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Sir,
Sir George Arthur to H. S. Fox, Esq.
Government House, Toronto, October 31, 1838,
1 HAVE the honour to acknowledge your Excellency's confidential communication of the 21st instant.
Since I last addressed your Excellency, I have continued to receive intelligence of the plans and proceedings of the conspirators, against this Government, resident within the boundaries of the United States, and I avail myself of this opportunity, to inclose the de- positions of three informers, and an extract from the letter of a very respectable inhabi- tant of the district of Niagara, whose partner in trade has recently visited Ohio.
In addition to the circumstances stated in these inclosures, I have learned that Smith, of Cleveland, the individual nominated for the presidency of the projected republic of Canada, recently made a tour through parts of this province and there is reason to believe, that a considerable number of French Canadians have been collected for hostile purposes on the southern side of Lake Erie.
Having daly reflected on all the facts which have been brought light, I have thought it prudent to lose no time in placing the province in a state for repelling the threatened aggression, by calling a certain proportion of the militia into active service, and increasing the naval force on Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Besides the steamer experiment, which has been for some time employed on Lake Ontario, and the river St. Lawrence, Captain Sandom, who commands the royal navy on the Lakes, has chartered two other British steamers for this service, which he is about to arm. On Lake Erie, Captain Sandom purchased for the use of Government, last summer, an American steamer, which is now stationed near Amherstburg; and as there are no British steamers on those waters, it is intended that another American steam vessel of superior power and speed, shall be immediately chartered, and placed under the command of Captain Drew, for the protection of those parts of the Niagara and Tulbot districts which border on
Lake Erie.
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