ower Canada, unanimously voted by the House of
Assembly while Lord Metcalfe was governor and Mr. Draper minister, and
the proceedings of the Administration upon that address could have
been meant to lead to, if not to such a measure as the present
Government have introduced.

I enclose a letter which has been published in the newspapers by A. M.
Masson, one of the Bermuda exiles,[1] who was appointed to an office
by the late Government. This person will be excluded from compensation
by the Bill of the present Government, and he positively asserts that
Lord Metcalfe and some of his Ministers assured him that he would be
included by them.

I certainly regret that this agitation should have been stirred, and
that any portion of the funds of the province should be diverted now
from much more useful purposes to make good losses sustained by
individuals in the rebellion. But I have no doubt whatsoever that a
great deal of property was wantonly and cruelly destroyed at that time
in Lower Canada. Nor do I think that this Government, after what their
predecessors had done, and with Papineau in the rear, could have
helped taking up this question. Neither do I think that their measure
would have been less objectionable, but very much the reverse, if,
after the lapse of eleven years, and the proclamation of a general
amnesty, it had been so framed as to attach the stigma of Rebellion to
others than those regularly convicted before the Courts. Any kind of
extra-judicial inquisition conducted at this time of day by
Commissioners appointed by the Government, with the view of
ascertaining what part this or that claimant for indemnity may have
taken in 1837 and 1838, would have been attended by consequences much
to be regretted, and have opened the door to an infinite amount of
jobbing, false swearing, and detraction.

[Sidenote: Petitions against it.]
[Sidenote: Neutrality of the Governor.]

Petitions against the measure were got up by the Tories in all parts of the
province; but these, instead of being sent to the Assembly, or to the
Legislative Council, or to the Home Government, were almost all addressed
to Lord Elgin personally; obviously with the design of producing a
collision between him and his Parliament. They generally prayed either that
Parliament might be dissolved, or that the Bill, if it passed, might be
res