PROCEEDINGS FOR 1895 LXX VII 
tions at Quebec in 1759 ; plans of forts, custom house laws and proceedings, 
commerce. 
1883.—Two interesting reports on archives were submitted to parlia- 
ment this year; one from Mr. Brymner and one from Mr. Marmette. 
This gentleman duly accredited by Lord Granville through the English 
ambassador, Lord Lyons, to the French government, congratulates himself 
on the facilities afforded him to examine the archives branch of the ministry 
of foreign affairs and the “ Bibliothèque Mazarine.’ The papers, plans, 
maps and documents stored in these various offices, cover the whole French 
period, 1603-1759, and throw light on many obscure points in our history. 
Mr. Brymner, after relating the preliminary steps in 1871 in our 
parliament, which led to the organization of our archives office, says that 
the first important contribution to it was made by the war office, which, 
after some negotiations conducted by him when in London in 1873, 
consented to transfer the Canadian military correspondence, going back 
nearly one hundred years, which was packed up in Halifax ready for 
transmission to London. These papers numbered upwards of 200,000 
documents of various sizes, shapes and contents. 
They are now in Ottawa, bound in 1,087 volumes. It was, of course, 
necessary for him to go through a deal of red-tapeism before obtaining 
leave to have access to and to transcribe several important state papers, 
as he was restricted to extend his search to documents printed prior to 
1842. The report, calendar and index, are replete with useful information 
I shall, however, make room for a few extracts from a striking 
letter addressed to Mr. Taylor, London, by T. Frederick Elliott, a nephew 
of Lord Minto, secretary of the Gosford commission, sent out to report on 
Canadian grievances in 1835, bearing date, Quebec, 24th October, 1835. 
This letter is mentioned thus in the Greville memoirs, vol. iii., p. 125: 
“J have just seen an excellent letter from Frederick Elliott to Taylor, with 
a description of parties and politics in Lower Canada, which has been 
shown to the ministers, who think it the ablest exposé on those heads that 
has been transmitted to them.” Lord Howick tells us he hopes this 
clever letter would be shown to Lord Glenelg, to Lord Melbourne and 
to the king. Mr. Elliott disposes of the opinion prevalent in some quarters 
to this day, that the insurrection in Lower Canada in 1837 was a mere 
question of race, French versus English ; whereas, far from being a mere 
rising confined to the French element, it had had for its most strenuous 
leaders and organizers, men of quite another race than the French ; such 
as Drs. Wolfred Nelson, Robert Nelson; Scott, Tracy, T. S. Brown, 
O’Callaghan, Girard, Hindelang, Samuel Newcome, ! B. Mott. The intoler- 
able abuses of the period, the oppressive colonial misrule of the oligarchy, 

1 Samuel Newcome and Bery Mott formed part of the fifty-eight political prisoners 
transported in 1839 to New South Wales, and who returned after spending five years 
and four months in exile. 
