CO885-(2-3) — Page 378

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference ---

C.O.885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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Colonel Wetherall, leaving one company of his detachment at Chambly, and another at St. John's, proceeded with the remaining fiye, the artillery and the mounted police, to Montreal, where he arrived with his thirty-two prisoners on Thursday the 30th ultimo.

On the same morning Colonel Gore, who had in the meantime returned to Montreal from Sorel, was again dispatched thither with five companies, two field-pieces, and a cornet's detachment of the Volunteer Cavalry, his instructions being to proceed with that force and part of the detachment of three companies left at Sorel, to make another attack on St. Denis. On his arrival, however, at the village on the 2nd instant, he found it unoccupied. Wolfred Nelson and T. S. Brown having left it the previous evening. After destroying the houses from which the troops had been fired on at the former attack, Colonel Gore proceeded with part of the forces under his command to St. Charles, which he passed on Sunday the 3rd instant, on his way to St. Hyacinthe, where it is reported the rebels had collected. Sir John Colborne has informed me that it is his intention to occupy St. Charles and St. Denis for the present. I may add that the gun which had been abandoned on the road after the first attack on St. Denis was recovered, as well as the five wounded soldiers who were left behind on that occasion, and who appear to have been well treated.

The accounts from the county of Two Mountains, on the opposite side of Montreal, continue as unfavourable as ever. The rebels are reported to be mustering in conside- rable numbers, and have been for some time past employed in throwing up entrenchments and making other preparations for open and active warfare; and reports are constantly afloat of attacks being contemplated from that quarter against the city of Montreal; but these I think are circulated merely for the purpose of producing alarm. The post and all other communications in that direction have been stopped, the country being for the present in the possession of the insurgents, who have forced a large portion of the loyal part of the population to seek for safety in Montreal.

The intelligence from Terrebonne is also far from being of a satisfactory nature, and the Attorney-General, in his last report to me, presses the immediate declaration of Martial Law as the only measure likely to check the progress of the insurrection. He also mentions the receipt from the frontier of information which may be relied upon; and I have myself had similar intelligence from other quarters, that the rebels are endeavour- ing to enlist American citizens to be introduced into the Province to assist in overturn- ing the Queen's Government. On learning this 1 lost no time in writing to our Minister at Washington on the subject, requesting him to take the earliest opportunity of calling the attention of the General Government to the matter, with a view to their adopting such a course as one State may reasonably expect from another with whom it is on terms of peace and amity.

All these circumstances, which have come to my knowledge since the date of my last despatch, combined with the excesses committed in various parts of the district of Montreal on many of its peaceful and loyal inhabitants, have convinced me that I ought no longer to delay exercising the power which, according to the opinion of Her Majesty's Attorney- and Solicitor-General in the Province, is legally vested in me, of declaring Martial Law; and I sincerely hope that its mere announcement will produce such an effect as to render unnecessary a resort to those extreme severities which usually accom- pany such a proceeding. It is a remedy that has been generally called for, and will, 1 conscientiously believe, lessen the destruction of human life, and ultimately prove the most humane as well as the most effectual measure that could be adopted in the present unfortunate position of affairs. These considerations had great weight in influencing my

decision.

Of the criminal lenders of this reckless insurrection, nothing certain is yet known, but it is believed that many of them are on the frontier in the United States. The Proclamations offering rewards for their apprehension, mentioned in my despatch No. 123, were not then actually published, and others have since been issued offering larger sums for some of them; viz,: 1,000, instead of 5001. for l'apineau; and 5001, instead of 2001, for O'Ca·laghan, Brown, W. Nelson, Cote, and six others; and 1001. for eight more of lesser not; and influence,

Lord Glenelg,

&c.

&c.

Sec.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

GOSFORD.

P.S.-I have the honour to transinit, with reference to Inclosure No. 8 in my despatch of the 30th ultimo, a copy of further proceedings on the subject of declaring Martial Law in the district of Montreal, had at a meeting of the Magistrates of that city on the 5th instant, and which I have just received.

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Inclosure 1 in No. 2.

MINUTE of the Executive Council of LOWER CANADA, dated December 4, 1837, sanctioning the Declaration of Martial Law in the District of MONTREAL,

Monday, December 4, 1837.

At the Council Chamber in the Government Buildings.

Present:

His Excellency the Earl of Gosford, Captain-General and Governor-in-chief, &c. &c. &c.

The Hon. Mr. Stewart.

Mr. Pemberton. Mr. Panet, and Mr. Sheppard.

HIS Excellency laid before the Board the Attorney and Solicitor-General's opinion and Report upon the right of the Crown to declare Martial Law, together with the Attorney-General's draft of a Proclamation, dated 28th November, 1837, declaring the district of Montreal under Martial Law; and as it appears by the Attorney- and Solicitor-General's Report, that the functions of the ordinary legal tribunals may be considered as having virtually ceased in the district of Montreal, and that scarcely in any part thereof process of any description can be served, or writs executed by the ministry of civil officers.

It was ordered, with the advice of the Board, that the Attorney-General's draft be adopted, and that a Proclamation do accordingly issue, declaring the district of Montreal under Martial Law, and empowering the proper authorities to carry the same same into effect.

(Certified)

Inclosure 2 in No. 2.

GEORGE H. RYLAND.

PROCLAMATION issued by the Earl of GOSFORD, on the 5th December, 1837, declaring Martial Law in the District of MONTREAL, in the Province of Lower Canada. Province of Lower Canada,

By his Excellency the Right Honourable Archibald Earl of Gosford, Baron Warlingham, of Beccles, in the county of Suffolk, Captain-General and Governor-in-chief in and over the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, Vice-Admiral of the same, and one of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, &c., &c., &c.

A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS there exists in the district of Montreal a traitorous conspiracy, by a number of persons falsely styling themselves patriots, for the subversion of the authority of Her Majesty, and the destruction of the established Constitution and Government of the said Province: And whereas the said traitorous conspiracy hath broken out into acts of the most daring and open rebellion: And whereas the said rebellion hath very consi- rably extended itself, insomuch that large bodies of armed traitors have openly arrayed themselves, and have made and do still make attacks upon Her Majesty's forces, and have committed the most horrid excesses and cruelties: And whereas in the parts of the said district in which the said conspiracy hath not as yet broken out into open rebellion, large numbers of such persons so calling themselves patriots, for the execution of such their wicked designs, have planned means of open violence, and formed public arrangements for raising and arming an organized and disciplined force; and in further- ance of their purposes have frequently assembled in great and unusual numbers: And whereas the exertions of the civil power are inellectual for the suppression of the aforesaid traitorous and wicked conspiracy and rebellion, and for the protection of the lives and properties of Her Majesty's loyal subjects: And whereas the Courts of Justice in the said district of Montreal have virtually ceased, from the impossibility of executing any legal process or warrant of arrest therein;

Now therefore, I, Archibald, Earl of Gosford, Governor-in-chief and Captain-General in and over the said Province of Lower Canada, by and with the advice and consent of Her Majesty's Executive Council for this Province, have issued orders to Lieutenant- General Sir John Colborne, commanding Her Majesty's forces in the said Province, and

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