[cruikshank] administration OF SIR JAMES CRAIG 85 



on ihis question by a public declaration that he considered Bedard's 

 detention perfectly justifiable and was thus placed in an awkward posi- 

 tion. iTo extricate himself, ho solicited a private interview with the 

 Govemor-GeneraJ, which was readily granted, although Craig suspeoted 

 him of a design of intimidating or entrapping him into some rash de- 

 claration on this subject. 



" He c-ertainly said everything that could be said in its support and 

 in every way in wliich it could be said," Craig reported. "The firm 

 ground on which I stood gave me, however, every advantage over him 

 and I did not hesitate to tell hini that no consideration should induce 

 me to consent to the releasing Mr. Bedard at the interference of the 

 House or even during the period of its sitting, that I knew the general 

 language of its members had encouraged the idea wliich generally pre- 

 vailed in the province that the House of Assembly would release Mr. 

 Bedard, an idea so finnly established that not a doubt was entertained 

 upon it, that the time was therefore come when I felt that the security 

 as well as the dignity of the King's Government imperiously required 

 that the people should be made to understand the true limits of the 

 rights of the respective parts of the Government, and that it was not 

 that of the House of Assembly to rule the country. 



" This gentleman took the next day the singular method for extri- 

 cating himself from a dilemma into which he felt he had got by declar- 

 ing in tlie House that he had had the honour of an interview with me, 

 and that I had convinced him that the House ought not to interfere ; 

 and such was liis influence that he actually prevented the resolutions 

 from being presented though he had himself drawTi them up and was of 

 the committee appointed for the purpose of laying them before me, and 

 though the subject was several times brought forward and a motion made 

 to compel them to report, which though not negatived, was adjourned 

 and suffered to die away." ^ 



The minutest of tlia Assembly show that on January 5th, 1811, a 

 resolution was adopted requiring the committee to acquaint the House 

 with their proceedings on the following Monday. When the matter 

 came up, Messrs. Bourdages, Debartsch, Bruneau, and Lee, members of 

 the committee stated thajt the address had not been officially presented 

 •while Messrs. Viger, Bellet and L. J. Papineau, declared that they had 

 never been required to wait upon the Governor- General for the purpose 

 of presenting it. 



Mr. Borgia then moved, seconded by Mr. Huot, thait " an enquiry 

 be made of the causes for which the messengers did not officially present 



' Craig to Liverpool, 28th March, 1811, Canadian Archives, Q. 114, p. 12. 



