it was true that it contended for "_nos institutions_,
_notre langue_, _et nos lois_." It did nothing more. No hint was thrown
out that Canada would be more prosperous under the American, than under
the English dominion. It was not even insinuated that Canada should be
wholly governed by Canadians. All that was claimed for French Canadians
was a fair share in the official spoils of the land they lived in,
freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience. Governor Craig asked the
inhabitants of St. Denis or any of the other inhabitants of the
province to remind him of any one act of oppression or of arbitrary
imprisonment. And at that very moment the printer of the _Canadien_ was
in prison. Nor was he there alone, there were Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet,
and Taschereau, members of the recently dissolved House of Assembly,
together with Messrs. Pierre Laforce, Pierre Papineau, of Chambly, and
Francois Corbeille, of Isle Jesus, to keep him company, on charges of
treasonable practices, concerning which there was not, and never had
been, even the shadow of proof, on charges which the government did not
attempt even to prove, and on charges which were withdrawn without the
accused having ever been confronted with their accusers. Base and
daring fabricators of falsehood! Francois Corbeille, an innocent man,
the victim only of unjust suspicions, on the one hand, and of
diabolical selfishness, on the other, died in consequence of the injury
his health received in that prison where tyranny had placed him. But he
could issue no proclamation. His voice was not loud enough in the tomb
to reach the Court of St. James, surrounded as that Court was, by an
impenetrable phalanx of Downing Street Red-tapists. Canada was only
mis-governed because England was deceived, through the instrumentality
of Governors, honorable enough as men, but so wanting in administrative
capacity, as to be open to the vile flattery and base insinuations of
those who were, or rather should have been at once the faithful
servants of the Crown and of that people who upheld it, who were
virtually taken possession of, on arrival, by the "_gens en place_,"
and held safely in custody, until their nominal power had ceased. And
when power had passed away, then only did many of them perceive, as Sir
James Craig is reported to have done, the deception, the ingratitude,
and the almost inhumanity of man. There is some excuse to be offered
for the extraordinary course of policy pursue