our said province, they shall in that case be taken and deemed to be guilty of high treason, and shall suffer death accordingly. And whereas, under the peculiar circumstances of our said province, as aforesaid, it is not less expedient in our judgment than grateful to our heart to mark, by an act of royal grace, our recollection of the ancient and well-proven loyalty of all our Canadian subjects, rather than by any severity of punishment, our sense of the recent disaffection of some of them; know ye, therefore, that we have ordained, directed, and declared, and by these presents do ordain, direct, and declare, that no further proceedings shall be had or taken against any persons whatsoever on account of any high treason or offences of a treasonable nature with which they now stand charged, or wherewith they may be chargeable at this time, but that all such proceedings, without exception or distinction, save as hereinafter men. tioned, shall henceforth cease and determine. And it is our further will and pleasure, that with the exception of such persons as are in that behalf named in the said ordinance, and whose cases are thereby provided for, all persons at present in custody and charged with high treason or other offences of a treasonable nature, and also, with such exceptions as aforesaid, all persons who have withdrawn themselves from the pursuit of

justice beyond the limits of our said province, shall immediately, upon giving such security for their future good and loyal behaviour as our said GovernorGeneral and High Commissioner, or, if there should be no such Governor-General or High Commissioner, then, the Governor-inchief, Governor, or the person administering the government of this province, shall direct, be at liberty to return to their homes, and may and shall there remain wholly unmolested by reason of any high treason or other offences of a treasonable nature in which he or they may have been cerned.

"In testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent, and the great seal of our said province of Lower Canada to be affixed thereto.

"Witness our right trusty and right well-beloved John George, Earl of Durham, Viscount Lambton, &c., Knight Grand Cross of the Most Hon. Military Order of the Bath, one of our Most Hon. Privy Council, and Governor-General, Vice-Admiral, and Captain-General of all our provinces within and adjacent to the continent of North America, &c.

"At our Castle of St. Louis, in our city of Quebec in our said province of Lower Canada, the 28th day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1838, and in the second year of our reign.

"D. DALY, Secretary."

"The first step which I took on my arrival was to examine most carefully the list of prisoners and the depositions affecting each: in so doing I discovered that against only eight or nine there existed any evidence which would warrant the application of great severity, the chief leaders and instigators of the revolt having fled from the province, and being in safety in the United States. I next applied myself, by answers to addresses and private applications, to the discouragement of any notion of the possibility of a general amnesty, and announced that my determination was to punish the guilty, and to extend mercy to the misguided; for which purpose I issued a special commission for the trial of the prisoners, and sent the Attorney-General with it to Montreal. These measures produced the salutary consequences which I expected, and, joined to other means, through which they became convinced that I would not suffer the guilty to escape, induced the ringleaders to plead guilty, and throw themselves on the mercy of the Crown.

"Yesterday I summoned a special council, a list of the members of which I enclose your lordship, and passed an ordinance by which the prisoners who pleaded guilty are transported from the continent of America during her Majesty's pleasure. M. Papineau and his associates, who fled from justice, are prevented from re-entering the province, and the remainder are enlarged on giving security for their good conduct. I also

issued a proclamation in her Majesty's name, which announces the latter act of grace at the same time with the ordinance which inflicts the punishment.

"These measures have met the entire approbation of Sir John Colborne, and of the heads of what is called the British party: they declared they did not require any sanguinary punishment, but they desired security for the future, and the certainty, that the returning tranquillity of the province should not be arrested by the machinations of these ringleaders of the rebellion, either here or in the United States. This I have ef fected for them to their contentment. I did not think it right to transport these persons to a convict colony, for two reasons:1st, because it was affixing a character of moral infamy on their acts which public opinion would not sanction; and 2dly, because I hold, that it would be impolitic to force on the colony itself persons who would be looked upon in the light of political martyrs, and thus acquire, perhaps, a degree of influence which might be applied to evil uses in a community composed of such dangerous elements. On consultation, therefore, with Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Paget, I determined on sending them to Bermuda, where they could be placed under strict restraint and surveillance. There is, however, little fear of their attempting to escape, as such an act would close at once and for ever the door against their ever re-entering their native country.

plaintiffs in any action or suit so to be prosecuted or commenced except in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, after the 1st day of October next, shall become nonsuit, or forbear further prosecution, or suffer discontinuance, or if a verdict pass against such plaintiff or plaintiffs, the defendant or defendants shall recover his, her, or their double costs, for which he, she, or they, shall have the like remedy as in cases where costs by law are given to defendants; and if any such action or suit as aforesaid shall be commenced or prosecuted after the 1st day of October next, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, the court before whom such action or suit shall be commenced or prosecuted shall allow to the defender the benefit of the discharge and indemnity hereby provided, and shall further allow to him his double costs of suit in all such cases as aforesaid.

"2. And be it enacted, that this act shall be proclaimed in the said province of Lower Canada and in the said islands of Bermuda by the Governor, or by the person authorized to execute the commission of governor, of the said province, and of the said islands respectively, forthwith after he shall have received a copy of the same from one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State."

"DURHAM. "By his Excellency the right hon. John George, Earl of Durham, Viscount Lambton, &c., Knight Grand Cross of the Most Hon. Military Order of the Bath, one of her Majesty's Most Hon. Privy Council, and GovernorGeneral, Vice-Admiral, and Captain-General of all her Majesty's

Provinces within, and adjacent to, the Continent of North America, &c.

"A PROCLAMATION. "In conformity with one of its provisions, I have this day proclaimed the act 1 and 2 Victoria, chap. 112, entitled, 'An Act for indemnifying those who have issued or acted under certain parts of a certain Ordinance made under colour of an act passed in the present Session of Parliament, entitled An Act to make temporary Provision for the Government of Lower Canada.'

"I have also to notify the disallowance by her Majesty of the ordinance 2d Victoria, chap. 1, entitled, An Ordinance to provide for the Security of the Province of Lower Canada.'

"I cannot perform these official duties without at the same time informing you, the people of British America, of the course which the measures of the Imperial Government and Legislature make it incumbent on me to pursue. The mystery which has heretofore too often during the progress of the most important affairs concealed from the people of these colonies the intentions, the motives, and the very actions of their rulers, appears to me to have been one of the main causes of the numerous errors of the Government and the general dissatisfaction of the people. Undesirable at any time, such concealment on the part of one intrusted with the supreme authority in the present crisis of your affairs would be most culpable and pernicious. With a people from whom I have had so many and such gratifying proofs of warm and confiding attachment I can have no reserve; and my

implicit reliance on your loyalty and good sense will justify me in making you acquainted with what it most imports you to know.

"It is the more necessary for me thus to act, because, when I first entered upon this government, I explained to you in a proclamation issued immediately on my arrival on these shores the nature of the powers vested in me, and the principles on which it was my intention to exercise them. Now, therefore, that I am about to return to England, I feel it to be my bounden duty to state to you, as fully and as frankly, the reasons which have induced me to lay down powers rendered inade quate to the carrying into effect those or any other principles of government.

"I did not accept the government of British North America without duly considering the nature of the task which I imposed on myself, or the sufficiency of my means of performing it. When Parliament concentrated all legislative and executive power in Lower Canada in the same hands, it established an authority which, in the strictest sense of the word, was despotic. This authority her Majesty was graciously pleased to delegate to me. I did not shrink from assuming the awful responsibility of power thus freed from constitutional restraints, in the hope that by exercising it with justice, with mildness, and with vigour, I might secure the happiness of all classes of the people, and facilitate the speedy and permanent restoration of their liberties. But I never was weak enough to imagine that the forms by which men's rights are wisely guarded in that country where freedom has been longest njoyed, best understood, and

most prudently exercised, could be scrupulously observed in a society almost entirely disorganized by misrule and dissension. I conceived it to be one of the chief advantages of my position, that I was enabled to pursue the great ends of substantial justice and sound policy free and unfettered. Nor did I ever dream of applying the theory or practice of the British constitution to a country whose constitution was suspended, where all representative government was annihilated, and the people deprived of all control over their own affairs-where the ordinary guarantees of personal rights had been in abeyance during a long subjection to martial law, and a continued suspension of the Habeas Corpus-where there neither did exist, nor had for a long time existed, any confidence in the impartial administration of justice in any political case.

"To encourage and stimulate me in my arduous task, I had great and worthy objects in view. My aim was to elevate the province of Lower Canada to a thoroughly British character, to link its people to the sovereignty of Britain, by making them all participators in those high privileges, conducive at once to freedom and order, which have long been the glory of Englishmen. I hoped to confer on an united people a more extensive enjoyment of free and responsible government, and to merge the petty jealousies of a small community, and the odious animosities of origin, in the higher feelings of a nobler and more comprehensive nationality.

"To give effect to these purposes, it was necessary that my powers of government should be as strong as they were extensive,―that I