Could anything have been more pitiable than such a proclamation? The existence of a conspiracy on the part of some disaffected persons to overthrow the King's government was made to appear with the view of covering a mistake. The proclamation was the apology for the illegal seizure of a press and types used in the publication of a newspaper, in which nothing seditious or treasonable had in reality been published. It was true that the _Canadien_ upheld the Assembly and criticised the conduct of the Executive, with great severity. It was true that the _Canadien_ complained of the tyranny of "_les Anglais_." It was true that the _Canadien_ strenuously supported the idea of the expenses of the civil list being defrayed by the province and not by the Imperial government. And it was true that it contended for "_nos institutions_, _notre langue_, _et nos lois_." It did nothing more. No hint was thrown out that Canada would be more prosperous under the American, than under the English dominion. It was not even insinuated that Canada should be wholly governed by Canadians. All that was claimed for French Canadians was a fair share in the official spoils of the land they lived in, freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience. Governor Craig asked the inhabitants of St. Denis or any of the other inhabitants of the province to remind him of any one act of oppression or of arbitrary imprisonment. And at that very moment the printer of the _Canadien_ was in prison. Nor was he there alone, there were Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet, and Taschereau, members of the recently dissolved House of Assembly, together with Messrs. Pierre Laforce, Pierre Papineau, of Chambly, and Francois Corbeille, of Isle Jesus, to keep him company, on charges of treasonable practices, concerning which there was not, and never had been, even the shadow of proof, on charges which the government did not attempt even to prove, and on charges which were withdrawn without the accused having ever been confronted with their accusers. Base and daring fabricators of falsehood! Francois Corbeille, an innocent man, the victim only of unjust suspicions, on the one hand, and of diabolical selfishness, on the other, died in consequence of the injury his health received in that prison where tyranny had placed him. But he could issue no proclamation. His voice was not loud enough in the tomb to reach the Court of St. James, surrounded as that Court was, by an impenetrable phalanx of Downing Street Red-tapists. Canada was only mis-governed because England was deceived, through the instrumentality of Governors, honorable enough as men, but so wanting in administrative capacity, as to be open to the vile flattery and base insinuations of those who were, or rather should have been at once the faithful servants of the Crown and of that people who upheld it, who were virtually taken possession of, on arrival, by the "_gens en place_," and held safely in custody, until their nominal power had ceased. And