir Colin Campbell, seeing no sort of necessity at Earl of Gosford to present for augmenting the military force of this Province. I have communicated Lord Glenelg, to Sir John Colborne my wish to have a regiment always stationed at Mont- 6 AIa y , 8 37 - real ; but I have not the least expectation of any thing serious. If a dissolution of the present Parliament were to take place, there might be some broken heads, hut nothing in the shape of general or combined commotion. I shall write to Sir Francis Head, and mention the military arrangements about to take place. I earnestly hope that nothing will occur to disappoint the expectation which Lord Glenelg to you had formed of the undisturbed continuance of peace and good order in the Earl of Gosford, Province. 13 June 1837 . I have not yet received the list of names which, in your letter of the 8 th March, you led me shortly to expect ; but I trust that I shall very soon be in possession of all the information on this subject which is essential to enable me to address to you the definitive instructions which it is obviously important you should receive before the meeting of the Legislature. I much regret to inform you that the King has been seriously indisposed during the last week, and though I am happy to say there has been some improvement, I fear his health is in a state to occa- sion great anxiety. This circumstance has necessarily occasioned some delay in the introduction of the Bill relating to Lower Canada, and it is not in my power to state the precise period at which it wall be submitted to Parliament ; but unless any circumstances should have induced you to differ from the opinion which I communicated to you in my Despatch of the 22d ultimo, as to the course to be adopted under existing circumstances in the Province, I am not aware that I could at present add any thing to the instructions contained in that Despatch. Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , dated Downing-street, 29 June 1837. My Lord, ^ 1 he interruption occasioned to the progress of the public business of the Lord Glenelg 1 present Session of Parliament by the melancholy event of the demise of his late Earl ofGosford Majesty, renders it necessary for me to address you without delay as to the I 2 9 June 1837 . course which it is proposed to adopt, with reference to existing affairs' in Lower Canada. Her Majesty’s Government feel, that in the prospect of an early dis- solution of Parliament, it is impossible, consistently with a due regard to the — No. 9. — Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 6 May 1837. —No. 10 .— Extract of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 13 June 1837. No. 10 — No. 11 .— (No. 225.) b 3 +- public No. it. Lord Glenelg to Eaii ofGosford, ag June 1837. No. 12. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 14 July 1837* correspondence relative to the , v • . «. cropped during the present session with several important public interest to proc . d erat i 0 n of Parliament, but stiU in anmcom- measures already un introduce any new measure, the immediate neces- plete / tet 1 ht not so urgent as to render even a temporary postponement sity for which 13 , circumstances, it has been determined not to submit ament during tE Session' the Bill to which I referred in my to Parhament aur s t . which was t0 have been founded on the reso- lution ^ Houses of Parliament on the affairs of Lower Canada. WMe iutions t rmhlio interest and importance connected with the affairs ofthisomntry , Her Majesty’s Government cannot but think that it would be unadHsable to adopt a different course with regard to a measure affecting the pn- vdegeTof ^the Legislature of Lower Canada. Much as they have always lamented the necessity of adopting such a measure under any circumstances, they wou d S ^present moment feel a peculiar reluctance in resorting to it, as they would deeply Regret that one of the first legislative acts of the reign of Her most Sous Majesty should carry even the semblance of an ungracious spirit towards Representatives of Her Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects m that prevmce. At the same time Her Majesty’s Government have not overlooked the necessity rf mlT^ediate proiion for the discharge of the arrears due for pubhc services in the colony ; and with this view they have resolved to propose to The House of Commons, that a vote of credit should be passed for the advance, by way of loan, from the funds of this country, of the sum required for the pay- ment of the arrears. An estimate for this purpose has been already laid on the table of the House, and I have every reason to anticipate that it wiU be readily sanctioned by Parliament. I shall take the earliest opportunity o f informing you of the decision of The House of Commons, which will probably be obtained on Friday the 30th inst., that being the next day on which the Committee of Supply will set. In the event of the vote being acceded to, I shall have to address to you further instructions with reference to the appropriation of the money to the purposes for which it is required. In the mean time, I will only express my earnest hope that the House of Assembly may recognize, m the course recommended by Her Majesty’s Government, a sincere desire to abstain from any interference with their rights and privileges which is not imperatively demanded by the force of existing circumstances, and that the result of the approaching session of the Provincial Legislature may be such as to relieve Her Majesty's Government from the necessity of submitting to Parliament in a future session any enactment founded on the eighth of the series of resolutions which have been agreed to by Parliament. , It will afford Her Majesty the most sincere satisfaction if the commencement of her reign should be marked by the restoration of that confidence and good- will between the House of Assembly in Lower Canada and the Executive Government, the existence of which is so essential to the prosperity of the Province. I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. — No. 12.— (No. 239.) Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , dated Downing-street, 14 July 1837. My Lord, I have recently had under my consideration that portion of the General Report of the Canada Commissioners which relates to the Court of Escheats in Lower Canada, and in which the propriety of calling that Court into operation is dis- cussed at some length. After attentively weighing the arguments adduced on this subject, both in the report and in the letter from Mr. Cochran, 1 cannot hesitate to express my concurrence in the views adopted by your Lordship and your colleagues. I have therefore ' to desire that you will take steps for abo- lishing the office of Commissioner of Escheats, by revoking the letters patent under which Mr. Cochran was appointed. It is not without regret that I adopt a measure which, in a pecuniary point of view, will be seriously prejudicial to Mr. Cochran. The high testimony which c . . - has AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. *5 has been borne to his talents and integrity, both by your Lordship’s predecessors [ ord Giene/^tn and by the commissioners collectively, and the important and responsible offices Earl ofGosford" which he has at different times held under the Crown, entitle him to every con- 14 July 1837. sideration from Her Majesty’s Government. It would therefore be with much satisfaction that I should find it in my power to submit his name to The Queen for an appointment in Her Majesty’s service. I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. — No. 13 .— (No. 240.) Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing -street, 14 July 1837 . MyLord ’ No 14 The delay which has occurred in acting on the Third Report of the Commis- Lord Glenelg to sioners of Inquiry in Lower Canada has not been occasioned by any serious Earl of Gosford, doubt respecting the wisdom of the suggestions which they have there made for 14 Ju,y l837> improving the constitution of the Executive Council of that province. Ihe selection ol the candidates best qualified for seats at that board has formed the real and almost the only difficulty. Your Lordship is aware of the circumstances which have prevented our hitherto reaching a satisfactory con- clusion as to the choice to be made ; and it would be superfluous to make any more particular reference to them in this place. The result, however, is, that I am still unable to submit to The Queen a list of new executive councillors. I feel, however, that it is impossible to acquiesce in further delay. I have therefore humbly advised The Queen to delegate to your Lordship the duty of making the necessary appointments at once, without any further reference to Her Majesty’s Government on the subject ; and I have accordingly received Her Majesty s commands to convey to you her authority for immediately issuing com- missions to any nine gentlemen to be of Her Majesty’s Executive Council in Lower Canada, whom your Lordship shall consider best deserving of that trust. I need scarcely add, that until those appointments shall have received Her Majesty s final confirmation, they must be regarded as provisional only. It would have been very satisfactory to me to have been able to submit to The Queen w arrants for Her Majesty’s signature, appointing the proposed new coun- cillors by name. In that case they would have entered at once on the judicial as well as the administrative duties of the office. It is still more important to remark that such nominations would have enabled The Queen to relieve the existing executive councillors trom duties which I have reason to know have, in some cases, become onerous and irksome to them, while such members of the present board as have at once a just claim and a wish to remain of the executive council might have been reappointed. The entire body would thus at once have acquired a new composition and character. The necessity of leaving a sufficient number of members competent to act judicially, forbids the immediate adoption of this measure ; but it should be clearly understood by the whole council, that it is intended to dissolve and to re-constitute the board so soon as it shall be possible to lay before The Queen the names of the future members. In proceeding to execute the duty of selecting for immediate and provisional appointments nine new councillors, your Lordship will be guided by the princi- ples laid down in the Third Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry. On mature reflection, Her Majesty’s Government are convinced of the foresight and wisdom by which the advice of the Commissioners on this subject has been dictated ; and without affecting to substitute any language of my own for theirs, I will, to prevent misapprehension, transcribe, although at the expense of a very long quotation, the precise passages of the Report to which it is Her Majesty’s intention that effect should be given. They are as follows : 1 . “ We are of opinion that, although not liable to be changed at the will of the Assembly, the Executive Council should be so composed as to secure as much as possible of the confidence of the people. 2. 1 he earliest complaint which was made related, as we have already said, to the too great connexion alleged to subsist between the two councils. On this point the Governor-in-chief has pronounced his intention to act upon the principle, that it is neither right nor consistent with the wholesome 7 2 ‘ B 4 separation Si; I ins; :ie> lffc ml Ml ran. » pi ;olln *,lf ipay I lit ai min,’ akeo teed' veto f the only the itain rely the ler 1 a m aent ood- jtive isl'lr ced 01 piiiiiot or ^ No. 13. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 14 July 1837. 6 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE sraaration and independence of the principal bodies of the Government, Soot of the limited number of executive councillors in this province several should hold offices under the Legislative Council and House of Assembly The adoption of this maxim will, we presume, go to the extent of what is wished in the province; for we do not suppose that any party would desire to render a s^at in either of the legislative bodies incompatible with the office of Executive Councillor. 3 “ Our own opinion is, that although the holding of office under the Crown ought not to be a disquahfication, yet the number of office-holders in the council should never be considerable, probably not more than on an average one in four. We should further say, that there are some functionaries whose duties are such as to render it inexpedient to place them in the executive council, such for instance as the Civil Secretary of the Governor and the Attorney-general. The close connexion ot the Civil Secretary with the Governor appears to us to furnish obvious reasons against his belonging to the council; and with respect to the Attorney-general, as he is in the matter of public prosecutions and in other duties, in some degree the servant of the council, it would be somewhat incongruous that he should sit in it also. . i . , . , 4. “ We recommend that it should never consist of a greater number than fifteen, nor (for any period exceeding six consecutive months) of less than nine. It seems prudent that this interval of six months should be allowed, to obviate any difficulties which might be experienced in filling up the council on the occasion of any change of its members. 5. “ We would advise that the councillors should be appointed in the name of his Majesty by the Governor, under the great seal of the province, and enter at once into all the rights of their office, but subject to confirma- tion or disallowance by his Majesty within a limited time, say one year. 6. “For reasons before-mentioned, we think there should be no exclusion of persons holding office under Government, but that in practice it would probably be expedient that the number of that description should not exceed one-fourth of the whole council. 7. “ We further submit, that amongst the members of council there should be no distinction as to powers, functions or form of appointment, excepting that members holding paid offices under Government should not receive salary as councillors. 8. “ We consider it desirable that the remainder of the councillors should be paid equally not less than the present amount ot 100Z. per annum ; and that it should be proposed to the Assembly to provide for this in any permanent grant hereafter to be made by them; but should the Assembly object to the payment of an increased number of executive coun- cillors, we scarcely think these salaries should be made an indispensable condition in any proposal that may be submitted to them on the basis of our first Report. If all cannot be paid, the junior members might be required to serve without salary, in like manner as the office-holders. 9. “We would suggest, although of course no imperative rule can be laid down upon the subject, that in the Executive Council there should be at least one, and not more than three legislative councillors ; at least two, and not more than five members of the Assembly ; some gentlemen belong- ing to the class of landed proprietors, and others connected with commerce ; one individual at the least of the legal profession ; and that of the persons chosen for the council, it should be endeavoured to take a moderate pro- portion from different districts of the province, though it will be necessary that a number sufficient to ensure at all times a quorum should be resident at or near the seat of government. 10. “We think that the appointment of the councillors should not be made to last during good behaviour, nor require for its termination the assignment of any fault, but that the Governor should be able to remove them whenever on general grounds he might deem it advisable, reporting his reasons without delay to the Secretary of State. 11. “ We would propose the following to be amongst the rules of the council :-r-That during the presence of the Governor at the seat of govern- ment, thei'e should be stated days, not less than two in each month, on which the council shall assemble without a summons. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. >7 12 . “ That it may be assembled by the Governor, by special summons, as often, and at such places, as be may think fit. 13. “ That at each meeting of the council every member shall be entitled to attend ; and that in the issuing of summonses no limitation shall be established, save that rendered necessary by distance or difficulty of com- munication. 14. “ That five shall be a quorum. 15. “ That upon the internal affairs of the Province each member of the council shall have the right of suggesting measures, or tendering advice, whether or not upon subjects introduced by the Governor ; but that no measures affecting the relations of the Province with the Empire shall be discussed, unless they are brought forward by the Governor. 16. “ That the Governor have the power of adjourning any question or subject of discussion, the fact of his doing so being noted on the pro- ceedings. 1 17. “ That the Governor have the power of acting in opposition to the majority of the council ; but that when he adopts that determination, he shall enter it on the minutes, assigning his reasons or not, as he may prefer. 3 18. “ That the members of the council have the privilege of recording theii dissent on the council books, with pr without their reasons-, as they may prefer. 3 19. “ That no meeting of council shall be competent to act as such, with- out the presence of the Governor ; but that he shall have the power, as now, to refer business to it as to a committee in his absence, nothing done in that mode taking the form of a proceeding of council, until ratified when the Governor is present. 20 . “ That the foregoing rule shall be so far qualified in the Governor’s absence from the seat of government as to authorize him to ratify, by letter or by any other mode that may be appointed for the purpose, any pro- ceedings of council which could not without injury to the public service be delayed. 21 . “ That whatever number of members of either branch of the legisla- ture may be included in the executive council, all communications to the Provincial Parliament shall continue to be made, as now, by message. 22 . “That no oath of secrecy shall be taken, and that the members of the executiv e council shall not be considered solemnly bound to secrecy, except on occasions when the Governor may summon them expressly to form a council of secrecy, or resolve any meeting into such a council. 23. “ That before any recommendation of an appointment to the legisla- tive council be sent to the Secretary of State, the Governor shall acquaint the executive council with it, and receive any observations they may make upon it ; which observations, whether made collectively by the council, or individually by any member or members of it, shall be transmitted to Eng- land at the same time with the recommendation of the Governor. 24. “ We apprehend that the council must for the present remain charged with the duty of auditing accounts, as the erection of any other board of audit, or the creation of an auditor-general, is properly a subject for the considera- tion of the legislature. 25. “ There can be no hesitation in pronouncing the appellate jurisdiction entirely unsuited to the executive council, and full of objection. We think it far preferable that his Majesty should be empowered to assent to any Act which may hereafter be passed in the province, than that the British Par- liament should itself enact a new law on the mode of determining appeals in Canada.” Subscribing, in general, to the justice of each of the preceding recommendations, Her Majesty’s Government are of course aware that, of the changes which are thus recommended, there are some which it is not within the limits of the Royal pre- rogative to introduce and establish. For some of them the sanction of Parliament may be required, and there are others which it must rest with the council itself to adopt, to quality or to reject ; and even with regard to such of the suggestions as are within the constitutional authority of the Crown, there may be questions of some difficulty as to the instruments and forms by which that authority should be exercised. 72. No. 13 . Lord Gienelg to Earl of Gosford, 14 July 1837. C I have, No. 13. Lord Glenelg to Karl of Gosford, 14 July iS37* No. 14* Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 14 July 1837. 18 correspondence relative to the „ T^rricLin Her Majesty's commands, that I have, therefore, to suggLtions of the Commissioners of you do give effect to such part s of h |f gr Majesty ’ s delegated prerogative Inquiry already quoted, as m the exercis u and that you avail yourself it mav be competent for you to carry 1 cons ideration of the council, after of the earliest opportunitrof bran^ under tb^co^ ^ th rity and the new appointments shail have been m , , J ^ to such of those, sag- your Lordship, as Governor of the Province, to carry into execution. j k ave> & c . (signed) Glenelg. — No. 14.— Cop^of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to ^ Earl ot Gos f ord > dated Downing-street, 14 July 1837. iHmy Despatch of the 27th May. «he late Majesty’s instructions to convene the legjsla t( j ther and on their earliest day at which it could roiwemen y ^ to the House of Assembly meeting, your Lordship was instructed to tQ assure them of the deep the proceedings which had taken place in Parlia > necess it y of invoking reluctance with which the Government had yield , t ] e c hief object enabled to avoid the exercise of the extreme power w.th which it was the avowed TnTyt%“ ES June. No. 225 I apprized “ consequence of the demise of the Crown, and ™ %£ of Parliament, it had been resolved to propose to /The ^ House olLommmn l L h!ve r now^to announce to your 4 ^o l P ’i 4 ^ Vd sMiild S HerMa- jesty^'disposal^br'this purpose” and’that vote having been incorporated into the pr^w^^um«iir^^i S arid'iir^he a firet e, instarme, to d£ the 1 £ vincial Treasury, the motives which dictated even “ex^ forbra^oe m th nse of the resources placed by Parliament at your Lordship some of their original force. Further, as the money necessary P y ^ the debt is now available for that purpose, the motives or P additional strength satisfy the demands of the public creditors have acquired some additional stren^* It might, therefore, seem that nothing further remaine oi ine amount your Lordship forthwith to draw upon the Lords ot the 1 leasury of the Parliamentary vote. . , ^ ^ npw an d At this distance from the scene of action, and under circumstances so new Jd peculiar, I am, however, unwilling to lay upon your Lords ip y injunction, which in some possible contingencies you might find it imprudent follow, and hazardous to disregard. Mai P <;tv’s The present is an occasion on which I cannot withhold from Her Maj y local representative some latitude of discussion, or relieve your Lords lip i responsibility attendant on the exercise of a discretionary power. It is possible that when this Despatch shall reach Lower Canada, th P vincial legislature may, in consequence of my Despatch of the n v been summoned, and be on the eve of their meeting, or that they may be ac . in session. Without too far indulging hopes, resting, as 1 must confess, ^ AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. l 9 No. 14 . very definite ground, I yet cannot altogether despair that the Assembly, or that Lord Glenelgto some considerable portion of that House, may be disposed to abandon the course Earl of Gosford, which they have so long pursued. If your Lordship should perceive any 14 July 1837- satisfactory reasons for such an anticipation, it might be wise to await for a short time the fulfilment of that prospect, even at the expense of leaving the demands of the public creditors for some short time longer unsettled. Again, it is possible that, in the excitement which unhappily prevails, the Assembly may resort to measures of hostility which it will be indispensable to encounter with firmness, promptitude and decision. In any such emergency, it would be your Lordship’s duty at once to proceed to liquidate the debts due to all his late Majesty’s civil servants, by bills to be drawn upon the Lords of the Treasury for that purpose. The time has passed away in which it was right to pause and to deliberate, and if no reasonable hope should present itself of an amicable close of this protracted discussion, it could not be too soon terminated by acting at once upon the Parliamentary vote. I have therefore to convey to your Lordship the authority of Her Majesty’s Government, either to draw on the Lords of the Treasury immediately for the sum voted by Parliament, or to defer that measure, if for some brief interval. But it is only a very short postponement which I can, in any case or under any circumstances, sanction. The course on which Her Majesty’s Government have most reluctantly entered has been taken under the influence of no light or ordinary motives. To retreat from it, even were retreat now practicable, would be inconsistent with their most deliberate sense of public duty. Deprecating, therefore, every appearance of vacillation where no doubt really exists, it is not without regret that I now convey to your Lordship instructions which contemplate even the possibility of further delay. You will, however, I am convinced, receive and act upon them in the spirit in which they are written, neither blighting any real promise of conciliation by undue haste, nor encouraging the disaffected by any appearance of alarm and hesitation. Either by a grant from the local legislature, or by drafts on the Lords of the Treasury, the payment of the public servants of the Crown in Lower Canada must be effected' within a short time after my present Despatch shall have reached your Lordship’s hands. I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. —No. 15.— (No. 242 .) Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing-street, 14 July 1837. My Lord, . ... ^ 0# In my Despatch of this date, No. 241, I have authorized your Lordship to Lord Glenelgto draw upon the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury for the amount of the Earl of Gosford, Parliamentary grant for Her Majesty’s service in Lower Canada, and I have i+Jwy ™37. also adverted to the possibility of avoiding this measure by a conciliatory adjustment with the House of Assembly. However faint that prospect may be, it is yet necessary that your Lordship should be prepared to encounter a diffi- culty which might present itself in carrying any arrangement of that nature into effect. . , In your Lordship’s Despatch of the 23d January, you have calculated at the sum of 142,160/. 14s. Ad. the debt which on the 1st of April 1837 would be due to the civil servants of the Crown in Lower Canada. I hat calculation has been assumed as the basis of the Parliamentary vote. If your Lordship should be compelled to draw on the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury for the sum so granted by Parliament, your drafts will, of course, precisely cor- respond in amount with the vote, and will be applied in liquidation of all the demands which form the component parts of the general estimate. Amongst these items may be particularly noticed the sum drawn from the military chest in 1834, which must of course be repaid to the commissariat. The demands of Lord Aylmer, of Colonel Craig, of Mr. Buchanan, the agent for emigration, and of Mr. Amyott, will be liquidated in this country by the Lords of the Treasury and the portions of the Parliamentary grant due to those persons you will have to repay into the military chest. I collect from your 20 No. 15. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 14 July 1837. No. 16. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 25 May 1837. CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE , T. . , /r ooj A nr :i i«36 that Mr. Buchanan’s salary has Lordship’s Despidch of 23d Ajrt ^ sum , 0 bc ^ t0 v en h^the 1D Urd” P of tl 1 Treasury will therefore be 300 L, being the estimated amount ^of Mr B chl's half salary from 30th September 1835 to the lS A Mil 1837. The remaining part of that salary will be payable to the gentleman who has officiated for him, to whom also must be paid the sums flue She contingent expenses of the office. Finally there are some services included among the items which compose the amount ol the sum voted In Parlia- ment to which the Assembly have been accustomed to object, on grounds entirely distinct from those on which their general refusal of supplies proceeded. The Crown is, however, plainly responsible for the payment ot these services, as for the others comprised in the same estimate; and in the contingency of your Lordship’s availing yourself of the Parliamentary vote at all, there will be no reason for making any distinction unfavourable to this class of claimants. On the other hand, if the House of Assembly should manifest a conciliatory temper, and should be disposed to vote the supplies, excluding only the debate- able items, your Lordship will not on that account refuse to accept the terms which they may offer. In such a contingency, the services in question must be provided for from any balance of hereditary and territorial revenue which may be at your Lordship’s disposal. Anxious as I am to avoid any encroachment on that fund, yet for such a purpose it would be wisely and advantageously made. Reverting, however, to the far more probable supposition, that your Lordship will be compelled to avail yourself of the Parliamentary grant, and to the neces- sity which would then arise of introducing in the next session of Parliament a Bill to authorize the repayment of the advance from the funds of the Province, it will be necessary that Her Majesty’s Government should be able to distinguish precisely, how far the Parliamentary vote has been applied in the liquidation of charges previously sanctioned by the Assembly in principle and precedent, and of charges to which no such sanction has been given. This distinction will be important, as it may perhaps be necessary to reduce, by the amount of the con- troverted items, the demand to be hereafter enforced against the provincial trea- sury. At present I cannot make that distinction with entire confidence in my own accuracy, but only with an uncertain and, perhaps, an imperfect approach to the truth. I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. —No. 16.— Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg , dated Castle St. Lewis, 25 May 1837. My Lord, The very violent party, who were alone active in calling a meeting of the county of Richelieu, on the 7th instant, to express their indignation at Lord John Russell’s Resolutions, feel much disappointed from the numbers and respectability of the assembly falling so very far short of their expectations. I send you a copy of the Resolutions, and it is unnecessary for me to occupy your time in commenting upon them, as they will speak for themselves. I may, however, state, from authority which I have no reason to doubt, that Mr. D’Es- chambant, a seigneur of the county, who is reported in the newspapers of that party to have moved the second resolution, was not present at the meeting, being confined at the time by illness ; and that the 10th resolution, for raising a tribute for Mr. Papineau, though reported by the same organs to have passed unanimously, was not even proposed at the meeting. Another meeting of the county of Montreal, and called by the same parties, took place on the 15th instant, at vji. Laurent, which was attended by Mr. Papineau, who made a long speech in hi’s usual violent strain, and full of misrepresentations ; I also enclose a copy of the resolutions there passed. In order to give your Lordship some idea of the feelings generally prevalent, as regards the political views and objects of the principal actors in these proceedings, I must remark that these meetings w r ere held, one on a Sunday at the church-door, after divine service, and the other on a fete day, for the purpose of swelling the number of auditors, by including AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. statement in “ The Vindicator,” viz. “ upwards of 1,200 freeholders and the number at St. Laurent assembly, stated on the same authority to exceed 700, did not, from the accounts I have received from various quarters, exceed, including all < escnptions of persons, 300 individuals ; which is the more remarkable, from the meeting being held in the most populous county, and within a few miles of the city of Montreal ; and I understand that Mr. La Fontaine, M. P.P. for Terrebonne, one ot the most ultra of the party, who was to have addressed the meeting, declined from the paucity of hearers. Some other meetings have been held in different parts of the country which have proved failures, and others are in contemplation which I have no doubt will share the same fate. All this tends to confirm me in the opinion I gave in a former letter, as to the probability of a change in public opinion, and that the Canadians were beginning to discover the real views of tlie ultras. I must, howeveF, here observe, that the feeling against the Imperial 1 arliament, authorizing the taking of the money out of the chest, is very strong, and even those who reprobate the withholding of the supplies by the Assembly cannot refrain from an expression of disapprobation at this part of Lord John Russell’s Resolutions. I cannot contemplate the present posture of affairs without considering how far it may be desirable, should the sentiment of distrust against the Papineau party, to which I have alluded, become more marked and decided, to dissolve the Parliament ; and, indeed, my present impres- sion inclines me to a dissolution ; for a new Parliament would, I conceive pos- sess materials much more likely than the existing one, to appreciate any mea- sures you might adopt for meeting the difficulties under which the Province is now labouring ; and should such measures be of a conditional nature, that is to be enforced in the event of a continued refusal on the part of the Assembly to permit the government to go on, it would have a still greater chance of acceptance, and thus the more obnoxious course of applying the money without the consent of the representatives here might become unnecessary. If, in addition . IS » ^he Legislative Council should be at the same time liberalized, and an efficient executive council established, matters might get on smoothly. You may know of difficulties and impediments to this plan, of which I cannot see the force. Nothing is more erroneous, in my opinion, than the supposition that the rrench Canadians are a disloyal body. I have every reason to believe the con- trary , I have not the slightest apprehension of any serious commotion coming out of these meetings, which, as far as regards the district of Montreal, are planned and concocted, and the resolutions framed by the same individuals, few m number, who it is understood are desirous of substituting a republican for the existing form of government. as it is accompanied by the acknowledgment of the justice of the complaints of the country, as far as regards the vicious constitution of the Legislative Council, one of the principal causes which obliged the representation of this colony to refuse supplies, in order to obtain the redress of that grievance whence proceed all the abuses which oppress this I have, &c. (signed) Gosford. Enclosure 1, in No. 16. Meeting of the County of Montreal. province. On No. 16. Earl of Gosfortl to Lord Glenelg, 35 May 1837. Enel. 1, in No. 16. 22 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE On motion of Andrd Jobin, » evpe'ct, f*. «£* t y ho representing “ TS^ ^d^t the very moment that they ployed that means only the better to deceive, a Siting the interference of the Im- *•*-“ “” b “ of °" rnghte ' on motion of Cn P tnin Sfnmslaus Da„d, of Snn.t an Reject, aeconded by Mr. Fun, “"xhatwben we demanded ^ ^ for the good government of this province, we majority of the people of this it should grant us the reforms viewS; J 0 r the recommendations of country ; that it is not in accordance with hu p that 0U r political institutions individuals, strangers to the country and its so 1 ^ a ^ d recommendations ought to be changed, but only m accordance w.th our own^ ^ competent to know the expressed by our freely chosen re P ie * ent ^ th * and to re f 0 rm those institutions, the wants which they participate in common with th ’ at we diate beforehand the feeble direful effects of which they feel as as ^ who se source is left untouched ; palliatives which it is pretended o PP Y j 0 f the elective system, institutions and serve as abasia for good government there, n. On motion of Mr. Joseph Labelle, of Pointe Claire, seconded by Mr. Francs Qnenne- V, “ e ’ That the treacherous conjoined with the tyrannioal measures e P X colonists of all hone of receiving justice majority in the House of Commo , P of more ; UBt and liberal principles shall from the metropolitan authorities, u consequently, we beseech our repre- have the direction of the Councils of Stete , that con^que^ ^ ^ our brother cofonistsTof the n^htoS^winces, th^Hote ofSomZ^that “SlhltpS ^SndXX them not. On motion of Dr. Valois, J. P., of Pointe Chore, seconded by Mr. Lodger Dnvernay, of Montreal : , 1 a cl That under existing circumstances it is urgently necessary o lave Resolved, 5. Inat under existing c r i ro ; n in'y «- r-rs&Si imported and jjyjng ^aUyFomoted by the total abstinence from wines and happiness yo ul ^ be 7" C 9t J ng l y recommend such abstinence to our fellow- spirituous liquors, and that , w f n X n =/ xt _ lace those who do not subscribe to total citizens; that we recomuvend m t P of such as will be manufactured in the abstinence Regards s/ch articles as cannot be raised or many- SS^r d the“^': d «o Pl Sft»se g o„ly that shall be smuggled from the Un, ted States. On motion of Capt. J. Bte. Cadieux, of Pointe aux Trembles, seconded by Mr. Francis Malo, of the same place: Resolved, 7. That another large portion of the provincial revenue ^ ^ riniv r,f two-and-a-half ner cent, on merchandize manufactured in the United *v' n t> of Great Britefo andlrehnd^ paid on their entry at the ports of this province and that a^large portion of this description of goods, especially linens, woollens anrl cot ^ nS ’,^ y be fabricated in this country, or imported from the United States ; that we pledg AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 23 No. 16. ourselves, and recommend our fellow-citizens to use the latter in preference, especially 0 f Gosfoid to when they are aware that such articles shall be manufactured in this province or L orc | Glenelg, smuggled; that we will encourage particularly the establishment of manufactures 25 May 1837. in this province, and regard as well-deserving of the country those who establish or — — encourage the said manufactures; that we do not adopt these measures through Enel. 1, in No. 1 6. hatred of the English people, whom we respect and thank for the sympathy which they manifest for their oppressed Canadian brethren, but through hatred of those injustices which their aristocracy, Whig and Tory, commits against us, and to interest them to break the iron sceptre of their and our oppressors. On motion of Mr. P. P. Lachapelle, jun., of Lachine, seconded by Mr. Joseph Cardinal, of Cote des Neiges : Resolved, 8. That whilst we have nothing to expect from the other side of the Atlantic but injustice, we may alleviate it, and perhaps render it entirely innocuous, by cultivating frequent and friendly communications with our happy and industrious neigh- bours of the United States of America: — that nothing can better advance the prosperity of the country than the extension of our trade with them ; and that the petition wisely adopted by the reformers of Upper Canada, at a recent date, be proposed for the general accep- tation of the people of this province, to be presented to the Congress of the free and happy United States of America at its next session. On motion of Capt. Dubreuil, of Pointe aux Trembles, seconded by Capt. Joseph Mon$trque, of Riviere des Prairies: Resolved, 9. That in case the unconstitutional measures proposed by ministers be adopted, this meeting hopes that the representation of the country will never degrade itself to such a degree as to sanction such usurpations, by voting supplies, so long as justice will be refused to the country. On motion of Mr. Joshua Bell, of Montreal, seconded by Mr. Simon Valois : Resolved, 10. That the most lively gratitude of the inhabitants of all the British Colonies is due, and the most sincere thanks of this meeting is tendered, to the eloquent and virtuous minority, which truly proved, in the House of Commons, that their love of justice embraced the empire in all its extent, and caused it to respect the rights of man in general, and those of the British Colonies in particular ; that w r e seize this opportu- nity to express our thanks equally to the working men of London, and the other English reformers, who have raised their voices in favour of an oppressed colony, and who have perceived that to trample our rights and liberties under foot, was to establish a dan- gerous precedent, and pretext for an attack on the rights and liberties of the English people also ; that we are highly sensible of their sympathy, which we duly appreciate, as well as that of our brother reformers of Toronto, who have also protested against the violation of our common rights. On motion of Joseph Antoine Gagnon, Esq., J. P., seconded by Mr. Fleury St. Jean : Resolved, 11. That we applaud the efforts of our brother colonists and reformers of Nova-Scotia, whose representatives have recently demanded the introduction of the elective principle into the council forming part of their legislature, a government respon- sible to the Commons of the Colony, and the control by the people over all the public revenues, together with other reforms for the general good ; that these demands and complaints have for their source the same evil system of government which has for a longtime called forth the similar complaints on our part; that we are ready to second the efforts of the reformers of Nova-Scotia, and to co-operate with them. On motion of Mr. Joseph Letourneux, of the Tanneries, seconded by Mr. Francis Leonard : Resolved 12. That in the present critical state of colonial liberty, it is of primary necessity that the people of this province make further arrangements for the protection of their constitutional rights, and, with that view, we recommend our brother reformers to elect delegates toaGeneral Convention (of which themembersof the Legislative Council and of the House of Assembly, approving of and countenancing the anti-coercion county meetings now in progress, shall be ex-officio members) to be held, in the course of the summer, at some central and convenient place. That e the said convention might in our opinion, in addition to the ex-officio members aforesaid, be formed of delegates from the several counties, cities and boroughs, in the proportion of twice the number of re- presentatives elected by them to the House of Assembly; and that Messrs. Dr. V alois, E. R. Fabre, George Watson, Louis Roy Portelance, Thomas M‘Naughton, Lrbam Desrochers, P. P. Lachapelle, Stanislaus David, John Dillon, J. Bell, Joseph Ant. Gao-non and Joseph Letourneux, be and they are hereby elected to represent the City and County of Montreal in the said General Convention. On motion of Mr. John Dillon, of Long Point, seconded by Mr. Louis Verdon, of St. Laurent: Resolved, 13 . That a permanent committee, which shall have power to add to its number, be now named to watch over the political interests of this country ; to corre- 72. c 4 bp011 No. 16 . Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, ‘25 May 1837. Enel. 1, in No. 16. Enel. 2, in No. 16. 24 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE i 4 . Vn dip ntlipr counties throughout this and the sister provinces ; to spond on our part mtn to time, necessary to protect our 7 t Sance the cause of good government within these colonies; and to carry into execution, as far as will be within their power, the various recommendations, sug- gestions and determinations agreed to by this meeting. Enclosure 2, in No. 16. Meeting of the County of liichelieu. On motion of Dr. W. Nelson, seconded by Mr. J. B. Auger : 1 Resolved, That we have seen with feelings of the most lively indignation, the Resolutions proposed for adoption in the House of Commons on the (ith March- Resolutions, the necessary effect of which will be to destroy, henceforward, all security for freedom and good government within this province. On motion of L. F. Deschambault, Esq., seconded by Captain Jalbert : 2. Resolved, That the adoption of the said Resolutions is a flagrant violation, on the part of the House of Commons, and of the Government which proposed them, ot the capitulation, treaties and constitutional acts granted to this country ; that these acts and treaties, requiring reciprocal obligations — on our part love and obedience, and on the part of Great Britain, protection and security for our liberty — become virtually annihilated by the violation of its promises by one of the contracting parties. On motion of 01. Chamard, Esq., seconded by J. B. Mignault, Esq. : 3. Resolved, That under these circumstances, we could no longer look on the Government which would have recourse to injustice, violence, and a violation of the social contract, except as an oppressive power — a Government of force the extent of our submission to which must henceforth depend on our numerical strength, united with the sympathy which we shall experience elsewhere. On motion of H. Moger, Esq., seconded by Mr. Al. Marchesseau : 4. Resolved, That the Machiavelian policy which has accompanied all the acts of the Government since the cession of the country ; the bad faith which has characterized them up to the present time ; the imbecility apparent in every page of the Commis- sioners’ Reports, and in the speeches of the King’s ministers, who do not blush to allege our division and our small number as motives for refusing us justice, inspire us only with the deepest disgust and the most sovereign contempt for men who rule over one of the greatest, the noblest people on earth, and for those who support such a Government. On motion of J. B. Durocher, Esq., seconded by Captain Cote : 5. Resolved, That the people of this country have long been expecting justice, first from the Colonial Administration, next from the Metropolitan Government, but always in vain ; — that during 30 years, fear has broken some of our chains, whilst unbridled lust of power imposed on us others more heavy, the high opinion which we entertained of the justice and honour of the English people inducing us always to hope that the Parliament representing them would redress our grievances : — that this last hope having been disappointed, obliges us to renounce for ever the idea of seeking for justice from the other side of the Atlantic ; and, finally, to acknowledge how grossly the country has been deceived with false promises, which led us to fight against a people that offered us liberty and equal rights, in favour of a people preparing for us slavery ; and sad experience obliges us now to acknowledge that our friends and natural allies were on the other side of line 45°. On motion of Captain Beaulac, seconded by Captain H. Chappedelaine : 6. Resolved, That we deny to the British Parliament the right of legislating on what concerns the internal affairs of this Colony, unless with our consent, our participation and at our express demand ; that the non-exercise of. such a right by England was guaranteed to us by the constitution, and acknowledged by the metropolitan authority, when it feared that we should accept the offers of liberty and independence made to us by the neighbouring Republic : — that consequently we regard as null, and of no avail, the Tenures Act, the Canada Trade Act, the Act incorporating the British American Land Company, and the Act which will doubtless be passed on the Resolutions intro- duced in the House of Commons. On AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 25 On motion of Mr. A. Ducharme, seconded by Mr. P. Tetreau : No. 16. 7. Resolved, That henceforth, considering ourselves attached by force to the British Earl Gosford to Government, we will be subject thereto only as to a government of force, waiting on Lord Glenelg, God, our right and on circumstances for a more favourable lot, the blessings of liberty, 2 5 ,8 37> and a more just government; that, as notwithstanding our public revenue, of which the T M metropolitan authority dares to dispose without our control, is about to become in its Enc ‘ 2> ln ^°* l6, hands another means of our oppression, we regard ourselves bound in duty as in honour to resist a tyrant power, in every way at present at our disposal, in order to diminish inasmuch as in us lies the means of oppression. On motion of Capt. L. Doyon, seconded by Mr. L. Metivier : 8. Resolved, That we will abstain, as much as in us lies, from consuming imported goods, particularly those which pay the higher rates of duties, such as tea, tobacco, sugar, rum, &c. — that we will consume in preference the manufactures of the country : — that we will regard as well deserving of the country, whoever shall establish manufactures, whether of cloth, linen, sugar, spirits, &c. that considering the Trade Acts as null, we will regard as lawful the traffic denominated contraband, and will endeavour by all means to favour it, considering those as deserving well of the country who shall embark therein, and as infamous, whoever becomes informer against them. On motion of Charles Olivier, Esq., seconded by Mr. Charles Lebeau : 9. Resolved, That for the purpose of rendering these Resolutions more efficient, this meeting is of opinion that a patriotic association should be organized, the centre of which would be either at Quebec, Montreal or elsewhere, with a view to encourage, by all means in our power, the non-consumption of any goods but those manufactured in the country, or imported hither without paying duties : — that to that end a committee of ten members (with power to add to their numbers) be formed, to communicate with other committees which may be named in other counties that the said committee be composed of Messrs. Boucher-Belleville, J. B. E. Duroclier, 01. Chamard, Jos. Ed. Mignault, F. X. Poitevin, L. Moger, Dr. Dorion, Capt. Beaulac, L. Chappedelaine, and Moyse Duplessis : — that these ten gentlemen have power to name, from among them., two persons to represent this county in any Convention which will hereafter meet. On motion of H. Laparre, seconded by Mr. Dudevoir : 10. Resolved, That for the better regeneration of this country, it is necessary for us all, after the example of Ireland, to rally around one man : — that God has marked such a man, like O’Connell, to be a political chief— the regenerator of a people : — that for that purpose He has endowed him with a strength of thought and eloquence un- surpassed, a hatred of oppression, a love of country, which no promises nor threats of power can destroy : — that that man, already pointed out by the country, is Louis Joseph Papineau ; that this meeting, taking into consideration the happy results obtained in Ireland from the tribute denominated “ The O'Connell Tribute” is of opinion that a similar tribute, under the name of “ The Papineau Tribute” ought to be established in this country ; and that the committees of the non-importation Association should take upon themselves to provide for the collection of the same. On motion of Mr. Simon Marchesseau, seconded by Mr. Ant. Lorendeau : 11. Resolved, That this meeting cannot separate without offering its most sincere thanks to the few but zealous and able speakers who supported our cause in the House of Commons, as well as to those honest and virtuous men who voted with them : — that the working men of London, who, with a spirit of liberality and justice worthy of a free people, have presented a Petition to the House of Commons in favour of our unfor- tunate country, are entitled to our deepest gratitude : — that our friends and brethren of the Political Union of Toronto are equally deserving of our thanks, for the sympathy which they have expressed in our regard in a series of Resolutions passed on the 17th ult., against the measures of coercion proposed by ministers. On motion of S. Cherrier, Esq., seconded by Mr. Godefroy Cormier : 12. Resolved, That this meeting is convinced, that at a general election with which the country is threatened at the instigation of weak and perverse men as ignorant of public opinion at the present crisis as they are devoid of all influence, the electors will testify their gratitude towards their faithful representatives by electing them anew, and by rejecting those who have forfeited their promises and their duty ; who have betrayed the country either by siding with our enemies, or by absenting themselves, like cowards, when the country expected from them the honest expression of their opinion. S. Cherrier , President. J. P. Boucher- Belleville y Secretary. 72. D No. 17 . 26 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 17 . Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 10 June 1837. No. 18 . Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 15 June 1837. Enel, in No. 18. — No. 17 — (N °roPY of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg , dated Castle St. Lewis, Quebec, 10 June 1837. My Lord, In consequence of meetings held and about to be held in different parts of the province, 1 cannot conceal from you my impression, that a system of orgam- En under the influence and guidance of Mr. Papmeau, and a few designing individuals ready to execute his purposes, is at this moment going on. The primary and ostensible object of Mr. Papineau s plan seems to he, to procure a public expression of indignation against the ministerial measures and eventually to excite a hostile feeling against the government, and to establish a convention which he expects will overawe the constituted authorities, and thus carry all his destructive views into execution. Under this conviction, I am prepared to adopt prompt measures, should they be necessary, to check the evil in its infancy. I contemplate therefore issuing a proclamation, warning the people against the misrepresentations and machi- nations of the designing, and exercising the discretion you confided to me, for increasing the military force here, by despatching your letter to Sir Colin Camp- bell with a request for one of the regiments now stationed at Halifax. i’ must repeat, that these steps would not be dictated by the apprehension of any serious commotion, for I have every reason to believe that the mass of the Canadians are loyal and contented, but from the persuasion that the presence of a larger military force in this province might of itself prevent the occurrence of any disturbance, by deterring the ill-disposed, securing the wavering and giving confidence to the timid. I have, &c. (signed) Gosford. — No. 18.— (No. 6 o.) Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg , dated Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 15 June 1837. My Lord, With reference to my Despatch of the 10th instant (No. 59), I have the honour to acquaint you, that for the reasons therein stated, I thought it advisable on further reflection at once to forward your letter to Sir Cohn Campbell, with a request that he would send to this province one of the regiments under his com- mand ; and I have also, with the advice of the executive council, this day issued a proclamation, of which I enclose a copy for your Lordship’s information. (signed) Gosford. Enclosure in No. 18. Province of Lower Canada. His Excellency the Right honourable Archibald Earl of Gosford, Baron Worlingham of Beccles, in the county of Suffolk, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, Vice Admiral of the same, and one of His Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, &c. &c. &c. A Proclamation. Whereas certain of His Majesty’s subjects in different parts of this Province, have recently held public meetings, and thereat adopted resolutions having for their object the resistance of the lawful authority of the King and Parliament, and the subversion of the laws, on the observance of which, the welfare and happiness of all His Majesty’s subjects, under Divine AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 27 Divine Providence, chiefly depend : And whereas at such meetings, evil disposed and Earl of Gosford to designing men, the instigators thereof, have by artifice and misrepresentation, endeavoured Lord Glenelg, to spread abroad statements and opinions inconsistent with loyal duty to His Majesty, and 15 June 1837. with the acknowledged principles of the constitution, injurious to the lawful authority of His Majesty and of His Parliament, and tending to persuade His Majesty’s subjects that Enel, in No 18. they are absolved from their allegiance, that they can no longer depend on the parent state for justice and protection, and that they must seek for the same, when a convenient oppor- tunity offers, by other means : r And whereas it is both my resolution and my duty to maintain and defend to the utmost, against all such unlawful proceedings and attempts, the undoubted prerogatives and powers of His Majesty and of His Parliament, in order to maintain and secure the institutions both civil and religious, of His Canadian subjects, and to preserve peace and good government in this province : And whereas upon the occasions aforesaid, representations have knowingly been made, entirely devoid of truth, for the purpose of inducing His Majesty’s subjects "to swerve from their allegiance, and of producing a belief that the Parliament of the United Kingdom has violated or intends to violate the just rights and privileges of His Majesty’s subjects in this province, and is about to adopt oppressive measures towards them : Being desirous of undeceiving such as may unwarily have been led to rely upon such untrue and mischievous representations, it has become my duty, as the representative of His Majesty, to address myself most earnestly to the people of this province, in the confidence that they will listen to the language of reason, respect unanimously those precepts of just subordination inculcated by the laws of their country, and by no act of reckless indiscretion, either compromise their present happiness and future prosperity, or permit those permanent interests to be compromised by others; — I do therefore, by and with the advice and consent of His Majesty’s executive council of this province, hereby most solemnly exhort all the subjects of His Majesty in this province, to unite in the cause of peace and good order, to discontinue all writings of an exciting and seditious tendency, and to eschew all meetings of a dangerous or equivocal character ; and I do hereby enjoin and strictly command all magistrates in and throughout the province, all officers of militia, peace officers and others His^Majesty’s good subjects therein, to oppose and frustrate the insidious designs adverted to in this proclamation, and to preserve by their loyal co-operation, the vigour and inviolability of the laws, on which their religion and future happiness depend. Given under my hand and seal at arms, at the Castle of St. Lewis, in the city of Quebec, the fifteenth day of June One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, and in the seventh year of His Majesty’s reign. By his Excellency’s command, D. Daly f Secretary of the Province. — No. 19.— (No. 245 .) Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , dated Downing-street, 22 July 1837. My Lord, N I have had the honour to receive your Despatch of the 15th June, No. 60, i 0 rdGienel to reporting the measures which you had felt it your duty to adopt, in conse- Earl of Gosford, quence of certain proceedings which had occurred at public meetings in Lower 22 July 1837 . Canada, called for the purpose of expressing opinions on the resolutions, relative to Lower Canada, lately passed by both Houses of the Imperial Parliament. Her Majesty commands me to convey to you Her approbation of the measures which you have reported, although the Queen deeply regrets that any circum- stances should have occurred to render them necessary. Fully appreciating, however, the difficulty of the situation in which you are placed, Her Majesty feels assured that, with the forbearance and self-command necessary to the safe conduct of the public affairs of Lower Canada in the present exigency, you will combine such decision and firmness as will effectually establish the public con- fidence if it should unhappily be necessary to resort to the use of the powers with which the law has entrusted vou. , , J I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. D 2 72 . No. 20. No. 20 . Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 25 July 1837. No. 21 . Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. 26 June 1837. Enel. 2, in No. correspondence relative to the — No. 20.— ^o'pytff a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , dated Downing-street, 25 July 1837. T h AVE^ had' the honour to receive your Despatch of the 25th May, marked a Confidential/ ’ enclosing extracts from the “ Vindicator newspaper, in which are detailed the proceedings at two public meetings called to express opinions on the resolutions, respecting Lower Canada, lately passed by both Houses of the Imperial Parliament. I need not assure your Lordship ot the deep interest with which I regard the present state of Lower Canada, although I confidently trust that nothing will occur to disturb the public peace. Your Lordship will ot course keep me regularly informed of all proceedings which may in any way bear on the great questions at present in debate in the province. I have, &c. ('signed') Glenelg. — No. 21.* — Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg , marked “ Confidential,” and dated Castle St. Lewis, 26 June 1837. W ith reference to the Despatches which have passed between us on the sub- ject of appointments to the Legislative and Executive Councils, I am induced to forward the enclosed list of names, w 7 ith such observations annexed to each as may perhaps afford you some assistance in arriving at a conclusion as to their qualifications and fitness for those bodies. I have had considerable difficulty in making out this list, and though I cannot take upon myself to affirm the com- plete accuracy of all the remarks, yet, judging from the sources I have had recourse to for information, and from my knowledge of many of the individuals comprised in the list, I am inclined to think it is as correct as, considering all things, could be expected. I have not placed the names on the list in the order in which they should be selected ; indeed I found I could not do this without some personal knowledge of each of the individuals mentioned in it. With reference to the list of those whom, in my Despatch of the 26th April 1836, I recommended for seats in the Legislative Council, recent events have led me to doubt the propriety of placing some of them in that branch of the Legislature. Should it be thought desirable to increase the Legislative Council beyond the additional 10 recommended, I have only to refer you for selection to Enclosure No. 1. I regret not having forwarded you the list sooner, but you can form no idea of the difficulty and time it took to prepare it. Enclosure 1, in No. 21. List of Names and Remarks. 21 . Enclosure 2, in No. 21. List of Gentlemen recommended by the Earl of Gosford to be appointed to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. 1. Hertel de Rouville. 2. John Neilson. 3. Melcliier Alphonse de Salaberry. 4. Janvier Denteuil Lacroir. 5. Amable Dionne. 6. C. C. Sabrevois de Bleury, m. p. p. 7. John Hangman. 8. Gabriel Marchand. 9. Malcolm Fraser. 10. Ren6 Edouard Caron. Enclosure AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 29 Enclosure 3, in No. 21 . Names of Gentlemen recommended by the Earl of Gosford for Seats in the Executive Council of Lower Canada. 1. Pierre Dominique Debartzch, Legislative Councillor. 2. Dominique Mondelet, Honorary Executive Councillor. 3. Fred. Auguste Quesnel, King’s Counsel at Montreal. 4. John Neilson. 5. Elzear Tachereau, Seigneur. 6. George Vanfelson, Advocate at Quebec. 7. Andrew Stuart - ditto, and m. p. p. 8. Hector Simon Huot, ditto and ditto. 9. Rene Edoward Caron, Advocate, and late Mayor of Quebec. 10. Jaques Viger, late Mayor of Montreal. 11. William Sheppard, Merchant, Quebec. 12. George Pemberton - ditto - ditto. 13. Louis Panet, Notary-public, Quebec. — No. 22.— Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , dated Downing-street, 22 August 1837. I have received your Lordship’s Despatch of the 26th June, marked “ Con- fidential, ’’enclosing lists of the gentlemen whom you propose to advance to seats in the Legislative and Executive Councils of Lower Canada. Before this Despatch can reach your Lordship, you will probably, in pursuance of my instructions of the 14th ultimo, No. 240, have appointed to the Executive Council nine of the thirteen gentlemen whose names appear in the Enclosure, No. 3, to your Despatch of the 26th June. In preparing that list, your Lordship would seem to have assumed that provision w r ould have been made by Parliament for relieving the Executive Council from their judicial duties, and that conse- quently there would be an end of the impediment which has hitherto virtually excluded from that body all gentlemen engaged in the active pursuit of the legal profession as advocates. The list, therefore, comprises five names drawn from that class. You were entitled to act on this anticipation, which, but for the demise of the Crown, and the consequent dissolution of Parliament, would probably have been verified. But as for the present, at least the judicial powers of the Executive Council remain, and as every member of it appointed by royal manda- mus is qualified for the exercise of them, and is therefore incompetent to practise at the bar of that tribunal, it would be unreasonable to expect that Messrs. Vanfelson, Stuart, Huot, Palet or Mondelet would accept an office involving so serious a pro- fessional sacrifice. The same objection might seem to apply to the case of M. Ques- nel, who is also a member of the bar ; but I understand, from private intelligence, that he has retired from the pursuit of that profession. He may, therefore, not feel any objection to disqualify himself for advocating appeal causes. Thus, from the list contained in the enclosure No. 3, five names must for the pre- sent be excluded in the choice to be made by the Queen, and the persons imme- diately eligible by Her Majesty are reduced to the number of eight. As, however, the difficulty does not apply to the case of appointments made provisionally by the Governor, and without a royal mandamus, I conclude that the five gentlemen in question, or some of them, will be Executive Councillors, in virtue of nomina- tions made by your Lordship in exercise of the authority of which you are in possession. Considering the influence exercised in the local society by the faculty of advocates, how large a proportion of the persons most distinguished for ability in public affairs are of that profession, it seems of importance that several members of the Executive Council should be lawyers. I should have wished to submit to the Queen, without any alteration, the list as prepared by your Lordship ; but the difficulty to which I have referred has obliged me to take another course. I think it best that for the present five only of the gentlemen recommended by your Lordship should receive appointments directly from the Crown ; and I transmit herewith the necessary instruments, nominating Messrs. Debartzch, Quesnel, Neilson, Caron and Pemberton. Ihere seems to be no reason why each of them should not at once be called to the Council Board by royal mandamus. Thus the Executive Council will for the present consist of the five gentlemen just mentioned, and of any others whom your Lordship may have provisionally 72 . n 3 appointed, No. 21 . Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 26 June 1837. Enel. 3, in No. 21. No. 22 . Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 22 August 1837. No. 22. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 22 August 1837. No. 23. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 4 July 1837. 3 o CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE „ nnn ; nt „j nnf i 0 f the former members Messrs. John Stuart, Heney, Smith, Efand Cochrane But I am led to think that Messrs. Smith, Deleryand Cochrane will avail themselves of this opportunity of resigning their seats 1 and in this case you will convey to them the expression of the grateful sense which Her Majesty entertains, and has commanded me to express of the value of the services rendered by them as members of the Executive Council. Your Lordship is aware that it had been the intention of Her Majesty s Government to re-compose entirely the Executive Council, and with that view to cancel all the existing appointments. If this course had been taken I should have recommended to the Queen to include Messrs. John Stuart and Heney in the new list, so that the present measure will be in substance, though not in form, identical with that which was contemplated, with the exception that the councillors practising at the bar will not hold their seats by the direct nomina- tion of Her Majesty. , .. 4 , x In your Lordship’s Despatch of the 26th June, you have supplied a list ot ten gentlemen to be added to the Legislative Council of the province, I have accord- ingly submitted their names to the Queen, and have the honour to enclose the necessary instruments under Her Majesty’s signet and sign manual, appointing them to be legislative councillors for Lower Canada. You will have the good- ness to intimate to each of these gentlemen, that although Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve and confirm your selection of them, yet that as this addition is made to the Legislative Council at a time when the deliberations of Parliament respecting the constitution of that body have been suspended, and are about to be resumed, they must enter the council on the clear understanding that they hold their seats subject to any modification which it may be the plea- sure of the Legislature to make in the existing law. It remains only for me to observe, that I have, to the best of my power, inquired and satisfied myself that, in the selection of the names to be added to both councils, regard has been had to the principles by which the Commissioners have advised that the choice should be regulated. I refer especially to their advice as to the professions and places of residence of the members, their tenure of offices of emolument under the Crown, and the introduction into the Execu- tive Council of a certain proportion of members from either branch of the local legislature. On this subject, however, it is of course impossible for me to advance beyond the assertion of the general principle, that the advice of the Commissioners is to be strictly followed, and the expression of my confidence that, if by any oversight or inadvertence any departure from it has occurred in the selection which your Lordship has made, you will report the fact to me, in order that the error may be promptly corrected. I have, &c. * (signed) Glenelg. — No. 23.— Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg , dated Castle of St. Lewis, 4 July 1837. Lest you should draw your conclusions of what is going on here from such statements as those made in the *’ Minerve” and “ Vindicator” newspapers, I am induced to write a short letter, merely to acquaint you that Mr. Papineau with a few of his party have been actively employed in attending meetings in different parts of this province, with the view of exciting and inflaming the minds of the people (nominally) against Lord J. Russell’s Resolutions ; but in fact, to dissemi- nate doctrines of an illegal and seditious tendency. The papers above mentioned would lead you to suppose that Mr. Papineau’s efforts have been attended with great success ; but from all the reports which have been made to me of the proceedings at these meetings, I am led to conclude that the accounts given in those journals are, to say the least, greatly exaggerated ; indeed, in some instances the results have been what may be called a failure. Mr. Papineau is, from all I can learn, losing ground. The country is quiet. Though I should imagine that Mr. Papineau’s party have emissaries employed in various direc- tions working mischief, it requires caution and vigilance ; but I do not see any ground for apprehending any thing like serious commotion. No. 24. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 3i — No. 24.— (No. 69.) Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 1 1 July 1837. My Lord, In my Despatch of the 15th ultimo (No. 60), I informed your Lordship, that in consequence of the meetings for objects of an illegal nature, held and about to be held in different parts of the province, I had deemed it necessary to issue the proclamation of which I enclosed you a copy, and to request from Sir Cohn Campbell a reinforcement of the troops here, to the extent of one regiment ; and I now propose to acquaint you with the steps I have taken, and the events that have occurred in this matter since the transmission of that Despatch. Shortly after the issuing of the proclamation, and in order to publish it as extensively as possible, I took advantage of the assemblage and review of the militia, which occurs annually throughout the province on the 29th of June, to order, as captain-general of that body, that the proclamation should be read at the head of each regiment. This order was complied with in the great majority of instances, but in some I believe it was disobeyed, and even treated with con- tempt. I have not, however, yet received any official information on these points, except in one case, that of Lieut. -Colonel Raizenne, commanding the 3d batta- lion, in the county of Two-Mountains, where the spirit of violence and agitation has most strongly developed itself. This individual declared his intention not to read the proclamation, in a letter addressed to the provincial secretary for my informntion, the tone and tenor of which was such as to aggravate the offence. I have accordingly caused it to be intimated to Mr. Raizenne, that in consequence of disobedience to orders, His Majesty had no further need of his services. Some of the magistrates also have, I am informed, acted improperly on this occasion. One, a Dr. M. F. Valois, of the county of Montreal, whose conduct has been officially brought before me, I have called on for an explanation, and if it be not given, or prove unsatisfactory, I shall feel it my duty at once to strike him out of the commission of the peace. No one can regret these measures more than myself, but a few examples appear to be necessary, and will, I believe, have a very salutary effect, especially as it has been part of the policy of the ill-disposed to create an impression that the Government is unwilling or unable to act, and that it may be set at defiance with impunity. From the best information that has reached me, I have reason to think that the proclamation has been useful, for although a few meetings have been held subsequently to its appearance, yet I believe they have proved failures, and are scarce worth noticing. Mr. Papineau has been recently visiting various parts of the district of Quebec, for the purposes of agitation, but apparently with very little success. Before quitting the subject of meetings, I must mention one that took place on the 6th instant, in the city of Montreal, of quite an opposite nature to those I have already noticed. It was called by a requisition signed by upwards of 1,200 individuals, and was far more numerously attended than any that had yet been held, the numbers being estimated at about 4,000, amongst whom were many of French Canadian origin of great respectability, and some who had hitherto gone with the Papineau party. The objects of the resolu- tions that were passed, four in number, and copies of which are enclosed, are to justify the measures of the Imperial Parliament, on the ground of their being rendered necessary by the refusal of the Assembly to grant the requisite appropriations for the administration of justice and the support of the civil government of the province ; to disapprove of the conduct of the Assembly in refusing to proceed with the public business ; to reprobate, in strong terms, the resolutions adopted and measures recommended at the meetings of the oppo- site party ; and, finally, to express a conviction that all real grievances will be fully redressed by His Majesty’s Government, and that a continued connexion of the province with Great Britain is essentially necessary for the prosperity and improvement of the former. It is intended, I understand, shortly to have a meeting of a similar nature in this city. I have mentioned to your Lordship, that the greatest excitement and violence appears to have been displayed in the county of the Two-Mountains, and this 72. i> 4 has No. 24. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelc:, 11 July 1837. No. 24. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 11 July 1837. Enel, in No. 24. No. 25. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 27 August 1837. 32 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE 1- +1^ lpno-tVi of iniuring the property and discharging fire-arms into the has g° ne to the ^ 1 j u g disp0 s e d, and refuse to join the ranks or parti- U political opponents. One or two acts of Om description haring come officially to my knowledge ; I mstantiy issued a Prodamation offering a reward for the apprehension of the offenders, and despatched the Attorney-general to Montreal, which is in the district and near the^spot where the outrages have been committed, with instructions to a opt prompt and vigorous measures for maintaining the supremacy of the laws and bringing its violators to justice. These measures, and the arrival fiom Halifax of the 83d regiment in two vessels of war which have just come into port, will, I am confident, produce tranquillizing and excellent results throughout the province; and I may close this Despatch with a repetition of my conviction, that no disturbance or serious interruption of the usual course of events is likely to occur. I have, &c. . Enclosure in No. 24. (No. 1,371.) Copy of Resolutions passed at a Meeting held in the City of Montreal, on the 6th July 1837. Moved by Jules Quesnel, Esq. j.p., seconded by John Molson, Esq. 1st. That the unjustifiable refusal of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada to make the necessary appropriations for the administration of justice and the support of the civil government of Lower Canada has been the principal cause of the Resolutions brought forward by His Majesty’s Ministers, and adopted by the Imperial Parliament. Moved by William Robertson, Esq. m.d., and seconded by C. S. Debleury, Esq. m.p.p. 2d. That this meeting highly disapproves of the outrageous proceedings of the majority of the House of Assembly in their express refusal to proceed with the public business, in their declared resolve not to cc-operate with the government, and in their fixed determination to continue the course of policy pursued by them, all which are productive of great evil to the province generally, ruinous to the commerce of the country, and fatal to the interests of the agricultural and labouring classes. Moved by P. E. Leclerc, Esq. j.p., seconded by S. Bagg, Esq. 3d. That this Meeting cannot too forcibly express its abhorrence of the immortal and disorganizing effects of the Resolutions adopted, and measures recommended at public meetings recently held in various parts ot this province, and that this meeting reprobates them as detrimental to the welfare of the country, and directly opposed to the sentiments of fidelity to His Majesty and devotion to His Government generally, entertained by his loyalC!anadian subjects throughout the province. Moved by the Honourable P. M'Gill, seconded by Edmund Barron, Esq. 4th. That this Meeting is impressed with the conviction that the real and acknow- ledged grievances of His Majesty’s subjects in Lower Canada will be fully redressed by His Majesty’s Government, that the continued connexion of Lower Canada with the parent state is essentially necessary for the prosperity and improvement of the province, and that any attempt to disturb that connexion and produce a dismember- ment of the empire is directly contrary to -the opinion as it is absolutely opposed to the wishes and interests of this meeting. (No. 259.) — No. 25.— Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford , dated Downing-street, 27 August 1837. My Lord, I have the honour to acknowledge your Despatch of the 11th July, N o. 69, reporting the course of public affairs in Lower Canada since your proclamation of the 1 5th June; the steps which you have taken to vindicate the law and repress disturbances of the peace, and the proceedings at a numerous meeting held in Montreal on the 6th July. I have laid this Despatch before The Queen, and have received Her Majesty’s commands to signify to you Her gracious approbation of the measures which you have adopted, and of the loyal and constitutional proceedings of Her Majesty s subjects assembled at the meeting in the city of Montreal, on the 6th of July. 3 I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 33 — No. 26. Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle St. Lewis, 25 July 1837. I have had a letter from the Attorney-general, who I sent to Montreal for the purpose of inquiring into some outrages that had been committed in the county of Two Mountains. That district was perfectly tranquil until Mr. Papineau held his meeting in it ; and I have no doubt that the violent inflammatory speeches that were made at it, and the gross misrepresentations which were promulgated, were the cause of the lawless proceedings which followed. The last account I had from the Attorney-general was very favourable, and I have reason to hope that peace and order will soon be restored. I am happy to add, that there has been no occasion to call in the aid of the military. The Attorney-general will return here immediately, and should I hear any particulars from him worth communicating, I shall lose no time in making you acquainted with them. — No. 27.— Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. (No. 80.) Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, My Lord, 7 August 1837. I have the honour to transmit to you herewith, for the purpose of being laid at the foot of the Throne, the enclosed Loyal Address, which has been this day presented to me by a numerous deputation from a public meeting of the inhabi- tants of this city, which took place on the 31st ultimo, expressing their disappro- bation of the proceedings of other meetings of an opposite tendency that have been held in various parts of the Province, and conveying an assurance of their fidelity to the Crown, and attachment to the connection between this Province and the United Kingdom. The meeting, which was conducted in the most orderly and peaceable manner, was summoned by a requisition, signed by, 1 understand, about 3,000 persons, and attended by upwards of 6,000 of all classes of the inhabitants of the city and vicinity of Quebec. I beg to enclose a copy of the Answer which 1 returned to the Address, and Have the honour to be, &c. Gosford. Enclosure 1, in No. 2 /. TO His Excellency the Right Honourable Archibald, Earl of Gosford, Baron Worlingham of Beccles, in the County of Suffolk, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of Lower Canada, &c. &c. &c. May it please your Excellency, We, Her Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the undersigned inhabitants of the city and vicinity of Quebec,' forming a committee of a public meeting held on the Esplanade, on Mon- day the 31st July now last past, for the purpose of expressing the opinion of the said meeting on certain attempts made at other meetings held in different parts of this province, and to convey their said opinion to Her Majesty’s Government, humbly approach your Excellency, as representing our gracious Sovereign in this province, 111 conformity to ttie resolution by which we are appointed, and most respectfully represent, on the part of the said meeting : That we have observed, with deep regret, the attempts which have been made at meetings recently held in different parts of this' province, to disseminate disrespect for the public authorities, and disaffection towards the British Government and Parliament, and to excite to the violation of the laws. . . , . That whatever differences of opinion may have prevailed in the province in regard to its public concerns, the inhabitants thereof have hitherto maintained a distinguished character for fidelity to the Sovereign, a love of public order, and obedience to lawful authority; and that it is our duty and determination still to maintain this character, and » I CSlSt No. 26. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 25 July 1837. No. 27. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 7 August 1837.} E nclosure, No. i. 3 August 1 8 37. Enclosure, No. 2. 7 August 1837. Enclosure 1, in No. 27. No. 27. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. Enclosuie 1, in No. 27. 34 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE resist to the utmost all acts or ££ " *" * * British Crown, or against the P I ’ sent un f 0 rtunate condition of public affairs That we feel the entire and dissections which in this province is in gre, part ow.ng^the ^ J this Province, and that have preva.ledintheLe^ I thes ° e misu nderstandings and dissensions for the LurT,* and ^ in the cordial union of alf classes in promoting the peace, welfare, and good S0 Thft n !t is equaU^the'duty and interest of the government and the subject in the colony to co-operated the remedy of all abuses which may be found to exist, to the end that the peace and prosperity of the province may be effectually promoted, and all classes of 1 1 Fnhabitants P be maintained in equal rights, and in the full enjoyment of secur.ty of person and property, and all the peculiar privileges which they enjoy, or to which they are ’^Kt'undt/Uie present circumstances, it is our duty humbly to assure Her Majesty’s Government that it may fully rely on our fidelity to the Crown, and affectionate attach- ment to the' connexion subsisting between this province and the United King om 0 G TebegTavfto I i a ur d e your Excellency, that the persons who attended at the s^d meeting, and concurred in the sentiments now expressed, formed a majority of the inhabi- tants of the city of Quebec ; and they humbly pray, on the part of the said meeting, that the aforesaid expression of their opinions and their loyal assurances may be transmitted to Her Majesty’s Government in England. Quebec, 3 August 1837. Joseph Deblois. J. Neilson. L. G. Berthelot. M. Berthelot. M. Borne. Pierre M. Paquet. P. Julien. E Joseph Gagn£. James M'Kenrie. L s Fiset. Jean B te Henauld. J. B. Finhete, jun. Thomas C. Lee. L s Prevost. J. W m Woolny. Jacques Le Bland. Ebenezer Baird. Benj. Corriveau. P. Dasilva. Th. Baillaingi. Geo. W. Cullin. Aug. Amiot. Ant. A. Parent. Pierre Lavaie. Pierre Robitaille. Julien Chrinnard. Jno. Thomson. E. Glaekerneyer. James Gibb. J. Jones, jun. Michel Hamel. Christian Hoffman. F a Buteau. R. Haddan. Chr. Phillips. Nicolas Wells. A. Anderson. William Henry Roy. John Lily. Anelu Gaudy. L* Lesbert. H. Le Meunier. Allan Gilmour. L. Windsor. F. J. Parent. John Hummel. Thomas Tweddell. H. Bristow. J. Crimaire. Jacques Drolet. Dunbar Ross. James Dean. Franc 8 Jacq 3 Seguin. W m Marsden. D. Roy. Jno. Fraser. Benj n Cole. W m Burke. F. X. Malonir. Aug. Amiot. Peter Sheppard. J. Duval. J. J. Nesbitt. J. Fraser. Alexis Trimblay. Geo. Bumselyents. Wm. L. Hunt. P. Dorion. W. K. Wobord. W. H. Anderson. Ch s Deguise. Cha s Langevin. E. G. Camion. Peter D. Langtais. Ignace Legnare, pere. T. A. Young. Joseph Falardeau Cess. Lorette. R. Symes. W. Power. Enclosure 2, in No. 2 7 - Enclosure 2, in No. 27. Gentlemen, I shall have much pleasure in transmitting, as you request, to Her Majesty’s Government in England, the address which you have just presented to me for that pur- pose ; and I feel convinced that Her Majesty will receive with entire satisfaction the assurances of fidelity to the Crown, of obedience to the laws, and of affectionate attach- ment to the connexion between this Province and the United Kingdom, which so numerous and highly respectable a portion of the inhabitants of the city and vicinage of Quebec have thus come forward to tender. These assurances, in conjunction with that union of loyalty and public spirit which has so recently been manifested in this town, cannot fail to prove peculiarly acceptable at a time when the most artful and insidious attempts have been resorted to, to disseminate doctrines at variance with morality and justice, and tend- ing to the overthrow and violation of those laws and institutions which secure to the whole body of Her Majesty’s Canadian subjects the rights and immunities which they now possess and enjoy. While I deeply regret these attempts, and while my earnest endeavours shall be directed to avert the calamities they are calculated to produce, I can assure you that I shall not cease to adhere to those principles which I have ever held, and shall be always ready and anxious, while I fill the high situation confided to me by our gracious Sovereign, to co-operate AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 35 co-operate in the remedy of abuses, in promoting the welfare and happiness of this pro- vince, and in maintaining all classes of its inhabitants in the full and peaceful enjoyment of equal rights. Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 7 August 1837. — No. 28 .— Copy of a DESPA 1CH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford. (No. 270.) My Lord, Downing-street, 20 September 1837. I have had the honour to receive and to lay before the Queen your Lordship’s despatch, No. 80, ot the 7th August, enclosing a loyal address, which had been presented to you by a deputation from a public meeting held in Quebec on the 31st July. Her Majesty has commanded me to instruct you to acquaint the gentlemen from whom this address proceeded, that She has received with high satisfaction the proof which it affords of their attachment to the principles of the constitution of the province of Lower Canada, and that they may confidently rely on those principles being maintained by Her Majesty for the common benefit of all classes of Her Canadian subjects. I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. —No. 29 .— Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. (No. 84.) My Lord, Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 18 August 1837. 1 have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of the Speech with which I have this day opened the Session of the Provincial Parliament of Lower Canada. I have, &c. (signed) Gosford. Enclosure in No. 29. Provincial Parliament of Lower Canada. Legislative Council Chamber, Quebec, 18 August 1837. This day, at three o’clock, his Excellency the Governor in Chief came clown in state to the Legislative Council Chamber, and being seated on the Throne, the Gentlemen Usher of the Black Rod was sent down to the Assembly to command their attendance before his Excellency, and that House being come up, his Excellency was pleased to open the Fourth Session of the Fifteenth Provincial Parliament of Lower Canada with the following Speech : — Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, Gentlemen of the House of Assembly, In obedience to the Royal commands signified to me through the Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, I have convened you at this unusual period for the purpose of com- municating to you the proceedings that, since your last Session, have taken place in the Imperial Parliament, and the resolutions that have been therein adopted, on the affairs of this Province. This course has been prescribed to me in order to afford the House of Assembly, before that resolution which relates to the payment of the arrears now due for the civil service of this Government shall have assumed the binding shape of a law*, an opportunity of re-con- sidering the course, which, for the last four years, they have thought it expedient to pursue with respect to the financial difficulties of the province, and in the earnest hope that by a timely intervention of this Legislature the exercise of the power intended to be intrusted to the head of the local government may be rendered unnecessary ; a result, for the attain- ment of which Her Majesty’s Government would willingly make every sacrifice save that of the honour of the Crown and the integrity of the empire. 72* e 2 Since Enclosure 2, in No. 27. No. 28. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 20 Sept. 1837. No. 29. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 18 August 1837. Enel, in No. 29. No. 29. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 18 August 183G. Enel, in No. 29. s6 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE . . 1 • 1, T ii >vp alluded, the mournful intelligence Since the receipt of .he hyXtA MoMrc” Few Kings have .0 .he Throne o f ,he ,he th “' had M “ p "" y investigation during their stay in Lo ” • ’ , , num ber, were shortly aherwarits of the Imperial Parliament, a senes 1 ™ “ ? n ° e copies of which I shall rntta, b eC^ The principal oh.ect of these Resolutions are to declare, p , it is una dvisable to make the Legts lative Council dective^but ^that it°is ** ^ sairrsrAPSs it is unadvisable to subject it to the lesp Land Company to the land they hold 3 dly. That the legal title of the British ^ Amer an ^nd ^ be ma ii ne d under their charter, and an Act ot the imperial ^ inviolate. . , „ k Drov isions by law for discharging 4thly. That as soon as this Legisla.tur „i n< r nnv doubts as to the incidents of the lands from feudal dues and services, an ^ ex ” )e( |^ nt to rC peal the Canada Tenures tenure of land, in free and common socc g , I t |j e tenures of land in this .» — — - - *- 0f X A *. for defraying ihc arrcaia doc on account jf charges of the administration of justice, c , . , * as s i lou id, on the 10th day ot expedient, that, a {J* r ,^ arising from the hereditary, territorial April last, be in the hands ot tne rveceivti b c. l , pi - nrp i elK | )0 wered to issue, au P c «i nn The accounts showing the payments that have been made, since the close of tbe sess 10 in March 1836, out of the revenues at the disposal of the Crown, m part hquidat on of large arrears then due in respect of the civil establishments of the province, shall, as soo as possible, be submitted to you, with every explanation that you may desire and 1 c supply. I have likewise, in obedience to the injunctions I have received, directed that ^an account of the balance of arrears owing on the 10th of April last for official sala.ies a the ordinary expenditure of the local government, be made out and laid before you, vvi..i an estimate for the current half year; and in recommending, as I do most earnestly, tne matters to your early and favourable consideration, l am commanded to express to y the same time the anxious hope that the governor of this province may not be compeiie to exercise the power with which the Imperial Parliament has declared its intention 01 investing him, in order to discharge the arrears due in respect of public services, 01 payment of which the faith of the Crown has been repeatedly pledged. The chief oojeu, therefore, for which you are now called together, is to afford you an opportunity, by gram- AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 37 ing the requisite supplies, of rendering unnecessary, on the part of the Imperial Parlia- ment, any further action on the 8th of the series of Resolutions to which I have alluded ; and it will, 1 can assure you, be to me matter of unmixed satisfaction should you resolve to concede to the united voice of the British people, as expressed through the several branches of their Legislature, that which you have not thought it expedient to yield to the solicitations of the executive government alone. Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, Gentlemen of the House Assembly, I am further commanded to express to you the earnest desire of Her Majesty’s Govern- ment to co-operate with you in the removal of every obstacle to the beneficial working of the existing constitution, and in the correction of every defect which time and experience have developed in the laws and institutions of the province, or in the administration of its government; and 1 am also to assure you of a prompt attention on the part of Her Majesty’s Government to every representation which may proceed from you, tending to effect improvements of this nature, calculated to strengthen the connexion between Great Britain and Lower Canada, bv the promotion of the welfare and the interests of all classes of Her Majesty’s subjects in the province. At the time the summons was issued for assembling you on this day, I had every reason to believe that it would have been in my power to announce to you,. as effected, those alterations which you may gather from the Resolutions of which 1 have spoken it is intended to effect in the composition of the executive and legislative councils; but the interruption, occasioned by the demise of his late Majesiy, to the progress of public business in the Imperial Parliament, and the prospect of its early dissolution, have pre- vented the Ministers of the Crown from at once perfecting the measures they have in con- templation. These measures, therefore, are not forsaken, but only unavoidably suspended for a season, and I trust I shall, at no very distant period, be enabled to appeal to the changes introduced into the two councils, as well as to other salutary arrangements, as a proof of the sincerity with which Her Majesty’s Government are disposed to carry into effect the intentions they have expressed on these points. Since the end of the last session, several local Acts have expired, and I would suggest for your consideration the expediency of renewing such of them as may have proved useful. I would, moreover, especially invite your attention to the Acts relating to the district of Saint Francis, the duration of which is limited to the end of the session of the Provisional Parliament next after the ist of May last. The severe distress which, in consequence of the partial or total failure of the crops, was experienced during the last winter in several parts of the province, induced me, upon the urgent representations I received on the subject, and in order to avert the approaches of famine, to grant out of the public funds that succour which the means of the suffering inha- bitants were inadequate to afford. Nor did I hesitate, in the pressing emergency of the case, to assume this responsibility, encouraged by the liberality you have displayed on similar occasions. In granting, however, such assistance, security was in each case taken for the repayment of the monies so advanced, in the event of your declining to sanction the transactions. These advances amount in the whole to about 5,600, lor which, as well as for the sums I have issued for the preservation of the public works on the Chambly Canal, and for the maintenance of the quarantine establishment, I trust you will see no objection to grant an indemnity. Such of the documents and vouchers connected with these several disbursements as are not already before you shall be submitted to you with as little delay as possible. In conclusion, Gentlemen, I shall repeat my determination to adhere to those principles which I laid down for my guidance when I first addressed you. 1 hey are calculated, I conscientiously believe, to promote the real interests of the country, and to secure to all classes of Her Majesty’s Canadian subjects those rights, privileges and liberties, which the spirit of the constitution was intended to impart, and which every friend to that constitu- tion is bound to support and maintain. — No. 30 . — Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. (No. 87.) Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, My Lord, ^6 August 1837. I HAVE the honour to transmit, herewith, copies of the addresses of the Legis- lative Council and House of Assembly, in answer to my speech on opening the session of the Provincial Parliament, on the 18th instant, and my replies to each. I have, &c. Gosford. e 3 No. 29. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 18 August 1836. Enel, in No. 29. No. 30. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 26 August 1837. No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. 23 August 1837. No. 4. 72 . 26 August 1837. No. 30. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 26 August 1836. Enel, in No. 30. 38 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE Enclosures in No. 30. (No. 1.) TO l,i. Excellency ,he Right Honcnbl, AnUMi, Earl of Gosfiri, Governor-, n-Chief, CvC . etc. etc. y T wfarffullv sensible of* 1 ihe^otives' which have induced Her Majesty’s Government “fSSS “ce^d“ f *thZ^e"l mournful intelligence of the derni.e of our late deservedly-beloved Monarch, and we concur with your ^ Excellency m beheving that few K^s have reitjned more in the affections of their subjects than William the Fourth. The°warm and lively interest he always took in every matter connected with welfare of his Canadian subjects, cannot fail to increase their ^Victoria* 4. We observe that the accession of our present Gracious Sovereign, Queer 1 Victc a, to the throne of the British empire, has not produced any alteration in the course that had been previously furnished for your Excellency s adoption. , r Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the measures whic Y dcsimbieTudop" uder the existing circumstance, of the country, « are fully persuaded of the earnest desire of Her Majesty’s Government to co-operate with the Legislatuie, in the removal of every obstacle to the beneficial working of the existing constitution, and in the correction of every defect which time and experience have developed in the a and institutions of this province, or in the administration of the Governi^nt ; and we wU cordially unite with your Excellency in effecting such improvements as may be calculated to promote the welfare and interests of all classes, and thereby to strengthen the connexion mih^istino* between Great Brit Castle St. Louis, Quebec, 12 August 1837. Tn e attention of the Governor-in-Chief having lately been called to a report, contained in the “ Vindicator ” newspaper of the 16th of May last, of the proceedings of a meeting held on the previous day at St. Laurent, in which you are stated to have taken an active part, and where resolutions were passed, some of which distinctly recommend a violation of the laws, I am directed by his Excellency to cal! upon you, as one holding a commission from the Crown, to state whether you were present at that meeting and concurred in the resolutions there passed, and if so, I am to inquire whether you have any explanation to offer in this matter. I have, &c. The Honourable L. J. Papineau, 1 , • Major, 3d Battalion Montreal Militia. J S. Walcott, Civil Secretary. (No. 3.) Monsieur, Montreal, 14 Aout 1837. La pretension du Gouverneur dc m’interroger sur ma conduite a St. Laurent, le 15 de Mai dernier, est une impertinence que je repousse par le mepris et par le silence. Je ne prends done la plume que pour dire au Gouverneur, qu’il est faux, comme dans son ignorance il le peut croire, ou comme du moins il le dit par votre lettre du 12 de ce mois, que quelques unes des resolutions adoptees dans l’Assemblee du Comte de Montreal, tenue a St. Laurent le 15 de Mai dernier, recommendent la violation de lois. Votre obeissant serviteur, S. Walcott, Secretaire Civil. (signe) L. J. Papineau . — No. 36. — Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. (No. 104.) My Lord, Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 5 Oct. 183/. In my despatch of the 9th ult., No. 90, I informed your Lordship that the Attorney-general had preferred bills of indictment against a Dr. Duchesnois for publicly tearing and treating with contempt the proclamation I had issued on the 15th of June, appealing to the good sense and loyal feeling of the population, and against certain individuals in the county of Two 'Mountains, for a conspiracy to drive out of the county, by means of threats and acts of violence, several of the inhabitants, because they held opposite political opinions, and that such bills had been ignored by the grand jury at. Montreal, in the face of the strongest evidence supporting them. I have now the honour to acquaint you, that on hearing that the Attorney-general had, after the loss of the bills, immediately filed ex-officio informations against the same individuals for the same offences, I called upon him for a statement of the reasons which induced him to adopt that course. He lias accordingly transmitted to me the enclosed report, with the several affidavits appended thereto, which I forward for your information, as it will put you in possession of the state of feeling in that part of the country, and the occurrences which led to the proceedings in question, more fully and dis- tinctly than the brief outline contained in my despatch of the 9 th ultimo can have done. I have, &c. (signed) Gosford. ■AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 5i Enclosure in No. 36 . To his Excellency the Right Honourable Archibald Earl of Gosford, Baron Worlingham, of ect. es, in the county of Suffolk, Captain-general and Governor-in-chief in and over the Provinces ol Upper and Lower Canada, Vice-admiral of the same, 8cc. &c. &c. May it please your Excellency, In obedience to the commands of your Excellency, conveyed to me by your Excellency’s communication of the day of September last, I avail myself of the first interval in nw official occupations to acquaint your Excellency with the reasons which influenced me in filing ex-officio informations in Her Majesty’s Court of Queen’s Bench, for the district of Montreal, against certain parties who had been previously discharged from similar accusations by the grand jury of that district. It is hardly necessary for me to recall to the recollection of your Excellency the dis- turbances excited m different parts of the district of Montreal during the months of June and August, which though exaggerated by the representations of those whose object it was to aggravate the evil, were still considered of sufficient importance to attract the attention of Her Majesty s Government in this province. Meetings had been held in various counties under the superintendence of those who are styled the leaders of the patriotic or Canadian party, at which banners and symbols and other paraphernalia of political incendiarism had been exhibited. Speeches of an inflammatory nature, appealing to the passions and to national prejudices, had been addressed to a large section of the population of this pro- vince; certain measures of the Imperial Parliament had been misrepresented and prejudged the intentions of Her Majesty’s Administration calumniated ; a system of resistance or evasion of the laws indicated and strenuously recommended ; and, indeed, every expedient adopted which could create alarm and distrust or infuse a spirit of insubordination and disloyalty into the breasts of the otherwise peaceably disposed inhabitants of that district. Ihese machinations were but partially successful. In the county of Two Mountains, however, where many settlers of British origin are interspersed among the Canadian popu- lation, an attempt was made to carry the intrigues of the patriotic leaders into practical effect. A system of proscription, based upon national distinctions and political prejudices was adopted and pursued. The British inhabitants and those loyal Canadians who adhered to the political principles of their British fellow-subjects, perceived on a sudden that all inter- course between them and those of their neighbours who professed a different political opinion was studiously denied ; all interchange of the ordinary offices or the common neces- saries of life had abruptly terminated, they had incurred the penalty of social excommunica- tion. Nor was this process of political propagandise! of a negative character only ; depo- sitions which were transmitted to me in my official capacity, copies of which I have the honour herewith to forward for your Excellency’s perusal, will sufficiently show how soon this vexatious estrangement w r as succeeded by acts of unequivocal aggression. Mobs assembled by night, and w r ith shouts of intimidation and threats of personal violence endea- vouied to terrify the loyal inhabitants into an adoption of their principles. The house of one Jean Baptiste Cleyal, a captain of militia, and a man distinguished for his loyalty in that part of the district, was fired into, to the imminent danger of the lives of his family. Another person of the same name, one Toussaint Cheval, who from his opposition to the political pricniples of the conspirators had rendered himself equally obnoxious, was assaulted in his own house and compelled to fly from his home and family, and to secrete himself for some days in the neighbouring province of Upper Canada. The British subjects (settlers) were also subjected to a series of harassing annoyances, their fences were broken down, their cattle driven astray, their horses cropped and otherwise disfigured, and a variety of petty injuries inflicted, which it would be unimportant to advert to, were it not for the irritation they were calculated to inspire and the retaliatory spirit they had already provoked ; for it will be shown by the depositions to which I have* already had the honour to refer your Excellency, that the sympathies of the British inhabitants in the neighbouring settlements were aroused, a feeling of exasperation had been engendered, and^they had manifested a determination, if the wrongs of their fellow-countrymen remained unredressed by the law, to take the law into their own hands. Her Majesty’s Government in this province immediately took measures to suppress this system of illegal coercion. It had been ostentatiously asserted by the partizans of the patriotic faction that it was not in the power of the Government to check these outrages, or punish the offenders, and that the people of the county of Two Mountains would resist the appreheusion of the delinquents to the utmost extremity. The police, however, of the district, after having encountered some opposition, was found sufficient to arrest the prin cipal disturbers of the peace in that county, who were put under bail to appear and answer to any charges which might be preferred against them at the ensuing criminal term of the Court of Queen’s Bench lor the district. During the progress of these disturbances it had been deemed expedient by your Excellency to issue a proclamation to the people of this province, appealing to the good sense and loyal feeling of the population, and exhorting all men to reject the insidious councils of a few designing individuals, and to maintain the cause of order and good government. This proclamation, at the instigation of those against whose intrigues it was directed, was treated by some few individuals in the district of Montreal with marked indignity, the 72 . g 2 declared 52 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 36. ; October 1837. Encb in No. 36. i 1 i , v bieh was to bring the Government into contempt, and to induce a belief declared object of which was j^"g£j erate that the government of the province was not Earl of Gosford to the DU nish this or any other insult which might be offered to its authority. I*„. Glenelg, a Z ZJy of the city of Monleal, this procl.otation, which h^ be(“c hed P to the church door ‘by Alexis Pinet, esq., an active and loyal Canadian magistrate was torn down at the conclusion of Divine service, and in the presence of the den?S congregation, by Eugene Napoleon Duchesno.s, esq., a physician, residing in thaC^Cwdh many expressions of contumely and contempt; the statxon occupied by tlifs individual in society, and the influence of his example, seriously aggravated the offence, while the attacks which had been subsequently made upon the reputation and motives of Mr. Pinet, and the injury which had been attempted to be inflicted on Ins business, lendered it in my humble apprehension, indispensable that the Government should interfere for the vindication of that respect to which it is entitled, and to show that it is neither too timid nor too weak to protect a loyal subject in the legitimate and manly discharge of a public dU It ’became also a matter of importance to quiet the alarm and appease the irritation of the British population throughout the province, and to assure them that Hei Majesty s Government possessed the power and determination to secure them from outrage of what- ever character and from whatever quarter arising; and further, by a firm and decided application of any and every remedy sanctioned by the constitution, to deter any who might possibly entertain systematized or ulterior designs, by demonstrating that the laws which protect all classes of the subjects of Her Majesty in this colony, and maintain its connexion with the British empire, are neither to be evaded with success or violated with impunity. At the meeting of the Court of King’s Bench for the district of Montreal, in the term of August and September, my attention was naturally directed to the composition of the grand jury assembled for the district, and from my personal acquaintance with the political opinions of the majority of those attending, 1 could not but entertain doubts as to the success of any indictments for political offences which it might be my duty to lay before them ; still, whatever might have been my private opinions, I did not feel myself authorized by any premature proceeding by ex-officio information to impute to the grand jury ot that district, by implication or inference, a possible dereliction from the duty they were called upon to perform. „ , , . , -m , T . Indictments were in due course laid before that body against Eugene iNapoleoii Duchesnois, for unlawfully and seditiously destroying a proclamation, and against Isidore Lauzon, Lesite Dupras, Francois Darnes and M. Danes, for a conspiracy to dnve one Toussaint Cheval out of this province, and having in fact compelled him to fly from the province ; a third bill of indictment against Ls. Bourgignon, Luc Lefevre, Francois Labelle and Jacques Massie, for a conspiracy to compel divers inhabitants of the county ot iwo Mountains to quit the province, was also prepared, but reserved until I was made acquainted with the fate of the two first abovementioned. The evidence by which these indictments were supported is of an unimpeachable character ; the depositions of the witnesses are herewith laid before your Excellency ; to remove any doubts which might possibly arise as to the strict legality of the proceedings, I made it my duty to submit and explain to the grand jury the legal authorities which governed the prosecutions; the two bills thus laid before the grand jury were leturned “ No bill.” Under these circumstances I felt it incumbent upon me to exercise that power with which the Crown is invested, and which is entrusted to the discretion of the Crown officers in this province. I could not permit a belief to get abroad that offences so pregnant with future evil could escape unpunished, from any indifference or connivance in the administration of justice ; I knew that the projected triumphant return of these offenders to their respective parishes, in defiance of the law, would have been a signal for renewed disturbances; I foresaw that an ambiguous inactivity or mistaken leniency would have been instantly misconstrued into irresolution or fear, and in filing ex officio informations for misdemeanors in all the above cases, I felt supported by the firm conviction that I was performing a duty and assuming a responsibility demanded at this moment by the general interests of Her Majesty's Government, and of the people of Lower Canada. Quebec, 2 October 1837 . (signed) C. R. Ogden, Att.-Gen. Montreal. Robert Hall , of the parish of St. Scholastique, yeoman, after being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists, deposeth and saith, as follows : I have lived with my family in the said parish of St. Scholastique for two years past. I have always lived on the best terms with my neighbours, the Canadians ; but since political meetings have been held in that and the adjoining parishes of St. Benoit and others, the Canadians have ceased to have any communication with the inhabitants of English extrac- tion. After certain committees were organized and appointed in this parish, depredations were committed almost nightly on the said English inhabitants, as also some Scotch inhabit- ants, and on the Canadians who do not belong to the patriot's party. On the night of the 28 th of June last, the door of my house was broken open by that party, and one of the windows of the house smashed to pieces with stones ; one of the stones, about five pounds in weight, fell very near to some of my infant children, who slept in a bunk on the floor; part of my fences were thrown down and destroyed, and my corn-field laid open to the cattle, in which I found several heads of cattle the ensuing morning. My horses’ manes AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 53 and tails were shaved and so disfigured, as to be almost unfit for use, so much so, that when 1 travel with them I am universally laughed at. 1 had several horses belonging to Cana- dians grazing on my farm, and their owners were compelled, by the threats that were made to them, to take them away from me. That same party have acted in the same manner and committed similar outrages on nearly all the inhabitants who do not join their party • seve- ral have, through fear of injury being done to their persons and property, been compelled to enlist m their ranks and to sign a petition to the Congress in the United States of America and those who still decline to join their party are threatened that their houses and barns will be burnt down. 1 have frequently seen, in the evening after dark, parties of about 40 or 60 men going about the cotes, the greater part carrying fire-arms, whom I am told are training for the purpose of repelling any force which might be sent from Montreal to arrest any of that party. It was reported in that part of the country on Thursday last, that a party of constables had arrived at cote St. Joseph, in the parish of St. Benoit, and I have since ascertained that fact to be true ; and in the course of that afternoon, I saw a courier belonging to that party, apparently coming from St. Eustache, going from house to house and telling the people to be ready with their guns at any time they might be called upon • and it is generally reported, that these preparations were making for the purpose of repellino' the constables, who it was reported were to return and arrest-three of the accused, who had not been taken ; I heard it stated that same evening by Mr. Hector Barcelo, son of Jacob Barcelo, justice of the peace, residing at St. Scholastique, that he had ordered four ramrods to be made by one Belisle, a carpenter, and that they were to be ready for the ensuino- morning^ On Thursday last a Dr. Robertson, who was returning from Montreal and coin? to La Chute, having stated that 13 constables and 400 soldiers were comin nr to 'Belle Riviere to arrest some persons there, he saw that same evening several parties of”men, each party consisting of five or six men, repairing to the bush- or woods along the road at different stations, mostly all armed with guns, powder-horns, and shot-bags.” The military force, which it was reported was on their march towards St. Scholastique, if such had been the case, would have had to pass near the bush in which the said aimed parties of men had gone. It was reported the next day, and the deponent firmly believes it to be a fact, that the said parties abovementioned had no other motive for so doing than of laying in ambush to attempt to repel and intercept the said military force if it had come, I was credibly informed that some of those parties remained on the watch in the bush all night. It is my firm belief, that if any unarmed civil force was sent out to arrest any one of that party there they would be repulsed, and fired at if they offered any resistance. Four Irishmen from the Gore, in the neighbourhood of La Chute, told me, that if their assistance was required by the inhabitants of English, Irish and Scotch extraction of St. Scholastique and St. Benoit to protect them from the ill-usage they were constantly under- going, they would come down in a body and give them that assistance. It is my intention, and I believe it is also that of the other inhabitants who do not belong to the patriot party’ to avail themselves of the offer of the said Gore inhabitants if the government of this pro- vince does not relieve us from the cruelties we have undergone and are still exposed to. „ (signed) Robert Hall. Sworn before me this 15 July 1837 . (signed) P. E. Leclerc, J. P. No. 36. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 5 October 1837, Enel, in No. 3 G* John William Roberts , of St. Scholastique, saddler, being duly sworn, doth depose and say, that he lives neighbour to Robert Hall, who rents this deponent’s farm, that he has read the" foregoing deposition of the said Robert Hall, the facts contained in which are all true to the deponent’s personal knowledge ; and further, the deponent saith that, on the 29 th day of June last, John Siras Hawley, another of the deponent’s tenants, came to the house of deponent, and had some high words with the said Robert Hall, who told him the said Hawley, that he was a seditious firebrand among the people, and this on the subject of a petition, which it was proposed in that part of the country to send to the Congress of the United States. That the said Hawley said, that he had as much right to counsel the people to si^n that petition as the tories had to coerce them. That the said Hall then told him that the said petition was of such a treasonable nature, that he would in proper time complain to the authorities of him, when the said Hawley requested and begged of the said Hall not to do so, and to have mercy on his family and character. That the deponent considers that Jacob Barcelo, esquire, justice of the peace, and Doctor Masson, also justice of the peace, the latter of St. Benoit, the former of St. Scholastique, are ringleaders of the party who commit the said outrages. (signed) J. W. Roberts. Sworn before me, at Montreal, this 15 July 1837 . (signed) P. E. Leclerc, J. P. Province du Bas Canada, District de Montreal. Eustache Cheval , ecuyer, capitaine de milice, residant a la cote du Petit Brule, en la paroisse de St. Eustache, apres serment dument prete sur les Saint Evangiles, depose et dit, Que depuis le printemps dernier, et plus particulierement depuis que des assemblies pour des fins politiques se sont tenues dans la paroisse de St. Eustache, et celles de St. Benoit et St. Scholastique, qui l’avoisient, certaines personnes, qui lui sont inconnues, 72 . G 3 auraient 54 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 36. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glcnelg, 5 October 1837. Enel, in No. 36. a des mesures qui ne tendaient qu a la sedition et an uuuiev^m™,. pays; qu aura?t tendu la crin de la queue, ct la criniere de quantite de chevaux jelte des clotures a ba'Tdenuit, et fait entrer les animaux clans des pieces de gram eten outre fact fa.re des menaces d’incendier et bruler les proprieties, et par la mis les d.ts fideles et loyaux sujete de sa Maieste (dont le deposant cst du nombre) dans le danger le plus imminent, rant pour leurs personnel que leurs proprieties, et ce, a un tel digri que le deposant, ainsi que nombre d’autres, ont iti forcis de veiller plusieurs nuits pour se soustraire aux dangeis don ils itaient iournellement menaces : que le nommi Michel Charbonneau, habitant du mtme lieu aurait informi le diposant avant hier, “ Qu’u fin de vivre en paix, ll avail .ete force de se ioindre au parti se disignaut sous le titre de parti patriotique, et pour cette fin serait al e chez Jacob Barcelo, ecuyer, J. P., a St. Scliolastique, lequel juge de paix, 1 aurait de suite conduit chez les nommis Joseph Beautron, dit major, et Ed. Beautron, dit major, aubergistes, et commcrcants au dit lieu de St. Scliolastique, ou ils se seraient tous divertis, et apres quoi on l’aurait reconduit parti du chemin chez lui.” Que Vendredi dernier vers les 11 heures et demie du soil*, les nommis M. Charbonneau, Augustin Roehen, M. Moran, et John Oswall, tous habitants du Petit Brule, paroisse de St. Eustache, seraient venus avertir le deposant que sa maison devait cette nuit la etre attaquee ou incendiee, attendre que le deposant etait un Chonzer, e’est a dire, approbateur des mesures politiques du gouverne- ment de cette province, et par consequent oppose au dit parti patriotique, et se seraient offerts au deposant pour veiller avec lui ; que deux d’entr’eux, Oswall et Moran, avaient leurs fusils, et le deposant s’etant armie du sien, ils se seraient tous mis a garder la maison ; qu’avant de s’armer de son fusil, il fut a ses batiments, et aurait vu un hornme sortir de son etable, et se sauver a travers les champs, qu’il croit since rement avait Fintention ou de tondre ses chevaux, ou d’incendier ses batiments, sans qu’il put Farriter ou le reconnaitre ; qu’enfin, vers minuit,un coup de fusil fut malicieusement decharge dans une fenetre, dans une cote de sa maison oil il y avait une lumiere, dont le plomb et les balles auraient pu causer la mort si quelqu’un de sa famille se fut trouve dans la dite fenetre, et ce, pai quelques pei- sonnes malintentionnes qu’itaient cachees aupres de sa maison, et qui prirent la fuite ; que durant tout ce temps sa femme 6t ses six enfants itaient debout dans une etat d’apprehen- sion et d’alarme continuelle ; que des morceaux de vitres cassees par le coup de fusil en question auraient dichirie la peau au visage d’une de ses filles nominee Marguerite ; que le deposant d’apres les marques du plomb sur le mur croit que le dit fusil devait etre charge de trois balles et de quantite de petit plomb ; que, vu l’obscurite, de la nuit, le depo- sant non plus que ses amis ne purent faire la poursuite de ees malfaiteurs ; qu’environ 40 minutes apres ees memes malfaiteurs, comme le croit le deposant furent chez Joseph Cheval, son neveu, dans la meme cote, et tirerent et dechargerent deux coups de fusils, que le deposant auraient entendu, et par suite ete informe par le dit J. Cheval, son neveu, que les dits coups de fusils avaient ete decharges a travers sa porte, et que le plomb s’etait loge dans une cloison de la maison ; que ce fut en consequence de ceci que le dit M. Charbon- neau se serait joint au dit “ parti patriotique,” ainsi que le dit J. Cheval, comme ils Font subsequemment declares au deposant, sous Finfluence de la crainte, ou ils etaient tous deux qu’en ne s’y joignant pas leurs vies et leurs proprieties etaient dans une etat constant de plus grand danger ; que le deposant croit veritablement que sans l’interference des autorites, tant qu’il entretiendra ses opinions politiques actuelles, ni lui ni sa famille et ses proprieties seront en suretis, mais bien exposis a etre assassinis et incendiies ; que le diposant croit s incerement que les nommis J. Beautron, dit major, et Ed. Beautron, dit major sus-nommis, ainsi que le nommi J. Charon, journalier de la dite paroisse de St. Scliolastique, itaient au nombre de ceux qui commirent Fattaque sur sa maison, ainsi que ci-dessus mentionnie ; que le diposant, d’apris des rumeurs dans la paroisse, est en crainte tant pour sa suretie per- sonnel que celle de sa famille, de la part des dits Joseph Beautron, dit major, E. Beautron, dit major, et J. Charron, pourquoi le diposant requient que les dits J. Beautron, dit major, E. Beautron, dit major, et J. Charron, soient apprehendis et tenus de donner de bonnes cautions pour leur bonne conduite future envers tout les sujets de sa Majesti et plus particu- lierement envers le diposant et sa famille, et ce pendant Fespace d ? une annie. (signi) jE. Cheval, Assermenti devant moi, a Montreal, ce 4 Juillet 1037. (signi) Danl. Arnoldi , J. P. District de Montreal. Andre H. Baron , huissier, de la ville de Montrial, apris serment preti sur les Saints Evangiles, dipose et dit, Qui hier matin, il serait parti de Montrial en compagnie du nommi Joseph Godin, aussi huissier de Montrial, a la requisition du grand connitable, pour aller dans les paroisses de St. Eustache et St. Benoit, distribuer et afficher des procla- mations, en date du chateau St. Louis, Quebec, 0 Juillet courant, relativement a des personnes maldisposeis qui auraient dichargies des armes a feu la nuit dans les maisons des nommis Eustache Cheval et de son neveu Joseph Cheval, de la paroisse de St. Eustache; que le diposant et Godin se seraient rendus a St. Benoit et chemin faisant a St. Eustache, ou leur auraient dit que s’ils affichaient de ces proclamations a St. Benoit leurs vies seraient en danger ; qu’en la dite paroisse de St. Benoit ils se seraient retiris chez un nommie Cour- solle, aubergiste, ou le diposant aurait voulu laisser une des dites proclamations, qu’il le dit Coursolle AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 55 Coursolle aurait pris et jettee sur la table, disant qu’il n’en voulait point avoir, et aurait deniande au dit deposant de la part de qui il etait venu, et ayant repandu, qu’il venait de la part du procureur du roi, le dit Coursolle dit, “ que procureur du roi etait un sacre craseur, comme 1 etait aussi le gouverneur que le dit Coursolle serait alors parti en chenune, et aurait couru chez les voisins avertir que le deposant etait chez lui avec des proclamations : que le Docteur Masson, de la dite paroisse, le nomme Brazeau, auber- giste et huissier, avec six ou sept personnes, seraient arrives a l’auberge du dit Coursolle lorsque le dit Docteur Masson s’addressant au dit J. Godin lui aurait fait defense d’afficher aucunes des dites proclamations dans le village, car, s’il le faisait sa vie etait en danger et qu il voulait bien mieux pour eux, deposant et Godin, de cacher leurs proclamations par rapport a leurs suretes ; que le dit Masson aurait alors dit qu il pouvait trouver 100/. dans la paroisse, qu’il allait lui faire une proclamation, offrant cette somme a celui qui casserait la l£te du gouverneur, et que si quelqu’un la lui cassait, lui le dit Masson payerait cette somme, lorsque tous les autres se mirent a crier, Oui ! Oui ! que le dit Coursolle aurait alors dit qu’il tuerait le gouverneur comme il tuerait un chien, et ce, en sacrant et iurant • que le deposant aurait alors dit a Coursolle qu’il parlait bien, que s’il venait 50 homines de troupe il se sauveraient tous, et lui, Coursolle le premier ; que le dit Coursolle dit alors au deposant que si Ion envoyait 2,000 hommes des troupe pas un seul ni s’en retournerait qu ils se cacheraient dans les bois et les moucheraient, a quoi le Docteur Masson ajouta, ils peuvent en envoyer 5,000, et pas un seul ni sen retournera. Le deposant leur dit alors, oil est votre ammunition, a quoi ils repondirent que tout cela etait chez M. Scott, i St. Eustache, les fusils, les balles, et le poudre ; que dans ce moment un courier arriva a cheval^ au grand gallop avertir qu’il y avait cinq caliches de la ville, qui etaient arrives a la cote St. Joseph, et que des connetables etaient venus faire des prisonniers; qu’ils se dirent tous ensembles, armons nous ! et partirent aussitot pour aller chercher leurs chevaux, pour son aller chasser les connetables; que le deposant aurait entendu une de ces personnes dire, en sa presence, que s’il rejoignait le grand connetable, il ne lui ferait pas de mal, mais le metterait tout nud dans la montagne, et le ferait manger par les maringonns ; que le deposant et Godin, par rapport aux menaces qu’en leur avaient faites, n’ont pas afficher aucunes des dites proclamations, car ils consideraient leurs vies exposees s’ils l’avaient faite ; que ne considerant pas leurs vies en suretes dans cette endroit, ils en seraient partis aussitot, et se seraient rendus a la Riviere du Chene ou St. Eustache, a le long du chemin auraient laisses quantite des dites proclamations chez les habitants; que rendu a St. Eustache, le dit Godin aurait affiche une des dites proclamations a la porte de l’eglise, et ils en auraient laissees plusieurs dans le village ; que dans le village il aurait appris qu’une troupe de personnes a cheval de St. Benoit s’etait rendue a la traverse ou etait passee le grand connetable avec un prisonnier, mais deux heures aprhs qu’il etait traverse ; que deux hommes, d’extraction Anglaise, seraient venus a leur poursuite, a cheval, leur dire de se trater, qu’un grand nombre de personnes etait alle a la poursuite des connetables, et que s’ils les rejoignaient leurs vies etaient en danger; qu’eux memes etaient dans le plus grand alarme, et dirent au deposant qu’ils craignaient fort, qu’ils ne savaient pas comment ils passeraient la nuit, et cju’ils craignaient qu’on incendiat leurs maisons, et attentat a leurs vies ; que chez une nomme Englis, aubergiste, ent.re St. Benoit et St. Eustache, Madame Englis, dit qui, dans la crainte oil elle etait, elle allait envoyer ses deux filles coucher au village, de peur que leur maison ne faut attaquer cette nuit, et que des personnes d’extraction Anglaise devaient se ressemblir ce soir-la afin de se garder. (signe) A . IL Barron , Assermente devant moi, a Montreal, ce 14 Juillet 1837. (signe) John Mohon , J. P. Joseph Godin, huissier, de Montreal, apres serment prete sur les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit, Qu’il etait hier avec le nomme Andre H. Barron, lorsqu’il est alle a St. Benoit pour afficher et distribuer des proclamations ; qu’il a entendu la lecture de la deposition du dit Barron, ci-annexee ; que les faits y mentionnes son! la verite, etant tout a la connaissance du deposant, et ne dit rien de plus. (signe) Jos . Godin , Assermente devant moi, a Montreal, ce 14 Juillet 1837. (signe) John Molson, J. P. Montreal. Eustbe Sene, charetier, de Montreal, apres serment duement prete sur les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit. Que hier matin, vers les deux heures, il partit de Montreal pour conduire les nommes Godin et Barron a St. Benoit, oh ils allaient distribuer des proclamations du gouverneur, et aussi pout en afficher; que, rendu a St. Benoit, ils arretirent chez le nomme Coursolle, aubergiste dans le v illage ; que les dits Godin et Barron voulurent lui donner une des dites proclamations, qu’il ne voulait point recevoir ; que peu de temps apres, sept ou huit personnes vinrent chez Coursolle, parmis lesquelles se trouvaient le Docteur Masson et son frerh, qui defend irent a Barron et Godin d’afficher leurs proclamations dans le village, car s’ils le faisaient leurs vies seraient au but; que l’un des dits Masson dit qu’ii allait faire une proclamation offrant 100/. a celui qui tuerait le gouverneur; que pendant ce temps un jeune homme arriva au village a cheval, de la cote St. Joseph, disant qu’il y avait la six bailiffs qui etaient venus faire des prisonniers; qu'aussitot ils partirent tous pour aller 72. g 4 chercher No. 36. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 5 October 1837. Enel, in No. 36. No. 36. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 5 October 1837. Enel, in No. 36. 50 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE 1 la ditp rnto St Joseph, chasser les dits bailiffs \ que le cliercher leurs chevaux par 11 ,j, allait cosser la guele au grand connetable, Mr m DeliJe que les dits Baron et Godin, en consequence de ces menaces n’aura.ent pas ose Mr Delisle, que nrnoWmations * que le deposant croit ventablement que sils afficlier aucune cs P les’ personnes susmentionnes les aoraient battus et ;SLtlti ato« P vSl que le deposant n’a pas lout entendu ce ,«, s'est d.t obl,ge de soigner son cheval. ge (signe) Eusebe 4- Sene, marque. Assermente devant moi a Montreal, ce 14 Juillet 1837- (signe) Austin Cuvillier , J. P. JnuZe ’toiselle, huissier de la Cite de Montreal, apres serment prete sur les Saints Fvqncriles depose et dit, Que bier matin vers les deux heures ll seiait paiti de Montieal en SiSS duTand connetable Mr. Benjamin Delisle, pour aller i St. Benoit, apprehender / i: • Ac T.nbpllp. Louis Bourgricrnon, Luc Lefevre et Jacques Massie, dit Jacques Massie Ctait all6 it St. Eustfrche, de la ils furent chez le dit Louis Bourgignon ou on les informa qu’il etait all6 faire ferrer une pane de roues a la petite riviere de St. Eustache, de la ils s’informerent de la residence du dit Luc Lefevre, mais personne ne voulut leur dire ou c etait, qu’ensuite ils seraient alles chez le dit Francis Labelle, qn ils trouverent chez lui, et le firent prisonnier; qu’apres avoir ete fait prisonnier, il aurait dit qu’il ne donnerait pas de cautions it moins que ce ne fut dans sa propre maison ; le grand connetable lui dit alors, qu’il n’y avait pas de magistrat present, mais qu .Lie eondu.rait chez le magistrat ou il lui plairait d’aller, ce a quoi le dit Labelle se serait refuse; que la femme du efit Labelle leur aurait alors dit, qu’ils les connetables ne 1 emmeneraient point, que les gens de la paroisse s’y opposeraient; que le dit Labelle a-peu-pres dans ce temps anraient pris la fuite, mais aurait bientot ete rejoint que dans ce moment ils s etaient assembles une dixaine d’hommes qui allaient et couraient de maison et maison pour obtenir des forces, afin de repousser les connetables, dont il etait du nombre, comme le suppose le deposant, dWs leur manure d’agir ; que la femme du dit Labelle se serait adressee en criant aux personnes, qui continuaient a s’assembler, et leur dit, v ous autres qui disiez que vous ne souffriez pas qu’on vous prit, allez vous laisser emmener mon mari?” Qu’ils seraient alors parti avec leur prisonnier Labelle, et rendu a environ dix arpents de la maison, ils virent plusieurs hommes, qui venaient a travel’s les champs, armes de perches et de batons a leur poursuite; que leur chemin etait a chaque instant mtercepte par des personnes qui leur barraient le chemin, et ne leur donnaient que lorsqu’on leur presentaient des pistolets, apres quoi ils criaient au dit Labelle, “ Ne sois pas inquiet ! ne sois pas inquiet!” Que le deposant ainsi que ceux qui accompagnaient le grand connetable, auraient, pour le soustraire aux dangers dont ils etaient menaces, hales leurs clievaux et se C , ..I ’ii l 1 ’ " N J.- C 1 L /s ilo o ^ aiy» rvo rmi f Iaiid on de la riviere oil etaient ces gens, car le aeposani ciua biucuieiueuL u apic» icms cl dispositions violentes, que non seulement ils leurs auraient otes leur prisonnier, mais aussi qu’on les auraient maltraites et peut-etre attentes a leurs vies. Que le deposant d’apres tout ce qui s’est passe en cette occasion, croit veritablement que le meme nombre de personnes qu’ils etaient alors, savoir, six en comptant les charrettiers, seraient incapables d’arreter les autres accuses qui ne sont pas encore apprehendes ; que le deposant ne croit pas non plus qu’on puisse le faire, quand meme vingt ou trente con- netables y seraient envoyes ; et que si toutefois un tel nombre y etaient envoye leurs vies seraient exposees au plus grand des dangers ; que chemin faisant le deposant aurait demande au dit Labelle pourquoi ils en agissaient ainsi ; a qui il fU reponse, que Mr. Papineau leur avait dit de faire des menaces et des cruautes a ceux qui n’etaient pas patriots jusqu’a ce qu’ils vinrent joindre les rangs patriotiques ; que le deposant s’etait pareillement informe pourquoi on avait jette la grange du cure Paquin de bt. Eustache par terre ; il dit pour reponse que Mr. Papineau leur avait dit quo les cures etaient trop riches et n’avaient pas besoin de terres et avaient trop de dimes. Assermente devant moi a Montreal ce 14 Juillet 1837. (signed) (signed) pas Amable Loiselle . P. E. Lcclerc , J. P. Montreal. , Joseph Aymond , commer^ant, et Francois Poitra, huissier, tous deux de Montreal, apres serment dument prete sur les Saints Evangiles, deposent et disent, Qu’ils auraient bier matin le 13 du courant, accompagnes le grand connetable a St. Benoit, pour arreter les nommes Fran§oi / AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 57 • Fian§ois Labelle, Louis Bourgignon, Luc Lefevre, et Jacques Massie, accuses de conspira- iou, qu Us se seraient rendus la entre les neuf et dix heures, et sont d’abord alles chez les dits Bourgignon et Massie, qui n’etaient pas chez eux ; qu’ils ne purent decouvrir la resi- dence du dit Lefevre ; qu’ils seraient alles chez le dit Franqois Labelle; qu’ils auraient apprehende, 1 ayant trouve chez lui, qui, apres etre arrete, aurait essaye de se sauver, mais aurait aussitot etc rejoint par Pun des deposants (Aymond) ; que pendant qu’ils etaient chez Labelle, des gens courraient de maison en maison pour rassembler les voisins ; qu’au moment de partir avec eur prisonnier, la femme du dit Labelle se serait adressee aux gens qui s etaient rassembles, en leur disant, “ Vous autres qui ne deviez pas vous laisser prendre pourquoi Iaissez vous emmener raon mari par ses gens-R?” on quelques mots i cet effet • qu au moment ou ils partirent, on voyait vemr le monde, armes de haches, perches, et batons de toutes parts, en grand nombre, qui venait vers eux a travers les champs, leur criant d arreter, et disant aussi au dit Labelle de ne pas etre inquiet, qu’il Labelle n’irait pas loin • que leur chemin fut souvent intercepts par des gens qui venaient a leur rencontre pour les arreter, ainsi armes, et leur faisant des menaces ; que dans une espace d’environ de trois lieues qu ils avaient a faire avant d’arriver a la riviere, il y avait du monde presque tout le long du chemin, et le grand connetable fut force d’exhiber des armes pour les intimider et les empecher de fondre sur eux pour lui oter leur prisonnier; que rendu a la traverse au Jiaut du village de St. Eustache, ils s’embarquerent en bare pour traverser, mais avaient a peine fait un demi arpent qu’une quizaine d’hommes a cheval arriverent a toute bride au bord de 1 eau, leur criant d’arreter; qu’autre ces quinze personnes nombre d’autres venaient a toute bride a cheval dans le chemin, rejoindre ceux qui etaient rendus a la traverse; qu’il n y avait point de bare de leur cote de la riviere pour les mettre a meme de traverser et les lejoindre, car sans cela ils croyent, veritablement qu’ils leur auraient ote leur prisonnier, et les auraient battus et maltraites, au point de mettre leurs vies en danger; que les deposants croient veritablement d ’apres ce qu’ils out vu hier, de la maniere dont les habitants sont dis- poses, qu une force de cent connetables seraient incapables d’arreter les dits Boumcrnon Lefevre et Massie, qui n’ont pas etc apprehendes. & Assermente devant moi a Montreal ce U Juillet 1837. (signed) (signed) Joseph -f Aymond , Fracois Poitra. T/t. Lemay , J. P. No. 3 Ck Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenele, 5 October 1837. Enel, in No. 36. District de Montreal, Comte du Lac, des Deux Montagnes. Lf. huit Juillet, de I’annee mil huit cente trente sept, est comparu personnellement par devant moi F. E. Globenski, ecuyer, un des juges de paix de sa Majeste, pour le dit district, Augustin hochon, cultivateur, residant a la cote du Petit Brule en la paroisse de bt. Lustache, lequel, apres serment prete sur les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit, Que a nuit deinieie vers onze heures du soir une troupe de gens deguisc au nombre d’environ vingt cmq ou trente, out parcourir partie de la dite cote du Petit Brule, criant et vociferant, et quils auraient jette un bois dans sa porte; que ce matin il a appris qu’une grange en construction appartenant h Messire Paquin, curd, aurait dte demolie et le comble abattu; qu on 1 a prevenu qu on voulait faire sauter sa maison par la poudre, attendu qu elle ne pouvait etre detruite autrement etant batie en pierre, et qu’on allait faucher son gram; que d apres ce qui se passe journellement, il craint que ces menaces soient mises k execution, et lequieit protection des autorites competentes. Et ne sachant sioner, a fait sa marque. sa . . / , . , . Augustin Rochon , Assermente par devant moi les jours et au susdits, marque. (signe) F. E. Globenski , J. P. District de Montreal, Comte du Lac, des Deux Montagnes. Samedi le huit Juillet, de l’annee mil huit cent trente sept, est comparu personnelle- ment par devant moi F. E. Globenski, ecuyer, un des juges de paix de sa Majeste pour le it district, Michel Rochon , tanneur, residant au sud du Petit Brule, en la paroisse St. Benoit, lequel aprds serment prete sur les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit, Que hier sept Juillet courant il aurait en affaire en la demeure, des nommes Joseph et Edouard Beautron, dit major, commercjants, a la Belle Riviere, paroisse de Ste. Scholastique, qu’il aurait trouve Pun d’eux a son magasin, savoir, Edouard et les nommes Hawley, Firmin, Carron, et autres ; que le dit Edouard Beautron lui aurait demande s’il etait patriote ; sur la re- ponse affirmative, il lui aurait dit que cela etait bon ; qu’il allait lui montrer ses habits de nuits ; qu il lui presen ta un bonnet rouge, garnis en papier, et lui aurait dit qu’il se servait de ce bonnet, et se charbonnait pour se promener la nuit ; qu’il s’etait rencontre avec les gens de son parti la nuit du six ou sept du present, qu’ils etaient environ cent personnes; qu avec eux il avait parcouru le village de Ste. Scholastique et ses environs ; que les nommes Noel Duchesneau, marchand, et Alexandre Fournier, son cousin, et les nommes Fougats et autres, dont il a oublie les noms, etaient dans le bande, et qu’il etait tellement defigure que les gens de son parti ne pouvaient pas le reconnaitre, qu’il avait taut crie, qu’il avait peine a parler, et qui la nuit suivante ils allaient jouer ; qu’en effet dans la nuit en question une H troupe 58 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE sa Michel + Rochoit, marque. Michel + Rochon, District de Montreal. les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit que Vendredi, le sept du courant, il etait occupe avec d'autres personnes a travailler a une grande en charpente dans une praine appartenante a Messire Paquin, pretre et cure de Sainte Eustache; qu’elle etait alors levee, le comble pose, etademi entouree ; que vers quatre heures et demie de Tapr£s midi du drt jour, deux individus a lui inconnus seraient venus les voir travailler et leur auraient dit qu on se proposait de laisser achever la grange en question, et d’attendre que la recolte soit dedans pur y mettre le feu ; qu’un nomine Sabourin occupe a leur aider, aurait tenue le meme lan- guage; que Samedi le huit, il s’en retournait avec son frere Jacques pour continuer a travailler a la° dite orange ; qu’ils rencontrerent un pauvre qui leur dit qu’elle avait ete abattu, qu il avait couche pres de cette place, et qu’il y avait en un train terrible toute la nuit ; qu’amve sur les lieux ils trouv^rent l’entourage de la grange defait, plusieurs planches cassees et le comble abattu et brise, et ne dit rien de plus. On the 15th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1837, personally appeared before me, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the said district, John Oswald, of the parish of St. Eustache, in the county of the Two Mountains, in the district of Montreal, yeoman, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that on the 7th inst., being Friday, at about 11 o’clock at night, he deponent being then watching his property, being kept in continual fear of its being° damaged, through reports and menaces, heard loud screaming towards Belle Riviere, occasioned b°y a mob, and that screaming was used by the said mob at every Old Country man’s house and Canadian loyalist’s, hurraing for Papineau and the patriots ; said mob crossed the river and directed their steps towards a barn belonging to Messire Paquin, curate of St. Eustache, which barn was that night demolished, the screaming continuing for some time when at that barn : said deponent further says, that when the said mob passed his premises, he distinguished the voice of one Jean Baptiste Onalette, jun., of Petit Brule, labourer, and that a dog was then following him said Onalette, which dog belongs to Onalette’s father, where he resides. On the 15th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1837, personally appeared before me, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the said district, William M'Geoch, of the parish of St. Eustache, in the county of Two Mountains, in the district aforesaid, yeoman, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that on the 7th of July inst., being Friday, about 11 o’clock at night, being watching his property, which was by reports and menaces threatened to be destroyed that night, he deponent heard loud screamings towards Belle Riviere, occasioned by a mob which crossed the little river in the Petit Brule, and directed its steps towards a barn belonging to the Rev. Messire Paquin, curate of St. Eustache, which barn was at same time demolished, apparently by same mob, by the cracking of the timber of said barn, which said deponent distinctly heard, it being about six acres from his own premises, and further said deponent saith not. sa (signed) Joseph q- Beauchamp marque. Assermente devant moi les jours et an susdits. (signed) F. Fj. Globenski , J. P. District of Montreal. Sworn before me at St. Eustache, the year and day aforesaid. , (signed) F . J?. Globenski (signed) John Oswald . d day aforesaid. F. E- Globenski , J. P District of Montreal. (signed) William M'Geoch. Sworn before me at St. Eustache, the aforesaid year and day. (signed) F. E. Globenski , J. P. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 59 District de Montreal. Toussaint Cheval, dit St. Jacques, joumalier de la paroisse de Ste. Scholastique, dans le district de Montreal, apres serment prete sur les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit, Que le dix de Juillet dernier, entre neuf et dix heures du soir, le deposant etant dans sa maison sous la paix de notre souverain Seigneur le Roi, les nommes Isidore Lauzon, journalier de la meme paroisse, Leside Dupras, journalier de la meme paroisse, Francois Danis, journalier de la meme paroisse, et Moise Danis, tanneurde la meme paroisse, accompagne de plusieurs autres que le deposant n’a pas connO, seraient entre dans sa maison tres en col£re, que le dit Isidore Lauzon se serait approche du dit deposant, lui aurait porte le point sous le nez deux ou trois fois, lui disant qu’a la fait, tu a ete a la Riviere du Chene faire une deposition contre nous, tu nous a mis la corde au cou tu ne peus plus vivre parmi nous, tu peus faire ton pacquet et t’en aller promptement, et que les autres personnes presentes ont fait les mfimes menaces, et que le dit Isidore Lauzon aurait aussi porte le point au visage de l’epouse du deposant, en lui disant, C’est toi qui a dit que tu avais vu Arsene Beausejour couper le crin de la queue du cheval, du nomine Robert, que le nomme Leside Dupras, ci-devant nomme, a reproche au deposant qu’il avait ete a la Riviere du Chene, signer pour avoir des troupes, et que le dit Leside Dupras lui aurait repondu qu’il ne s’occupait pas des troupes ; que ce deposant d’apres les menaces a lui fait, et ayant appris qu’il y avait des de nouveau patriotes rendu chez le nomme Joseph Beurtron, dit major, il aurait laisse la paroisse et s’en allait resider dans le Haut Canada, oil ii aurait demeure absent cinq jours, qu’il serait revenu a St. Andre, et ayant ete informe que son epouse etait en cherche de lui, craignant qu’il aurait ete tue, il se serait rendu a une place appellee les Eboulis ; que de la il aurait envoye un de ses enfants chez lui pour donner de ses nouvelles ; que son fils de retour l’aurait informe qu’il y avait encore du danger pour lui s’il retour- nait alors ; qu’en consequence lui le deposant serait retourne dans le Haut Canada, oil il aurait reside six jours, et serait revenu chez lui le septi&ne, pendant laquelle il se serait tenu cache un jour et une nuit; et le deposant ne dit rien de plus. Affirme a Montreal ce cinqui^me jour de Septembre 1837. (Certified) (signed) (signed) J McDonald, J. P. C. R. Ogden, Att.-Gen. No. 36. Earl of Gosford to Lora Glenelg, 5 October 1837. Enel, in No. 36. District de Montreal. Ester Leclerc , Spouse de Toussaint Cheval, dit St. Jacques, de la paroisse de Ste. Scho- astique, apr&s serment prete sur les Saints Evangiles, depose et dit, Que le dix de Juillet dernier entre neuf et dix heures du soir, les nomm6s Isidore Lauzon de la meme paroisse, Lesite Dupras du meme lieu, Moise Danis du meme lieu, et un nomme Bersalon, son entres chez la deposante, accompagne de plusieurs autres qu’elle n’a pas reconnu ; les quatres personnes susdites paraissant bien en col&re; que le dit Isidore Lauzon aurai, demande a la deposante oh etait son epoux, le traitant de sacre crapeau que je le dechire ; c’est lui qui en est la cause que nous aurons la corde dans le cou ; la deposante leur aurait demandee de laisser expliquer son epoux, et que Lauzon aurait repondu qu’il ne le per- mettrait pas ; que le dit Lauzon aurent dit, que lui le dit Toussaint Cheval, dit St. Jacques, ne pourrait plus vivre avec eux dans la paroisse, qu’ii fit son paquet et lui ailouait deux heures pour s’en aller, car il n’avait que deux jours a vivre s’il restait parmi eux, et qu en consequence le mari de la dite deposante s’est absente de la paroisse pendant quinze jours, et lors de son retour s’est tenu cache dans sa maison pendant un jour et une nuit; et la deposante ne dit rien de plus. Affirme a Montreal, ce 6 Jour de Septembre 1837. T (signed) J. McDonald , J. P. (Certified.) (signed) C. R . Ogden, Att.-Gen. District de Montreal. Emelie St. Jacques, de la paroisse de Ste. Scholastique, apres serment prfite sur les Saintes Evangiles, depose et dit, Que le dix de Juillet dernier, entre neuf et dix heures du soir, les nommes Isidore Lauzon du meme lieu, Lesite Dupras du meme lieu, Moise Danis du meme lieu, sont entres chez la deposante accompagne de plusieurs autres qu’elle^ n’a pas reconnu ; que le nomme Isidore Lauzon, ci haut nomme, s’addressant au pere de la deposante, Toussaint Cheval. dit St. Jacques, lui dit; “ DepSche toi de faire ton paquet, car tu n’a pas deux jours de vie et qu’en consequence de ces menaces le pere de la deposante s est absente de chez lui pendant quinze jours, et a son retour s’est tenu cache pendant un jour et une nuit; la deposante ne dit rien plus. Affirme a Montreal, ce 6 Jour de Septembre 1837. (signed) John McDonald, J. P. (Certified.) (signed) C. R. Ogden , Att.-Gen. H 2 72. 6o CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 36. Earl of Gost’ord to Lord Glenelg, 5 October 1837. District of* Montreal. Duncan M'Coll, of the Parish of St. Benoit, in the District of Montreal, Labourer, being duly sworn, deposeth, and saith as follows: — Enclo, in No. 3G. I have resided for about 18 years in the said parish; my father, Duncan M'ColI, my brothers, Alexander, John and Donald, have also resided there during the same period ; we have always lived in the greatest peace and harmony with our Canadian neighbours, until the time when a certain political meeting took place at St. Scholastique, a neigh- bouring parish, about a month ago. Since that meeting, our Canadian neighbours have ceased to have any communication with us, and with one Robert Walker and William Starkie, also residing in the said parish of St. Benoit, and indeed with all the inhabitants of British origin residing in our vicinity, and this because we and they, the said inhabitants of British origin, do not belong to the same political party with them, and those who call themselves patriots. My brother Donald is a blacksmith; he formerly, and up to the time of the above-mentioned meeting, had very good custom from the Canadian farmers ; since that meeting he has had only two jobs from two Canadians, and these two, for having employed him, have had the manes and tails of their horses shaved. This is an operation frequently performed by those calling themselves patriots upon the horses of those who do not belong to their party, and which renders the animals useless for six months, and disfigures them for nearly a year and a-half. About three weeks ago, my said brother Donald, having hired a Canadian carter to take him to the village of the Lake of the Two Mountains, the horse of the carter had his mane and tail shaved in the course of that night. My brother John is a grocer, and been hitherto in the habit of selling liquors to be drank out of doors ; but this year he has been refused the necessary certificate for a licence, because he did not belong to the above-mentioned party. Since the above-mentioned meeting, the Canadians, or those who call themselves patriots, have withdrawn their custom from him. My father has been in the habit of making potash, and of purchasing ashes for that purpose from the farmers all round ; but since the meeting in question, no person, being a Canadian, has sold him any, or would dare to sell him any, except by stealth. On Monday, the third day of July instant, Louis Bourgignon and Luc Lefevre, of the said parish of St. Benoit, yeomen, came to the house of my brother John, where I happened to be, and having called me out, the said Louis Bourgignon, speaking first to me, said that I had better go over to their party, or that something bad would happen to me, “ qu'il n't arriveroit malheur ,” for that the people of the lower part of the concession, that is to say of the concession of St. Joseph, in the said parish of St. Benoit, in which we live, would arm and attack all those who did not belong to the patriotic party. Having declared that I would not go over to them, Luc Lefevre°added, that I had better join them if I wished to preserve my property, meaning the property of my father, upon which I live with him. I have reason to know, and do verily believe, that a similar threat has been made to mv brother Alexander by one Francois Labelle, of the said parish of St. Benoit, labourer, about the same time ; that the said liobert Walker, and the said William Starkie, have been recently threatened in a similar manner, the former by Jacques Massie of St. Benoit, yeoman, and the latter by the said Louis Bourgignon and the said Luc Lefevre. For some time past, our Canadian neighbours have even ceased to speak with us when they meet with us. No Canadians are allowed to remain in our service under the pejialty of personal illtreatment. There is a Canadian man who works for my father, and who sleeps at the house of a single woman, whose only support is derived from an orchard. 1 have been informed, and do verily believe, that spies are set over us to prevent any intercourse between our Canadian neighbours and us. I have no hesitation in deposing that I verily believe that the said Louis" Bourgignon, the said Luc Lefevre, the said Frangois Labelle, and the said Jacques Massie, have conspired together, and with divers others of the said concession or cote St. Joseph, to drive my father and brothers, the said Robert Walker, William Starkie, and all the other English inhabitants, amounting to about 30 individuals, counting women and children, out of the said parish of St. Benoit, and 111 default of our leaving our houses, to injure either our persons or our property; and I do therefore demand for myself, for the persons herein above-named, and all other the English inhabitants of the said concession or cote St. Joseph, justice and protection. r J Sworn before me, at Montreal, this 11th July 1837, (signed) Duncan M‘Co!l . (signed) Turton Penn, J. P. Certified. (signed) C. R. Ogden, Attorney-General. District of Montreal. c °[ th ? P a lish of St. Benoit, in the said district, labourer, being dulv the . C i eP i° Seth aiK saith > That on Monday last, Louis Bourgignon and Louis Lefevre, of P ace > yeomen, told this deponent, that unless he would join their party, to wit, a certain AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 61 a ceitain party, calling themselves patriots, they would do him some harm, qu’il arriveroit malneur. And this deponent further saith, that as he doth not intend to join the said party, he veiny believes that they, and each of them, will do him some personal injury unless compelled to give security for good behaviour and the preservation of the peace m the usual manner. 1 (signed) Duncan M‘Coll. Sworn before me, this 6th July 1S37. (signed) TV. Robertson , J. P. Certified. (signed) C. R. Ogden, Attorney-General. District of Montreal. William, Starke, ol the parish of St. Benoit, in the district of Montreal, labourer, beins avoir explique a ce que venoit de dire le dit Docteur Dechesnois, se retira avec un grand nombre des spectateurs. Apres son depart, le dit Docteur Duchesnois s’approcha de la Proclamation ainsi affichee comme dit est, et dit, « c’est mois que vais la dechirer,” et en disant ces mots, il passa sa canne rudement sur la dite Proclamation ainsi affichee, et ensuite de sa main, il a enleva les morceaux, ajoutant, que si Ton mettoit encore d’autres proclamations il servit pret a les dechirer de meme. (signed) Charles Lozeau. Assermente devant moi, ce nth Juillet 1837. (signed) Turton Penn , J. P. Certified. (signed) C. JR. Ogden, Attorney-General. No. 37. Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford. 18 Nov. 1837. — No. 3 7.— Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford. (No. 278.) My Lord, Downing-street, 1 8 November 1 837 * I have had the honour to receive your despatch of the 5th October, No. 104, containing a report from the Attorney-general of Lower Canada of the grounds on which he had thought it necessary to file cx-ojjicio informations against Dr. Duchesnois, and certain inhabitants of the county of Two Mountains, after the bills of indictment against them had been ignored by the grand jury of Montreal. The circumstances detailed by Mr. Ogden were such as to justify the use of every constitutional means for the vindication of the law, and the maintenance 01 public tranquillity. The expediency, however, of the course adopted in tins instance, depends so much on temporary and local circumstances, that I am unable AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 63 to offer an opinion respecting it. The Attorney-General's report affords me no means of estimating the probability of his success. I cannot doubt, however, that, before deciding on the line to be pursued, he had well weighed this conside- ration, and that he had not failed to advert to the injurious effects of a second defeat in the prosecution of the individuals in question. I shall be most anxious to learn the result of these trials, since I cannot but feel that it will probably have much influence on public opinion. I trust it may be such as to vindicate the authority of the law. I have, &c. No. 37. Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, 18 Nov. 1837. (signed) Glenelg. No. 38. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 10 October 1837 I am now busily employed in arranging the composition of the two Councils, which meets with much delay and difficulty, principally from my not being able to procure answers from those I have written to, on the subject of their appoint- ments. I expect in a few days to have this finally settled, and I shall then be able to give you a more correct account of the names of those who will compose the two councils, than I can do at this moment ; I shall also take an early oppor- tunity of sending you a detailed account of the state of the country, which, as it regards the district of Montreal, will be rather gloomy, M. Papineau and his party carrying on a system of agitation and excitement in every way they can ; and, in some instances, I apprehend, they have, by threats and menaces, caused alarm in the minds of some of the well-disposed, which paralizes those efforts and exertions which they would otherwise willingly afford to the civil authority in maintaining peace and order. Every precaution is taken, and I trust I may be able to procure some information, on oath, by which I should be authorized to lay hold of some of the leaders connected with what is going on ; if I could accom- plish this, I should look forward with more certainty than I can at this moment, to the speedy re-establishment of order and tranquillity. All these proceedings I may say are confined to Montreal district ; here we are quite quiet and tranquil ; some mischievous persons amongst us, but those of another character so greatly predominate, that there is no ground for apprehending any disturbance here. — No. 38. — Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle, St. Lewis, 10 October 1837. — No. 39. — No. 39. Earl of* Gosford to Extracts of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, ^^^7. dated Castle, St. Lewis, Quebec, 12 October 1837. The system of agitation, and the attempts to create disaffection, and to ripen it into revolution, of which I have spoken in previous despatches, are, I regret to say, still unremittingly, and with more boldness than ever, carried on by M. Papi- neau and the party that act with him, comprising the greater number of the mem- bers of the Assembly returned for the district ot Montreal. In several of the counties of that district, they have succeeded, if rumour and their newspaper organs are to be credited, beyond what I had anticipated, although I have reason to be- lieve that in the parts which may be said to be most disaffected, the majority of the rural population is as yet but little inclined to join in the views and schemes ot the agitators, who, however, by misrepresentation, and by the instrumentality ot fear and intimidation, have so far worked upon their minds as to produce a degree of inertness in opposing the progress of the movement, and in aiding the admi- nistration of justice and the course of social order, that cannot fail to afford grounds for serious consideration. The mode of proceeding adopted tor keeping up and increasing this feeling is by parading nightly, in the town of Montreal, large and organized bands of men, who, however, have as yet proceeded to no 70 h 4 acts 64 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE ■No. 39. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 12 October 1837. No. K Private, 6 Oct. 1837 - No. 2. No. 3. No. 4, 7 October 1837. acts of violence or breaches of the peace, by inflammatory speeches at meetings ; by seditious publications and resolutions of the central committees ; by placing (in the most disturbed of the rural parishes) those who are loyal and hold opposite political opinions under a species of excommunication, and keeping them in dread of nocturnal injuries to their property ; by burning in effigy those in higher stations, and by subjecting them to a kind of annoyance called a charireari, which is the assembling of a crowd before their doors, tor the purpose ot alarming them and their families at night with uncouth noises, hisses, threats, and other manifes- tations of popular displeasure. Sir John Colborne, the Hon. Mr. Debartzch, and others, have been exposed to this kind of outrage, which, in a recent instance, at St. Denis, in the county of Richelieu, was unhappily attended with loss of life and property ; a lady, Madame St. Jacques, having, as it is reported, fired, or given directions to fire, upon the mob, when, not content with the proceedings usual on such occasions, they had actually broken into her house ; two persons were thereby wounded, of whom one has since died. I he house was immediately demolished, but not before the inmates had escaped; Madame St. Jacques was, however, shortly afterwards apprehended and committed by a magistrate to the Montreal gaol, where I believe she yet remains. Some of the immediate fruits of the system now in operation, which, it not put down, must lead to the worst consequences, are to be seen in the apathy and in- action of such of the magistracy and persons of property who had not joined the revolutionary party ; in the extreme difficulty of obtaining accurate and available information of what is passing ; and, judging from recent events, in the little pro- bability, even if evidence of sufficient weight could be procured to arraign the offenders, of a jury, taken from the district of Montreal, finding bills and con- victing on them. In corroboration of this statement, I may refer your Lordship to an 'official report of the Attorney-general, which I forwarded by a ship that sailed yesterday, with my despatch of the 5th instant (No. 104), and also to the enclosed documents. The first is a letter from Sir John Colborne, in reply to one I wrote to him, in consequence of a communication made to me, at his desire, by the deputy adjutant-general, relating partly to passing events and partly to the orders he has issued respecting the distribution which, at this juncture, he wished effected in the troops, and which appeared to me judicious. The second is The Vindicator newspaper of the 6th instant, containing an address from “ The Sons of Liberty” (as the signers, 44 in number, style themselves) asserting, amongst other things, that the present degraded position of the country being the result of three quarters of a century of warm devotion to British connexion, and of mistaken reliance upon British honour, it would be slavish and criminal to confine their resistance hereafter to simple remonstrances, &c. ; and containing likewise a set of resolutions, stated to have been passed on the 1st instant, at a sitting of the permanent committee of the county of Two Mountains, having for their object the superseding the ordinary administration of justice, by the establishment of a species of tribunal over which magistrates elected by the people are to preside, for the adjustment of differences and the trial of causes, and the organization of volun- teer companies of militia, under the command of officers elected by militia men, who are to be drilled in the management of fire-arms, which, with the other ac- coutrements, the permanent committee pledges itself to provide for those corps that distinguish themselves by their good order and discipline. To this force, it is further resolved that the militia officers who have lately been dismissed for diso- bedience of orders, and for having taken an active part at the various seditious meetings, are to be re-elected. The third enclosure is a petition to me from more than 300 inhabitants of the city of Quebec, tendering their services to Her Majesty, and requesting, in conse- quence of the state of the province, to be allowed to enrol as a volunteer rifle corps, and to be armed and accoutred at the expense of the Government. This petition would, I am given to understand, have been much more numerously signed, but many held back to see the nature of my reply, a copy of which I now forward. \our Lordship is aware that, in December 1835, I refused a similar application from Montreal; and although circumstances are much changed since that period, I still thought it prudent to decline the present proposal, that could not have been accepted w ithout incurring the risk of applications of the same nature from other quarters, which it might have been dangerous to grant but dif- ficult to refuse, had this been entertained, nor without giving rise, both in the pro- vince and elsew here, to inferences that the strength and progress of the agitators are AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 65 are greater than they really are, and that the local Executive was in a state of alarm, inferences which it is one of the great objects of the movement party to create, and to disseminate as widely as possible. The electors of the five countries bordering on the Richelieu River, viz. Riche- lieu, Chambly, St. Hyacinthe, Rouville, and Verch^res, having been called upon by the Montreal central committee, intend, I understand, to have a meeting on the 23d instant, at which, no doubt, Mr. Papineau and his principal supporters will be present. What are the precise objects of this meeting I have not been able to ascertain ; probably to produce an effect here and at home, to recommend resist- ance to the authorities, a general convention, the organization of the people, and, in fact, to prepare them as much as possible for receiving and forwarding the views of the party, who, it is now evident, aim at nothing short of a revolution, and would, I believe, commence it immediately if they thought themselves sufficiently sup- ported by the mass of the population. Many rumours are in circulation : one, that it is intended at this meeting to issue a declaration of independence ; and another, that the plan is to wait till the navigation closes, and the winter sets in, and then to commence active operations, when the military can receive no assist- ance or supplies from without. I do not myself credit these reports, nor yet ap- prehend any serious disturbance, although there are, I admit, some persons of experience and information who think otherwise. It is proper that I should represent to you the inadequacy of the powers at the disposal of the local government for meeting the difficulties that surround it. The law fails to afford its support ; the civil authorities become therefore impotent : the Habeas Corpus Act cannot be suspended. The clergy, though well disposed and loyal, are reluctant to come forward ; any further appeal to the present Parliament would not only be inexpedient and useless, but positively injurious ; and a dissolu- tion offers no prospect of a more reasonable House of Assembly, nor any hope that the new House, which would be composed of a majority of the old members, would recede in any particular from the demands so pertinaciously insisted on by the present body. Indeed a dissolution, if decided on at all, should not at any rate be resorted to before the whole of the measures and arrangements you now have in contemplation respecting this province shall have passed into law and be perfected. In such circumstances, and seeing that the Imperial Parliament has solemnly and unequivocally stated that it will not accede to the Assembly’s demands, I am forced, however reluctantly, to come to the conclusion that the only practical course now open for conducting the affairs of this province with any benefit to the inhabitants generally, is at once formally to suspend the present constitution, which both parties unite in confessing cannot now be worked, and which has in fact for the last 1 2 months been virtually suspended ; to increase the military force, and to strengthen the hands of the Executive, now almost impotent for any good and useful purpose. I do not really see any other plan left for defending the French Canadian from the ruinous consequences that must soon overtake him should Mr. Papineau and his party succeed in their revolutionary schemes ; schemes that, without adverting to considerations connected witlilhe adjoining provinces, should be resisted, in justice to that portion of the population who have settled here, relying upon British faith and protection, who are firm in their allegiance, and avowedly hostile to any disruption of the connexion subsisting between the colony and parent state. In conclusion, I would remind your Lordship that the description I have given of passing events is drawn from materials furnished almost exclusively from the district of Montreal ; the four other districts remaining as yet passive, though I believe the agitators have emissaries busy amongst them. In the city of Quebfec a centra! committee has been established, of which Mr. Morin, I perceive, is a member, and which is intended probably to be similar in object and operation to its prototype at Montreal, but its purposes and regulations are not yet made known. 1 would further remark, that the accounts which reach me, and of course those which reach your Lordship through the ordinary channels of information, are mixed with much exaggeration ; but making allowances tor this, there still remains enough to call for the prompt and active interposition of the parent Government. No. 39. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 12 October 1837. 72 . I 66 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 3 Q. Earl ot Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 12 October 1837. Enclosure 1, in No. 39. Enclosures in No. 39. (No. 1.)

advanced in November .834 from the military chest. and *e “T^hich arJlats Aylmer, his civil secretary, and Messrs. Amyot and Buchanan, t your Lordship informed me were to be discharged m .ng am . ■ t here had therefore of these five items, as it was to be nia e o .n to* ■ ^ett r 72. K No. 41. Earl of Gosford to Lord Gleuf lg, 25 October i& 37 « 74 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 41. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 25 October 1837. Enclosure No. 1. Enclosure No. 2. better, I thought, be deferred until the 65,000 /. now drawn should be refunded from the provincial treasury, under the authority of the Act to be passed for that purpose by the Imperial Parliament. The discharge of the whole debt would then form but a single operation, and there would be no occasion to borrow from the Treasury to repay the Treasury. » The Commissary-general, therefore, in pursuance of my directions, drew, in his own name, and sold bills to the extent of 65,000 /. sterling, the proceeds of which he retained to be distributed under my warrants. This transaction, besides yielding a clear profit of upwards of 3,000 /. must prove, I should think, of considerable convenience to the trading and general interests of the commu- nity, as the means of introducing into the province a large quantity of specie, at a time when, from commercial embarrassments, and the universal and continued suspension of cash payments by the banks, the want of it was much felt. It caused, however, a delay of four or five weeks in the payment of the public ser- vants, but on the 10th instant all the arrangements for that purpose were com- pleted ; and those who chose to dispose of their specie obtained a premium of at least four per cent., some remuneration, though a very inadequate one, for the severe inconvenience they had suffered by being so long kept out of what was due to them. The principle on which I proceeded in discharging the arrears, is the same as that on which the Local Legislature has acted when making provision for the pub- lic service in their bills of supply ; namely, to appropriate, in the first instance, the revenues under the control of the Crown, as far as they will extend, before resort- ing to other sources. I presume that your Lordship intended that I should follow this course, as it seems unnecessary to have the authority of an Act of Parliament for the application by the Crown of funds that it can legally appropriate without the intervention of the Legislature. Accordingly, having ascertained that the amount in hand of those funds on the 10th of April last was about 23,000/. ster- ling, I paid thereout, 1st, all services specifically charged upon, or usually defrayed from, the Crown revenues ; 2dly, all items that since 1 832 the House of Assembly have objected to, with the exception of the deputy postmaster-general’s account (4,048/. 8s.) which, for the reasons contained in my despatch of yester- day (No. 108), was liquidated out of the Parliamentary loan; and, 3dly, the amounts due to those officers who, residing at a distance, had agents in Quebec, acting under special powers of attorney, available only for giving acquittances to the receiver-general, the ordinary channel of payment. Enclosure No. 1 contains a statement of the several items thus liquidated, which, including 2,21 7 /. 8s. 1 1 d. sterling, paid to Mr. Gugy on his dismissal in April last from the shrievalty of Montreal, amount in the whole to the sum of 22,014/. 12 s. sterling, dollars at 4 s. 6 d. There are, however, a few other accounts yet outstanding that are to be defrayed out of these funds, but they will not swell the total just stated beyond 23,000/. Enclosure No. 2 consists of two pay lists addressed to the Commissary-general, containing the several items discharged by him, under my warrants, out of the funds raised by the sale of the bills on the Treasury, the first being a list of the arrears of salary, and the second of the accounts ot contingencies due on the 1 oth of April to the different officers therein named. The totals of the two lists amount together to 292,096 $ dollars, which, reckon- ing the dollar at 4s. 6 d. (the value assigned to it in keeping the provincial accounts and in Government transactions), is equal to 65,721 /. 13s. 5 d. sterling, or, reckoning the dollar at 4s. 4c?. (the value it bears in all commissariat trans- actions), is equal to 63,287/. 10s. gd. To this must be added 4,048/. 8s. sterling (dollars at 4 s. 6 d.), the amount of the postage accounts, paid by a separate warrant. I may here remark, that in those instances where the House of Assembly had reduced, in their votes of 1833 and 1836, the salaries of certain officers, such, ior example, as the physicians to the gaols, the provincial aid-de-camp, the masters ot the Royal grammar schools at Quebec and Montreal, &c., I have paid the arrears, only at the reduced rate, from the 1st of April 1836, having at that period liquidated, out of the 45,000/. of Crown revenues then distributed, the whole of what was due to such officers, according to the old rate, giving them notice, at the same time, that in future they must look only to the Provincial Legislature for the amount and payment of their salaries ; and as the auditor of land patents, the clerk ol the court of appeals, and the clerk of the court of escheats AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 75 escheats were told, when they also received the full amount of what was due to No. 41. them in April 1 836, that from that date their salaries were to cease (the first Earl of Gosford to because the office was to be abolished, and the other two because their services Lord Glenelg, could be sufficiently remunerated by fees), their names, in respect of these 25 October 1837. offices, do not appear in any of the lists of the arrears paid on the present occasion. It may be satisfactory, although, perhaps, not now of much practical im- portance, to say a few words in explanation why the Parliamentary grant of 142,160!. 14s. 4 c?. sterling (dollars at 4s. 6 d.) has proved more than adequate to answer the purposes for which it was taken. Your Lordship, it appears, assumed, as the basis of the grant, a calculation contained in my despatch of the 23d of January last (No. 14). Now, that calculation was, in a great measure, founded upon an estimate, and comprised not only all the expenses and liabilities immediately connected with the machinery of Government, as well those speci- fically charged upon the Crown funds as those usually provided for by the Local Legislature out of the general revenues, but. also a sum of 5,200/. granted by provincial Acts for public works, expenses of commissions, salaries of certain officers, &c., which, as it fell due', was paid under the authority of those Acts. It comprised also several items which, from their pressing nature, or other suffi- cient considerations, had to be paid out of the Crown funds previous to the 10th of April last ; so that at that date the amount of the debt, as appears from the Enclosures Nos. 1 &• 2, did not exceed 127, 744 ?* 5 but as 22,514?* 12s. of this, with the exception of 500/. estimated for outstanding accounts, has been liqui- dated out of the Crown revenues, and will not, therefore, I presume, be included in the Bill to be introduced into the Imperial Parliament based on the 8th of the late Canada resolutions, there will remain to be refunded to the British Treasury by the province (assuming that the profit of 3,204/. 8s. 2 d. arising from the negotiation of the Treasury bills belongs to the latter, a question raised by a separate despatch, No. 110) the sum of 105,229/. 9s. sterling (dollars at 4s. 6 d.) composed of the following items, namely • sterling Dollars, a ? 4 s, 6 d. Number of Dollars. Amount of bills drawn 65,000 /. sterling, dollars a’ 4s. 4 d., equal in sterling dollars a’ 4s. 6urt of King’s Bench at Quebec, tto as ditto ------ tto as ditto ------ tto as ditto at Montreal - - - - itto as ditto itto as ditto ------ • Ditto as provincial resident judge at Three ivers. ilary as ditto at district of St. Francis itto as Attorney-general at Quebec - itto as Solicitor-general - - - - itto as sheriff of Quebec - itto as ditto at Three Rivers - - Compensation as ditto for extra duties un- ir Acts 9 Geo. 4 , c. 6, and 6 Geo. 4 , c. 15 . ilary as sheriff of St. Francis llowance for an executioner as ditto at Quebec >itto at Three Rivers - alary as coroner for the district of Quebec - i itto at Montreal - >itto at Three Rivers - ) i tto as clerk of the Crown at Quebec >i tto at Montreal - )itto at Three Rivers - - Allowance as clerk of the court of appeals >r stationery. .alary as usher of the court of appeals - )itto as interpreter to the courts at Quebec - )itto at Montreal - )itto at Three Rivers - - - )itto as high constable at Quebec )itto at Montreal - Ditto at Three Rivers - • ~ " - Ditto as crier of the criminal courts of king’s Bench at Quebec. Salary as tipstaff to ditto - Ditto as ditto at Three Rivers - - Ditto as keeper of the court-house at Quebec Ditto as ditto at Montreal - Ditto as ditto at Three Rivers - - Ditto as keeper of the court-hall at Sherbrooke Ditto as ditto of gaol at Quebec - Allowance as ditto for two turnkeys Salary as keeper of gaol at Montreal - Allowance for two turnkeys as ditto Salary as keeper of gaol at three Rivers Allowance as ditto for two turnkeys - Salary as keeper of gaol at Sherbrooke Salary as physician attending the gaol at Quebec. Ditto at Montreal Ditto at Three Rivers Pension - Ditto - Ditto - - As lawful attorney of the representatives ot the late Sir George Pownal, being his arrears of pension. Pension - Ditto - Ditto - K 4 135 - 150 — 3,625 - 2,525 - 2,025 - 2,025 770 18 2,025 - 2,025 - 1,896 3 2,025 - 1,125 825 - 550 - 150 - 112 10 15 15 75 — 40 10 40 10 150 - 150 - 20 2 60 - 60 - 30 - 9 - 40 10 60 - 60 - 37 10 No. 41. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 25 October 1837. Enclosure 2, in No. 41. 2 9 54 - 54 - 40 10 30 - 27 - 37 10 81 - 108 - 54 - 58 10 187 10 108 - 117 07 82 10 108 - 37 10 100 - 100 - 50 - 750 - 225 - 900 - 163 19 75 - - 32 8 - 54 - - 45 - - i ( continued ) 8 o CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 41 . Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 25 October 1837. Enclosure 2, in No. 41. Enclosure 3, in No. 41. No. Names of Persons to whom Payment is to be made. 98 M iss Finlay - 99 Miss Mackay 100 Miss Desbarats - 101 Miss M. A. Monti- zambert. 102 Miss L. Montizam- bert. 103 Miss G. Launiere - 104 Miss M. Launiere - 105 Miss E. Launiere - 106 Miss G. Schindler 107 Joseph Bouchette 108 William Sax 109 Henry Ball - 110 Joseph Bouchette 111 Joseph Bouchette F. Vassal de Mon- viel. 112 113 S. J. Duchesnav - 114 F. Vassal de Mon- viel. 115 F. Vassal de Mon- viel. 116 E. W. R. Antrobus 117 P. L. Panet 118 Hugues Heney 119 Hon. F. W. Prim- rose. 120 Rev. R. R. Burrage 121 Rev. R. R. Burrage 122 AlexanderShakel - 123 Alexander Shakel - 124 Rev. R. R. Burrage SERVICE. Pension - Ditto - Ditto - Ditto - Ditto - Ditto - Ditto ----- - Ditto Ditto - Salary as surveyor-general - - Ditto as 1st clerk in office of ditto Ditto as 2d ditto ----- Allowance for stationery as surveyor-general - Ditto for office servant - Salary as adjutant-general of militia Salary as deputy adjutant-general of militia - Allowance as adjutant-general for a clerk Ditto for a messenger Salary as grand voyer for district of Quebec - Ditto - - - - Montreal - - - Di tt0 - - - - Three Rivers Ditto as clerk of the Terrars - -*- Ditto as master of the grammar-school at Quebec. Allowance for house-rent as ditto - - Salary as master of the grammar-school at Montreal. Allowance for house-rent as ditto - - Allowance as secretary to the Royal Insti- tution for a clerk and contingencies. Total - - - £. Amonnt to be Paid* Sterling Dollar a’ 4s. 6 d. £. s. d. 30 - - 27 - - 27 - - i5 - - 15 - ~ 15 - - 15 - - 15 - - 7 10 - 1,237 10 - 274 - - 187 14 2 30 - - 60 - - 1,137 10 - 742 10 - 57 4 3 4 90 8 5 412 10 - 225 - - 247 10 - 247 10 - 100 - - 135 - - 100 - - 81 — - 18 — - 53,638 4 8 Enclosure 3, in No. 41. (List No. 2.) LIST of Persons to whom Payments are to be made out of the Sum granted by the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, in its late Session, towards defraying the Arrears of Expenses of the Civil Government of Lower Canada, being the Balances due to these several Persons for Contingent Expenses for the under-mentioned Services, up to 10th April 1837, inclusive. Paid by the Governor’s Warrant on the Commissary-general, No. 6. Names of Persons Amount payable in No. to whom SERVICES. Sterling Dollar?, a’ 4$. 6d. Payment is to be made. £. s. d. 1 Pierre Vachon - - For joiners’ and other work done in the civil offices of Government. 43 6 8 474 16 8 2 Dominick Daly - - Contingent expenses of his office of pro- vincial secretary. 3 Aug. Jourdin - - For services and disbursements attending 15 18 2 the depositing monies in the receiver-general’s vault under tliree locks. 4 Michael O’Sullivan - - Balance of his contingent accounts for services as solicitor-general. 155 18 4 No. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 n U li 2 ( 2 ] 21 2; 2 2 2 2 < 4 \ OF LOWER CANADA. Si SERVICES. Amount payable in Sterling Dollars, a* 4 5. 6 d. Amount of his contingent accounts as ad- ate-general. Balance of liis contingent expenses as sheriff Montreal (n). .to of ditto as ditto of Quebec tto of ditto as ditto of Three Rivers - tto of ditto as ditto of St. Francis - tto of ditto as coroner at Quebec tto of ditto as ditto at Montreal tto of ditto as ditto at Three Rivers - tto of ditto as clerk of the Crown at Quebec tto of ditto as ditto at Montreal tto of ditto as ditto at Three Rivers - tto of ditto as prothonotaries at Quebec - itto of ditto as ditto at Montreal itto of ditto as protlionotary at Three Rivers itto of ditto as ditto in St. Francis itto of ditto as clerks of the peace at Quebec itto of ditto as ditto at Montreal itto of ditto as clerk at Three Rivers - - Ditto of ditto for services as high constable . Three Rivers during the criminal terms of ■e Court of King’s Bench. Ditto of ditto as clerk of the peace for the strict of St. Francis. Ditto of ditto for having care of Crown tnesses during the criminal terms of the aurt of King’s Bench at Montreal. Ditto of ditto for services as high constable Quebec during the criminal terms of the aurt of King’s Bench. - Amount of their account for printing done r and stationery furnished the office of the liutant-general of militia. -To enable him to pay for expenses incurred l works and repairs at the Castle of St. - Amount of his accounts for work and .pairs done to the Government-house at lontreal. . 1 . r - For keeping up the winter roads in tront f the several public buildings and lots within lie city of Quebec in the winter 1830-37. - Amount of his commission on the amount f quints and lods et rentes paid to the eceiver-general. . . c „ - To reimburse him so much paid tor the , reparation of and making four copies of the Rue Book for 1830. £. ■ - Amount of warrant for postages accounts gainst the civil secretary, surveyor-general, ind adjutant-general of militia, from lltli Oc- tober 1833 to 5th April 1837. Total - - £. £. s. d. 17 7 3 784 6 9 2,106 9 3 714 17 7 53 2 3 780 18 1 280 17 3 25 19 7 294 5 2 314 15 7 72 7 - 150 1 9 469 6 11 182 7 - 10 - 6 1,393 6 10 1,706 14 3 154 10 4 38 5 10 6 9 No. 41. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 25 October 1837 . Enclosure 3 , in No. 41 . 40 10 - 3G 13 5 136 G 3 1,072 12 2 193 2 11 27 - - 299 6 - 31 10 - 12,083 8 9 4,048 8 - 16,131 16 9 , s of the shrievalty, not ascertained when the late slier, ft was : 1 st of April 1837^ 82 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 42. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 21 October 1837. Enclosure No. 1. Enclosure No. 2. 20 Oct. 1837. Enclosure No. 3. Enclosure No. 4. 21 Oct. 1837. Enclosures in No. 42. — No. 42 . — Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. My Lord, Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 21 October 1837. With reference to my communication of the 12th instant, 1 have now the honour to acquaint you, that on the 18th, the day on which Messrs. Debartzch, Quesnel, and Sheppard were sworn in as executive councillors, (Messrs. Pemberton and Panet having previously taken the oaths ot office,) I brought before the new council, consisting of Messrs. Jno. Stewart, H. Heney, G. Pem- berton, L. Panet, and the three members above named, the present state of the province ; and for the purpose of more distinctly eliciting their opinions, I sub- mitted for their consideration and advice the several points contained in the Minute, of which a copy is enclosed. On the evening of the 1 9th, the council furnished me with the result of their deliberations ; but as there appeared to me to be some inconsistency in that part of their recommendations respecting the suspension of the Constitutional Act, 1 placed before them on the 20th certain other questions, which your Lordship will find in Enclosure, No. 3, and w hich produced the further report, a copy ot which is herewith transmitted. These reports corroborate the views and opinions I expressed in the despatch to which I have above referred your Lordship, and I need not now enter into a consideration of their contents. The documents speak for themselves, and will put you in possession of the deliberate and unanimous conviction of men of dif- ferent origins and of various shades of political opinions, deeply interested in the prosperity and welfare of the country, and possessing an intimate knowledge of past and passing events, and the state and feelings of parties at the present moment, and the majority of whom are too fresh in office to have had their judgments warped by continued official contact with executive views and influences. I shall only add, that as far as the recommendations of the Council depend for their execution upon the action of the local Government, I shall, using all pru- dence and caution, endeavour to give to them effect without any unnecessary delay. I have accordingly written to Sir John Colborne, to consult with him as to the practicability and expediency of increasing the military force here by drafts, if they can be spared, from the Lower Provinces ; and I propose to make additions to the existing commissions of the peace, and to appoint one or two stipendiary magistrates as soon as I can select fit and qualified persons for the duty. With respect to the recommendation for enforcing the oath of allegiance on all Her Majesty’s Canadian subjects, as a test of their political principles, and of adopting coercive measures against aliens, I must take some further time for consideration on the§e points. I have, &c. (signed) Gosford. Enclosures in No. 42 . (No. 1.) POINTS on which the Govemor-in-C-hief would wish to receive the Opinion and Advice of the Executive Council. 1. After the reiterated but fruitless efforts made by the present Administration for the last two years, efforts founded on a conciliating and impartial policy, can it be expected that, without further intervention of the Imperial Parliament, it is still practicable to re-establish that equilibrium between the components parts of the constitution which it was intended they should possess ? 2. Should the intervention of the Imperial Parliament become absolutely necessary, as the only means, in the present state of the province, of restoring peace and tranquillity, will not, in consequence of the Assembly having during the two last sessions refused to assist in legislation, the suspension of the Constitutional Act and the Habeas Corpus Act he the mildest and the most efficacious measures for arresting the agitation that now distracts the country and threatens to destroy its established institutions ? 3 . Is AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 83 3. Is it advisable, while waiting for the opinion and action of Her Majesty’s Government No, 42. in England upon the result of our present deliberations, that the Executive Government £ ar i 0 f Gosford to should take steps to avail itself, if possible, of the presence here of a larger military force, Lord Glenelg, in order, on the one hand, to discourage and restrain the efforts and designs of the seditious, 21 October 1837. and on the other, to encourage and give confidence to the well-disposed, and to the friends of order and tranquillity ? 4. Does the Council think that the provincial Legislature would, in the present state of the country, be disposed to place in the hands of the Executive the necessary means for maintaining order, and that the present system of judicature is sufficient to bring to punish- ment those guilty of political offences ? 5. Does the Council think that the commission of the peace, as at present composed, and under existing circumstances, answers the ends for which it is designed ? Enclosures in No. 42. (No. 2.) To his Excellency the Earl of Gosford , Captain General and Govemor-in-Chief of the Province of Lower Canada, &c. &c. &c. REPORT of a Committee of the whole Council, present, the Honourables Mr. Stewart, Mr. Heney, Mr. Pemberton, Mr. Panet, Mr. Debartzch, Mr. Quesnel, and Mr. Sheppard, on your Excellency’s reference in Council of 19th instant. May it please your Excellency, The committee have considered, with great attention, your Excellency s reference in Council, and having obtained information from the Attorney-general on some of the points referred, beg leave to submit the following report : On the first point, the committee are humbly of opinion that there is no hope, under existing circumstances, to re-establish the equilibrium between the component parts 01 the constitution without the intervention of the Imperial Parliament. „ . With respect to that part of the second point which relates to the suspension ot the Habeas Corpus Act, the committee have no hesitation in recommending that the Executive Government may be invested with the power of suspending the same when such shall be deemed necessary, and in the opinion of the committee this is one of the mildest means of strengthening its hands ; but, as regards the suspension of the Constitutional Act, 31 Geo. 3, c. 31, the com- mittee are not prepared to recommend its immediate adoption, although during the virtual abolition of that Act by the declaration of the House of Assembly that they would not pro- ceed to the dispatch of the public business, until the Legislative Council was made elective, it becomes absolutely necessary that the Executive Government should be made independent of the House of Assembly, and enabled to carry on the government of the assistance of the legislative body, until such time as the tranquillity of the country shall be re-established, and the public mind, now agitated and deceived by factious and designing men shall be disabused and restored to a healthy state. .. . . « On the third point, the committee would advice that the Executive Governmen av .ii 1 of the military force within its power, by a judicious disposition ol tie same in v instance, and of their services afterwards, in case of necessity. Die presence of a sufhcie t number of troops would essentially tend to discourage and restrain tlm seditious, while it would inspire confidence in the loyal and well-disposed portion e LeSteture SSfed On the fourth point, the committee see no reason to suppose that the Legislature it called 4. n 11 Jinn^ in tho hands of the Executive Government means of maintaining ordei, S telrte S Sfiingsof tie people, »« especially in the district of Montreal, it “ould te d.ffic«rto procure a conviction for political offences ,n the ordinary course oi lav ^ , , . • , committee are of opinion that the commission of the peace On the fifth and last point, the co“ee^ C0U J are without magistrates, and that in inefficient, masmuc 1 a * „ nt pf that activity which is necessary to meet the emergency the towns there us a gen < • therefore suggest the expediency of establishing a of the times, rhe “““'SeThf CtSTnd filntreal, ami townifThree Rivers, to police office in each o alified according to the existing law, with a requisite consist of a stipendiary magistoate, qua t he committee, would, witli proper vigi- of all disturbers of the peace, and thereby insure more tranquillity in the diflerent districts. wQuld resp ectfully call your Excellency’s Before concluding their repo, respecting aliens resident in the province, especially attention to the expediency « . 9 ■ 5 Drac tices, and whether it may not be advisable to those that may be engager to enioin Her Majesty’s subjects generally to take the call upon all suspected person. , u^ ca i principles ; and the committee humbly recom- oath of allegiance as a tes | t | lc magistrates should be supported and mend that the Crown officers of the ' ^ e ctive duties, and that every means should be SSS reedy aTpmhensiou of offender, against the peace of Her "tu &*££?** submitted to you. Excellency’s wisdom. (By order.) J. Stewart, Chairman. Council Chambers, 20 October 1837. 72. L 2 »4 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 42. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, *21 October 1837. Enclosures in No. 42. (No. 3.) (Extract.) The Council having yesterday reported to the Governor-in -Chief that they are not pre- pared to recommend the immediate suspension of the Constitutional Act, but having given it as their opinion that during the virtual abolition of that Act by the declaration of the House of Assembly, that they would not proceed to the dispatch of public business till the Legislative Council was made elective, it becomes absolutely necessary that the Executive Government should be made independent of the House of Assembly, and be enabled to carry on the Government without the assistance of the legislative body until the tranquillity of the country be re-established : The Governor-in-Chief is desirous of learning from the Council in what manner, and by what means, the Executive Government could, under the existing constitution, be made independent of the House of Assembly, and be enabled to carry on the Government without the assistance of the Legislature. (No. 4.) To his Excellency the Earl of Gosford , Captain-general and Governor-in-Chief of the Province of Lower Canada, &c. &c. &c. Report of a Committee of the whole Council ; present, the honourables Mr. Stewart, Mr. Heney, Mr. Pemberton, Mr. Panet, Mr. Debartzch, Mr. Quesnel, and Mr. Shep- pard on your Excellency’s Order of Reference in Council this day. May it please your Excellency, The [committee having re-considered their report of yesterday, with reference to the papers referred therewith by your Excellency this day in Council, beg leave to state, in explanation, that although they cannot recommend a total suspension of the Constitutional Act, they would respectfully suggest that it is advisable to suspend for a limited time such parts thereof as relate to the calling and meeting of the Provincial Parliament, and that, in the interim, the Local Government should be authorized to revive such laws as it may deem necessary, and which may have expired within the last two years, and to continue those that may hereafter expire. The committee would further recommend the repeal of the Imperial Act of the 1st and 2d Will. 4, c. in order to enable the executive to defray the expenses of the civil government, and of the administration of justice. Under the actual circumstances of the province the committee consider it inexpedient to suggest any further alterations in the Constitutional Act. All which is respectfully submitted to your Excellency’s wisdom. (By order,) Council Chambers, 21 October 1837. (signed) J. Stewart , Chairman. — No. 43. — No. 43. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 30 October 1837. Enclosure No. i. ‘ 27 Oct. 1837. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg. (No. 113.) My Lord, Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 30 October 1837. I lose no time in transmitting, for your information, the first detailed account of what passed at the meeting of the Six Counties, as it is called, that took place at St. Charles, in the county of Richelieu, on the 23d instant, as reported in the enclosed copy of the Vindicator newspaper, which reached me to day. Your Lordship will perceive that 13 resolutions were adopted, which I need not stop to characterize. They will show the views of the leaders of this party, and to what lengths they profess themselves ready to go ; but I believe they will not succeed in persuading the mass of their countrymen to follow and actively sup- port them. Mr. Papineau, and several of his principal abettors, were present, and made violent speeches; Mr. Malhiot, the legislative councillor, was also there for the purpose, I understand, of opposing some of the resolutions. There are various reports as to the numbers who attended the meeting ; the organs o.f the agitators represent them at about 5,000, including nearly 100 armed men, but other public prints state them at under J ,000 ; and from the accounts that have AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 85 have reached me from private individuals who were present on the occasion, No. 43- 1,500 would seem to be a very liberal allowance. I understand that there were Earl of Gosford to about 60 men who had fire-arms, and that there was a small piece of cannon on K .^ "f 83-- the ground, a four-pounder, which, with the small arms, was occasionally dis- • c charged. I also enclose a copy of the Quebec Gazette, containing a report of Enclosure No. s. the proceedings, resolutions, and speeches of a meeting of the Constitutionalists, 30 Oct. 1837. which took place on the same day in the city of Montreal. Here too there is a difference of statement respecting the number present, one party making it as great and the other as small as possible. I should be inclined to think that about 4,000 would approximate to the truth. I likewise forward a document of much importance in the present state of af- K fairs, and which I hope will produce very beneficial results. This is a pastoral j0C osur - — — - letter which the recently appointed Roman -catholic Bishop of Montreal has addressed to the clergy of his diocese, and which I understand was to be publicly read yesterday in the several churches throughout the district of Montreal. With religion, law, and the loyalty of the great bulk of the population opposed to them, the party now fomenting sedition and treason, although they may, it not checked, create local and temporary confusion, are not likely to meet with the success which, from the boldness of their proceedings, they seem to anticipate. Their great strength lies in activity, and the artful and unscrupulous misrepre- sentations with which they delude and excite their more ignorant countrymen , and it is evident that one of the main objects of all the recent meetings and pro- ceedings is to produce an effect in England, and to intimidate, as they hope, the imperial and local authorities. ^ li^vvc k,c (signed) Gosford. Enclosures in No. 43. (No. 1.) From the Vindicator, 27 Oct. 1837. The following is a copy of the proceedings of the Six Counties up to the evening of Monday the 23d instant. Preparatory Proceedings. At a nreliminarv meeting of the delegates, holden at Ducharme’s Hotel, at the village of St Charles on the 22d fnstant, for the purpose of preparing resolutions to be presented to the^meeting of the counties 1 of St. HyacSitlle, Richelieu, Rouville, Verdures and Cham- bly, to be holden on the morrow, in the said village. On motion of E. Cartier, esq., seconded by Jos. Vincent, esq., it was resolved, rn . nf which five shall be a quorum, be now named, to prepare reso- That a committee of >6 , o the Fivi Counties on to-morrow; that the said lutions to be pr°P°^d to g an( l that it be composed of the following committee do sit at half-past five o d £ J. B. C. Durocher, S. Marchesseau, Dr. Con- gentlemen :L. C. Duvert, Boucher^e^Ie^me, J ^ ^ Gluertin, A. Girod, J. T. signy, R. Boileau, Jos. \ inamt, X. 1 ^ Cartier, J. Jacques, M. Lev&que, Capt. Drolet, Jos. Jeannot, i. B. Bougret, C. o p £ Job. Benoit, Jos v Dyon, Dr. Duvert, Fremere, Capt. Uobitaille, Ca t > * E B. O’Callaghan, G. Cartier, R. Hubert, A. Ducharme, and that the I Ion L. J. Papin. eau bers of the %aid committee, and the representatives of the hive Counties, oe men On motion of R. Boileau, esq., seconded by Mr. S. Marchesseau, Resolved, Th.f the said Co.nn.it.e do e « .he delegates of the sever., panshes of the Five Counties on to-morrow at 10 o clock i . m J St. Charles, 23d October, 10 o’clock, r. m. , „vkir>,l ori'firdin't to adjournment, at Ducharme’s Hotel, the The delegates having , assembled jwcordj^^ the same. They were unani- committee named yesterday to P ,e P^ ‘ , ’ l0 t | ie meadow belonging to Dr. Duvert, •mously received, and the meeting adjourned at noon on the bank of the River Chambly. Proceedings of the General Meeting. Twelye 0>clock , „ p ntinf i es of Richelieu, St. Hyacinthe, Rouville, Cham- At a general meeting of the Five Cou ties g CharleB / on Monday, 23d October bly, and Verdures, duly convoked and holden 1B37, . 3 Enclosures in No. 43. Wolfred 86 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 43- Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 30 October 1837. Enclosures in No. 43. Wolfred Nelson, esq., of St. Denis, in the chair, F. C. Duvert, esq., of St. Charles, and Jos. T. Drolet, esq., of St. Marc, m. p. p., vice-presidents; Messrs. Girod, 01 V arennes, and J. P. Boucher-Belleville, of St. Charles, secretaries. A deputation from the county of L’Acadie, presided by C. H. O. Cote, esq., m. p. p., came forward, and laid before the meeting certain documents, praying that the said county be admitted into the confederation of the five Counties ; and the same being read, are as follows : Committee of Vigilance. St. Cyprian, 15 October 1837. Resolved, 8. That-the county of L’Acadie, by its geographical position, ought to be united with the five counties of Chambly, Vercheres, Richelieu, ot. Hyacinthe, and Rouville, and that a memorial to that effect be presented from this county to the president of the meeting of the Five Counties, to be holden on the 23d instant, at the village of St. Charles. Resolved, 9. That C. H. O. Cote, C. Huot, and J. B. Lukin, esqrs., draft the said memorial, and transmit the same, duly signed, to the president at the meeting of the Five Counties above-mentioned. Resolved, 10. That M. Hotchkiss, C. H. O. Cote, A. Merizzi, J. Bouchard, C. Roy, J. B. Dozois, J. B. Hebert, F. Trepannier, Frs. Ranger, C. Hebert, F. Bigonesse, J. B. Paradis, senior, and C. Lucier, represent the county of L’Acadie at the said meeting of the Five Counties, and present from this county the address which shall be prepared by the before-mentioned committee. (A true Extract.) L. Lachapelle , Secretary. The following is a copy of the ADDRESS To the Electors of the Counties of Richelieu , Vercheres , St. Hyacinthe , Chambly , and Rouville . Fellow Citizens:— You meet together at a time of extraordinary moment, to proclaim your rights, to lessen the tyranny of a government for ever odious to every good patriot of Canada. How noble is the example which you this day give ! How strong is the admira- tion of your fellow-citizens ! Doubt not posterity will remember your civic virtues. The country once disembarrassed of the burden which now oppresses it, will celebrate with pomp and gratitude the anniversary of this happy day whereupon you all assemble to deli- berate on your most sacred interests. For us, fellow-citizens, after offering to the Eternal our fervent prayers for the sacred cause of our common country, we are prepared to sacrifice everything most dear to us in the world, to emancipate from a vile slavery the land which gave us birth, which now supports us, which contains our families, our property, and the ashes of our fathers, and which is destined by nature to receive onr mortal remains when we cease to live. Empowered by the electors of the county of L’Acadie to address you, we cannot allow this splendid opportunity to pass without doing you the justice to which you are entitled. Your pure and independent patriotism has been our admiration, and we joyfully declare here that the most of our proceedings have sprung from the fine example which one of your counties (Richelieu), has never ceased to give to the whole province, in the struggle which rages in this country between haughty aristocracy and invincible democracy. The mass of the people of this province repudiate the former, to enrol themselves alto- gether under the flag of the latter. Sprung as we are from that people whose rights we cherish, living among our countrymen whose sole desire is happiness and equality for all, feeling the most profound disgust for all that tends towards aristocracy, whose sole motive appears to be the oppression of the greater for the advantage of the smaller number, we entertain no other principles than those of the purest democracy. In vain does the corrupt aristocracy of England desire to establish its dominion in the Canadas. The people will never consent thereto. Their cry shall ever be for freedom, the bread of life, and against despotism, the food of vile slaves. The people are made to dominate and not to be dragooned. Their voice should be heard ; their will consulted ; their laws respected ; and their orders obeyed. The shameful and degrading system which the metropolitan state has constantly pursued in respect to us, deprives us of all hope of justice. Its recent injustice in rifling our public treasure, demonstrates that we are no longer safe in this colony. Fellow citizens ! if our lives have not yet been openly attacked, it is because our geographical position keeps our enemies in check. Unfortunate Ireland, rich by nature, impoverished by the iron yoke which now oppresses her, is a striking example of what our cowardly enemies would dare do, if they feared not the neighbourhood of a republic jealous of the rights of man. Let us then rally, from one extremity of the province to the other. Let us prove to the world that we are men who deserve to be independent. Let us make our enemies feel that if they have no respect for the justice of our complaints, one means still is within our reach, to oblige them to pause in their iniquitous projects. The AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 87 Lord Gienelg, 30 October 1837. * ■ Enclosures in No. 43. The noble example, fellow citizens, which you have given, by uniting into one confederation No. 43* your five counties, has suggested to the electors of the county of L’Acadie the propriety of Earl 0 f Gosford to soliciting the admission of their county into that confederation, and such is the honour * ’ ^ which we now demand at your hands. Authorized to make this demand in the name of the electors of that county, we would remark that the geographical position of the county which we represent requires its adhesion to yours. Forget not the patriotism of the inha- bitants of that county. Shamefully deceived at a first election, they since nobly vindicated themselves by a second choice. They also have had their share of the vindictive persecu- tions of a Governor too weak and incapable to hold the reins of the government of this pro- vince. His ill-timed and imbecile proclamation has everywhere excited the contempt of honest men. Our brothers, the working men of London, could not suppress an expression of pity on the perusal of that puling document destined to tarnish the reputation of honest men venerated by the country. Those unjust and arbitrary persecutions have had the effect in this part of the district to stimulate the lukewarm ; to increase twofold the activity of zealous patriots, and to cover the provincial government with the most profound con- tempt, as Lord John Russell’s iniquitous resolutions had already done the Metropolitan Government. Brothers, in this critical period, so important for the future fate of our common country, we the deputies of the county of L’Acadie again demand admission into your confederation. The electors of our county shall never be surpassed in patriotism by any others ; on the contrary, they will ever have before their eyes the motto of the worthy and brave Sons of Liberty — “ Forward !” Permit us, in conclusion, to observe, that as every corps has its chieftain, no person seems to us better qualified to conduct the patriotic phalanx than he who has passed his entire life in the talented defence of our rights and liberties, L. J. Papineau. Under his guidance, behind his buckler, the country will rise from the slough into which it has been plunged by a despotic government. Waiting for the day when the new star of Canada s happiness will arise, we offer our sincere wishes that prosperity may attend the holy work we have undertaken. We are, fellow citizens, your brother democrats. County of L’Acadie, (signed) this 21st day of October 1837. C. H. O. Cote. C. Huot. J. B. Lukin. Wherefore it was resolved, on motion of Mr. Simeon Marchesseau, of St. Charles, seconded by Dr. Duchesnois. That the citizens, electors of the Five Counties, admit with pleasure into their confedera- tion their brave fellow-citizens of the county of L’Acadie. Ordered, That the address from the county of L’Acadie, presented to this meeting, be entered at length on the minutes of this meeting. Ordered, That the apologies from Majors J. Bertrand and Constant Cartier, esq., sen., of the parish of St. Margaret, of Blairfindie, for not being able to attend as delegates to this meeting on account of illness, be inserted on the minutes. On motion of Mr. A. Girod, seconded by F. C. Duvert, esq., "Resolved That the counties of Laprairie and of Missisquoi be invited to join the confede- ratioii of these Six Counties, being, by their geographical position, destined to form part of Ihe same, such counties participating the same political opinions and the same patriotic principles as these counties profess. Resolutions on the State of the Province. On motion of Wolfred Nelson, esq., of St. Denis, seconded by Dr. Davignon, of c i Mfmf > ‘ i’ll Tlmt in accordance with tlie example of the wise men and heroes of 1770, Resolved, 1. T, ^ t » , t the following truths : That all men are created equal ; we hold as self ev c their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among the that they are en owee liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; that it is for the pro- number of thes^ . ’ ^ govevnme nts were instituted among men, deriving tection and security f consent of the governed; that whenever any form of the,,' just autl.or.ty only from .£££?«£ it is the right of the people to alter or to government becomes Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing ?ta powlis after' such form, as to them shall seem best adapted to secure their “on motion^ of C Rdne Boileau, esq., of Chambly, seconded by Captain Vincent, of Longueuil, , .. f Britain over the Canadas cannot and should Resolved, 2. That the au Y the j r ^habitants, and cannot rest on brute force, not continue, except by t ie g nniust power, which can exist only until the day of which confers no rights, bu • g 1 ^ • ‘ ^ a ve ^ ^ fortiori, the right to demand and to obtain, successful resistance ; tha P - ance ’ guc h changes and improvements in the form of as a condition of their vo un J ‘ j c r ess of their country since 1701, and their present SSsrsa ;£££*£ sa-r- -***• 72. On 88 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 43. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 30 October 1837, Enclosures in No. 43. On motion of L. Lacoste, esq., of Longueuil, m. p. p., seconded by Thimothee Franchere, of St. Mathias, Resolved, 4. That it is of urgent necessity, under such lamentable circumstances, to replace the individuals whom an administration inimical to the country will name to those offices, by men worthy of confidence ; that all the parishes of the Six Counties are hereby invited simultaneously to elect, between the first day of December and the first day of January next, pacificator justices of the peace and officers of militia; and that the regula- tions of the county of Two Mountains be provisionally adopted for their direction and jurisdiction. On motion of J. T. Drolet, esq., of St. Marc, m.p.p., seconded by Dr. Duchesnois, of Varennes, Resolved, 5. That under the penalties laid down in the said regulations, and under the more powerful bonds of honour, the reformers of the Six Counties will at the same time obey and assist to the utmost the officers by them so chosen ; they will systematically oppose such officers as shall be named by Lord Gosford, from this day to the day of his departure from the province, refusing their confidence to them, lending them no cordial aid, obeying their orders only in such cases as they cannot dispense with doing so without a manifest violation of the laws; and subscribing funds to prosecute and punish them in all cases where they render themselves guilty of an abuse of power. On motion of Dr. Duvert, of St. Charles, seconded by Dr. Allard, of Belceil, Resolved, G. That the Inhabitants of the Six Counties of right expected that the province would not be continually deprived of the benefits of a local legislature ; that the Legislative Council would be improved in such a manner as to secure its co-operation with the repre- sentative branch of the Legislature, and its respect for the wants and wishes of the mass of the people; that so far from these just expectations having been realized, a number of per- sons have lately been called to sit in that Council who, with scarce an exception, not only do not enjoy public confidence, but have rendered themselves in every respect unworthy thereof, and who by their conduct and public opinions have rendered themselves odious to the country. On motion of P. Amiot, esq., of Verchcres, m.p.p., seconded by Capt. Bonin, of St. Ours, Resolved, 7. That this meeting declares that the late nominations to the Executive Council of this province are equally unworthy of public confidence with those to the Legislative Council ; that they are the more scandalous, inasmuch as they continue pluralities in office, one of the abuses which Lord Gosford had himself denounced, both as Governor-in-Chief and Royal Commissioner, and as they confide to the same hands legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. On motion of Francois Papineau, esq., of St. Cesaire, seconded by Lieutenant Bona- venture Viger, of Boucherville, Resolved, 8. That this meeting sees in these different nominations, nothing else but the continuation of the old system of fraud and deception, which has at length uprooted all feeling of confidence both in the metropolitan and colonial governments, and in the Legisla- tive Council as at present constituted ; another proof of inveterate hostility to the repeated demands of the country ; an obstinate and tyrannical determination, on the part of Her Majesty s Government, to protect and perpetuate the abuses and grievances of which a people, already too patient, have complained. On motion of Mr. Jean Cormier, of Contrecoeur, seconded by Mr. Clem. Gosselin, of St. Hilaire, J Resolved, 9. That the divers abuses and grievances under which this colony has for a long series of years complained, have been so often detailed by the representatives of the people, and admitted by Her Majesty’s Government and the British Parliament, that it is now useless to recapitulate them here, inasmuch as they have been lately denounced by the people themselves in their respective county meetings, and the remedial measures therefor pioposed, on all and each of which these Six Counties do insist anew. On On motion of Louis Marcliand, esq., of St. Mathias, seconded by Mr. Jean Marie Tetreau, of St. Hilaire, Resolved, 3. That the arbitrary dismissals from office, ordered by the Governor-in-Chief during the last three months, and which have not yet ceased, but still daily continue, against a number of justices of the peace, officers of militia, and commissioners for the summary trial of small causes throughout the parishes, for having taken a part in the proceedings ot county meetings holden by the people for the vindication of their invaded rights, proves, to a demonstration, that his Excellency unworthily abuses the prerogative of the Crown, with a view to remove from such offices those who, having filled them with integrity and inde- pendence, had obtained for themselves the esteem and confidence of the public, and for the law the respect and attachment of the people, in order to replace them by servile instru- ments, disposed to favour his violent policy, even under the weight of the universal contempt of their fellow-citizens. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 89 of S n r ti0n ^ S * ^ anc ^ ar( ^ esc H °f Hyacinthe, M.r. p., seconded by Mr. Jos. Sene, 43. Resolved, 10. That instead of honestly redressing the said grievances and abuses, as in ^Lord ^°le^?elL t0 duty bound, the British Government and the two Houses of Imperial Parliament have 30 October 1837. threatened, and intend to annihilate the fundamental rights of this colony; in order to force the people into a base and abject submission to the oppressions which are preparing for them, Enclosures in recourse is had to the same system of coercion and terrorism which has already disgraced No. 43. the history of British rule in Ireland ; magistrates and militia officers, enjoying the confi- dence ot their fellow-citizens, are insolently deprived of office, because they love their country too well to sanction an unconstitutional aggression, or to permit her liberties to be violated with impunity ; and as a climax to our misfortunes, the present Govemor-in-chief has re- cently introduced, in time of profound peace, a large body of armed troops into this pro- vince, to destroy, by physical force, all constitutional resistance, and to complete, by desola- tion and death, the work of tyranny already determined upon and authorized beyond th^ seas. On motion of Mr. Laurent Bedard, of St. Simon, seconded by Isaie Boudreau, esq., of St. Marie. Resolved, 11. That holding Lord Gosford guilty of an atrocious aggression against our liberties by the introduction of such armed force amongst us, and counting on the sympathy of our neighbours, the zealous co-operation of our brother reformers of Upper Canada, and on Providence, for a favourable opportunity of emancipating ourselves from the oppressive system under which we suffer, we declare that, conimisserating the unhappy lot of the soldiers which our enemies desire to convert into the vile instruments of our slavery, and their own dishonour, the people of these counties will throw no obstacle in the way of the men belonging to the regiments stationed in this district, should they desire to improve their condition by emigrating to the neighbouring republic, especially as we have strong reason to believe that a number of those soldiers are waiting only for an opportunity to get rid of their present onerous and irksome profession. On motion of Come Cartier, esq., of St. Antoine, seconded by Mr. Simeon Marchesseau, of St. Charles, Resolved, 12. That this meeting approves of the organization of the political association entitled “ The Sons of Liberty/’ and recommends the young men of these counties to organize themselves in the same manner, to form, in their respective parishes, branch socie- ties of “ The Sons of Liberty/’ and to maintain an active correspondence and frequent com- munication with “ The Sons of Liberty/’ in Montreal, and to adopt the same systematic organization, so as to be prepared to support each other with promptitude and effect, should circumstances require them to protect and defend their threatened liberties. On motion of Dr. Dorion, esq., of St. Ours, m. p. p., seconded by Mr. Eust. Gretton, of St. Marie, Resolved, 13. That the delegates named by the different parishes of the Five Counties are requested to meet anew at this place to-morrow, at two o’clock in the afternoon, to con- sider such propositions as may be submitted to them. Thanks having been voted to the chairman and other officers of the meeting, the assembly adjourned, after having given three cheers for Papineau, three cheers for Dr. Wfd. Nelson, and three cheers for the reformers of Upper Canada. (signed) End of the first day’s proceedings. Wfd. Nelson , President. J. T. Drolet, 1 y- Presidents F. C. Duvert,} Vice riesiaenl& - A . Girody V J. P. Boucher-Belleville,} Secretaries. (No. 2.) Loyal Meeting at Montreal . From the Montreal Herald of the 26th October. Monday, 23d October 1837. At one o’clock the meeting was organized, when Samuel Gerard, _ esq., proposed and George Auldjo,esq., seconded, the nomination of the Hon. Peter M‘G.11 as chairman, which was carried by acclamation. The first resolution was moved by W. Ritchie, esq., and seconded by John Jones, sen., eS ResoK b ed°T-That all citizens have an equal right to the protection of the Government, wWclTconsists not mer ^^ th ^coim^sion ^ ment of adequate means to anticipate ana pi eve ^ the 72. 90 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE Willi felcHJUUI CU1U. BCUIWUU, xwv.mig, — / j . , , i ,1 moral order have been shaken, the Government has been brought into contempt, and the connexion between this province and the mother country attempted to be destroyed. The second resolution was proposed and seconded, with a few preliminary observations, by George Auldjo, esq., and H. L. Routli, esq. b. a. c., as follows : Resolved, 2. — That this meeting has seen with alarm that the prerogative of the Crown lias been deliberately perverted by the appointment to offices of trust and responsibility of advo- cates of sedition and of enemies of the existing constitution of the province, and that the pre- sent excited stated of public feeling has been promoted and encouraged by the injudicious and ineffectual attempts at conciliation of the Government. The third resolution was moved by Henry Griffin, esq., and seconded by Charles Penner, esq., as follows : Resolved, 3. — That as isolated individual exertion would be utterly inadequate to cope with all the evil energies now arrayed against public order and the public peace, and as those evils cannot be effectually prevented without the active, zealous and persevering co-operation of every good subject, which co-operation to be effectual must be the result of a regular and systematic union of individuals, this meeting considers it expedient that the loyal and well- disposed part of the community do form themselves into associations within their respective wards, for the purpose of organization and general concert in case of emergency or necessity ; that the several associations do appoint their respective committees from among their resi- dent members, to whom the local organization and management shall be entrusted, and that a sub-committee, consisting of two members from each ward committee, shall assemble to concert a general system of measures to be pursued in case of urban disturbance. The fourth resolution was moved and seconded by John M. Tobin, esq., and James Logan, esq., as follows : Resolved, 4. — That this meeting is persuaded that there exists no substantial cause for apprehension of a successful rebellion against the British Government, by the mass of our fellow-subjects of French origin, though the utmost activity and perseverance are employed to create disorder and sedition amongst them ; but feeling that to guard against the perni- cious influence of that activity and perseverance, and to arrest it, is the bounden duty of every good subject, this meeting calls upon their fellow-subjects throughout the province to organise themselves into local associations, as the most effectual means for the security of good order, the protection of life and property, and the maintenance of the connexion happily existing between this province and the British Empire. James Holmes, esq., then moved the fifth resolution, which was seconded by Robert Armour, sen. esq., as follows : Resolved, 5.— That this meeting seizes this present opportunity of declaring its opposition to the application of the elective principle to the Legislative Council of this Province, and of reiterating the claims of the inhabitants of Lower Canada of British origin to the abolition of the feudal tenure, and the establishment of an efficient system of registration for mort- gages, the want of which has not only retarded the settlement and improvement of the pro- vince, but has rendered it conspicuous for its backward condition in comparison with our sister province. Mr. M'Ginn moved the sixth and last resolution. Resolved, 6. — That the Irish inhabitants of this city do hereby express their unqualified abhorrence of the low and base attempts that are making to draw them over to the revolu- tionary party, whose designs they consider inimical to all good government and to the safety and well-being of this province, and at the same time their readiness, should it ever be neces- sary, to repel by force those whose every action bespeaks them the enemies alike of them- selves and their countrymen in general. JEAN JACQUES LARTIGUE, Premier Eveque de Montreal, etc., au Clerge et a tous les Fiddles de Notre Diocese, salut et benediction en Notre Seigneur. Depuis longtems, Nos Tres Cliers Freres, nous n’entendons parler que d ’agitation, de revolte meme, dans un Pays tou jours renomme jusqu’a present par sa loyaute, son esprit de paix, et son amour pour la religion de ses p£res. On voit partout les freres s’elever contre leurs fr&res, les amis contre leurs amis, les citoyens contre leurs concitoyens ; et la discorde, d’un bout a l’autre de ce diocese, semble avoir brise les liens de la charite qui unissoient entre eux les Membres d’un meme corps, les enfants d’une meme eglise, du Catholicisme qui est une religion d’unite. Dans des conjonctures aussi graves, notre seul parti ne peut etre sans doute que de nous en tenir, je ne dis pas a l’opinion que nous, et nos fideles cooperateurs (No. 3.) dans AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 9 1 1 , 3 . dans le saint ministere, aurions droit cependant d’emettre comme citoyens aussi bien ]>{ 0 . 4 que les autres, mais a Fobligation stricte que nous impose FApotre des nations lorsqu’ii 0 f Oosrord. to disoit : Malheur a moi si je ne preche pas l’Evangile; car la necessite m’y oblige, necessitas Lord Qj ene ig. enim mihi incumbit . Non, N. F. C. F. aucun de vous n’ignore que les devoirs des divers October 1837 membres du corps social, aussi bien que ceux de la famille, appartiennent essentiellement ' a la morale Chretienne; que cette morale divine fait partie du depot sacre de la foi, qui x Q or> g y 16. nous a ete transmis par le canal tr^s pur de l’Ecriture et de la tradition ; et que nous sommes tenus de vous le transmettre aussi fid element en notre qualite de successeur des Apotres. Nous ne saurions d’ailleurs vous 6tre suspect sous aucun rapport: comme cliez vous, le sang Canadien coule dans nos veines : nous avons souvent donne des preuves de l’amour que nous avons pour notre chore et commune patrie; et ainsi que FApotre, nous pourrions p^jjj prendre Dieu a temoin que nous vous cherissons tous dans les entrailles de Jesus-Christ ; vous savez enfin que nous n’avons jamais rien regu du gouvernement civil, comme nous n’en attendons rien, que la justice due a tous les sujets Brittanniques ; et nous rendons temoignage a la verite, quand nous attestons solennellement que nous vous parlons ici de notre propre mouvement, sans aucune impulsion etrang&re, mais seulement par un motif de conscience. Encore une fois, N. F. C. F. Nous ne vous donnerons pas notre sentiment, comme citoven, sur cette question purement politique, qui a droit outort entre les diverses branches du pou- voir souverain ; (ce sont de ces choses que Dieu a laissees aux disputes des hommes,) mundum trudidit disputationi eorum: mais la question morale, savoir quels sont les devoirs Eccles. 3, 11. d’un Catholique a Fegard de la puissance civile, etablie et constitute dans chaque etat, cette question religieuse, dis-je, etant de notre ressort et de notre competence, c’est a votreeveque a vous donner sansdoute toute instruction necessaire sur cette matiere, et a vous de l’ecouter; car, dit le celebre Lamenais, les eveques etant charges par FEsprit Saint de gouverner, sous D6c , aration pr ^ sent ^ e la conduite du Souverain Pontife, FEglise de Dieu, nous faisons profession de croire qu’en au L g*s 4 ge paries tout ce qui tient a Fadministration spirituelle de chaque diocese, pretres et laics doivent R^dacteurs de I’Avenir, fidelement obeir aux ordres de Feveque institue par le Pape. 6°F4vvLr, e i8^u en,r dU Voici done ce que vous enseignent la-dessus les divines Ecritures. “Que tout le monde, R 0 m. 13, it 2,4,5. dit St. Paul aux Komains, soit sounds aux puissances superieures : car il n’y a point de puis- sance qui ne vienne de Dieu ; et c’est lui qui a etabli toutes celles qui existent. Cel ui done qui s’oppose aux puissances, resiste a l’ordre de Dieu ; et ceux qui y resistent, acquierent pour eux-memes la damnation. Le prince est le ministre de Dieu pour procurer le bien; et comme ce n’est pas en vain qu’il porte le glaive, il est aussi son ministre pour punir le mal. 11 vous est done necessaire de lui etre soumis, non seulement par crainte du chatiment, mais auissi par un devoir de conscience. Soyez done soumis, ajoute St. Pierre le chef des Apotres, * ^ eil a * 2 > ’ k j’ a toutes sortes de personnes par rapport a Dieu, soit an Koi, comme etant audessus des ^ 9 n autres, soit aux chefs qu’il vous envoie pour punir les mechants et louer les bons; cai telle est la volonte de Dieu. Etant libres, ne vous servez pas de cette liberte comme d’un voile pour couvrir de mauvaises actions; mais (agissez) comme des serviteurs de Dieu. Kendez honneur k tous, aimez vos freres, craignez Dieu, honorez le Roi. Serviteurs, soyez soumis et respectueux envers vos Maitres, non seulement a F 4 gard de ceux qui sont bons et doux, mais aussi envers ceux qui sont bizares et facheux ; car c est un eftet de la grace, si en vue de Dieu, l’on souffre avec patience d’injustes traiternents.” Voila N. T. C. F., les oracles de FEsprit Saint, tels que nous les trouvons dans la Sainte Bible- voila la doctrine de Jfesus-Christ, telle que les Apotres Pierre et Paul Favaient apprise de la propre bouche de leur divin Maitre. Mais quclque claires que soient par elles-mcmes ces paroles de verite, un Chretien n^interprtte jamais la parole de Dieu par son 2 petr esprit prive • il sait que c’est un dogme fondamental de sa foi que, comme 1 assure St. Pierre, les Saintes Ecritures ne doivent pas etre entendues selon le sens particular de chacun : et qu’il n’appartient qu’a FEglise Catholique, notre m^re, de nous en donner 1 intelligence, Math . 18, 17. selon cette sentence de J. C. dans FEvangile: celm qui n ecoute pas 1 Eglise, regardez-le Act. 20, 28. r. 1, 20. comme en payen n payen et un publicain, sit tibi dcut etlinicus et pubheanus. Or, le Pape actuel, Greeoire XVI., du haul de sa chaire pontificate, s’est exphque sur ces textes de Kcnture: il a fnterprete, a la suite des Sts. Peres, et d’aprtis la tradition perpetuelle de 1 Egl.se depuis son etablissement iusqu’a nos jours, ces passages des livies saints que nous vous ons cites - et il en a dictc le vrai sens a l’univem Chretien, dans son Encycltque du lo Aout 1032 c , u -,. a( l re «sa aux eveques du monde entier an commencement de son pontifical. Pas un seu?ev6que depuis cette' epoque n'a reclame centre la doctrine de cette lettre, ensor e qu’efle a recu l’assentiment, du moms tacite, de toute 1 egl.se ense.gnante, et qu on do.t la regarder conscquemment comme une decision < ogma lque. « Comme nous avons appris, dit le St. Pere, (car ici, ce n’est pas notre parole que vous oomme nous m j n ) comme nous avons appris que des cents semes allez entendre ; c ’ ™\ cen * qui ebranlent la fidel.te et la soumission dues parnn le peuple pioc am ‘ . q. un ])aux de la revolte, il fixudra empecher avec soin aux princes, et qui allumenl ; partout^ les i ftambaux^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Que tous que les peuples amsi trompes s ^ 0 j nt de puissance qui ne vienne de Dieu. consukrent que, suivan a\i> ../.aiKte a l’ordre de Dieu ; etceux qui resistent sattirent Ainsi, celui qui resiste a la puiss divines et humaines s’elevent done contre ceux qui la condamuation a eux-m&nes. , „olte et de sedition, la fidelite aux princes, et de s’efforcent d’ebranler, par des ti am afin de ne pas contracter une telle souillure, les precipiter du trone. es P?.V j fuieur des persecutions, surent cependant bien que les premiers Chretiens, an j ut de l’empire, comme il est certain qu’ils le firent. servir les empereurs, et travailler au salut ue i^e , 1 I l s 9 2 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE No. 43. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 30 October 1837. Enclosures in No. 43. St. Aug. in Psalm 124, No. 7. 2 Ruinart Act. 55. Maurice et Comp. No. 4. Tertul. Apolog. ch. 37. Jac. 2, 10. Art. 17. Art. 18. 2 Cor. 13, 13. IIs le prouv&rent admirablement, non seulement par leur fidelite a faire ce qui leur etait ordonne, des qu’il n’etait pas contraire a la religion, mais encore en repandant meme leur sang dans les combats. “ Les soldats Chretiens, dit St. Augustin, servoient un empereur infidele; mais s’il etoit question de la cause de J. C., ils ne reconnaissoient que celui qui est dans les cieux. IIs distinguoient le Maitre eternel du Maitre temporel: et cependant ils etoient soumis pour le Maitre eternel meme au Maitre temporel. C’est ce qu’avoit devant les yeux l’invincible Martyr Maurice, chef de la legion Thebaine, lorsque, comme le rapporte St. Eucher, il repondit al’empereur : Nous sommes vos soldats, Prince, mais en meme terns serviteurs de Dieu ; et maintenant meme le danger ou nous sommes de perdre la vie ne nous pousse point a la revolte ; nous avons des armes, et nous ne resistons point ; parceque nous aimons mieux mourrir que de tuer. Cette fidelite des anciens Chretiens brille avec bien plus d’eclat, si Ton remarque, avec Tertullien, qu’alors les Chretiens ne manquoient, ni par le nombre, ni par la force, s’ils eussent voulu se montrer ennemis declares de Petat. “ Ces beaux exemples de soumission inviolable aux princes, que etoient une suite neces- saire des preceptes de la religion Chretienne, condamnent l’erreur de ceux qui, enfl amines d’ardeur pour une liberte effrfinee, s’appliquent a ebranler et renverser les droits des puis- sances, tandis qu’au fond ils n’apportent aux peuples que la servitude sous le masque de la liberte. C’est la que tendoient les coupables desseins des Vaudois, des Beguards, des Wic- lefistes, et des autres qui ont ete si souvent frappes d’anatheme par le Siege Apostolique ; et ceux qui travaillent pour la meme fin n’aspirent encore qu’a se feliciter avec Luther d’etre libres a Regard de tous et de toutes choses. “ Le devoir vous oblige, ajoute le meme pontife dans son Bref de Juillet 1832 aux Eve- ques de Pologne, de veiller avec le plus grand soin a ce que des hommes mal-intentionees, des propagateurs de fausses doctrines, ne repandent parmi vos troupeaux le germe de theories corruptrices. Ces hommes, pretexant leur zele pour le bien public, abusent de la credulite des gens de bonne foi qui, dans leur aveuglement, leur servent d’instruments pour troubler la paix, et renverser l’ordre etabli. II convient que, pour Pa vantage et Phonneur des disciples de J. C. leurs fausses doctrines soient inises dans leur jour : il faut refute r leurs principes par la parole immuable de PEcriture Sainte, et par les monuments authentiques de la tradition de l’eglise. Telle est la doctrine du Souverain Pasteur des amcs, du Pontife venerable maintenant siegeant sur la Chaire eternelle, jointe a l’enseignement de l’eglise de tous les terns et de tous les lieux; et vous devez voir a present, N. T. C. F. que nous ne pouvions, sans blesser nos devoirs et sans mettre en danger votre propre salut, omettre d’eclairer votre conscience dans un pas si glissant. Car il ne s’agit pas ici de morns pour vous que de maintenir les lois de votre religion, ou de les abandonner, puisque, pour un Catholique, il ne sauraity avoir de partage en matiere de foi ; et que selon PApotre St. Jacques, celui qui manque a un seul article de la loi, est coupable sur tousles autres points. Ne vous laissez done pas seduire, si quelqu’un vouloit vous engager a la rebellion contre le Gouvernement etabli, sous pretexte que vous faites partie du peuple souverain : la trop fa- meuse convention nationale de France, quoique forcee d’admettre la souverainete du peuple puisqu’elle lui devoit son existence, eut bien soin de condamner elle-meme les insurrections populaires, en inserantdans la declaration des droits en tete de la constitution de 1795, que la souverainte reside, non dans une partie, ni meme dans lamajorite de peuple, mais dans l’universalite des citoyens ; ajoutant que nul individu, nulle reunion partielle de citoyens, ne peut s’attribuer la souverainete. Or qui oseroit dire que, dans ce pays, la totalite des citoyens veut la destruction de son Gouvernement? Nous finissons, N. T. C. F. par en appeler a vos cceurs, toujours nobles et genereux. Avez-vous jamais pense serieusement aux horreurs d’une guerre civile? Vous etes-vous represente des ruisseaux de sang inondant vos rues ou vos campagnes, et Pinnocent enveloppe avec le coupable dans la meme serie de melheurs ? Avez-vous reflechi que, persque sans exception, toute revolution populaire est une oeuvre sanguinaire, comme le prouve Pexperi- ence ; et que le philosophe de Geneve, P auteur du contrat social, le grand fauteur de la sou- verainte du peuple, dit quelque part qu’une revolution seroit aclietee trop cher, si elle coutoit une seule goute de sang ? Nous laissons a vos sentiments d’humanite et de christianisme ces importantes considerations. Que le grace de N. S. J. C., la charite de Dieu, et la communication de PEsprit Saint demeure avec vous tous. Amen. Sera notre present mandement lu et publie a messe paroissiale ou principale de chaque eglise, et au cha|3itre de chaque communaute de notre diocese, le premier Dimanche ou jour de fete apres sa reception. Donne a Montreal, le vingt-quatre d’Octobre, mil-huit-cent-trente-sept, sous notre seing et sceau, avec le contre-seing de notre secretaire. k-tS. ^ J. J. Eveque de Montreal , Par Monseigneur A. F. Truteau y Ptre. Secretaire. (Pour Copie.) A . F. Truteau , Ptre. Secretaire. 1 . S. 1 . Chaque pretre lira a son peuple la mandement ci-dessus, sans aucune espece c e eommentaue ou d explication. — 2°. Jusqu’a nouvel ordre, on dira tous les jours a la messe oraison pro quacumque tribulatione, excepte aux messes l re classe, aux solennelles de 2 de classe, a celle du Dimanche des Rameaux, et a celle de la vigile de la Pentecote ; et cette memo oraison remplacera celle marquee ad libitum dans les autres messes. — 3°. Les trois communautes religieuses de ce diocese reciteront tous les jours, a notre intention, 5 pater et 5 ave apres la messe principale. J. J. Fv. de M. AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 93 — No. 44. — Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford. (No. 281.) My Lord, Downing-street, 27 November 1837. I need hardly assure your Lordship that the present state of the province of Lower Canada, as described in your recent despatches and letters to me, has for some time engaged the most anxious and deliberate consideration of Her Majesty’s Government. We have observed with sincere regret the result which has attended the efforts of those who seek to disturb the public peace, and to alienate the affections of the people from the mother country. Under these circumstances our first and immediate duty must evidently be a most strenuous endeavour to repress the efforts of the discontented, to re-assert the supremacy of the law, and to inspire confidence and courage in the well- disposed and loyal part of the population of the province. In considering the means by which these objects are to be effected, we have not failed to advert to the disinterested manner in which your Lordship has left to Her Majesty’s Ministers the entirely free and unembarrassed discussion of the question as to your continuance in your office, or your retirement from it, express- ing yourself perfectly ready to retire from the government of Lower Canada, should that course appear on public grounds advisable. \ our conduct in this particular only corresponds with the whole tenor of it during the period of j oin official life. It has been under the strong impression of these feelings, and there- fore, as I am sure you will do us the justice to believe, with the utmost reluct- ance that we have entertained the question thus opened to us by yourself. Deeply erateful to your Lordship for the good faith, the moral courage, and the perseverance with which, under the most discouraging circumstances, you have still endeavoured to carry out the liberal policy of which you were selected as the organ, we cannot contemplate without sincere regret any proceeding which might possibly expose you to misrepresentation, and which cannot fail to subject you to personal inconvenience. At the same time it is impossible not to perceive that the course of policy which must now be pursued will he more conveniently followed out by one less implicated than yourfelf in the events of the last few years. Merging therefore, ina sense of public duty, all personal considerations, we have felt oureelves under sense, 1 | ourselves of the generosity with which you have placed IIS ofyour offieTat the tmcmbarrassJd discretion of Her Majesty’s the disposal 01 > Majesty to relieve you at once from the government Ministers, and to advise been ^ciously pleased to approve that of Lower Canada. Hu W ™ Majesty’s commands that you return to this advice, I have deliver to Sir John Colbomc, on’wlroni fnSmity "Sh the terms 'of your commission, the administration of thie Government, until the arrival of your successor, wtll devolve. t, • ° i +riiet unnecessary to say that your Lordship retires from the govern- It is, I trust, unnece. . ) ntmrobation of your conduct during your ment of Lower Canad * J', 1 * t ; me 0 f miusual difficulty to reclaim by liberal administration, belec e t j ie plea of unredressed grievances, had and conciliatory measmes _ jj ic British Government, your Lordship has adopted a hostile postuie temper discretion, and good faith. The ill acted throughout with ieu t ’ c i rC umstances over which you had success of your mission is to be attnbutMW ^ ^ Lord ship will no control ; and howe\ ei nine 1 y • ) j n devoting your exertions to the carry with you the satisfac ory j difficult duties in a manner entitled public service, you have discharged to&aaaa ^ to the approbation of your Sovereign > 1 ] iavej & c . (signed) Glenelg. No. 44. Lord Glenelg to Earl of Gosford, 27 Nov. 1837. M 3 72. No. 45- Lord Glenclg to Sir John Colborne, 27 November 1837. No. 46. Earl Gosford to Lord Gleuelg, 6 November 1837. CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE —No. 45.— Cory of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to Lieut.-General Sir John Colborne, k.c.b. ; dated Downing-street, 27 November 1837. Sir, This despatch will be placed in your hands by the Earl of Gosford, and will apprise you that he is about to retire from the government of Lower Canada. By the terms of his Lordship’s commission, the provisional administration of that government will devolve on you until Her Majesty shall have appointed some other person to fill that office. I trust that it is unnecessary to state that Lord Gosford retires without the slightest diminution on either side of the confidence which has invariably subsisted between himself and the Ministers of the Crow r n ; on the contrary, the circum- stances which have led to this measure greatly enhance his previous claims on their respect and gratitude. With a generous superiority to every selfish consi- deration, Lord Gosford has frankly referred to Her Majesty’s Government the question, whether it might not be conducive to the public interests that the government should l>e placed in the hands of an officer less implicated in the events of the last few years than himself, and has desired them to be guided in their decision by an exclusive regard to the public "welfare. I am deeply conscious that the duties which will devolve on you during your temporary administration will be of grave responsibility ; but you will not on that account shrink from encountering them with calmness and courage. I am happy to learn from the communications which have reached me from the General commanding in chief that your military arrangements have been conducted with that foresight and decision on which Lord Hill had every reason to calculate, and which I trust will have powerfully contributed to arrest the attempts to which the more reckless of the leaders in agitation might otherwise have resorted. To maintain or restore tranquillity, and to assert the dominion of the law, is the immediate object to be attained. Without proposing to fetter the discretion which must necessarily lie vested in you, I shall, in a few days, address to you such instructions as appear to be required by the existing state of Lower Canada. In the mean time I will only assure you that your measures will receive the most favourable construction, and that you will be seconded by the most full and cordial support which it is in the pow-er of Her Majesty’s Government to afford you. I have, See. (signed) Glenelg. — No. 46. — Extract of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glcnelq, dated Castle St. Lewis, G November 1837. My two last despatches will have given you some idea of the political state of the province. Since those communications were written, the plans and designs of the seditious have become much more apparent ; and, I re°ret to say, that their efforts and activity are producing results, to arrest which requires the adoption of much more vigorous and decisive measures than it is within the Power of the executive government to put in force ; large bodies of them are openly drilled in military tactics, every Sunday, in and near the city of Montreal ; and although no concealment is practised, no attempt is made by the civil authori- ties to put a stop to this treasonable practice, or to arrest and punish those engaged in them. The reasons assigned for this want of energy in the discharge of a public duty are,— 1st, The absence of sworn information to identify the parties; and, 2dly, The want of a civil force sufficient to prevent these illegal assemblages and to vindicate the law. In addition to these public drills, I am informed that there are daily drills going on of small bodies of men in private yards and enclosures, and that several French officers have recently been intro- duced into Montreal, from the United States, for the purpose of giving instruction in military organization, about which they are now busily engaged. On the other hand AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 95 Jiand, the English party in that city have revived an old association called “ The Doric Club,” and arc likewise drilling’ and arming’ ; and I have eveiy reason to apprehend that some unfortunate collision will before long take place. I have used and am still using every endeavour to arrest the progress of anarchy and confusion, that is spreading with great rapidity throughout the district of Montreal ; but I find the ordinary powers of the executive quite insufficient for the purpose. I mentioned to your Lordship, in my despatch of the 1st instant, that a meeting of the Six Counties had taken place on the 23d October, at St. Charles, and forwarded to you the resolutions then passed ; I now enclose, for your information, the Address to the Canadian People, which has been prepared and issued by a committee named on that occasion. Since the meetings, the poison that the agitators have been so industriously scattering appears to have spread more extensively, and been doing its work with more rapidity and success than ever ; and in many of the counties in the district of Montreal a very large proportion of the rural population are in such a state that it is difficult to say to what lengths they may not be urged to go. The object of the leaders appears now to be to put down the authority of the Government, by compelling those who hold commissions under it, in the magis- tracy or militia, to throw them up ; for this purpose large bodies of men in disguise visit at night those who are loyal or disapprove of their proceedings, and by threats of personal violence and destruction of property force them to send in their resignations, and extort from them promises to join the ranks of the patriots, as they term themselves. By means of this system of terrorism and midnight marauding, they have suc- ceeded in overawing the well - disposed, so that several have forsaken tlieii pio- perties, to seek refuge in the towns or in the neighbouring states ; and many magistrates and officers of militia have requested me to accept their resignations, explaining that they took this step in order to save their lives and property. I enclose for your perusal a copy of a letter that I recently recei\ed on this sub- ject from a magistrate in the county of Acadie, detailing the state of that county. Dr. Cote, mentioned in the letter, is one of the members for L’Acadie, and the foremost of the leaders in these illegal proceedings. I was obliged to dismiss him from the magistracy, on account of his conduct at a public meeting ; and it would seem that his object is to prevent any one else in the county bolding a commission under Government. We have at last, however, received such infor- mation on oath against him as will bring him within reach of the law fox high treason, but whether the law can be enforced is another and a doubtful question. I need not dwell further on this part of the case; it is time that should inform you of the steps I have taken to meet, as far as they can, the exigencies o the moment. In my despatch of the 21st ultimo, I mentioned that 1 had written to consult with Sir John Colborne as to the practicability and expediency of drawing troops from the Lower Provinces. His answer being in the affirmative, I iZediately despatched a letter to Sir Colin Campbell, requesting, if lie could we it another re-iment; and in about a week afterwards Sir John Colborne spare it, ano ° . strongly that two regiments should be lnnne- sent off an express, o o Y *Y troops as possible from the CS 1 MJd tlie Attorney-General to Montreal with Upper I io\n . exertions to maintain good order, and execute the instructions to use Ins t he m . With this view I have laws against those who are now op^ y » ^ ^ that city> and} in short, to directed him to organize an efficien 1 t uillity . i h ave also armed him leave nothing undone tomaintam [ 0 jJJ with the foreign military with the neccssai) an u> > in treasonable or seditious practices. I have officers who may be found en aged . f Montre al and Three Rivers, directed the clerks of the peace m the ffisti £ allegiance to Her to call on all magnates .who jmve not ye taka to°report to me Majesty, to come forward do But, after all, these measures the names of those who decline • ^ ^ arm j n g that now is extensively will not put down the sys ein ©‘ they prevent it from spreading going forward in the district of Committee of Quebec, of which I into the other districts. Inde s < act ively at work, and have recommended sjioke in a former commumcatioi , 1 drilling and organization that is prac- the adoption here of the same P^ oc< ^® ^hev intended to commence operations tised in Montreal ; and 1 beard F . u .iL ure No. 4, is a newspaper, recently yesterday, had the weather permitted. Enclosure JNo , P F established No. 4b. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 6 November 1B37. SeeEnclosureNc*. 1, 4 Nov. 1837. Enclosure No. 2, “ Vindicator,” 31 Oct. 1837. Enclosure No. 3, 30 Oct. 1837. No. 4* Enclosure No. 5, 3 Nov. 1837. 72 . No. 46 . Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, * 6 November 1837. Enel. 1, in No. 46. Enel. 2, in No, 46. 96 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE established here, called “ The Liberal,” which contains a report of the Resolutions passed at the last meeting of the Quebec Committee. After mature deliberation on the state in which the province is now placed, by the machinations of the agitators, whose designs have become too palpable to be mistaken, I am forced to the unwelcome conclusions, that unless some extra- ordinary powers be immediately placed in the hands of the local Executive, such as that of suspending the Habeas corpus, and declaring martial law over the whole or parts of the province, the tide of sedition cannot be stemmed but by resort to active military operations ; an alternative which I cannot contemplate without the most painful reluctance. The knowledge that the Executive possesses these powers, would probably produce such an effect on the minds of the ill-dis- posed, as to render it unnecessary to exert them. In any event some prompt and decisive measure must be adopted by the Imperial authorities, to enable the machinery of the local government to perform its functions ; it is now nearly at a standstill, and it would be idle to expect that either the present or a new House of Assembly, if summoned, would in any way assist in removing the serious dif- ficulties that now exist ; indeed, from all that has passed, I should fear that they would augment our embarrassments. The grievances which were at first put for- ward by the leaders of this party, would seem to have been mere pretexts to clothe deeper and darker designs. The mask has now been thrown aside, and the people are excited to disaffection and rebellion, by the most artful and unfounded misrepresentations ; and even if all the demands of the Assembly were fully and immediately granted, they would, I begin to think, be insufficient to satisfy the views of those whose evident aim is not to reform, but to destroy the established Government and British connexion. Ont St Mi ti tl c« c< On Beaud w is Ue apioj ofC. On Char Enclosure 1 , in No. 46. AFFIDAVIT of certain Gentlemen of Montreal , on the State of Alarm in that City. Thomas Phillips, esq., Isaac Valentine, esq., Henry Dyer, esq. and John Jones, printer, all from the city of Montreal, after being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists, severally depose and say, that they are credibly informed, and verily believe, that on Monday next, the 6th day of November instant, it is the intention of a society, known by the name of “ The Sons of Liberty/’ to parade the streets of the city of Montreal aforesaid; and that, on the same day, a part of a party known as “ The Constitutional Association,” also intend to do so, when the deponents have every reason to apprehend that the said “ Sons of Li- berty” and “ Constitutional Association” will come in collision, which, in the opinion of the deponents, may not only be attended with loss of life, but with the destruction of property. (signed) Thomas Phillips . /. Valentine. Henry Dyer. John Jones. Sworn before me, at Montreal, this 4th November 1837. (signed) B. Hart., j. p. (True copy.) (signed) John O'Sullivan. Enclosure 2 , in No. 46. (From the “ Vindicator” of the 31st October 1837.) Second Day’s Proceedings of the Confederation of the Six Counties. Tuesday, 24th October 1837. In conformity with the resolution passed at the general meeting yesterday, the delegates met this day at the village of St. Charles, to consider such other propositions as may be sub- mitted to them. The said resolution having been read, and explanations having been given by the chairman, Dr. W. Nelson, Dr. Cote and Mr. A. Girod, a committee was appointed to draft an Address on the part of the Confederation to the People of Canada. On motion of Mr. P. Bertrand, n. p., of St. Mathias, seconded by Lieutenant Joseph Tetreau dit Ducharme, j. p., — Resolved, — That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the provincial Legislature exists only in name, and that it is nullified in fact ; and that when the Government trampled under foot organic laws by virtue of which society is constituted, the people should maintain thfem. On des po| wh me ky m as in to ? a AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 97 No. 40. On motion of Mr. Jaques David Hebert, of I/Acadie, seconded by Mr. J. B. Tetreau, of Earl Gosford to St. Marie,— Lord Glenelg,^^ Resolved, — That the people should consequently provide for its own wants, establish that superintendence necessary to good order as well as to social happiness, an ia £ nc ^ - n n 0 . 46. the Convention, the members of which were named at the several primary mee mgs counties throughout the province, would be a body to which such a duty mig confided. On motion of Mr. F. C. Ayet dit Malo, j. p., of St. Damase, seconded by Captain J. B. Beaudry, of St. Jean Baptiste, . Resolved,— That this meeting, relying on the enlightened patriotism of the member who should form the said Convention, calls upon them seriously to consider it tne time is not at hand when it ought to meet. The committee named to draft an address to the inhabitants of the P™ V1 " C ^ a project of address, according to order, and the same having been read, it was, of C. H. O. Cote, esq., m. p. p., seconded by E. N. Duchesnois, esq., Unanimously resolved, — That the said address be received and adop e . On motion of Dr. Labruere, of St. Hyacinthe, seconded by F. C. Duvert, esq., of St. “"'XsoWed.-That the said address be intitaled " TT« Addrey oftheC onfede^ onof the Six Counties of St. Hyacinthe, Rou.ille, R.chehen, Vercheres ChumbW and L’Acadie, to their Fellow Citizens of Lower Canada, and that it be si 0 y officers for and in the name of this meeting, and published. Address of the Confederation of the Six Counties to the People When°* ^systematic course / jP"r^ W when their rulers, instead of redressing determination to sap and ment, have solemnly emegistered P v, ecome8 the imperative duty of the people to subvert the very foundations o civi y> _ ^ . unfortunate position — of the dangers betake thcmsel.es to the ““ ‘SSnMon.V make such arrnngc- £££ IT W-d. their rights as citizens, and the, dtgn.ty 85 The' «he and immortal framers of the ^“'"'are bSd"the n righu”of 1 man ; and success- in that document the principles on \ institutions and form of government which can fully vindicated and establishec t le on y 1 * 5 iapp i ness 0 f the inhabitants of this continent, permanently secure the of their colonization, demand whose education and habits, den d n and directly responsible to, the people, a system of government entirely dep P h Amer ; ca w j 10 have adopted the In common with the various ^nations o^ North and ^ and self . evident doctrines; principles contained in that declare . , between man and m an ; that government is but a that God created no artificial - ose who are to be subject to its good or evil action , mere human institution, formed by t to come or remain under its protection and intended for the benefit of ^all 1 y be changed whenever it ceases to accomplish the control ; and, therefore, that its tor Y bed . t i iat public authorities and men in ofhee - *• to - u,e legitimate source of all power. > the faith of treaties and capitulations entered In conformity with these principle , Imperial Parliament, the people of this into with our ancestors, and guaranteed by the i P tftd titi 0 f the in- ert nee have, for a long senes of yearn,' f ^' n P d paralyse their industry. Far from con- tolerable abuses which poison their extftence and^ & Y ^ unti , at length we seem no ceding our humble prayers, aggression happiness or prospenty, our freedom or lomre? to belon- to the British Empire tor ourownn pp ^ fatten ing a horde of the'honour of the British Crown or people, e ously dispraportioned to the top" rltsTSp^ ^ ^otwithsmnJmg ^ ^J^^^i^^ we^still enbmu 1 ^ misery violent partisans of a corrupt N 72. No. 46. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 6 November 1837. Enel. 2, in No. 46. 98 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE mercenaries of the Executive, by accepting the wages of their servility, in gross violation of every principle of judicial independence from foreign authority, without the intervention of . the people, to whom, through their representatives, belongs the sole right of voting the salaries of their public servants ; the office-holders of the province devour our revenues in salaries so extravagant as to deprive us of the funds requisite for the general improvement of the country, whereby our public works are arrested, and the navigation of our rivers con- tinue obstructed ; a Legislative Council appointed by men resident three thousand miles from this country, and systematically composed so as to thwart and oppose the efforts of our freely-chosen representatives in all measures for the promotion of the public good, after continuing unchanged during the present administration, thereby depriving the country of the advantages of domestic legislation, has at length been modified in a manner insulting to all classes of society, disgraceful to public morality, and to the annihilation of the respect and confidence of all parties in that branch of the Legislature, by the introduction of men for the most part notorious only for their incapacity, and remarkable alone for their political insignificance ; thus making evident, even to demonstration, to all, whatever may be their preconceived ideas, the propriety and urgent necessity of introducing the principle of elec- tion into that body, as the only method of enabling the Provincial Legislature to proceed beneficially to the despatch of public business. Our municipalities are utterly destroyed; the country parts of the province, as a dis- graceful exception to the other parts of this continent, are totally deprived of all power of regulating, in a corporate capacity, their local affairs, through freely elected parish and township officers ; the rising generation is deprived of the blessings of education, the primary schools which provided for the instruction of 40,000 children, having been shut up by the Legislative Council, a body hostile to the progress of useful knowledge, and instigated to this act by an Executive inimical to the spread of general information among the people — the Jesuits’ College founded and endowed by the provident government which colonized this province for the encouragement and dessemination of learning and the sciences therein, has, with a barbarism unwortny the rulers of a civilized state, disgraceful to the enlightened age in which we live, and unparalleled even among the Goths and Vandals, been converted into, and is still retained, as a barrack for soldiery, wdnlsl the funds and property devoted to the support of this and similar institutions have been, and continue to be, squandered and malad ministered for the advantage of the favourites, creatures and tools of the Government ; our citizens are deprived of the benefits of impartially chosen juries, and are arbitrarily perse- cuted by Crown officers, who to suit the purposes of the vindictive Government of which they are the creatures, have revived proceedings of an obsolete character, precedents for which are to be found only in the darkest pages of British history. Thus our Judiciary being sullied by combined conspiracies of a wicked Executive, slavish judges, partisan law officers, and political sheriffs, the innocent and patriotic are exposed to be sacrificed, whilst the enemies of the country, and the violators of all law, are protected and patronized, according as it may please the administration to crush and destroy, to save and protect. Our commerce and domestic industry are paralysed ; our public lands alienated, at a nominal price, to a company of speculators, strangers to the country, or bestowed upon insolent favourites, as a reward for their sycophancy ; our money is extorted from us without our consent, by taxes unconsti- tutionally imposed by a foreign Parliament, to be afterwards converted into an instrument of our degradation, by 'being distributed among a howling herd of officials, against our will, without our participation, and in violation of all principles of constitutional law. In the midst of their honest and unwearied efforts to procure a redress of the foregoing grievances, our fellow citizens have been insolently called on to give an account of their public conduct, for which they were responsible to no individual, least of all to the person whom chance or ministerial patronage may place for a season at the head of our provincial government. They have been harassed and annoyed by dismissals from offices of mere honour, held for the benefit, and at the request, of their own immediate neighbours, because they vindicated the rights of their country, like American freemen ; and as an index of further intended aggression, armed troops are being scattered, in time of profound peace, throughout the country, with the presumptuous and wicked design of restraining by physical force the expression of public opinion, and of completing by violence and bloodshed our slavery and ruin, already determined upon beyond the seas. Such an aggression as this might justify the recourse, on the part of an outraged people, to all and every means to preserve the last of their insulted privileges — the right to complain. But, thanks to the blindness of the aggressors, the wickedness of the measure will be provi- dentially neutralized by its folly. The regiments about to be quartered among us are composed of men sprung from, and educated with, the democracy of their country. They, for the most part, entered on their present profession, not from choice, but because they could not find any other employment in their native land. Instead of being stimulated to good conduct by the hope of promotion, too poorly paid, they are exposed to every sort of petty tyranny, and if a murmur escape their lips, they are subjected, like the bonded slave, to the ignoble punishment of the lash. Contrasting this hard fate with the freedom, content, employment and high wages to be obtained in the United States, and certain that the inhabitants of these counties, lying near and bordering upon the Lines, will not impede the efforts which these soldiers may make to emigrate to^ the neighbouring republic, it will become morally impossible to keep in Her Majesty’s province, whilst scattered in detach- ments, the men who are now about to be made the vile instruments of our slavery and their own dishonour. The long and heavy chain of abuses and oppressions under which we suffer, and lo which every AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 99 No. 46 . every year has only added a more galling link, prove that'our history is but a recapitulation Earl Gosford to ot vvhat other colonies have endured before us. Our grievances are but a second edition of Lord Glenelg, their grievances. Our petitions for relief are the same. Like theirs, they have been treated 6 November 183 * 7 . with scorn and contempt, and have brought down upon the petitioners but additional outrage — — and persecution. Thus the experience of the past demonstrates the folly of expecting ^ nc h 2 > i n N°. 46 . justice from European authorities. Dark, however, and unpromising as may be the present prospects of this our beloved country, we are encouraged by the public virtues of our fellow citizens to hope that the day of our regeneration is not far distant. Domestic manufactures are springing up amongst us, with a rapidity to cheer us in the contest. The impulse given but a few short months ago, by the example of generous and patriotic minds, of wearing domestic cloths, has been generally followed, and will shortly be universally adopted. The determination not to consume duty-paying merchandize, and to encourage free trade with our neighbours, matters of vital importance, is daily becoming more general, resolute and effective. The people are everywhere being duly impressed with the conviction that the sacrifices to be made must bear some proportion to the glorious object to be achieved, and that personal inconvenience for the good cause mast therefore be not only freely, but readily, endured. Fellow Countrymen ! Brothers in affliction! Ye, whatsoever be your origin, language or religion, to whom equal laws and the rights of man are dear ; whose hearts have throbbed with indignation whilst witnessing the innumerable insults to which your common country has been exposed, and who have often been justly alarmed whilst pondering over the sombre futurity preparing by misgovernment and corruption for this province and for your posterity ; in the name of that country and of the rising generation, now having no hope but in you, we call upon you to assume, by systematic organization in your several townships and parishes, that position which can alone procure respect for yourselves and your demands. Let committees of vigilance be at once put in active operation throughout your respective neighbourhoods. Withdrawing all confidence from the present administration, and from such as will be so base as to accept office under it, forthwith assemble in your parishes and elect pacificator magistrates, after the example of your brother reformers of the county of Two Mountains, in order to protect the people at once from useless and improvi- dent expense, and from the vengeance of their enemies. Our young men, the hope of the country, should everywhere organize themselves, after the plan of their brothers, “ The Sons of Liberty,” in Montreal, in order that they may be prepared to act with promptitude and effect, as circumstances may require ; and the brave militiamen, who by their blood and valour have twice preserved this country for ungrateful rulers, should at once associate together, under officers of their own choice, for the security of good order and the protection of life and property in their respective localities. Thus prepared, colonial liberty may haply be yet preserved. In this hope, and depending for a disenthralment from the misrule under which we now groan on the Providence of God, whose blessing on our disinterested labours we humbly implore ; relying on the love of liberty which the free air and impregnable fastnesses of America should inspire in the hearts of the people at large, and upon the sympathy of our democratic neighbours, who, in the establishment of arbitrary rule on their borders, wisely and clearly foresaw the uprearing of a system which might be made a precedent and instru- ment for the introduction of the same arbitrary rule into other parts of the American Conti- nent, and who can never consent that the principles for which they successfully struggled in the eighteenth, shall, in our persons, be trampled in the dust in the nineteenth century ; We the Delegates of the Confederated Counties of Richelieu, St. Hyacinthe, Rouville, L’Acadie, Chambly 5 and Verchcres, hereby publicly register the solemn and determined resolution of the people whom we represent, to carry into effect, with the least delay possible, the preced- ing recommendations, and never to cease their patriotic exertions until the various grievances of which they now complain shall have been redressed ; and we hereby invite our fellow citizens throughout the province to unite their efforts to ours to procure a good, cheap and responsible system of government for their common country. Signed for and on behalf of the Confederation of the Six Counties, this 24th day of October 1837. Wfd. Nelson , President. | Vice-Presidents. . 1 Secretaries. A. Girod, J. P. Boucker-Belleville, / Enclosure 3, in No. 46. 72. CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE Earl Gosford to others, amongst whom Lucien Gagain, of Pointe a la Male, is the most conspicuous, having Lord Glenelg, made a tour of the county, endeavouring, by persuasion and threats, to get all the officers 6 November 1837. of militia to resign into "his (Cote’s) hands their commissions, and am sorry to observe he has been too successful, having passed through this parish last Saturday with about 40 in his Enel. 3, in No. 46 pocket. Captain Denis Bouchard, and Lieutenants P. Henault and A. Gabouriaux, all loyal subjects, waited upon me yesterday with this information ; these gentlemen have for the present refused to comply with the demand ; however they were told by Dr. Cote, that unless they complied their houses would be pulled down about their ears, as a sufficient force would be sent against them, in the shape of a clair-voie to compel them ; and they say, although much against their will, to save their property and families from ruin, will be obliged to comply. Threats are circulated, that the same means will be resorted to against myself ; as yet the leaders have not had the audacity to speak to me on the subject ; but Lieutenant Cabouriaux called upon me this morning to put me on my guard, as he knew it to be in contemplation by the said Gagain and his party to make the attempt upon my house ; and situated as I am in the midst of them, my family are naturally under the greatest apprehension and alarm. The method concerted to raise a mob, is to pass along ringing a bell, when all are to turn out with their faces blackened, to prevent detection ; under these circumstances, no one is supposed to recognise another. Only a few nights ago the like method was actually put in force in the village of L’Acadie against the two magistrates Quesnel and Archambault ; the former of whom having refused to comply with their demand, they commenced to demolish his house, when, to save his family, &c., was obliged to accede and promise to resign his commission. I am further informed, that it is the intention to immediately form each county into districts, with a leader to each, and on a certain night, to be hereafter fixed, they are all to turn out, and compel every man to join them under pain of death, or such other punishment as may be decided upon by the mob. The consequence of all this is, that all the well-disposed are under the greatest apprehension of the consequences. It is much to be desired, if possible, that a detachment of troops be stationed at Napierville, the residence of the principal agitator, Cote. Since writing the foregoing, Mr. Richard M'Ginnes, from L’Acadie, has called upon me, and declares that he shall be obliged to leave his house with his whole family, as he has received positive information that the whole of his neighbourhood are to rise to-night, and that last night a gallows was prepared to hang him on if found upon his premises ; he feels confident, from threats lately held out to him, that it is the intention to burn his whole establishment ; he is now engaging waggons to move all his valuables immediately. Lieutenant Dudley Flowers, residing in the Grand Line dividing the counties of Chambly and Acadie, is now here, and declares that his house has been visited by a mob of, he supposes, 60 or 70 persons in disguise, and last night, being the third, they broke and destroyed all the windows, &c., of his house ; one of the party had a firebrand to set fire to his house had he any longer refused to comply with their demand of resigning his com- mission. Such is the state of affairs in this county at this present moment ; I therefore trust his Lordship will adopt some active measures to put a stop to such a state of anxiety and confusion. Looss Odell, esq., of Napierville, has this moment stepped in, and says they are in the same state, expecting an attack every night ; he furnishes an express to convey this to Montreal. N.B. — The said Lucien Gagain, after divine service yesterday, made a very inflammatory speech at our church-door, because all the people did not leave the church when the Bishop’s Pastoral Letter was read. Cop' Si I AM torequ ibepre looting; the civi The drafts efficac Ci sidei t f Enclosure 4, in No. 46. Copy of a LETTER from S. Walcott, Esq., Civil Secretary to the Attorney-General, dated Castle St. Louis, Quebec, 4 th December 1837 . Sir, Enel. 4, in No. 46. I have it in command from the Governor-in-chief to acquaint you, that his Excellency having received intelligence from the district of Montreal, that a disorganizing system is there in operation, which, if unchecked, may lead to outrage and the most senous conse- quences ; he desires that you do forthwith proceed to Montreal, and that being there, you do to the utmost of your power arrest and put down all seditious and unlawful practices and proceedings to the fullest extent that the law will permit you. I am further directed to request that you will communicate this to the Solicitor-General, with his Excellency’s injunction, that he join you in giving effect to his intentions. I have, &c. &c. (signed) S. Walcott , Civil Sec. Enclosure AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 101 Enclosure 5, in No. 46. Copy of a LETTER from S. Walcott,. Esq., Civil Secretary, to the Attorney-General, dated Castle St. Louis, 4 November 1837. I am directed by the Governor-in-chief, with reference to my letter to you of to-day s date, to request that on your arrival in Montreal, you will immediately take steps for inquiring into the present state of the police force in that city, with a view to place it on an ethcient footing, to an extent commensurate with the exigencies of the times, and so as to ena e the civil authorities to preserve peace and good order, and to execute the laws. The expense which it may be necessary to incur for this service, may be defrayed by your drafts on the commissariat, his Excellency relying on your judgment and prudence tor an efficacious and economical use of the credit. I have, &c. &c. (signed) S. Walcott , Civil Sec. No. 46. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 6 November 1837. Enel. 5, in No. 46. Enclosure 6, in No. 46. (From the Liberal, 3 November 1837.) COMITE CENTRAL ET PERMANENT. Ce Comite a tenu sa deuxieme stance en sa Salle le deux Novembre courant sous la pre sidence de Bartheldmy Lehance, ecuyer, et a passe les resolutions suivantes, entr autres . Propose par A. N. Morin, ecr., seconde par Jos. Legare, J. p.: les divisions et les hames, etc \ 1 t g 8 ar bitraires des oppresseurs de j\ des administrations . t nous n ’ av ons non plus aucun respect, Downing- street et de St. James s P > ^ q ^ ^ ^ Qonseil Executif actuel, dont mais au contraire un profond m p , p ) . . / Que i CO nque dans la province, plusieurs me,„br es „W a»o.ne m ,»e ou p ^nete m yues / hoslilil - ft S£3£ SSSS t— 1» representation e, ,e people tie la pro.n.ee. XtenU^atiWe ^avec parte du peuple de 1 tmp ' u ^ s p ro pres a prevenir l’aneantissement de leur politicoes du pays, dl ® c " voir ce developpement de preparatifs arbitraires que liberte— et que nous ne pouvons . \f u K0UV ernenient de vexer le peuple du comme un gage de la dete ™ f phvsique^le se soumettre aux violations qui ont ete pays, et le contraindre la force gtay ^ ^ dtoyeng et d’hommes l.bres-et nous commises et qui se mt c ruvante d’une hostilite prochaine, ne doit qu ajouter sommes -d’avis que cette pa dans l’organisation immediate de toutes les forces it l’energie des amis de la refo ™^’ d usse f ^oppression qui se prepare a grand frais morales et physiques du pays, pour repousser pp et de triompher de la tyranme. „ , iv P Eelleau ecr., seconde par Dr. Rousseau : Propose par N. F. Bell , no litiaues du pays, et dans la vue de se proteger Que dans letat actuel des affamra » pol d >encourager tous les amis de la Chambre centre les aggressions de nos > enne ise f de s corps de volontaires sur le plan d’Assemblee, d devient nee es jaire de * ^ et de Montreal, et que nous recomman- suivi par les jeu ne s patnotes d & amis de la cause patriot, que dans ce distnct. dons la formation cie ces j Propose par C. Hunter, ecr., seco P' fermete, l’independance le patriotisme Que nous avons le plus grand e t daL leur correspondance et l’honneur qu’ont montre dans et je S officiers demis, ou qui ont renvoye avec les commis de l’executif, les Mentions du pouvoir ; et qu en leur leur Sirs commissions par suite des vexations et per ^ ceux de ce district, dans exprimant a tous n°s remercimens, ^ J Lou is Tremblay, le cap, tame J. B.Proulx, f 10 *'7 isMse Enel. 6. in No. 46. mmmm No. 46. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, G November 1837. Enel. 6, in No. 46. )2 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE Propose par. M. Quigley, seconde par M. Teed . Que la declaration de Daniel O’Connell, telle qu’enoncee dans sa lettre datee du 2 Sept, dernier, et adressee au peuple Irlandais, “ que si les ministres persistaient dans leurs mesures inconstitutionnelles envers le peuple du Canada, lui, pour un, votera contre eux dans chaque division pendant la prochaine session/’ est tr&s flatteuse pour le peuple de cette province qui s’efforce d’obtenir la liberte, tel que l’a fait le peuple Irlandais, pour qui ce comite a la plus grande sympathie, et il est a esperer que Texemple du liberateur de l’lrlande sera suivi par ses compatriotes ici, et qu’ils supporteront les droits et les interets de leurs pays adoptif. Propose par Jos. Legare, J. p., seconde par R. G. Belleau, ecr.: Que nous voyons avec satisfaction que nos compatriotes du comte des Deux Mon- tagnes et des Six Comtes de la riviere Chambly, a defaut de la protection que le Peuple avait droit d’attendre du gouvernement Anglais, et qui est aujourcThui remplacee par Tilleo'alite, la violence, les menaces et la loi des baionettes, se soient organises d’une maniere permanente pour aviser aux moyens de regler leurs affaires, et par des mesures sages et legitimes n’avoir pas a regretter Taction d’un gouvernement ennemi ; et que nous regardons cette organisation comme devant etre imitee ailleurs, et comme gage des plus avantagueux resultats. Le Comite s’est ajourne a Jeudi prochain, jour fixe pour leurs seances. No. 47. Earl Gnsford to Lord Gleneig, 9 November 1837. Enclosure, No. 1. See Enel. No. 2, 4 May 1837. Enclosure, No. 3, 7 November 1837. Enel., No. 4, 6 Nov. 1837. —No. 47.— (No. 1 16.) Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glendg, dated Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 9th November 1837. My Lord, I have in a late communication expressed an apprehension that some collision would take place ere long between the opposing parties in the town of Montreal, and I have now, with regret, to acquaint your Lordship that my apprehension has been realized. From the accounts that reached me late last night, I find that, notwithstanding a public warning issued by the magistrates, who seem to have been alive to what was intended, and to have fortified themselves with legal advice for their conduct in case of a disturbance, the Patriots, as they are termed, as- sembled in a private yard in St. James’s-street, on Monday the 6th instant, to the number of 300 or 350, and about half-past four o’clock sallied forth into the streets with banners, and armed principally with bludgeons, but in some instances, I understand, with more deadly weapons. A riot was the obvious consequence. No lives fortunately were lost ; but in the course of the evening several individuals were much hurt, and some attempts were made to damage the property of persons obnoxious to either party, amongst others that of Mr. Papineau, which were pre- vented by the timely presence of the military, whom the magistrates called out, after the main conflict between the Patriots and Constitutionalists had terminated in the discomfiture of the former. The “ Vindicator” newspaper office was, how- ever, attacked by a party of the latter, after the disturbance was supposed to have ended ; and before the troops could arrive for its protection, the presses, types, paper, &c. belonging to the establishment were destroyed and thrown into the streets. Amongst those who were severely handled in the conflict was Mr. T. S. Brown, reputed, I am informed, to be an American, but who has been for some years settled in Montreal, and carried on business there as a hardware merchant, in which he became bankrupt about two years ago. This individual, from the very active part he has taken in organizing and drilling the Patriots, and advancing their views, has rendered himself particularly obnoxious to the other party. lie was, I understand, the leader of the band who issued from the yard and originated the riot. But your Lordship will obtain a more accurate and detailed view of these un- fortunate proceedings from the perusal of the enclosed letters to me, one from the Solicitor General, and the other, quite of a private character, from Colonel Wetherall, commanding the Royals, who was on duty on the occasion. I have just learned, from the Hon. F. A. Quesnel, the Executive Councillor, that when he left Montreal, on Tuesday night, (the 7th,) at eight o’clock, the city was tranquil, and no appearance of the peace being disturbed, at least for that night; and I trust that now that the Attorney-General, whom I despatched to Montreal AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 103 on the C tli instant, has arrived there, clothed with full directions and as ample powers as 1 could invest him with for the maintenance of good order, such pre- cautions will be adopted as may prevent the recurrence of like scenes. I have, kc. (signed) Gosford. Enclosure 1, in No. 47. PROCLAMATION issued by the Magistrates of Montreal, on the occasion of the Riot in that City, 6th November 1837 . Whereas depositions have been lodged before the magistrates to the effect that numerous bodies of men, assuming distinctive badges and denominations, and influenced by adverse political opinions, intend on Monday next to parade the streets of this city, from which processions, under the present excited state of public feeling, there is reason to apprehend that riots and tumults may ensue. The magistrates do hereby call upon and urge their fellow citizens to refrain from joining in or forming part of such processions, which are only calculated to disturb the public peace, and endanger the persons and pro- perty of Her Majesty’s subjects. By order of the Magistrates, assembled in special sessions. (signed) Delisle & Delisle , Clerks of the Peace. Montreal, Nov. 4 th, 1837 . Enclosure 2, in No. 47. AFFIDAVIT of certain Persons of an expected Riot in Montreal , and Queries and Answers to the same by the Solicitor-General, respecting the Duties and Functions of Magistrates in cases of Riot. An affidavit is communicated to me by John Molson, Turton Penn and Benjamin Hart, esquires, three of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, which affidavit is as follows : — “ Thomas Phillips, esq., Isaac Valentine, esq., Henry Dyer, esq. and John Jones, printer, of the city of Montreal, being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists, severally depose and say, that they are credibly informed and verily believe that on Monday next, the 6th day of November instant, it is the intention of a society, known by the name of 1 The Sons of Liberty,’ to parade the streets of the city of Montreal aforesaid, and that on the same day a part of a society, known as € The Constitutional Association,’ also intend to do so, when the deponents have every reason to apprehend that ‘ The Sons of Liberty ’ and 1 Constitutional Association ’ will come in collision, which, in the opinion of the deponents, may not only be attended with loss of life, but destruction of property. (signed) “ Thomas Phillips . J. Valentine . Henry Dyer . John Jones . ” Sworn before me, at Montreal, this 4th November 1837. (signed) B . Hart . J. p. To this Affidavit are appended the following Queries 1. What means may be legally used by the magistrates to prevent the tumultuous meet- ings and processions which are alluded to in the affidavit? 2. If the meetings and processions cannot legally be prevented, what precautionary measures may legally be adopted to protect the public ? . . . , , 3. Supposing a riot to commence, what is the duty of any magistrate who may be F 4. e in swearing in special constables, must the names be taken in rotation from the list, or may the magistrates make a selection ? To these Queries I have the honour to subjoin the following Answers 1 . If the justices of the peace have a probable ground tosnzpe* that any of the^persons known by the above appellations ‘ ^ ^be apprehended, and may compel them to the peace, and thek gJ behaviour. The justices of the peace ^ucYS tL^l^legal me'anffor preventing the meetings in question that I am aware of. t be thus prevented, the precautionary mea- . If such meetings and process ‘ , t the public, readily suggest themselves. The ;s which may be legally adopted to protect the P * sheriff sures which may 72. N 4 No. 47. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 9 November 1837. Enel. 1, in No. 47. Enel. 2, in No. 47. No. 47. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 9 November 1837. Enel. 2, in No. 47. Enel. 3, in No. 47. CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE sheriff and high constable should be apprized of the impending danger; they should be in readiness, with all the constables and peace officers, and a large number of citizens uncon- nected with either party, and desirous of maintaining the public peace, should be sworn in as special constables as early as possible. Intelligence should be obtained, if possible, as to the time and places of meeting, to the end that all the influential persons in both parties, and as many as possible of the individuals, may be arrested and bound over to keep the peace, and this at the very outset. 3 . Supposing a riot to commence, the duty of a magistrate who may be present is pre- scribed by the 1 st Geo. I., c. 5. This statute enacts, that “ if any persons, to the number of 12 or more, being unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled together, to the dis- turbance of the public peace, and being required or commanded by any one or more justice or justices of the peace, or by the sheriff of the county, or his under-sheriff, &c. & c. &c., by proclamation to be made in the King’s (of course in the Queen’s) name, in the form herein- after directed, to disperse themselves and peaceably to depart to their respective habitations, or to their lawful business, shall, to the number of 12 or more (notwithstanding such proclamation made), unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously remain or continue together for the space of one hour after such command or request made by proclamation, that then such continuing together to the number of 12 or more, after such command or request made by proclamation, shall be adjudged felony without benefit of clergy.” The proclamation thus to be made will be as follows : — “ Our Sovereign Lady the Queen chargeth and commandeth all persons being assembled to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful busi- ness, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George, for pre- venting tumults and riotous assemblies.” To remain tumultuously assembled for more than an hour after the reading of this pro- clamation is felony, as has been just seen. When the hour is elapsed, the justice of the peace is by the above-mentioned statute authorized and empowered to seize and apprehend such persons so unlawfully remaining assembled, and he is also authorized to command all his Majesty’s subjects of age and ability to be assisting to him therein. A justice of the peace finding persons riotously assembled, has alone, without waiting for his companions, not only pow r er to arrest the offenders, and bind them to their good behaviour or imprison them if they do not offer good bail, but he may also authorize others to arrest them by a bare command, without other warrant. If two justices are present (as there is no doubt will be if a riot should take place), they are not to stand during the intermediate hour spectators of any mischief that the rioters may be in the act of perpetrating. Under the 13th Henry IV., c. 7, they may, with the sheriff or under sheriff, call the power of the county (district) to arrest the rioters, if necessary. In the construction of this statute, w r ith other preceding ones, it has been held that those who attend the justices to suppress a riot may take with them such weapons as may be necessary to enable them effectually to do it, and that they may justify the beat- ing, w r ounding, and even killing of such rioters as shall resist or refuse to surrender them- selves. The justices are of course aware that if the civil power be considered by them insufficient for the suppression of the riot, they have the power of calling a military force to their assistance. With respect to the suppression of a riot, the situation of a soldier and that of a private citizen is the same. Whatever Her Majesty’s subjects may do, the military may do also. I need not say that both citizen and soldier are bound to stay a riot, by all gentle means in their pow 7 er. 4. In swearing in special constables, the magistrates may make such selection as they please of such persons as they think most fit to be aiding and assisting in maintaining the public peace. Montreal, 4 November 1837. (signed) M. O'Sullivan, Solicitor-General. (A true copy from the original.) (signed) Delisle & Delisle , Clerks of the Peace. Enclosure 3, in No. 47. LETTER from the Solicitor-General to the Earl of Gosford , on the Collision between the opposing Parties at Montreal, 6 November 1837 ; dated November 7, 1837. My Lord. I transmit to your Lordship a copy of the Answers which I gave on Saturday last to the Queries put to me by the magistrates. A riot took place last evening about half-past four o’clock. The accounts in the newspapers cannot be depended upon, because party feelings will give an untrue colouring on both sides. Monsieur Martin gives the following statement as correct. The Patriot es met, to the number of about 350, in a large yard opening in Great St. James’s- street, near the American Presbyterian Church. They had their speeches, and their huzzas, and their treason in private, the gate of the yard being shut. A number of Constitutionalists were AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 105 No. 47. were outside. Stones were thrown into the yard, and towards the close of the meeting Earl Gostord to grown-up boys were seen pushing sticks under the gate. An English flag was also carried Lord Glenelg, about. The Patriotes broke out and drove the Constitutionalists before them towards the 9 November 1837. Bank, breaking the windows of Dr. Robertson eu passant . They continued moving on — — victorious until they reached nearly opposite the Court-house. Here the Constitutionalists, End* 3> No. 47* having been reinforced by the Doric Club, made a stand, and drove back their assailants in their turn as far as the Place d’Armes, from which the latter made their escape into the suburb. The troops then came out, and the Doric Club having dispersed, they followed the rioters, who kept in small bodies, through the suburbs. Parties of the Doric now assembled, broke some of the windows in Mr. Papineau’s house, and then proceeded to the office of the “ Vindicator,” the interior of which they demolished before the troops could return. T. S. Brown is said to be dangerously ill. Some very judicious arrangements were made for placing the troops for the night, and all continued quiet. The Patriotes have despatched no less than 15 expresses to different parts of the country, with the most exaggerated accounts of the whole affair. They have it at La Prairie to-day, that the troops sided with the English to murder the Canadians. I fear it will have a bad effect in the country with respect to the safety of the loyal inhabitants. As for the county of L’Acadie, it is actually in a state of open rebellion. Mr. M‘Crae, collector at St. John’s, is obliged, through the violence manifested at St. John’s, to continue absent from his post. They want him not only to resign his commission as justice of the peace (the only one in their estimation now in that county), but also his commission as collector. St. John’s must (say they) be a free port : no more duties shall be collected there. The treason is not con- fined to L’Acadie, it is spreading far and wide; and unless checked immediately, will soon overrun the whole district. It has already reached St. Constant, as appears by an accom- panying deposition. OnSunday last, at La Prairie, a body of young men, 150 strong, organized themselves under a chief (Dr. D Eschambeault), whom they publicly elected. Lieut.-Colonel Lemai, of the seigneurie of St. Marie, has just called upon me. Disaffection has reached his place also, and is travelling so fast, that unless its progress be speedily checked, it will, I am sure in less than a fortnight, have pervaded the whole country. I have requested Mr. Lemai to write to your Lordship as fully as possible. I have the honour to be, &c. (signed) M. O'Sullivan. Enclosure 5, in No. 47. Extract of a LETTER from Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall to Lord Gosford , on the Collision of the Opposing Parties at Montreal , 6 November 1837. I had scarcely closed my letter last evening, when the troops were called out by the magistracy to quell a riot then going on. I stated to your Lordship that no procession would take place in consequence of a convention to that effect, by the opposing parties. This convention was formerly entered into by the magistrates, six of whom received the pledges of the respective leaders; notwithstanding this, the patriots assembled to the amount of 500 in an enclosed yard in St. James’s-street, where they were duly marshalled, and at half-past four they debouched wilh banners, &c., principally armed with bludgeons, but with some swords, guns and pistols. At this time there were only a few idlers m St. James’s- street perhaps 20 or 30, and some idle boys who amused themselves by throwing stones over the enclosure within which the patriots were collected These men and boys were forthwith attacked and driven back to the Place d’Armes. So little was this expected, that they had not even sticks in their hands. Mr. Orr the hotel keeper was shot at; Mr Arnoldi severely hurt; and, I believe, has his arm broken; General Brown severely Mr. Arr ?°* , Y , . Dr Robertson’s windows broken, &c. &c. The alarm soon spread, and Stw » «£ part of the English (for, after all, the feeling £ English wL French) displayed as could scarcely be expected. In a moment the streets were full "n armed with sticks of all kinds (no arms), even to firebrands hastily snatched from ot men, armeo riot9 were sorely defeated and driven through the St. Lawrence a w5 "here manly stands; but the English party were irresistible, suburbs, where ey . m jhtarv were called out to protect property and to At this moment, t ie 1 ow » cnment arr j V ed opposite Papineau’s house just as the mob keep the peace; and Emth, 7JX“n Tta coZL swept this mob before them, they approached it, bent up ni,. imD ,]„ ]yi ars where I was ordered to take post. They offering no resistance, UH1 » . through the St. Lawrence suburbs, and by the Bishop’s then proceeded to parac e • collected in comparatively small numbers, for the Church, where the pa ‘not* ■ *gam collectea n ^F { had * ^ a company> whic h purpose, as is supposed, ' ' Yeofficer commanding it received from the mob a seven- prevented any serious collision. I he othcer com^ ^5 ^ ^ After ^ a „ barrelled gun and a tucolou g , d t p e troops to their barracks. On their way they seemed quiet, and the mag “■ „ > house which was not seriously injured, an outer pounced upon a mob destroying ap yy e ’ had scarcely reached our quarters when door and some windows only el S ^ “Vindicator” office. A company went, but the assistance was Ff »‘“ e di ^ The paper, the types, *c. Sec. all property was destroyed, and the moo na ^ 1 scattered 72 ." Enel. 5> in No. 47. No. 47. Earl Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 9 November 1 837. Enel. 5, in No. 47. No. 48. Lord Glenelg to Sir John Colborne, 6 Dec. 1837. Ml 106 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO TIIE scattered to the winds. I was placed on duty with three companies during the night, and patrolled the streets till daylight. All was still as death ; no lives were lost, and no opposi- tion offered to the military. General Brown and his myrmidons were decidedly the aggressors ; and will not, 1 think, repeat an experiment in w'hich they must always fail. The English magistrates have been grossly attacked by those of the opposite party, for not firing upon the English mob, and for allowing the destruction of the “Vindicator ” press ; but it was impossible for them to foresee that event, their attention was directed to Papineau’s house, for which the mob were in full march ; having saved that, and the mob having to all appearance dispersed, they had no alternative but to dismiss the military. (No. i.) —No. 48.— Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to Lieut.-Gen. Sir John Coll>ornc, k.c.b. dated Downing-street, 6 December 1837. Sir, My despatch of the 27th ultimo will have apprised you of the approaching retirement of the Earl of Gosford from the government of Lower Canada, an event which, by the terms of his Lordship’s commission, will devolve upon you the tem- porary administration of the affairs of that province. It is at once my duty and my anxious desire to relieve you, as far as possible, from the very arduous responsibility attendant upon the discharge of that duty at the present moment. I do not, however, propose to enter upon any statement of the course to be pursued respecting those questions of permanent policy which have been agitated between the executive government and the House of General Assembly. All such discussions, however important, are for the present super- seded by the urgent necessity which has arisen for maintaining the public peace and restoring the authority of the law'. To that one great object your undivided attention will be given, and to that alone will my present communication be confined. I enumerate in the margin the series of Lord Gosford’s despatches which describe the gradual but rapid advance of the enemies of peace and order, from complaints urged at least under the forms of the constitution to the very verge of rebellion. The conclusion from the whole of this intelligence is inevitable, that the leaders of the movement party are restrained only by some remaining considerations of prudence from raising the standard of open insurrection. It is therefore necessary to consider how this crisis is to be encountered. You appear already to have concentrated upon tbe points most exposed to danger every part of Her Majesty’s forces in British North America, which it has been possible to withdraw from the adjacent provinces. Arrangements have been made for increasing, if necessary, the number of troops under your command with the return of the spring. In the meantime, I trust that your present force will be sufficient to awe the seditious, and to suppress any actual rising which the civil pow'er may be unable to control. If, how'ever, your strength should be inadequate to these objects, you will of course avail yourself of the voluntary zeal of such of Her Majesty’s loyal subjects as may be willing to serve under your authority, and to submit themselves entirely to your orders. The first and highest prerogative and duty of the Crowm is the protection of those who maintain their allegiance against the enemies of order and peace. To repress by arms any insurrection or rebellion to which the civil power cannot be successfully opposed, is therefore a legitimate exercise of the royal authority; and, in the attainment of this object, the proclamation of martial law may become indispensable. It is superfluous to state with what caution and reserve this ultimate resource should be resorted to, and that it ought to be confined within the narrowest limits which the necessity of the case will admit. But if unhappily the case shall arise in any part of Lower Canada, in w hich the protection of the loyal and peace- able subjects of the Crow'n may require the adoption of this extreme measure, it must not be declined. Reposing the utmost confidence in your prudence, that such a measure will not be needlessly taken, and relying on your firmness, that, if taken, it will be followed up with the requisite energy, Her Majesty’s Govern- ment are fully prepared to assume to themselves the responsibility of instructing you to employ it, should you be deliberately convinced that the occasion im- peratively demands it. They will, with confidence look to Parliament for your indemnity and their own. It 107 AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. « It might embarrass, but could hardly assist you, if I should attempt to address to you any more detailed instructions for your guidance in the present emergency. Her Majesty’s Government cheerfully commit to your hands the safety of the im- portant part of the dominions of the Crown over which your authority will extend. In the discharge of that trust you will have the highest claim to every degree of support which it may be in our power to give. I have, &c. (signed) Glenelg. No. 48. Lord Glenelg to Sir J. Colborne, 6 December 1837. —No. 49.— Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of G oxford to Lord Glenelg , dated Castle St. Lewis, 14 November 1837. My Lord, No. 49. Finding from the system pursued by the disaffected in this province that the Lari of Gosford decisive measures I have recently submitted for your consideration become every jg 6 ^ 8 ’ day more necessary, it naturally occurs to me that, if it should be determined, to take a strong course of proceeding, you might feel desirous to intrust, the execution of your plans to hands not pledged, as mine are, to a mild and conciliatory, line ot policy. As I stated in a former letter, I would not shrink from difficulties, nor w ish to take any step that would in the least degree embarrass Her Majesty s ministers ; but I owe it to you, to myself, and to my sense ot public duty, fairly and honestly to declare my conviction, that any alteration that may take place in the policy to be observed towards this province, would be more likely to produce the desired result if confided to a successor, wdio w r ould enter on the task free to take a new line of action, without being exposed to the accusation of inconsis- tency, which, just or not, always proves injurious to the beneficial working of any administration. My continuance here to this time has been, as you are aware, solely on public grounds; had I been influenced by private considerations, I should long ere this have solicited my recall ; but the principles by which 1 was actuated would not admit of an abrupt application of this nature ; I therefore confine my communication on this head to acquainting you, that my private wis 1 w'as to return home, but leaving it entirely to you to take the course you nng 1 think best calculated to promote the public service. I can now, however, assign reasons of a public nature for wishing to be relieved, which I could not we me done sooner ; and should you admit their validity, I trust that, after what m said, you will feel no hesitation, as regards myself, in making such arrangements as you think desirable. J I have, &c. (signed) Gas for d. —No. 50.— Copy of a DESPATCH from Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Gosford, dated Downing- street, 23 December 1837. No. 50. general of Canada my Despatch, No. 281, of the 27th Nov., From my private letter of the your Lordship will perceive which will probably by 1 11s 1 < ciati the disinterested views which that the Ministers of t ic 10 ’ ^ • v t communications, had already advised you had expressed in several of JZZn lt Z\y remains for me, therefore, to Her Majesty to accept your , * Majesty’s Government of the generous sr - --; have . (signed) Glenelg. No. 51. 72. "P 108 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO TIIE —No. 51.— No. 51. Earl of Gosford lo Lord Glenelg, 22 Nov. 1837. (No. 121.) Copy of a DESPATCH from the Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, dated Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 22 November 1837. My Lord, As the press of important business has left me but half an hour to secure to- day’s post, which is the last that will be in time for the next packet that leaves New York for England, and as I am aware that your Lordship must feel anxious to be informed of the progress of events since my despatch of the 9th instant, No. 116, reporting the collision between the opposing parties at Montreal on the 6th, I hasten to transmit the accompanying documents, six in number, as the shortest and best mode of conveying to you the most detailed account of what has since taken place ; and although some of these are newspaper reports, they con- tain an accurate and full representation of recent occurrences. Of the twenty-six individuals against whom warrants for high treason have been issued, nine have been taken, and are now confined in the Montreal gaol. Two were rescued near Longueuil, as your Lordship will perceive from the accom- panying papers, by an armed force, who fired upon and wounded four of the mounted police. The rest of the accused, including Messrs. Papineau and O’Callaghan, have not yet been found. Some of them, it is supposed, have fled into the adjoining States ; but Mr. Papineau is not of the number, although it is uncertain where he is. Upon the advice of my council, and the representations of the Attorney- general, that the success of his initiatory legal proceedings would be hazarded, and he was unwilling therefore to incur the risk of commencing them, so long as certain individuals remained in the magistracy for Montreal, I at once issued a new commission of the peace for that district, omitting the names of the objec- tionable Justices, and inserting others in their place ; and I have authorized the for- mation of an armed volunteer corps in the eastern townships, to the extent of 800 men. These decisive measures, and the desertion of the leading agitators in the moment of danger, will, I trust, open the eyes of the deluded habitants, and eventually restore public tranquillity and good order, without my being obliged to act upon the Report of the Executive Council of the 20th instant, for declaring parts of the district of Montreal in a state of insurrection and rebellion. Five individuals, including Mr. Morin, the member, were lately arrested in this city for seditious practices ; but they have been admitted to bail by the Chief Justice of the province, the accused in 500/., with two sureties each in 250/. The post has been waiting for me some time, and I cannot detain it any longer. I have, &c. (signed) Gosford. 1 sue thi P. pa tli fri re bi b- t) e 1 1 Enel. 1, in No. 51 Enclosure 1, in No. 51. REPORT from the Attorney and Solicitor Generals, respecting Proceedings in the District of Montreal. T ». k r * , „ , . „ Montreal, 18 November 1837 . In obedience to the commands of his Excellency the Governor-in-chief, conveyed to me by your letter of the 4 th November instant, that his Excellency, having received intelligence from the district of Montreal that a disorganizing system is there in operation, which if unchecked, may lead to outrage and the most serious consequences, desires that I do forth- W!th proceed to Montreal, and that being there, I should to the utmost of my power arrest and put down all seditious and unlawful practices and proceedings to the fullest extent that the law would admit; and further, that you were directed to request that I would communi- cate that letter to the Solicitor-general, with his Excellency’s injunction that he should join m !u n i' Vln ? e " eCt t0 1IS mtentlons > 1 proceeded immediately to Montreal, and, in accordance with the above instructions, put myself into instant communication with the Solicitor- general. In conjunction with him, I have the honour to report That our undivided attention has been since devoted to the attainment of such evidence as would authorize the arrest of those political incendiaries, to whose machinations the present alarming state of this city and district is to be attributed. Having at length accomplished tins important object, by the assistance of Messrs. Cuvillier and Penn, two of the magistrates ot this district, to whom the depositions and accompanying documents were submitted, with our opinion, that the charges contained in them amounted to high treason against the parties implicated therein. Warrants were issued for their apprehension to the number of 20. The names of these individuals are contained in Appendix, letter A. V. The AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 109 No. 51. The high constable and special constables to whom the execution of this duty was confided, £ ar i 0 f Gosford to succeeded in arresting in the night of the 16th instant, and lodging in the common gaol of Lord Glenelg, this district the six persons named in Appendix B. 22 November 1837. Warrants were simultaneously issued for the arrest of Drs. Davignault and Lionnais, and — — P. P. D’Emary, Notary-public, and entrusted to a body of mounted police, who, accom- Enel. 1, in No. 51. panied by a magistrate, were despatched that night by wav of Longueuil and Chambly, to their respective residences. It is to be regretted that the object of this expedition has been frustrated ; the police were successful in apprehending two of the accused, but upon their return to Montreal, when within two miles of Longueuil, they were intercepted by a large body of armed inhabitants, who, firing upon them from behind the fences and a bam which bordered the road, where they were themselves unassailable, compelled the police to abandon their prisoners. Depositions having been made to this effect, and it having been deemed expedient to reinforce the garrison of Chambly with four companies of the Royals, under Lieutenant Colonel Wetherall, and two pieces of artillery, a party of mounted polics, accom- panied by the deputy sheriff*, two magistrates and a constable, have been despatched with the military, under instructions to recapture the prisoners, if practicable, and further, to arrest any individuals who might be identified as having aided and abetted in a treasonable rescue. In the course of yesterday, Dr. Lionnais, one of the accused, who was absent from his house on Thursday night, was arrested in the city, and committed to the common gaol. Awaiting further intelligence, we have the honour, &c. (signed) C. R . Oyde.n, Attorney-General. M. O'Sullivan , Solicitor-General. Appendix (A.) to the Attorney and Solicitor General's Report, dated 18 November 1837. * J. F. B. Lionnais. P. P. Demaray. Jos. F. Dairgnon. Cyrille H. O. Cote, m.p.p. J. Gagnon. * Louis M. Veger, m.p.p. P. Amiot, m.p.p. Jos. T. Drolet, m.p.p. * Chas. A. Liblane. * F. Tavernier. Louis Jos. Papineau, m. p. p. Amury Girod. W. Nelson. Louis Perrault. Thomas S. Brown. * J. Dubue. Ed. E. Rodier, m. p. p. Edmund B. O'Callaghan, m.p.p. * A. Simard. A. Gauvin. L. Ganthier. R. Desriviers. J. Girouard, m.p.p. * A. Ouimet. * G. M. Boucherville. Those who have a star against their names, have been arrested, and are in gaol. Enclosure 2, in No. 51. Morning Courier Extra. Montreal, Saturday, 18 Nov. 1837. ARRESTS in Montreal ; Rescue of two Prisoners arrested at St. Johns. The events of yesterday and the day before are of a nature to require of us the fulfil- Enel. 2, in No. 51. 1 he eve J j' „ t t h e beeinning of this month, of an extra sheet, whenever ™" 1 1 wL W “minuted. We were prevented from publishing Tn our vesSdny’s mpa tire earlier part of the narrative we now present, by a special request, in our yesteraay p r imnairinp- the success of the measures that were in pro- as well as by the fear of perhaps then have given the m. It was not tilt gress by any too ear y P y, ’ • they became known at all; and it was then about should reman, a. little known as possible, considered best th -jp-able number of warrants were lodged in the hands of On Thursday evening ■ . entered immediately on the discharge of the duty Mr. Del 18 *®’ the 1 . ’ it j a party of special constables, in arresting six of the assigned him and succeeded, with a party “ t J f the « /& de la liberte,” J Dubue, an delinquents, Messrs. Anc r Tavernier of the Faubourg St. Antoine, George De employe at Pigeons taver , • ^ a sta j ent a t law named Leblanc. Several other Boucherville, advocate, D • the absence of the parties for whose benefit they were warrants were not served owing to the absence 01^ £ G ’Callaghan, Thomas S. Frown, intended. Among the absen ee , The Arrested parties were all safely lodged in Rodolphe Desnvieres and v • Desrivieres has since been arrested, but up gaol. A report has been in Mr . Ouimet, we are informed by one of to last night nothing bad occu , to t j ie “juponnesse ” whose president he is, by weT^^Ttteri/on ^heTay to his winter quarters, an exhibition of the manly spirit of a revolutionist hero, which of these arrests. Public report declares We have not learned posi wt \ a ware that there is any reason to suppose it them to be for high treason j and we are not awa j incorrect 72. 110 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO TIIE No. 51. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 22 November 1837, Enel. 3, in No. 51, incorrect in this particular. That treason has been committed by the parties there can be no question. We hope the time is at last come when it can be proved upon them. * I* c ' At eight o’clock on the same evening, a party of 18 of the Royal Montreal Volunteer Cavalry/ under Lieut. Ermatinger, was despatched to St. John’s, via Longueuil and Chambly, with constable Malo, to effect the arrest of tvvo worthies of that place, Messrs. Dr. D’ Avignon ^ and Demaray. Having quietly effected their object, they set out on their return, about three sen o’clock in the morning, by the same road. Not far from Chambly, they met with a party of about 30 persons, variously armed, who, however, went off as they approached. At about a mile from Longueuil, they were warned by a woman that a large body of men were in waiting for them a little further on ; but from some cause or other the information was disregarded, and the party proceeded as before. They had gone on but a very short distance, when they found themselves almost close to a body of about 300, in a field on the right of the road, protected by a high fence, and armed with rifles and muskets. The party in advance moved on to pass them, but was received by a heavy fire, which it was impossible for them to return with effect, armed as they were with pistols only, and from a body which, on r account of the high fence, they could not charge sword in hand. Under these circum- stances, they fell back on the main body of the party, though not until several shots had told with effect upon them. Lieut. Ermatinger was wounded, we believe with duck-shot, in the face and below the shoulder, Mr. Sharp received a bullet through the leg, a little below the knee, and Mr. John P. Ashton also received a slight wound from a slug. Mr. v John Molson, junior, had a narrow escape for his life, a bullet passing through his cap and i grazing his head. Mr. Joshua Woodhouse is also wounded, and we believe from all we he.ar, severely. Several of the horses, we are told, were more or less wounded. In turning to retreat, the waggon in which the constable and the two prisoners were was upset, and necessarily left behind by the cavalry, who then made their way into Longueuil across the fields. On arriving there they found a detachment of two companies from the 3 2d regiment, under Major Reed, who had been despatched at an early hour from Montreal, to receive and support them in case of necessity, but whose orders had unfortunately directed him not to proceed beyond Longueuil. The prisoners had, however, then, made their escape, and the whole body returned to the city for further orders. Some two hours afterwards, Constable Malo returned to the city, reporting none others killed or wounded, and of course without his prisoners. We understand that the four companies of the Royals now in town have received orders to march early this morning, under Lieut.-colonel Watherall, k. h., on special duty not yet precisely disclosed, between Longueuil and Chambly. They will be accompanied by one/ or perhaps two, field-pieces, and we trust their orders will prove to be such as to bring to a speedy issue the whole business of yesterday’s attack. — A recapture, a few new captures, and a satisfactory account of any parties that may be found, should there be any such, to oppose either, are what the circumstances of the case require, and what we trust they will not require in vain. Conflicting reports are current as to the locale of the unarrested leaders, and of Mr. Papineau in particular. By some it is confidently stated that he is in town, by others, that he has even left the country, and crossed the line. We believe neither report to be correct. The authorities, we trust, will lose no time in following up the blow they have now struck. They have passed the rubicon, and the success of their measures must henceforth depend mainly on their promptness. No stone must be left unturned to ensure the arrest of every man against whom evidence can be found to warrant a fair hope of his conviction. If Mr. Papineau or any other such individual be yet in town, it will obviously be the game of the party to have it believed that, he is not. We hope the parties interested will be on their guard against the ruse, and not relax in then- efforts to ensure the apprehension of all the missing candidates for gaol apartments. There is a little doubt expressed in some quarters as to the fact of a warrant being actually out against Papineau, but we trust there is no ground for such a doubt. The number of warrants prepared is, we believe, considerable, and some one of them must be for the head offender. The arrest of A. N. Morin, in Quebec, shows that there is no intention of allowing the leaders to leave all the dangers of revolution to their underlings. W e have reason to hope that a considerable number of additional arrests are likely to be made in and near Quebec. Let the aim be high and steady, and we care not how often it may be taken. The more men the better : but the highest must be among the first. The best argument we can urge upon our readers to induce them to renewed activity and spirit in their country’s cause, is to be found in the events of the last day or tvvo. The long desired blow is at last struck by the government. Blood has at last been shed by the rebels, who now stand unmasked, and fairly subject to the worst penalties of the laws they have insulted. No British subject could desire better things. Let but the enemy be seen, and the result is certain. Argument is no longer needed to convince any one of what each man’s conscience must now plainly tell him to be his duty. He has but to remember that England expects every man to do it. We see from last night’s “ Populaire,” that Mr. Demaray, one of the parties rescued at Longueuil, has just been discharged from his situation as postmaster at St. John’s. The public will be no losers. The Chief of the Rebel Gang taken. — Amable Norbert Morin, director-in-chief of the seditious and treasonable proceedings of the Permanent and Central Committee of Quebec, and chief spy of the Montreal faction, was lodged in jail this morning, on a similar . charge AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA, m charge to that on which Jos. Legare, Pierre Chasseur, Eugene Trudeau and Barthelemi Lachance. A. N. Morin was committed until Saturday, when he will be farther examined, and most probably be accommodated with quarters by Mr. Jeffrys for the whole winter. “ Quebec Morning Herald,” of Wednesday. Sir John Colborne has called in the old pensioners and the old soldiers, who are willing to serve, both to enter on immediate active service. — “ Populaire.” No. 51. Earl of Gosford to Lord Glenelg, 22 Nov. 1837. Enel. 2, in No. 51. Enclosure 3, in No. 51. Mercury Office, 22 November 1837. Tins anxiety with which all intelligence from the district of Montreal is sought after, Enel. 3 , in No. 51 . induces us to furnish our subscribers with the following latest particulars, which we copy from the “ Morning Courier” of Monday. March of the Troops to Chambly Arrest of Seven Prisoners on the Road. Between seven and eight o’clock on Saturday morning, the troops set out for Chambly , under Lieutenant-coloner Wetherall, as stated in our Extra. Four companies of the Roya s, a party of the Royal Artillery, with two field-pieces, under Captain Glasgow, and from 10 to 20 of the Montreal Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain David, formed the detachment. Among the latter we understand there were a good many of those who had been out on the severe duty of the day before. Lieutenant Ermatinger, m particular, and Messrs. Molson and Ashton, though slightly wounded the day before, were among the number. The deputy- sheriff, Mr. Duchesnay, and S. Bellingham and P. E. Leclerc, esquires, magistrates, accom- panied the detachment to authorize its movements. » The spot where the attack was made on Friday upon the cavalry is, as we now learn from parties who have since gone over the ground, from two to three miles out of Longueuil. On arriving at the place, the detachment found the waggon in which the Prisoners had been conveyed lying by the road-side, a dead horse in the road, and tracks of blood m the held where the assailants had been posted, from which it would appear that done by the fire of the cavalry previous to their retreat. The houses and barns by the load side, from which the cavalry had been fired upon in their retreat, were all found with the doors and window-shutters nailed up. A careful search was of course made, hut though the fires were still burning in some of them, there were neither weapons nor inmates to be tou in anv. The party then proceeded along the road, finding the houses, with one Or w exceptions only, deserted , and uniformly without arms tn them. Scouts were freque y seen mounted, "and riding down the several concession roads towards the mam road ; but on si°*ht of the troops they uniformly started off again. An individual who was met upon the main road stated that, as he came along, he had seen numbers of men, women and children along the road, and gi* off right and left »>«* > • -i f r , >r n Phamblv a mail was overtaken on the road, aimed. When arrested, admitted that he had turned out to join a party that was designed to intercept the troops. About a mile further, the cavalry, who were in advance of the main body, gave chase to f 0 f about 30 armed horsemen, whom they saw at some distance befoie them, and w paity of about -so an ’ , turnimr to the left up a concession road towards the ™ acle . od immediate y -1 ’ half of hard riding, most of them took to the woods, Belleisle Mountain. After a m' ie and 1 * ^ £’ any of t l,e infantry coming while the remainder made . 1 ca ^. being drawn up along the edge, to cut ofi up ; vere thC ^r; r:i °out Some 20 or 30 shots were exchanged ; with what effect on such as might be driven ou . Dr i son ers named Mongeau, father and son, and four the rebels is not known , a P ^ hurt . The elder Mongeau, when taken, was horses, were taken. None of the soldier* were Both ^ ^ of ball- armed with a horse P'stol 1 e JXrecl to have been served out to them by Dr. lumber, of cartridge, a part of which they ^ the revo i ut j on , whose present locale is by many Chambly, one of the missin 45 degree8> On arriving at Booth’s Tavern, not far shrewdly conjectured to be so e f oun j posted just beyond the bridge ; but they from Chambly, a party of aboa * . on , tour u f them were taken. The party reached made off so fast, as the troops a little after sun-down. From the general statements Chambly with their seven pnaoners “ wXdy^ of men had been called out to oppose made by the prisoners, it is evit | W as wanting to induce them to attempt it. the troops, and that courage rather th^ numbers wa h ^ q( ^ ^ ^ fin £ ^ The two Mongeaus, we * n ’ istrates an d the deputy-sheriff returned on Saturday to the cH^ Vhe troops," with their prisoners, who are placed in separate confinement, renamed at Chambly. former errand for the arT f est 5?f been proved inadequate, Sir John Colborne may be made to them. Until the civil toice naa ” n The volun- * 1 1 11C t Chambly. , . ,,. inr ters of the small force despatched on the We have heard complaints made *n some quarter^^ ^ bel|eve a very short answer .ormer errand for the arrest ° , farce had been proved inadequate, Sir John Colborne may be made to them. Until the cyd force had ^ ^ purpose The vo)un . could not have been justified m S f . ia i constables on that occasion. The teer cavalry haifds ha teer cavalry were employed m t ie han d s has happily warranted the stronger forcible rescue of the P" 9 ° 1,a , We may now look every day for intelligence measure, which was adopted " * of the utmost importance 72 VirtnullT, neighbourhood m which ihe» O 4 if — No. 51. Earl ofGosford to Lord Glenelg, 22 Nov. 1837. 112 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE occurred is already in a state of war. It cannot be long before it will be regularly declared to be, to all intents and purposes, under martial law. The arrests in this city, of whose nature we spoke with some little uncertainty on Satur- day, we have since ascertained to be for high treason, as they ought to be. The arrested Enel. 3, in No. 51. parties are all in separate confinement. Those who were taken in arms on Saturday are of course all guilty of treason also. Since the six arrests on Thursday evening, three others have been made in Montreal, all for the same crime. On Friday evening, Messrs. Joseph Lettore and Dr. B. Lionais, both of St. Athanase, made their appearance in town, much to the surprise of their captors, and were speedily committed to gaol, as much to their own surprise. On Saturday, Mr. Louis Michel Viger, President of the Banque du Peuple, was quietly lodged in the same building, in consequence, it is said, of some peculiarly heavy charges against him, relating chiefly to the financial concerns of the party. If the half of what is currently believed be true, some startling disclosures may shortly be expected of certain means by which the “ sinews of Enel. 4, in No. 51. war” have been supplied, to aid m the procurement of arms and other matters contraband of war. The reports that are brought into town by private letters from St. Eustache and its neigh- bourhood represent the meeting held in that quarter on Friday, of which such flaming reports were spread beforehand, as a very insignificant affair. Not more than from 100 to 150 are said to have been present. It is generally thought, we believe, that the attack made on the cavalry on Friday was not made with any particular intention of rescuing the two prisoners, the fact of whose arrest was certainly not known, and probably not suspected beforehand by the assailants. The work of organization goes on bravely in all parts of the city. From the highly satis- factory replies of the Governor and Commander-in-chief, to the request for a general military organization of all loyal citizens, for the defence of the city in case of emergency, it may be confidently expected that Montreal will very shortly be in a condition to spare almost every man of the regular troops now in garrison here, should they be wanted for the defence of the more scattered loyalists through the country. This is as it should be. The publication of the “ Vindicator,” it is currently reported, is to be resumed at Bur- lington. What a capital excuse for certain of the leaders for taking up safe winter quarters south of the line ! What a valuable commodity is discretion ! Montreal Herald, Monday Evening, November 20. The insurrection goes on, as every man of common sense must have anticipated. On Saturday a party of the volunteer cavalry again set out for Chambly, but accompanied by two brass guns and a considerable portion of the Royals. On their march across the country, the cavalry were fired at by a large body of rebels from a considerable distance. The rebels, supposing that they had only the cavalry to meet, as on the preceding day, had stationed themselves on ground impracticable for horses; but the moment the red coats were pei Vi jrceived, the heroes fled as fast as ever did that rewarded and honoured coward, Jacques iger, from Sackett’s Harbour. The battle then became a pursuit ; and seven of the unfor- tunate wretches were captured with arms in their hands, and two of them, of the name of Mongeon, reloading their muskets, when questioned, stated, that Dr. Kimber had ordered the attack. So much for the country ; and now for the town. Mr. Louis M. Viger, head of the People’s Bank, was arrested on Saturday evening, on a charge of high treason, and lodged in gaol. It seems to be the general opinion, that more than one Viger would be all locigeci in gaoi. it seems to De tne general opinion, that more than one Viger would b the better for a little hanging. The People’s Bank, by-the-bye, seems to be in a bad way, having lost its clerk, Desriviers, its privy councillor, Brown, and its commander, Viger. Some of the more cautious stock-holders may like to know, that the concern must now be chiefly in the hands of Mr. Jacob DeWitt. For the arrest of Beau Viger, the loyalists are mainly indebted to the zeal and activity of certain newly-made special constables. To the same parties is also to be ascribed a pretty extensive search for that miserable poltroon, Papineau, who skulks, as was to be expected, from the storm of his own raising. If the agitator be in the country, he will be found ; his very dupes will turn against their tempter and betrayer. Enclosure 4 , in No. 51 . LE LIBERAL. EXTRAORDINAIRE. Quebec, Samedi, 18 Novembre 1837 . Aujourd HUi vers midi et demi, nos cinq compatriotes, Messieurs Chasseur, Trudeau, Lachance, Legare et Morin, injustement et tyranniquement incarceres et persecutes par le nomme Robert Symes, dont la haine et la fanatisme politique s’etaient en cette occasion enveloppes d un manteau de magistrat, inutile et faible gaze a travers lequel tout le monde a pu voir a nu Robert Symes 1 ennemi acharne, l’ennemi ehonte et jure de tout ce qui porte un nom Canadien ; aujourd’hui disons nous, nos cinq compatriotes, sur des Habeas Corpus , ont paru devant son Honneur le Juge en Chef de cette Province, qui les a admis a caution pour cou: L pou 1 tive 1 per auc chc C01 tio s. es Hi c dc ' cm boi suj ave I'ai k k k AFFAIRS OF LOWER CANADA. 113 poui leui comparution au term de mars, ou devant un cour d’Oyer et Terminer, si une telle cour venait a sieger. Le cautionnement donne par chacun de ces Messieurs est de 1,000/., savoir: — L’accuse pour 500/., et deux caution de 250/. chaque. Une nombreuse suite d amis a accompagne ces Messieurs jusqu’a leurs demeures respec - tives, et les a salues par des houras prolonges. Pour faire voir aux magistrat Robert Symes, que ses odieux procedes n’ont intimide personne, et qu’on se moque de lui et du pouvoir respectable d’aiileurs, mais dont il a si audacieusement abuse ; et pour donner le plutot possible a ceux denos compatriotes qu’il a choisis pour victimes une preuve, entre milie autres, qu’ils n’ont pas ete oublies par leurs concitoyens pendant leur inique detention, nous publions sur cet Extraordinaire les resolu- tions votees avec enthousiasme a i’assembl6e du Comite Central de Jeudi dernier. \ Comite Central et Permanent de la Cite et du District de Quebec. Seance du 16 Novembre. Presidence de M. John Teed; J. E. Turcotte, 6cr., Secretaire. Le comit6 ayant pris en consideration les ev£nemens extraordinaires qui se passent actuellement en cette cit6 ; Sur motion de M. Louis Matthieu, seconde par M. Thomas Roach : — Resolu, Que les vexations arbitraires, et les procedes inconstitutionels adoptes recemment par le Magistrat Robert Symes, en profitant de son autorite pour incarcerer certains citoyens respectables de Quebec, en les detenant dans la prison commune de ce district pour une plus longue periode que celle de 24 heures, et en refusant de les admettre a caution, sont de la part du dit Robert Symes des actes qui ne trouvent de justification nulle part, et qui meritent une punition exemplaire. Sur motion de Charles Hunter, ecr., seconde par M. Olivier Fiset : — Resolu, Que l’arrestation de Messieurs Chasseur, Trudeau, Legare, Lachance et Morin, sans aucune accusation definie, sur un warrant sign6 par le dit Robert Symes, dont l’autorite est regardee comme une nuisance publique, est un de ces procedes qui doivent essentielie- ment tendre a detruire l’affection et les liens qui peuvent unir encore les loyaux sujets Canadiens au gouvernement de Sa Majeste, par la connivence et la sanction apparente donnee par le gouvernement local a ces actes de tyrannie et d’oppression. Sur motion de M. Patrick Heron, second^ par M. Jn. Bte. Hardy : — Resolu, Qu’une humble adresse soit presentee de la part des citoyens de cette cite a son Excellence le Gouverneur-en-chef, pour le prier de vouloir bien destituer immediatement le dit Robert Symes de sa commission de juge de paix, en consequence de ses procedes arbi- traires, illegaux et oppressifs, lesquels procedes ayant avec raison attache pour toujours l’execration publique au nom du dit Robert Symes ; et qu’un comite de dix membres soit nomme pour preparer la dite adresse et la faire signer par les citoyens de cette ville. Le dit comite ayant ete choisi, Sur motion de J. E. Turcotte, ecr., seconde par M. Louis Charland : — Resolu Que convaincus comme nous le sommes de l’innocence et de la purete des actes et des intentions de Messieurs Chasseur, Trudeau, Lachance, Legare et Morin, et par consequent de l’injustice et de la tyrannie qu’il y a dans les procedes adoptes contre eux, et ressentant profondement toutes les vexations et l’arbitraire qu’il y a dans ces actes du plus odieux despotisme, nous approuvons hautement et solennellement la conduite poli- tique de nos compatriotes incarceres et persecutes, et nous vouons plus solennellement encore au mepris et a l’indignation des habitans du pays tous ceux qui ont pris part a ce bouleversement et a cet aneantissement des droits le plus reconnus et les plus sacres dun suiet Britannique; et que cette persecution inique supportee et bravee par nos compatriotes avec toute la di