Part 2 (1/2)

At this time there were five papers in Lower Canada. The Quebec Gazette, the Quebec Mercury, Le Canadien, the Montreal Gazette, and the Courant. The three former were published in Quebec, the other two in Montreal. The Gazettes were organs of the government, the Mercury and Courant were ”namby-pamby,” and the Canadien was as the voice of le peuple.

The elections were, in the month of March, again about to take place, and the government conceived the magnificent idea of carrying a printing office by a.s.sault. When everything was prepared, then was the time to act. Headed by a magistrate, a party of soldiers rushed up the stairs leading to the Canadien printing office. The proprietor received them with a low bow, and much annoyance was felt that no opposition was offered. The premises were searched. Some ma.n.u.scripts were found, and, ”under the sanction of the Executive,” the whole press, and the whole papers of every description, were forcibly seized, and conveyed as booty to the vaults of the Court House. In this action one prisoner was made. The printer was seized, and ”after examination,” was committed to prison. And, as if an insurrection were expected, the guards at the gates were strengthened, and patrols sent in every direction. The public looked amazed, as well it might. The Mercury did not know whether most to admire the tyrannical spirit or the consummate vanity of the Canadians, and of No. 15, of the Canadien, which contended that the Canadians had rights. As a striking proof of Canadian tyranny, the Canadien would not allow any but the members of the a.s.sembly to be a judge of the expediency of expelling Judge DeBonne! and it was even said that of all those who signed the address to His Excellency, presented in the name of Quebec, not one was capable of understanding the nature of the question. In a dependence, such as Canada, was the government to be daily flouted, bearded, and treated with the utmost disrespect and contumely? ”He” expected nothing less than that its patience would be exhausted, and energetic measures resorted to, as the only efficient ones. From any part of a people conquered from wretchedness into every indulgence, and the height of prosperity, such treatment, as the government daily received was far different from that which ought to have been expected. But there were characters in the world on whom benefits have no other effect than to produce insolence and insult. The stroke was struck, the Mercury would say no more. The greatest misfortune that can ever happen to the press is for it to be in the possession of invisible and licentious hands. It said no more, because ”the war was with the dead!”

Sir James was not very sure that he had acted either wisely or well. He thought it necessary to explain. Divers wicked and seditious writings had been printed. Divers wicked and seditious writings had been dispersed throughout the province. Divers writings were calculated to mislead divers of His Majesty's subjects. Divers wicked and traitorous persons had endeavoured to bring into contempt and had vilified the administration, and divers persons had invented wicked falsehoods, with the view of alienating the affections of His Majesty's subjects from the respect which was due to His Majesty's person. It was impossible for His Majesty's representative longer to disregard or suffer practices so directly tending to subvert His Majesty's government, and to destroy the happiness of His Majesty's subjects. He, therefore, announced, that with the advice and concurrence of the Executive Council, and due information having been given to three of His Majesty's Executive Councillors, warrants, as by law authorised, had been issued, under which, some of the authors, printers, and publishers of the aforesaid traitorous and seditious writings had been apprehended and secured. Deeply impressed with a desire to promote, in all respects, the welfare and happiness of the most benevolent of sovereigns, whose servant he had been for as long a period as the oldest inhabitant had been his subject, and whose highest displeasure he should incur if the acts of these designing men had produced any effect, he trusted that neither doubts nor jealousies had crept into the public mind. He would recall to the deluded, if there were any, the history of the whole period during which they had been under His Majesty's government. It was for them to recollect the progressive advances they had made in the wealth, happiness, and unbounded liberty which they then enjoyed. Where was the act of oppression-where was the instance of arbitrary imprisonment-or where was the violation of property of which they had to complain? Had there been an instance in which the uncontrolled enjoyment of their religion had been disturbed? While other countries and other colonies had been deluged in blood, during the prevalent war, had they not enjoyed the most perfect security and tranquillity? What, then, could be the means by which the traitorous would effect their wicked purposes? What arguments dare they use? For what reason was happiness to be laid aside and treason embraced? What persuasion could induce the loyal to abandon loyalty and become monsters of ingrat.i.tude? The traitorous had said that he desired to embody and make soldiers of twelve thousand of the people, and because the a.s.sembly would not consent, that he had dissolved the Parliament? It was monstrously untrue, and it was particularly atrocious in being advanced by persons who might have been supposed to have spoken with certainty on the subject. It had been said that he wanted to tax the lands of the country people, that the House would only consent to tax wine, and that for such perverseness he had dissolved the a.s.sembly. Inhabitants of St. Denis! the Governor General never had the most distant idea of taxing the people at all. The a.s.sertion was directly false. When the House offered to pay the civil list, he could not move without the King's instructions. But in despair of producing instances from what he had done, the traitorous had spoken of that which he intended to do. It was boldly said that Sir James Craig intended to oppress the Canadians. Base and daring fabricators of falsehood! on what part of his life did they found such a.s.sertions? What did the inhabitants of St. Denis know of him or of his intentions? Let Canadians inquire concerning him of the heads of their church. The heads of the church were men of knowledge, honor, and learning, who had had opportunities of knowing him, and they ought to be looked to for advice and information. The leaders of faction and the demagogues of a party a.s.sociated not with him, and could not know him. Why should he be an oppressor? Was it to serve the King, the whole tenor of whose life had been honorable and virtuous? Was it for himself that he should practice oppression? For what should he be an oppressor? Ambition could not prompt him, with a life ebbing slowly to a close, under the pressure of a disease acquired in the service of his country. He only looked forward to pa.s.s the remaining period of his life in the comfort of retirement, among his friends. He remained in Canada simply in obedience to the commands of his King. What power could he desire? For what wealth would he be an oppressor? Those who knew him, knew that he had never regarded wealth, and then, he could not enjoy it. He cared not for the value of the country laid at his feet. He would prefer to power and wealth a single instance of having contributed to the happiness and prosperity of the people whom he had been sent to govern. He warned all to be on their guard against the artful suggestions of wicked and designing men. He begged that all would use their best endeavours to prevent the evil effects of incendiary and traitorous doings. And he strictly charged and commanded all magistrates, captains of militia, peace officers, and others, of His Majesty's good subjects to bring to punishment such as circulated false news, tending, in any manner, to inflame the public mind and to disturb the public peace and tranquillity.

Could anything have been more pitiable than such a proclamation? The existence of a conspiracy on the part of some disaffected persons to overthrow the King's government was made to appear with the view of covering a mistake. The proclamation was the apology for the illegal seizure of a press and types used in the publication of a newspaper, in which nothing seditious or treasonable had in reality been published. It was true that the Canadien upheld the a.s.sembly and criticised the conduct of the Executive, with great severity. It was true that the Canadien complained of the tyranny of ”les Anglais.” It was true that the Canadien strenuously supported the idea of the expenses of the civil list being defrayed by the province and not by the Imperial government. And it was true that it contended for ”nos inst.i.tutions, notre langue, et nos lois.” It did nothing more. No hint was thrown out that Canada would be more prosperous under the American, than under the English dominion. It was not even insinuated that Canada should be wholly governed by Canadians. All that was claimed for French Canadians was a fair share in the official spoils of the land they lived in, freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience. Governor Craig asked the inhabitants of St. Denis or any of the other inhabitants of the province to remind him of any one act of oppression or of arbitrary imprisonment. And at that very moment the printer of the Canadien was in prison. Nor was he there alone, there were Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet, and Taschereau, members of the recently dissolved House of a.s.sembly, together with Messrs. Pierre Laforce, Pierre Papineau, of Chambly, and Francois Corbeille, of Isle Jesus, to keep him company, on charges of treasonable practices, concerning which there was not, and never had been, even the shadow of proof, on charges which the government did not attempt even to prove, and on charges which were withdrawn without the accused having ever been confronted with their accusers. Base and daring fabricators of falsehood! Francois Corbeille, an innocent man, the victim only of unjust suspicions, on the one hand, and of diabolical selfishness, on the other, died in consequence of the injury his health received in that prison where tyranny had placed him. But he could issue no proclamation. His voice was not loud enough in the tomb to reach the Court of St. James, surrounded as that Court was, by an impenetrable phalanx of Downing Street Red-tapists. Canada was only mis-governed because England was deceived, through the instrumentality of Governors, honorable enough as men, but so wanting in administrative capacity, as to be open to the vile flattery and base insinuations of those who were, or rather should have been at once the faithful servants of the Crown and of that people who upheld it, who were virtually taken possession of, on arrival, by the ”gens en place,” and held safely in custody, until their nominal power had ceased. And when power had pa.s.sed away, then only did many of them perceive, as Sir James Craig is reported to have done, the deception, the ingrat.i.tude, and the almost inhumanity of man. There is some excuse to be offered for the extraordinary course of policy pursued by Sir James Craig; and an apology even can be made for the crooked policy of those voluntary advisers who had hedged him in. Great Britain was at war with France. The name of a Frenchman was unmusical in the ears of any Englishman of that period, and it sounded harshly in the ears of the British soldier. It was France that had prost.i.tuted liberty to l.u.s.t. It was France that had dragged public opinion to the scaffold and the guillotine. It was France that held the axe uplifted over all that was good and holy. It was France that was making all Europe a charnel-house. It was General Buonaparte of France, who only sought to subdue England, the more easily to conquer the world. Many an English hearth had cursed his name. Many a widow had he made desolate, and many an orphan fatherless. The ”conquered subjects” of King George spoke and thought in French. They held French traditions in veneration. There could only be a jealousy, a hatred, a contempt entertained of everything seeming to be French, in the heart of an Englishman. And these sentiments were doubtless reciprocated. But, still the French of Canada, were only, now, French by extraction. They had long lost that love of the land of their origin, which belongs to nativity. Few men in the province had been born in France. Few Canadians knew anything about the new regime, or took any interest in the ”Code Napoleon.” And few even cherished flattering recollections of Bourbon rule. The Canadians wanted English liberty, not French republicanism. The Canadians wanted to have for themselves so much liberty as a Scotchman might enjoy at John O'Groats, or an Englishman obtain at Land's-End. And for so desiring liberty they were misrepresented, because of English colonial prejudices, and because of official dislikes and selfishness. When the first Attorney-General of Canada, Mr. Mazzeres, afterwards Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, in England, of whom Mr. Ryland was but a pious follower, proposed to convert the Canadians to Anglicism in religion, in manners, and in law, a.s.suredly little opposition could have been made to the scheme. Then, the pursuance of Cardinal Richelieu's policy would, in after ages, have exemplified that the pen had been mightier than the sword. Then the whole population of the province could have been housed in one of the larger cities of the present time. But when the province had increased in numbers to 300,000, partially schooled in English legislation, the exercise of despotism was only as impolitic as it was obviously unjust. It was feared by the officers of the civil government of Canada, when this despotism was practised, that the legislature might have the power, which has since been conceded, of dispensing with the services of merely imperial officers, and of filling, with natives to the manor born, every office of profit or emolument in the province. It was feared if the exclusive power were granted to the Colonial Legislature of appropriating all the sums necessary for the civil expenditure of the province, that it would give the Legislature absolute control over the officers of the empire and of the colony, and annihilate, if not actually, potentially, the imperium of Great Britain over her colony. A distinction was drawn between the privileges of a colonist and of the resident of the United Kingdom. While every munic.i.p.ality in the latter was permitted to pay and control its own officers, the voice of a colonist was to be unheard in the councils of the nation to which he was attached, and he was to have no control over the actions of those who were to make or administer the laws, under which he lived. He was patiently to submit to the overbearing a.s.sumptions of some plebeian Viceroy, accidentally raised to a quasi-level with the great potentates of the earth, and inclined to ride with his temporary and borrowed power, after that great impersonage of evil, which, it is alleged, the beggar always attempts to overtake when, having thrown off his rags and poverty, he has been mounted on horseback. It is admitted that at this time the province was controlled by a few rapacious, overbearing, and irresponsible officials, without stake or other connection with the country, than their offices,[14] having no sympathy with the ma.s.s of the inhabitants. It is admitted that these officials lorded it over the people, upon whose substance they existed, and that they were not confided in, but hated. It is admitted that their influence with the English inhabitants arose from the command of the treasury. And it is admitted that, though only the servants of the government, they acted as if they had been princes among the natives and inhabitants of the province, upon whom they affected to look down, estranging them from all direct intercourse, or intimacy, with the Governor, whose confidence, no less than the control of the treasury, it was their policy to monopolise. To the candidates for vice-regal favors, their smiles were fortune, and their frowns were fate. The Governor was a hostage in the keeping of the bureaucracy, and the people were but serfs.

Nothing has been left on record to show that when Sir James Craig issued his absurd proclamation, treason was to have been feared, unless it be that the clergy were required to read the proclamation from the pulpits of the parish churches, that Chief Justice Sewell read it from the Bench, that the Grand Jury drew up an address to the Court and strongly animadverted upon the dangerous productions of the Canadien, and that the Quebec Mercury expressed its abhorrence of sedition, and chronicled the fact that 671 habitants had expressed their grat.i.tude to the Governor, for his ”truly paternal proclamation.”

In the April term of the Court of King's Bench, the release of Mr. Bedard from gaol, was attempted, by an attempt to obtain a writ of Habeas Corpus. But the Bench was not sufficiently independent of the Crown. The writ was refused. The State prisoners were compelled to remain in prison, indulging the hope that whatever charges could be preferred against them would be reduced to writing, and a trial be obtained. It was hoping against hope. Some of the imprisoned fell sick, among whom was the printer of the Canadien, and all in the gaol of Quebec, with the exception of Mr. Bedard, were turned out of prison. Mr. Bedard refused to be set at liberty without having had the opportunity of vindicating his reputation by the verdict of a jury. Conscious of the integrity of his conduct, and of the legality of his expressed political opinions, he solicited trial, but the September session of the Criminal Term of the King's Bench was suffered to elapse without any attention having been paid to him. Three of the prisoners were imprisoned in the gaol of Montreal, and were not only subjected to the inconveniences and discomforts of a damp and unhealthy prison, but to the petty persecutions of a relentless gaoler. They were one after the other enlarged without trial, Mr. Corbeil only to die.

In the course of the summer the government had been occupied with the regulation and establishment of a system of police, in Montreal and Quebec, and, with that view, salaried chairmen were appointed to preside over the Courts of Quarter Sessions. The government also determined upon opening up a road to the Eastern Towns.h.i.+ps, which would afford a direct land communication between Quebec and Boston. Commencing at St. Giles, on the south sh.o.r.e of the St. Lawrence, that road to the towns.h.i.+p of s.h.i.+pton, which still bears the name of Governor Craig, was completed by a detachment of troops.

On the 10th of December, Parliament again met. The House of a.s.sembly re-elected Mr. Panet to the Speakers.h.i.+p, and the Governor approved of his election. In his speech from the throne, Governor Craig had never doubted the loyalty and zeal of the parliaments which had met since he had a.s.sumed the administration of affairs. He was confident that they were animated by the best intentions to promote the interests of the King's government and the welfare of the people. He looked for such a disposition in the tenor of their deliberations. He called their attention to the temporary Act for the better preservation of His Majesty's government, and for establis.h.i.+ng regulations respecting aliens or certain subjects of His Majesty, who had resided in France. No change had taken place in the state of public affairs, that would warrant a departure from those precautions which made the Act necessary. He did not mean that it should be supposed that he meant to divide the interests of His Majesty's government from the interests of the public, for they were inseparable. But the preservation of His Majesty's government was the safety of the province, and its security was the only safeguard to the public tranquillity. He therefore recommended those considerations together with the Act making temporary provision for the regulation of trade between Canada and the United States to their first and immediate consideration. He entreated them to believe that he should have great satisfaction in cultivating that harmony and good understanding which must be so conducive to the prosperity and happiness of the colony, and that he should most readily and cheerfully concur, in every measure, which they might propose, tending to promote those important objects. And he further intimated that the rule of his conduct was to discharge his duty to his sovereign, by a constant attention to the welfare of his subjects, who were committed to his charge, and these objects he felt to be promoted by a strict adherence to the laws and principles of the const.i.tution, and by maintaining in their just balance the rights and privileges of every branch of the legislature. Sir James Craig's attempts at maintaining a balance of power were the chief causes of all his blundering. He did not himself know the proper balance of power between himself and the governed. He could not possibly perceive when his balance-beam was out of its centre, and if he had seen a slight leaning to one side, and that side not his own, he could not have conceived that the scales of justice would have been very much affected. It never occurred to him that the displacement of it, only to the extent of one-sixteenth half of an inch, on the side of Government and Council, would weigh a quarter of a century against the a.s.sembly, the people and progress. But so it was. The beam with which Sir James Craig would have and did weigh out justice, was one-sided, and, to make matters still worse, the Governor threw into the adverse scale a host of his own prejudices, and of the prejudices of his secret councillors. He would have been glad, had the House expelled Mr. Bedard, one of its members, on the plea that it was prejudicial to its dignity that a representative of the people should be kept in durance, while the House was in session, and still more discreditable that that member should be charged with treason. Hardly had he delivered his speech, and the a.s.sembly returned to their chamber, when the Governor sent a message to the House intimating that Mr. Bedard, who had been returned to Parliament, as the representative of Surrey, was detained in the common gaol of Quebec, under the ”Preservation Act,” charged with treasonable practices. The House most politely thanked the Governor-in-Chief for the information. The House resolved that Mr. Bedard was in the common gaol of Quebec. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard was, on the 27th day of March, returned to Parliament, as one of the Knights Representative of Surrey. The House resolved that Pierre Bedard, was then one of the members of the a.s.sembly, for the existing Parliament. The House resolved that the simple arrest of any one of His Majesty's subjects did not render him incapable of election to the a.s.sembly. The House resolved that the Government Preserves Act, guaranteed to the said Pierre Bedard, Esquire, the right of sitting in the a.s.sembly. And the House resolved to present a humble address to His Excellency, informing him that his message had been seriously considered, that several resolutions had been pa.s.sed, which they conceived it to be their duty to submit to His Excellency, and that it was the wish of the House that Pierre Bedard, Esquire, Knight Representative for the County of Surrey, might take his seat in the House. The vote in favor of the resolutions was expressively large. There were twenty-five members present, and twenty voted for the resolutions. Messrs. Bourdages, Papineau, senior, Bellet, Papineau, junior, Debartch, Viger, Lee, and Bruneau, were named a committee to present an address to the Governor, founded on the resolutions, but they managed to escape that honor. When it was moved to resolve that an enquiry be made as to the causes which had prevented the messengers from presenting the address, as ordered by the House, Mr. Papineau, senior, moved that nothing more should be said about the address, and the motion was carried. Nor was anything more said about the unfortunate gentleman who was imprisoned, as the Governor himself afterwards stated, only as a measure of precaution, not of punishment, until the close of the session, when he was released. He was kept in Ham because he might have done mischief, on the principle that prevention is better than cure, and, when Mr. Bedard desired to know what was expected of him, the Governor sent for his brother, the cure, and authorized him to tell Mr. Bedard that he had been confined by government, ”only looking to its security and the public tranquillity,” and that when Mr. Bedard expressed a sense of that error, of which he was ignorant, he would be immediately enlarged. Mr. Bedard replied courteously, but declined admitting any error, which he had not made, or of confessing to any crime of which he was not guilty. The Governor had heard of the resolutions of the House, and expected the presentation of the address embodying them, when he received an application from the elder Papineau, one of the committee, requesting a private conference on the subject of the resolutions. That conference only drew from His Excellency the remark that:-”No consideration, Sir, shall induce me to consent to the liberation of Mr. Bedard, at the instance of the House of a.s.sembly, either as a matter of right, or as a favor, nor will I now consent to his being enlarged on any terms during the sitting of the present session, and I will not hesitate to inform you of the motives by which I have been induced to come to this resolution. I know that the general language of the members, has encouraged the idea which universally prevails, that the House of a.s.sembly will release Mr. Bedard; an idea so firmly established that there is not a doubt entertained upon it in the province. The time is therefore come, when I feel that the security as well as the dignity of the King's government, imperiously require that the people should be made to understand the true limits of the rights of the respective parts of the government, and that it is not that of the House of a.s.sembly to rule the country.” And Mr. Bedard, sensible of having done no wrong, remained in gaol until the Parliament was prorogued, as an example to the people that there was no public opinion worth heeding, in the province, and that the power of the Governor was something superior to that of the a.s.sembly. The a.s.sembly went to work after having made the fruitless attempt to liberate Mr. Bedard, and pa.s.sed as many bills as were required. The ”gaols” bill was temporarily continued: the repairs of the Castle of St. Lewis having cost 14,980, instead of 7,000, as contemplated, the additional outlay was voted; 50,000 were voted towards the erection of suitable parliament buildings. The Alien Act and that for the Preservation of the Government were continued, together with the Militia Act, to March 1813; the bill to disqualify judges from being elected to the a.s.sembly pa.s.sed both Houses, and to these the Governor a.s.sented, proroguing the Parliament afterwards with great pleasure. Communication with Europe had been difficult during the winter, on account of the impediments thrown in the way of American commerce. The Princess Charlotte had died, and the sovereign himself had become alarmingly indisposed. A new Act of non-intercourse had been pa.s.sed in the American Congress. He had seen among the Acts pa.s.sed, and to which he had just declared His Majesty's a.s.sent, with peculiar satisfaction, the Act disqualifying the judges from holding a seat in the House of a.s.sembly. It was not only that he thought the measure right in itself, but that he considered the pa.s.sing of an Act for the purpose, as a complete renunciation of the erroneous principle, the acting upon which put him under the necessity of dissolving the last parliament. The country was becoming luxuriantly rich, and he hoped that all would be harmony and tolerance. He would be a proud man who could say to his sovereign that he found the Canadians divided and left them united.

On the 19th of June, 1811, Lieut.-General Sir James Craig embarked for England, in H.M.S. Amelia. Previous to his departure he received addresses from Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, Warwick, and Terrebonne, and when he was about to leave the Chateau St. Louis, the British population, who admired the old General more perhaps than they did the const.i.tutional ruler, exhibited considerable feeling. The mult.i.tude took the place of His Excellency's carriage horses and popularly carried away, to the Queen's wharf, His Majesty's representative. Nay, the old soldier, who really had a heart, almost wept as he bade farewell to men, some of whom he had first met with in the battle field, and had since known for nearly half a century. Sir James too was ill. It was not indeed expected that he would have lived long enough to reach England. His dropsy was becoming not only troublesome but dangerous.[15]

Sir James was succeeded in the administration of the government of Canada by Mr. Dunn.

The Canadians had, during the administration of Governor Craig, earnestly pursued Junius' advice to the English nation. They had never, under the most trying circ.u.mstances, suffered any invasion of their political const.i.tution to pa.s.s by, without a determined and persevering resistance. They practically exhibited their belief in the doctrine that, one precedent creates another; that precedents soon acc.u.mulate and const.i.tute law; that what was yesterday fact becomes to-day doctrine; that examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous measures, and that where they do not suit exactly, the defect is supplied by a.n.a.logy. They felt confident that the laws which were to protect their civil rights were to grow out of their const.i.tution, and that with it the country was to fall or flourish. They believed in the right of the people to choose their own representatives. They were sensibly impressed with the idea that the liberty of the press is the palladium of the civil, political, and religious rights of a British subject, and that the right of juries to return a general verdict, in all cases whatsoever, is an essential part of the British const.i.tution, not to be controlled, or limited, by the judges, nor in any shape to be questionable by the legislature. And they believed that the power of the King, Lords, and Commons, was not an arbitrary power, but one which they themselves could regulate. In a word, they believed that, whatever form of government might be necessary for the maintenance of order, and for putting all men on an equality in the eye of the law, the people themselves were the source of all power, and they acted accordingly.

Mr. Peel, (afterwards Sir Robert Peel,) Under Secretary of State, condemned the conduct of Sir James Craig, as Governor of Canada. Mr. Ryland, himself, informed Sir James, by letter, from London, whither he had been sent with despatches, that when he observed to Mr. Peel that Sir James Craig had all the English inhabitants with him, and, consequently, all the commercial interest of the country, Mr. Peel remarked that the Canadians were much more numerous, and he repeated the same remark more than once, in a way that indicated a fear of doing anything that might clash with the prejudices of the more numerous part of the community. And when Mr. Ryland ventured to suggest that the decided approbation of the Governor's conduct could not fail to have a desirable effect on the minds of the Canadians, and that the best way of expressing such approbation, was by suspending the const.i.tution, as Sir James Craig had recommended, Mr. Peel thought that a reunion of the provinces would be better than a suspension of the const.i.tution of Lower Canada. Lord Liverpool thought that it was not very necessary to imprison the editors of the Canadien. He quietly asked if they could not have been brought over to the government? Mr. Ryland said that it was not possible, that Mr. Bedard's motive for opposing the government, was possibly to obtain office, but he had acted in such a way as to make that impossible. At dinner with the Earl of Liverpool, at Coombe Wood, Mr. Ryland seems to have had a combing from Mr. Peel. He writes to Sir James Craig that, in a conversation with Mr. Peel, before dinner, concerning the state of things in Canada, he was mortified to find that he had but an imperfect idea of the subject. He expressed himself as though he had thought that Sir James Craig had dissolved the House of a.s.sembly on account of their having pa.s.sed a bill for excluding the judges. He endeavored to give Mr. Peel a clear and correct conception of these matters, but G.o.d knew with what success! He recollected Governor Craig's advice, and kept his temper, but it was really very provoking to see men of fine endowments and excellent natural understanding, too inattentive to make themselves masters of a very important subject, which had been placed before them, in an intelligible manner. When Mr. Peel asked him if the English members of the House were always with the government, Mr. Ryland said that in every case of importance, with the exception of Mr. James Stuart, formerly Solicitor-General, the English members always supported the views of the government. And, indeed, the Attorney-General of England, Sir Vicary Gibbs, reported against the despotic intentions of Sir James Craig, and, at the suggestion of his secretary, further expressed his official opinion that the paper published in the Canadien, and upon which the proceedings of the Executive Council of Canada had been founded, was not such as to fix upon the publishers, the charge of treasonable practices, and that it was only the apprehensions that had been in Canada entertained, of the effects of the publication of the paper in the Canadien, that might have made it excusable to resort to means, not strictly justifiable in law, for suppressing antic.i.p.ated mischief. The truth was simply that a stupid old man, filled with the most violent prejudices, against change of any sort, had been sent to govern a new and rapidly rising country, and knew not how success was to be obtained. His mind was full of conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions, and nothing else. When he retired to rest, and had drawn the curtains of his bed, there sat upon him, night after night, three horrible spectres:-the Rebellion in Ireland, the Reign of Terror in France, and the American revolution. He slept only to dream of foul conspiracies, and he was dreaming how they best could be avoided, when in broad daylight he was most awake.