LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 81 



his Majesty's Treasury, in company 'with an account of " all the 

 revenues in Canada for the last six years." I regret that T do not 

 possess the account itself. He adds : " Independent of these revenues, 

 there are quit-rents and other territorial rights due to the Crown 

 from the lands at or near Detroit. I do not find," he says, "that 

 any account has been transmitted here of the amount. I have 

 applied," he says, " to Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, and to Major 

 de Peyster, the present commanding ofiicer at Detroit, for informa- 

 tion on that subject, which I will take the earliest opportunity to 

 transmit." This Report is addi'essed to Richard Burke, Esq., who 

 appears to have been Secretary to the Lords of the Treasury. He 

 was brother of the celebrated Edmund Burke, and he made some 

 speeches in Parliament on the Quebec Bill. 



I have another document bearing the signature of " Fred. Haldi- 

 mand," which will recall the times in which it was written. The 

 Revolution, we must again remember, was in progress in New Eng- 

 land and the colonies further south. But Canada was yet a fastness 

 of the Royal caiise. Here was still a base of operation against the 

 anti-Monarchists of the continent. From Quebec, " British gold " 

 circulated to clever hands in Albany and New York and other 

 places ; hence also was it disbursed in the way of relief to sufferers 

 in limb and property in the cause of the Crown. Canada was the 

 asylum towards which the eyes of persecuted loyalists elsewhere 

 were, voluntarily or involuntarily, dii-ected. Sometimes, as we shall 

 see, an itinerant friar from these quarters was a secret political agent 

 elsewhere. Once, perhaps often, a scout is dispatched hence to inter- 

 cept a mail, with a view doubtless not only of embarrassing the 

 malcontents, but also of discovering who were and who were not 

 disaffected nearer home. 



The paper to which I refer contains an account of cash paid at 

 sundry times for private services and gratuities from 25th June, 

 1779, to 10th November, 1784. Major Robert Mathews, Secretary 

 to the Governor, also signs the document. I give a few of the items. 

 "1780, Aug. 10. — To Enos Mcintosh for services rendered to 

 scouting party, £6. Sep. -26. — To Lieutenant Smith, of the 31st 

 Regiment, towards indemnifying his loss when shipwi-ecked serving 

 with a party as marines on boai-d the armed ship Wolfe (20 guineas), 

 £23 6s. 8d. Nov. 29.— To John Coffin, Esq., (late of Boston,) in 

 consideration of his distinguished services during the blockade, and 



