[cruikshank] administration OF SIR JAMES CRAIG 79 



Early in 1809, Craig was warned by the British Minister at Wash- 

 ington, that war might be commenced at any time by the United States 

 without any fonnal declaration, and he at once resumed his preparations 

 for defence. 'About the same time General Turreau renewed his efforts 

 to communicate with the malcontents in Lower Canada, by authorizing 

 tlie Chevalier Le Blond de Saint Itilaire to proceed to that province as 

 liis agent with secret instructions to malce arrangements for an insur- 

 rection which was not to be commenced until the French Government 

 was prepared to support it. Saint Hilaire seems (to have resided in 

 Canada for several months unmolested and did not return to the United 

 States imtil March 1810.^ 



The elections of 1809 resulted in little change in the complexion of 

 the Assembly. Joseph Papinc^au who had sat in the first and second 

 parliaments of the province now returned to the Assembly after an ab- 

 sence of nine years and at once assumed & position of influence and 

 authority. His son, the noted Louis Joseph Pa pineau, was also re-elected 

 as a member of the extreme opposition, with which the father warily de- 

 clined to identify liimself. Acting upon the instructions conveyed iin 

 Castlereagh's private letter of the 7th September, 1809, the Governor- 

 General announced in his speech that he was prepared to give his assent 

 to a bill disqualifying judges from sitting in tlie Assembly, which had 

 been the subject of such prolonged agitation. 



" This measure," he said m a letter to his confidant. Colonel Bun- 

 bury, " had a very considerable effect, so much so that though the 

 leaders felt no small degree of mortification, and one of them was even 

 heard to say, ' Ma foi ! Il est plus fin que nous,' yet they could not 

 do otiierwisa than join in the general sentiment." 



There is not much doubt, however, that this concession was at the 

 same time construed by many into a confession of haste and indiscretion 

 in dissolving the preceding legislature. Craig's whole manner was con- 

 ciliatory, and two days later he entertained all the members at dinner, 

 except two who were not invited. 



" Had anyone peeped in after dinner," Craig wrote to Bunbury, 

 '•' he would certainly have supposed it to be a marriage feast and not a 

 meeting of grave legislators." 



Still the majority were by no means disposed to overlook the dis- 

 courteous manner in which the late x4.ssembly had been dissolved and a 

 resolution was soon introduced and carried declaring that every attempt 

 to censure the proceedings of the House by the disapproval of the con- 

 duct of certain members and the approval of others was a breach of 



1 Faucher de St. Maurice. 



