At this time there were five papers in Lower Canada. The _Quebec Gazette_, the _Quebec Mercury_, _Le Canadien_, the _Montreal Gazette_, and the _Courant_. The three former were published in Quebec, the other two in Montreal. The _Gazettes_ were organs of the government, the _Mercury_ and _Courant_ were "namby-pamby," and the _Canadien_ was as the voice of _le peuple_. The elections were, in the month of March, again about to take place, and the government conceived the magnificent idea of carrying a printing office by assault. When everything was prepared, then was the time to act. Headed by a magistrate, a party of soldiers rushed up the stairs leading to the _Canadien_ printing office. The proprietor received them with a low bow, and much annoyance was felt that no opposition was offered. The premises were searched. Some manuscripts were found, and, "under the sanction of the Executive," the whole press, and the whole papers of every description, were forcibly seized, and conveyed as booty to the vaults of the Court House. In this action one prisoner was made. The printer was seized, and "after examination," was committed to prison. And, as if an insurrection were expected, the guards at the gates were strengthened, and patrols sent in every direction. The public looked amazed, as well it might. The _Mercury_ did not know whether most to admire the tyrannical spirit or the consummate vanity of the Canadians, and of No. 15, of the _Canadien_, which contended that the Canadians had rights. As a striking proof of Canadian tyranny, the _Canadien_ would not allow any but the members of the Assembly to be a judge of the expediency of expelling Judge DeBonne! and it was even said that of all those who signed the address to His Excellency, presented in the name of Quebec, not one was capable of understanding the nature of the question. In a _dependence_, such as Canada, was the government to be daily flouted, bearded, and treated with the utmost disrespect and contumely? "He" expected nothing less than that its patience would be exhausted, and _energetic measures_ resorted to, as the only efficient ones. From any part of a people conquered from wretchedness into every _indulgence_, and the _height of prosperity_, such treatment, as the government daily received was far different from that which ought to have been expected. But there were characters in the world on whom benefits have no other effect than to produce _insolence_ and _insult_. The stroke was struck, the _Mercury_ would say no more. The greatest misfortune that can ever happen to the press is for it to be in the possession of invisible and licentious hands. It said no more, because "the war was with the dead!"