1891-92]. SEVENTEENTH MEETING. 27 
the credit of saving Quebec when assaulted by Arnold and Montgomery. 
After giving a short account of the Colonel’s movements until 1873, when 
the Department of the Interior was organized, and he (the Colonel) was 
promoted to the position of Commissioner of Ordnance and Admiralty 
Lands, which he held up to the time of his death, in 1878, the paper 
enumerated the important special offices to which he had been appointed. 
The correspondence to which Mr. Fairclough called attention covers a 
period of over six years (1834-40). The letters, twenty-six in all, were 
written to Colonel Coffin’s cousin, Mrs. Grant, afterwards Baroness de 
Longueuil, and her daughter, now Mrs. J. A. Allen, of Alvington, Kings- 
ton, for some years the residence of the Governors-General of Canada. 
Besides the family and social gossip given in the letters, there is a great 
deal that must be interesting to Canadians in general, and it is chiefly 
the writer’s free-spoken comments on the exciting political events of the 
day that Mr. Fairclough brought before the Institute. The first letter in 
the packet gives a most vivid description of the burning of the Chateau 
de St. Louis at Quebec on January 23rd, 1834. This castle had been 
used as the residence of the Governors of Canada for upwards of 150 
years. It was never rebuilt. The characteristics of the commissioners 
appointed in 1835 by Lord Melbourne are humourously described. The 
Ear! of Gosford, Sir Charles Grey, and Sir George Gibbs were known as 
the three G.’s, gander, goose, and gosling. The conflict in Upper Canada 
between “ His Jockeyship” Sir F. B. Head and the Assembly, the dead- 
lock in 1836 in Lower Canadian politics, the party dissensions of the day, 
and the racial character of the strife in Quebec, are dwelt upon at length 
by Colonel Coffin. The earlier incidents of the civil war—the repulse of 
the troops at St. Denis, Wetherell’s victory at St. Charles, and the brutal 
murder of Lieutenant Weir are all recorded, but what is most worthy of 
publication is the remarkably vivid description given by the writer as an 
eye-witness of the battle of St. Eustache. Colonel Coffin characterizes, 
in a most pointed and vigorous manner, the aristocratic Whig lord, the 
Earl of Durham, who, in May, 1839, arrived in Canada as “ Her Majesty’s 
High Commissioner for the adjustment of certain important affairs affect- 
ing the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.” A high eulogy is 
passed upon this distinguished man, who in the short space of five 
months investigated and determined the causes of dissension in these 
provinces, and whose report is one of the most valuable documents ever 
written upon colonial affairs. Many a tribute of affection and respect is 
paid to the honest soldier Sir John Colborne. Though these letters add 
but few historical facts to those already recorded, still nothing could 
better enable Canadians to realize vividly the state of their country in 
