'leaves they have touched. 97 



Ilis autograph. He says : " I know of no law affecting the Penal 

 Code of this Province except the change you mention, extending the 

 value of Petty Larcenies to meet in some measure the depreciation of 

 money. I consider the Criminal Code of England, as it stood in 

 1774, to be operative here, being then confirmed by statute. Its first 

 introduction was by Proclamation, 1763, extending the Laws of 

 England to all newly acquired conquests, It followed the first Civil 

 G-overnor's Commission, which was in '65 or 'G 6." He then answers 

 the Chief Justice's inquiry about the dinner. " It has not been 

 customary to entertam the Grand Jury on the Home Circuit, no 

 allowance having been made for the expenses of it to the Officers." 

 Chief Justice Elmsley was afterwards Chief Justice of Lower Canada. 

 A few words of his, penned by him when resident at Quebec, are the 

 following — the mention of five o'clock as the Quebec dinner hour 

 will perhaps redeem them from mere commonplace : " Mr. Elmsley 

 will do himself the honour of waiting on the Bishop of Quebec and 

 Mrs. Mountain at dinner on Friday next, at 5 o'clock." The note is 

 addressed to " Mrs. Mountain, Belmont." 



To accompany Chief Justice Elmsley's autographs, I add a passage 

 from an admirably written letter now lying before me, of Mrs. 

 Elmsley, at the time of the date (182-5) his widow. It is addressed 

 to Mr. Alexander Wood, and relates to a generous offer that had 

 been made by that gentleman to restore a parcel of land containing 

 fifty acres, to the Elmsley Estate, for a reason which will in these 

 days be considered romantic. In view of the great and unexpected 

 rise in the value of property since the purchase, he feels that he got 

 it altogether too cheap. He therefore desires to hand it back to the 

 Estate, that the Estate, and not himself, might i*eap the benefit. 

 Mrs. Elmsley firmly declines the proffered advantage in this well- 

 expressed language : "I thought I had not sufficiently remunerated 

 you for the infinite trouble you have had in the care you have taken 

 of the property, by allowing you to purchase the lot in question 

 instead of giving it, and was much gratified when I heard it had 

 become more valuable. In case you shoiild wish to dispose of it even 

 in this way you were still my creditor, for the land became yours at 

 the price it V/^as then valued at ; and whatever future advantages 

 might arise from such property, the increase of value must be yours 

 as much as if you were to receive the benefit of any article in trade. 

 You have done more for me and my family than any one else would 



