SECTION IT, 1916 [321] TRANS. RSC. 
Canadian State Trials; The King v. David McLane. 
By Hon. MR. JUSTICE RIDDELL. 
Presented by C. C. JAMES, C.M.G., F.R.S.C. 
(Read May Meeting, 1916.) 
The first case of High Treason in Canada (1) if not on this conti- 
nent, came on for trial at Quebec, Friday, July 7th, 1797, when David 
McLane (2) was given in charge to a jury of twelve at 7 o’clock in the 
morning, and before the Court closed at 9 o’clock in the evening he 
had received the dread sentence at that time pronounced on those 
convicted of the highest crime known to the law. 
McLane, according to his own account, was born in Boston, 
Massachusetts, and went into business in Providence, Rhode Island, 
with his brother-in-law Jacob Felt. After some years of success 
the firm experienced losses, and in the fall of 1795 failure was imminent. 
They decided that Felt should take some of the stock in trade to 
Canada to see if the goods—dry goods they were—could not be dis- 
posed of there to advantage and the proceeds applied to satisfying 
the most pressing creditors. 
That he lived in Providence, Rhode Island, as early as 1786 is 
certain from the evidence of Cushing at the trial—McLane gave different 
versions of the purpose of bringing the goods to the Canadian line, 
and it is doubtful how far his statements on any subject can be relied 
upon. 
About this time, the French Minister to the United States, 
Pierre Auguste Adet (3) whose fixed idea was that France should have 
territories on this continent, was circulating in Lower Canada a pamph- 
let addressed to the French Canadians telling them that France having 
conquered Austria, Spain and Italy was about to subdue Great Britain 
and take her colonies—first of all to relieve the Canadian people 
from their state of slavery to Britain. This had considerable effect; 
the French-Canadians became uneasy and turbulent, and it was 
found necessary to prepare the troops for speedy action. Adet had 
a number of agents well supplied with money, and in some way 
McLane seems to have come in contact with him and to have been 
taken into his service. | 
In the summer of 1796, McLane was at Watson’s Tavern, a little 
below the Isle Aux Noix, at what was even then known as Swanton, 
