[cruikshank] from ISLE AUX NOIX TO CHATEAUGUAY 135 



with pitchforks or clubs, appeared in the vicinity of Lachine and re- 

 fused to disperse unless their friends in the militia were allowed to 

 return to their homes. A message for assistance had been despatched 

 to Montreal as soon as they made their appearance and the light 

 company of the 49th Regiment and a detachment of Royal Artillery 

 with two field guns under the command of Major Plenderleath was 

 ordered to march to the scene of the disturbance, accompanied by 

 Thomas McCord, police magistrate for the city. On arriving at La- 

 chine the magistrate addressed the rioters and bade them disperse. 

 They replied that they had been told that the new militia act had 

 not yet received the sanction of the Governor in Council and con- 

 sequently was not legally in force, but also declared with loud shouts 

 of vive le roi that they were prepared to defend the country whenever 

 their services were properly required. They were evidently in a 

 state of such extreme excitement that further argument was con- 

 sidered useless. The riot act was read to the magistrate who then 

 formally required them to disperse. As they did not comply a round 

 shot was discharged over their heads from one of the field guns. Some 

 shots were fired in reply by the mob and a section of the light company 

 was ordered to fire a volley at such an elevation as to do them no harm. 

 They replied with a harmless discharge from their weapons. The 

 troops were then directed to commence an effective fire, which resulted 

 in the hasty dispersal of the crowd, although some of them sought 

 shelter in the adjacent thickets, from which they continued an in- 

 termittent fire for some time. It was then growing dark and pursuit 

 was deemed inadvisable. Three prisoners were taken, one man was 

 found dead on the field and another was dangerously wounded.* 



On the following day four hundred and fifty men of the Montreal 

 militia marched to Pointe Claire and St. Laurent where they arrested 

 twenty-four suspected persons. Many others came into the city 

 within a few hours and surrendered begging humbly for mercy. 



All American citizens residing in Quebec had been notified by the 

 police that they must leave the city by the first day of July and depart 

 from the district by the third. On June 30, this period was extended 

 by proclamation for fourteen days. Two other proclamations were 

 published the same day, one placing an embargo upon all the shipping 

 in the port and the other calling an extraordinary session of the legis- 

 lature upon the 16th of July. 



Alarming accounts of widespread dissatisfaction among the militia 

 caused the Governor General to make a hasty journey to Montreal 

 where he arrived on the third of July. He then received a belated 

 letter from Mr. Foster dated at Washington on June 19, enclosing 



*Christie, History of Lower Canada, Vol. II, pp. 17-19; Montreal Gazette, 1812. 



