The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion, Volume 1Dent, John Charles
History
The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion, Volume 1
Dent, John Charles
Canada -- History -- Rebellion, 1837-1838; Ontario -- Politics and government
was given, sat on the bench to the right of the Chief Justice as an
associate judge on the trial. Colonel Heward, whose son Charles was one
of the delinquents, was the other magistrate compromised by the
evidence. The third person alleged to have witnessed the transaction was
Mr. Macaulay, leading counsel for the defence. The utter incongruity and
unseemliness of the whole affair from first to last seems
incomprehensible at the present day. All sense of the fitness of things
seems to have been wanting.
The trespass had been flagrant and bold, and the only question which the
jury had to consider was the amount of damages. There were conflicting
elements among the jurors, who were long in coming to a decision. After
much deliberation they returned a verdict of L625, which sum, together
with costs of suit, was soon afterwards paid over to the plaintiff's
attorney.[82] But the rioters themselves were not suffered to sustain
this loss. Prominent adherents of the official party did not hesitate to
say that by the attack upon Mr. Mackenzie's press and type, and by the
consequent stoppage of publication of his paper,[83] the perpetrators of
the outrage had rendered an essential service to society, by abating an
intolerable nuisance. Under such circumstances it was only just that
society should bear harmless those who had thrown themselves into the
breach and vindicated her rights. It was resolved that a subscription
should be set on foot with this laudable object.
Among the few high Tories resident at York in those days upon whose
characters it is possible for one of modern ideas to look with sympathy,
and even with a considerable degree of admiration, was Colonel James
Fitz Gibbon. The Colonel was a gallant veteran who had fought the
battles of his country on two continents, at Copenhagen and the Helder,
at Fort Erie and the Beaver Dams. His military career was not yet quite
at an end, for he was destined to play an important part in the
putting-down of the Upper Canadian Rebellion; a circumstance which
furnishes a sufficient justification for a somewhat more extended
reference to him in this place than his mere connection with the press
riot would have rendered necessary. He was an Irishman of humble origin,
who had enlisted as a private soldier at the age of seventeen, and who,
by sheer force of energy, bravery and aptitude for his profession, had
fought his way to military rank and honour. After seeing much service on
the continent, and passing through as many adventures as a knight-errant
of old, he was transferred to British North America. His gallant
services in this country are imperfectly recorded in various accounts of
the War of 1812, and in Tupper's "Life of Brock." Every Canadian is, or
ought to be, familiar with the circumstances attending the capture by
him of a force of 450 infantry, fifty cavalry, and two guns, he himself
being at the time in command of only forty-eight men. After the close of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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