[CRUIKSHANK] DISAFFECTION IN UPPER CANADA 15 
arriving from the United States, who were merely required to take an 
oath of allegiance and perform certain light settlement duties within 
two years. 
In March, 1811, an address was presented to Lieutenant Governor 
Gore from “the magistrates, clergy and principal inhabitants of the 
Eastern District” wherein they said, “Your petitioners were aware 
that the sudden influx of wealth into the colony for several years past, 
confined as it has principally been to the lumber business by with- 
drawing great numbers of the inhabitants from agricultural pursuits 
had spread dissipation and idleness among the common people to a 
most lamentable extent and they were prepared to expect that the 
habits of expense which the success of this branch at first introduced 
would not only continue after it had ceased to be profitable but might 
give rise to many irregularities. But the recent atrocious attack on 
the public peace and government of the province by the forcible rescue 
of a condemned felon in a neighboring district and the numerous crimes 
perpetrated in the country, chiefly, indeed, by aliens, have so far ex- 
ceeded what they could have looked for as to raise no small degree 
of alarm and tending as they certainly do to lessen the security of the 
persons and property of His Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, they 
seem to recommend some speedy and effectual amendment in the police 
of the country.” 
They requested him to station small detachments of regular troops 
in the villages most exposed to the inroads of evil disposed persons 
from the other side of the St. Lawrence “for the purpose of giving 
certainty to the execution of the laws and encouragement to every 
good and loyal subject during the continuance of the present political 
difference between the British Empire and the United States.” 
“Your petitioners,” they continued, “cannot conceal from Your 
Excellency that the sudden and indiscriminate influx of foreigners, 
sometimes openly, and at other times secretly hostile to the British 
Government, gives them great uneasiness and begins to render their 
situation much less comfortable than it might have otherwise been, 
and when they look at their children, they are filled with serious appre- 
hensions lest they should imbibe principles very different from those 
which induced their parents to fight for their King and country and 
which still induce them to cling with delight to that happy Island, the 
birthplace of true liberty, and now her last hope in the general wreck 
of nations.” Far the larger number of the inhabitants, they affirmed, 
were still unquestionably loyal but this majority was rapidly decreasing 
and they strongly urged the “necessity of introducing some check to the 
admission of strangers from the neighboring States in proper time 
before their numbers become formidable and the evil incurable.” 
