338 CANADIAN NOMS DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 



cans in tlieir conduct at York and Newark. Now, in common sense, 

 what does such doctrine meanl Do these mock-patriots reserve all 

 tlieir sympathies for the enemies of their country, and regard with 

 callous indifference the sufferings of their fellow-subjects 1 Are the 

 latter not entitled to protection and consideration ; and as means of 

 that protection, was it not incumbent upon our officers, and a point 

 of justice, to turn against the enemy their own weapons, and thereby 

 make them feel the consequences of their own enormity of conduct, 

 with a view to prevent their repeating the like in future? It is very 

 magnanimous, to be sure, to speak with cold-blooded indifference 

 about the infliction of ruin upon friends, at the distance of 3,000 

 miles, by fixe and devastation in the most aggravated shapes ; but I 

 will venture to say that if Mr. Whitbread's brewery and his princely 

 mansion, with all their contents, had been at York or Newark, and 

 shared the fate of the buildings there consigned to the flames by the 

 enemy, we should never have heard of his lecture upon the vii'tiie of 

 magnanimity." 



It was by the aid of Sir Francis Hincks, now resident in Montreal, 

 that my curiosity in regard to Veritas was at length gratified. Sir 

 Francis took much interest in the inquiry, when it chanced to be 

 proposed to him ; and he kindly applied for me to the present authori- 

 ties of the Herald office, with the result already mentioned. When 

 now I supposed nothing further would come of the investigation, I 

 unexpectedly received from Sir Francis the following communication, 

 which sets the question at rest. The note is dated Montreal, 15th 

 July, 1873. "By a very singular accident," Sir Francis writes, "I 

 obtained a few moments ago the information which you wanted a 

 few weeks since. Coming into town this morning, I met Mr. J. S. 

 McKenzie, one of our oldest and wealthiest citizens, lately a Director 

 of the Bank of Montreal, and senior partner of one of our principal 

 firms. He was talking of his age, and as having served in the war 

 of 1812. It immediately occurred to me that he might know who 

 Veritas was ; biit at the moment I had forgotten this signature, and 

 was only able to ask if he recollected a criticism on Sir George 

 Prevost's operations. ' Certainly,' he said, ' it was signed Veritas, 

 and was written by the Hon. John Richardson, Avith whom I was a 

 clerk in the old house of Forsyth, Richardson & Co.' Mr. Richardson 

 was a very likely man to have written such an article," Sir Francis 

 .adds, " and Mr. McKenzie was quite clear on the point. I think. 



