PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
C.O.885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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other officers of Her Majesty's forces in the same, to arrest and punish all persons acting, aiding, or in any manner assisting in the said conspiracy and rebellion which now exist within the said district of Montreal, and which have broken out in the most daring and violent attacks upon Her Majesty's forces, according to Martial Law, either by death, or otherwise, as to them shall seem right and expedient for the punishment and suppression of all rebels in the said district; of which all Her Majesty's subjects in this Province are hereby required to take notice.
Given under my hand and seal at arms, at the Castle of St. Lewis, in the city of Quebec, the 5th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1837, and in the first year of Her Majesty's reign.
By his Excellency's command,
D. DALY, Secretary of the Province,
(Signed)
Inclosure 3 in No. 2.
1
LETTER from Earl GOSFORD'S Civil Secretary to Lieutenant-General Sir JOHN COLBORNE, transmitting a Royal Commission, authorizing him to execute Martial Law in the District of MONTREAL, Province of LowER CANADA.
SIR,
Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, December 5, 1887. IN transmitting to you the accompanying Commission, authorizing you to execute Martial Law in the district of Montreal, where it has been declared to exist by a Procla- mation dated to-day, I am commanded by his Excellency the Governor-in-chief to intimate to you that, although the exigency of the present conjuncture has rendered such a measure indispensable to the maintenance of Her Majesty's royal authority in that district, and to the restoration of order, it is still his Excellency's carnest hope that the declaration of Martial Law will of itself strike such salutary terror into the hearts of the disaffected in that district as will obviate the necessity of having recourse to those extreme severities the execution of which is hereby confided to you, and to which, in the present dangerous crisis, and in the absence of all other remedy, his Excellency most reluctantly is compelled to resort.
I have it therefore in command from his Excellency to instruct you, that in all cases wherein the unlimited power with which you are now invested can be exercised in co-operation with, or in subordination to, the ordinary laws of the land, and that in all cases where from local circumstances, or from a prompt return to their allegiance, the deluded inhabitants of any part of that district display an honest contrition for their past offences, you will revert at once to the assistance of the civil authorities, and impress upon a misguided people the conviction that Her Majesty's Government in this province is equally prompt to pardon the repentant and punish the incorrigible.
These instructions will alleviate, in some degree, the apparent severity of a measure which the present painful emergency imposes on his Excellency, and will relieve you from any responsibility that might otherwise arise out of the exercise, on all fitting occasions, of that leniency which his Excellency feels assured is so congenial to your feelings,
I have, &c.
(Signed) §. WALCOTT, Civil Secretary.
Inclosure 4 in No. 2.
MONTREAL. Court of Special Sessions of the Peace, Tuesday, December 5, 1837.
The Hon. Toussaint Pothier.
Jules Quesnel,
James Brown,
John Jones, Joseph Shuter, Benjamin Hall, J. T. Barrett,
Daniel Arnoldi, Lawrence Kidd,
H. Corse,
Turton Penn,
Mr. Quesnel is called to the chair.
Present:
William Evans,
J. B. Castonguay, John Molson, Benjamin Hart, Charles Tait,
S. Bellingham,
P. J. Lacroix,
E. M. Leprohon,
A. Laframboise,
T. B. Wragg, Esqrs.
The following gentlemen came in: Messrs. M'Gill, Win. Robertson, Wm. Hall,
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H. E. Barron, William Donegaire, P. E. Leclerc, Benjamin Holmes, P. de Rocheblave, Etienne Guy and O. Berthelet.
Resolved, on the motion of Mr. Penn, seconded by Mr. Hart, That at the time when the Resolutions of the meeting of the Magistrates, of the 27th ultimo, were trans- mitted to his Excellency the Governor-in-chief, a press of business did not permit the said resolutions being accompanied by explanations that might, perhaps, have been necessary. It is therefore-
Resolved,That in the opinion of this meeting, the turbulent and disaffected persons who have incited the peasantry to rebel against Her Majesty's Government have been led on and encouraged in their career of crime by a firm belief that, whatever might be their political offences, they would not be declared guilty by any jury impanelled in the ordinary course of law; that the great mass of the population in this district having been engaged in aiding and abetting the late treasonable attempts, a fair and impartial verdict cannot be expected from a jury taken indiscriminately from the legally qualified inha- bitants, and that, unless measures are adopted to insure the equal dispensation of justice, few, if any, even of the most guilty among the rebels, will receive the punishment justly due to their crimes; while the loyal and well-disposed will continue to be exposed to persecution and outrage from those who believe themselves beyond the reach of legal retribution.
Resolved. That the faithful and attached subjects of Her Majesty in this district, who have proved their fidelity by a zealous support of the Government in times of peril and difficulty, are entitled to claim adequate protection from the Executive of the Province; and that this meeting declares its deliberate conviction that the only effectual mode of granting that protection, and of arresting the progress of crime and of social disorganization, is to place this district under Martial Law.
Resolved, on the motion of Mr. Robertson, seconded by Mr. Hart,―That from information received, there is reason to believe that a number of turbulent and dissolute characters are collecting in the vicinity of the lines dividing this province from the United States, for the avowed purpose of entering the province to aid and assist the rebels already in arms, and that it is the opinion of this meeting that measures beyond the ordinary course of law are necessary to guard against the treasonable designs of such persons.
Resolved, That a copy of the preceding Resolutions be transmitted to his Excellency the Governor-in-chief, praying that he will be pleased to take the same into early consideration.
Certified to be a true copy from the Register of Special Sessious,
DELISLE AND LELISLE,
(Signed)
No. 3.
Clerk of the Peace.
Copy of a DESPATCH from Lieutenant-General Sir J. COLBORNE, G.C.B., to Lord GLENELG.
MY LORD,
Government House, Montreal, February 28, 1838. THE Law Officers of the Crown in this province having represented to me the serious embarrassment that would probably arise in the present unsettled state of the district of Montreal, in consequence of a proclamation having been issued appointing a day of general thanksgiving, and stating that an end has been put to the rebellion, thus virtually, as it may be supposed, discontinuing the Act declaring Martial Law, I deemed it my duty to take the earliest opportunity of bringing the suggestions of the Law Officers before the Executive Council, when it was unanimously agreed to isssue a proclamation, announcing the continuance of Martial Law, a copy of which I have the honour to transmit.
Your Lordship will, I am persuaded, coincide with the Executive Council in thinking that, with a rebel force hovering on the frontier line, supported by Americans of the lowest and worst description, it would be most imprudent to discontinue Martial Law in the district, both with respect to the present excitement in this province, and the move- ments of the rebels in our front.
Lord Glenelg,
&c.
&c;
&c.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. COLBORNE.
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