The immediate result of the rebellion in Lower Canada was the intervention of the imperial authorities by the suspension of the constitution of that province, and the formation of a special council for purposes of temporary government. Lord Durham, a nobleman of great ability, who had won distinction in imperial politics as a Reformer, was sent out {356} to Canada as governor-general and high commissioner to inquire into and adjust provincial difficulties. This distinguished statesman remained at the head of affairs in the province from the last of May, 1838, until the 3rd of November in the same year, when he returned to England, where his ordinance of the 28th of June, sentencing certain British subjects in custody to transportation without a form of trial, and subjecting them and others not in prison to death in case of their return to the country, without permission of the authorities, had been most severely censured in England as quite unwarranted by law. By this ordinance Wolfred Nelson, Bouchette, Viger, and five others, then in prison, were banished to Bermuda, while Papineau, Cartier, O'Callaghan, Robert Nelson, and others beyond Canadian jurisdiction, were threatened with death if they returned to the province. Lord Durham's action was certainly in conflict with the principles of English law, but it was an error of judgment on the side of clemency. He was unwilling to resort to a court-martial--the only tribunal open to the authorities. A trial in the courts of justice was impracticable under existing conditions, as it was shown later. Lord Durham left Canada in deep indignation at the manner in which his acts had been criticised in England, largely through the influence of Lord Brougham, his personal enemy. The most important result of his mission was a report, the credit for the authorship of which was long denied to him through the misrepresentations of his enemies, though it is now clear that he and not his secretary was the author. {357} Soon after the departure of Lord Durham, who died a few months later, Sir John Colborne became governor-general. He was called upon to put down another rebellious movement led by Robert Nelson, brother of Wolfred Nelson, then in exile. At Caughnawaga, Montarville Mountain, Beauharnois, and Odelltown the insurgents made a stand from time to time, but were soon scattered. Bands of marauders inflicted some injury upon loyal inhabitants near the frontier, but in a few months these criminal attempts to disturb the peace of the province ceased entirely. The government now decided to make an example of men who had not appreciated the clemency previously shown their friends. Twelve men were executed, but it was not possible to obtain a verdict from a jury against the murderers of Weir and Chartrand--the latter a French Canadian volunteer murdered under circumstances of great brutality while a prisoner.