FROM THE COMMENCEMENT TO THE CLOSE OF ITS BY ROBERT CHRISTIE. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. III. MONTREAL: RICHARD WORTHINGTON, PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER. Entered, according to act of the Provincial Legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, "for the protection of copy rights in this province," by RICHD. WORTHINGTON, in the office of the Registrar of the province of Canada. August, 1865. 827-41 43684 NOTICE. It was intended at the commencement of this work that it should be comprised within three volumes; but some very interesting papers, not hitherto published, relating to public matters in Lower Canada, having recently, that is to say, since the publication of the second volume, been placed in the author's hands with the liberal permission to publish such of them as he may deem advisable, he has found it necessary to alter his purpose and extend the work to four volumes. This volume, therefore, only traces events in Lower Canada down to the expiration of the provincial parliament in 1834. The fourth will begin with the fifteenth and last parliament of that province, detailing its proceedings and the principal events which led to the suspension of the constitution in 1838, by act of the imperial parliament, and public matters thence to the act of 1840, re-uniting the two Canadas into one province as at present constituted, together with a copious Appendix, containing such of the documents above alluded to as may consistently be published, which being for the most part from public characters more or less distinguished, who at various periods, in byegone times, have participated in the administration of the government of Lower Canada, or been concerned in its affairs, will, the author believes, be of the deepest interest to all those who are desirous of rightly understanding its history, and in particular to such as would know something of what has been passing behind the curtain, as well as upon the visible parts of the theatre. Quebec, 6th Sept., 1850. R. C. ACKNOWLEDGMENT. A question has been raised, since the issue of the second volume of this work, in some of the journals of the province, the Montreal Courier in particular, whether the expedition. to Plattsburgh, in 1814, by the forces under Sir George Prevost, were pursuant to orders from England, or undertaken by that officer on his own responsibility; and the author having been cited to solve it, it is due, he feels, in courtesy to the intelligent editor of the Courier, as well as to the public, to respond to the invitation as far as his knowledge of the subject extends. In answer, then, he has to observe, that Sir George Prevost's policy, from first to last, as governor in chief and commander of the forces in Canada, it is well understood was defensive; and that such also were his instructions from home at the outset of the war declared in 1812, by the United States against Great Britain, there cannot be a doubt. The british government was neither inclined, nor in fact had the necessary means in Canada at the outbreak of hostilities against us, to carry on offensive warfare against our neighbours. Recent events had soured the temper of the great body of the french canadian population, and the american government built upon the circumstance, expecting that far from opposing they would hail the invad |