The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-06 00:00:00

REVOLT IN CANADA.

LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY.
The Orpheus, Captain Bailey, arrived here to-day in
sixteen days from New York. She brings New York
Papers of the 19th, and the news is of the utmost im-
portance.
The following are extracts from the Papers :
PROCLAMATION

BY HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE ARTHUR, K.C.11, LIEU-
TENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF UPPER CA-
NADA, MAJOR-GENERAL COMMANDING HER MAJESTY'S
FORCES THEREIN, &C., &C., &C.
Loyal Inhabitants of Upper Canada,
Upon my arrival among you early in the present year,
bearing with me her Majesty's commission to administer this
Government, I found you just recovering from the excite-
ment that had naturally been produced by the then recent
attempts of some infatuated and desperate individuals, both
within and without the province, to involve your country in
the horrors of a civil war, and to subvert those long-
cherished institutions which your conduct has proved that
you prize as the first of blessings, and ever ready to main-
tain the hazard of your lives.
The alacrity with which you came forward in defence of
those institutions, and the valour with which—unaided by
any military force—you overcame the united efforts of trea-
son and of lawless aggression, have, indeed, nobly won for
you the approbation of your gracious Sovereign, and the
admiration of your fellow-subjects in every part of the wide-
extended British empire.
In that admiration, even when far distant from you, I

participated most warmly ; and it was a source of high
gratification to me to be selected us her Majesty's repre-
sentative among a people who have thus eminently distin-
guished themselves.
It is not my purpose to enter here into a review of the
circumstances which, before my arrival, had disturbed your
peace, and compelled you to defend in arms your dearest
rights. It is necessary, however, that I should briefly ad-
vert to subsequent occurrences, in order to show you how
unceasing my desire has been, whilst extending to the cri-
minal authors of the past disturbances the utmost lenity
that prudence would permit, to tranquillize your feelings
and to provide for your security.
The insurrectionary movements in this province having
been completely quelled by your activity and energy, the ob-
ject of first importance that presented itself to my considera-
tion, on assuming the charge of the Government,was the treat-
ment to be pursued towards those who, on either their own
confession or after the most impartial trials, had been convicted
of the highethfence of which man, as a member of society can
be guilty, and in accordance both with the humane views of her
Majesty's Government, and with my own desire of tem-
pering justice with mercy, I suffered the extreme penalty
of the law to be inflicted. only on two of the most promi-
nent and guilty members of the late rebellion, trusting
that such an awful example might be sufficient to impress
on the crime of treason its proper stamp—and that a gra-
duated scale of punishmeet, adapted as nearly as possible to
the circumstances of the several cases, might safely be
resorted to in other instances.

The petitions for mercy, the assurance of contrition, the
promises of amendment, and the professions cf revived
feelings of loyalty which poured in upon me from or on
behalf of those who had yielded to false representations, and
had thus incurred the forfeiture of their lives, warrant me
in concluding that the manifestation of mercy on the part
of the Executive would have been attended with all the
salutary effects anticipated from it, had not the same un-
justifiable interference by a portion of the inhabitants of a
neighbouring country, in your affairs, which had so culpably
contributed to the former disturbances, partially re-kindled
the flame that was about to expire, and engendered a de-
lusive expectation that, by means of co-operation from
without, a more successful effort might be made by the
traitorous and disloyal to shake off their allegiance to their

Sovereign.
In pursuance of their nefarious designs, a fresh invasion
of your soil was attempted by a few worthless refugees in
conjunction with a lawless banditti, whose immediate object
was the plunder and devastation of the Province, while
their ulterior hope was to rend for ever that tie which binds
it to the Parent State.

Thus called on again to arm in defence of everything
dear to you, your success in repelling this second act of
aggression was not less signal than it had been in your
quick suppression of the previous insurrection ; nor were
your gallantry, your loyalty, and your humanity, less con-
spicuously displayed than they had already been on that
memorable occasion.

In the disposal of the prisoners taken at this period,
circumstances presented themselves which rendered it my
duty to persevere in the lenient course which her Majesty's
advisers had before prescribed : and on an occasion calling
as loudly for some example of rigour as any that has proba-
bly ever occurred in the annals of mankind, capital punish-
ment was inflicted in one solitary instance only.
It might reasonably have been expected, after the re-
peated failure of the attempts of the confederates to effect
their revolutionary objects—after the continued clemency
of the Executive—and after your praiseworthy forbearance
from acts of vengeance or retaliaton, that not only all
thought of further hostility against you would have been
abandoned in hopeless despair, but that a better tone of
feeling would have succeeded.
The comparative state of tranquillity, which followed the
last abortive attempt at invasion, did in fact encourage me
to hope that peace with general harmony and good feeling
would soon be restored to the Province. To my deep dis-
appointment, however, I have learnt from various sources,
more or less authentic, that, regardless of the friendly re-
lations subsisting between her Majesty's Government and
that of the United States, and stimulated by the worst
passions and motives, a number of American citizens, along
our frontier, have formed a secret combination for another
invasion of these Provinces, and that preparations on an
extensive scale for carrying this unprincipled enterprise
into execution are at this moment in active progress.
It is further stated that the members of this unholy
union communicate by certain mystic signs ; that they are
possessed of considerable resources; that they have amongst
them some individuals of influence ; and are one and all
bound by an unlawful oath to plunder you of your pro-
perty, to destroy your institutions, and to sever your con-
nection with the mother country.
Thouo large allowances are to be made for exaggerated
or interested statements, and though it is known that the
traitorous within, and their partisans without, are mutually
deceiving each other, and are falsely using the names of in-
dividuals of station and respectability, in order to give
some colouring to their wicked conspiracy ; yet I deem it
proper to promulgate that such information has reached
me, as calls for the adoption of precautionary measures for
averting, if possible, an impending mischief, or for promptly
defeating it, should it actually occur.
Relying on the amity and good faith of the American
Government, I have made to it, through the medium of
her Majesty's Minister at Washington, such representa-
tions as will, I trust, ensure its immediate and decisive in-
terference, in suppressing these outrageous proceedings of
its border citizens.

I have likewise written to the officers of the United
States army, commanding on the frontier, whose honour-
able profession and personal characters claim our confidence,
urging them vigorously to second the efforts of their Go-
vernment, by the employment of every means that may be
at their disposal.
It is but reasonable, also, when the base design of un-
provoked aggression shall become more generally known
throughout the Union, that I should look with full confi-
dence to the great body of its respectable citizens to rescue
their country from the lasting discredit that would be en.
tailed on it by the actual commission of the hostile acts
contemplated by a licentious portion of its population, and
the proceedings incident to which tend so fatally to inter-
rupt that good understanding between the inhabitants of
the two countries which their mutual interests, cemented
by the endearing bond of a common origin, should lead
them strictly to maintain.
But, after all, it is less to the interposition of others
than ourselves—supported as we are by a just cause, and
protected, as we may still confidently hope to be, by a
righteous Providence—that we must look for safety.
With this View I have directed, in addition to the regu-
lar force already in the province, that several regiments of
your gallant militia shall be again embodied ; and that their
services shall be engaged for a continuous period
of eighteen
months. I have further authorised the assembling, for a
shorter period, of other corps of militia in various places ;
and it is with much satisfaction that I am enabled to add,
i
that many of these brave men have already promptly en-
rolled themselves.
On the Magistracy and other influential classes I impli-
citly depend for the important aid which it is so much in
their power and which they have always shown themselves
channels through which information respecting
so ready to afford. I exhort them to direct their attention
tothe
.the
designs of their enemies may be derived—to guard against
delusive statements—and to act with calmness, judgment,
and decision, in the preservation of the public peace.
I also call upon those who have so recently experienced the
lenity of the Executive to evince their gratitude for the
large measure. of mercy extended to them, and to prove the
sincerity of their professions of repentance for their former

errors.

Nor can I let pass this opportunity of earnestly caution-
ing you against the hasty adoption of opinions injurious to
your confidence in the sincere intentions of the Govern-
ment on the all-important subject of religious instruction.
While I am most anxious to socore to you and your An-
drei; tbis inestimable blessing, it is not my wish to see a
dominant Church established over you, or tho members of
one religious community either rendered subject
to the
spiritual jurisdiction, or called upon to contribute to thell
temporal support of another. And I trust that a