[cruikshank] administration OF SIR JAMES CRAIG 81 



affection and mistrust of His Majesty's Government, niixed with a con- 

 siderable degree of animosity towards the English part of their fellow- 

 subjects. These have at length shown themselves in very many, indeed, 

 I may almost say in every part of the colony and that with respect to 

 the press in so open and daring a manner that it became indispensably 

 necessary to take decisive steps to avert the evil that was threatened by 

 it. I am singularly happy in feeling warranted in giving your Lordship 

 my opinion that those steps have been adopted precisely at the most 

 favourable moment, when the mischief is sufficiently obvious to arouse 

 the exertions of the well-disposed ajt the same time that it is not so far 

 advanced as to give reason to doubt the effect of theix exertions in sup- 

 port of the energy of Government. 



" With the advice of the Executive Council I have seized the press 

 that was employed in the service of this party and by the same advice 

 and under their warrant, three of their leaders, Bedard, Blanchet and 

 Taschereau, together with the printer, have been arrested on a charge 

 of treasonable practices. Fortunately the act for the better security of 

 His Majesty's Government, which is in fact an act for the suspension 

 of tJie habeas corpus was one of the only two that were passed last ses- 

 sion, and, it is under the authority vested in the Executive Council by 

 tliat act that they have been apprehended." 



Three other persons were also arrested in the District of Montreal, 

 Pierre La Forée and Pierre Papineau of Chambly, and François Cor- 

 beil of He Jésus ; and a reward 'w^as offered for tiie apprehension of a 

 man named Cazeaux, who was suspected of being an agent of the French 

 Government. Cazeaux could not be found, and Turreau's correspond- 

 ence reveals the fact that these arrests quite dismayed Saint Hilaire, 

 who instantly returned to the ITnited States and reported that the Gov- 

 ernor-General's action had been caused by the indiscretion of one of his 

 agents.^ 



General Brock, who was in command of the military forces in Lower 

 Canada at that time, warmly approved of the coercive measures adopted 

 to repress disaffection. 



"We have been iii a bustle and on the alert for the last ten days," 



' Quebec, 8th August. 1807. Tuesday last Mr. O'Sullivan, of Montreal, 

 returning' fronn Newfoundland, where he had been travelling-, was examined 

 by Colonel Brock on a suspicion caused by his resemblance to a suspected 

 person, supposed to be in the city. After a short interview he was politely 

 released. Le Canadien, No. 38, August 8th, 1807. A reference is made to a 

 reward offered for the apprehension of one Cazeau or Casserio, 23rd January. 

 1808. 



Sec. II., 1908. 6. 



