The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-26 00:00:00

THE “EDINBURGH REVIEW" AND
SIR FRANCIS HEAD.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,—As the conduct or misconduct of a public servant
has always been considered by the British press as a subject
worthy of fair investigation, I request that you will do me
the justice to insert the following brief exposure of some ac-
cusations which have lately appeared against me in a public
journal.
In the number of the Edinburgh Review which has just
been published, it i 3 stated, that on Sir F. Head's retiring
from the administration of the Government of Upper Canada,
he " determined on traversing the United States in disguise; '
and "that having reached the town of Waterton, in the cha-
racter of servant to Judge Jones, he chose to overact his
humble part so grossly as to excite suspicion, and conse-
quently provoke recognition."
In reply to the above, I deliberately declare that, on my
arrival at Waterton, as well as throughout the whole of the
journey alluded to, my face was uncovered, that I was
dressed in the blue cloak I had always worn at Toronto, un-
derneath which I wore my usual travelling dress.
During this journey Judge Jones openly and undisguiscdly
treated me with the attention he had invariably shown me
at Toronto; and I pledge myself that, if appealed to, Judge
Jones, who is now at Toronto, will certify that the assertions
in the Edinburgh Review, that I travelled in disguise, and as
his servant, are, in every particular, untrue.
Having refuted an.allegation which I trust every man of
honour will feel it was due to my character to contradict,
I will now briefly expose a few other misstatements of minor
importance, which I certainly should not otherwise have
noticed.

1. It is stated in the Edinburgh Review, page 373. that
" Sir F. Head now took a step which subjected him, and
we think justly, to the loudest censure from the citizens of
Toronto. He sent his own family on board a steamer in the
Lake. Now, though no one will be very hard on him for
showing such affection for his family, it must be recollected
that the other families in Toronto had no such means of
refuge."
The truth of the story is as follows :—On leaving Govern-
ment House, on the night of the rebellion, to take up my
position in the market-place, I conducted my family to the
house of her Majesty's Solicitor-General, where they re-
mained the whole night.
On the afternoon of the next day, the present Bishop of
Toronto recommended several families to go on board two
steamers, which were not in the Lake, but lying moored in
the harbour. They did so ; and Lady Head and my daughter
sharing equally with them the accommodation, remained on
board one of these two crowded vessels until the Mayor of
Toronto, accompanied by several of the principal citizens,
far from entertaining the feelings described, came alongside
to congratulate them " loudly" on the defeat of the rebels.
The Bishop of Toronto, and the principal families residing in
that city, if appealed to, will, I am sure, certify that the above
statement is correct ; and that the assertion in the Edinburgh
Review, that " the other families in Toronto had no such
means of refuge" as I procured for my own, is perfectly
untrue.
Besides which, independent of my own personal feelings, I
surely need hardly observe what political importance would
have been attached by the rebels to the capture by them of
any member of my family.
2. It is stated in the Edinburgh Review, page 363, and sub-
sequently reiterated, that Sir Robert Peel " repelled all Sir
Francis Head's attempts at intimacy," " nor would he take
any step in the way of giving Sir Francis that reward
for his services which the latter most urgently pressed on
him."

The facts of this case are as follow :—On my return from
Canada I was living in Warwickshire, in my usual retire-
ment, when Sir Robert Peel did me the honour to call upon
me ; and, at his invitation, I twice spent a few days at Dray-
ton. This alight acquaintance, however, sickened and died
in consequence, I suppose, of my having opposed the Parlia-
mentary course which Sir Robert Peel telt it his e uty to take
with respect to the Canada Union Bill.
After he had been Prime Minister upwards of a year, I,
one day, briefly mentioned to him that as, at the request of
the Government, I had given up a permanent appointment
to go to Canada, as I bad received, during the present reign,
no acknowledgment whatever, pecuniary or honorary, for the
part I had taken in suppressing the rebellion in Canada, as
well as in repelling the invasion of the Americans, and as a
long list of officers who had served under me had been re.
warded, I conceived I had some claim upon the country. In
reply to which, Sir Robert Peel very courteously recom-
mended me to put my ease into writing and to address it to
her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.
I never did so—never again troubled Sir Robert Peel with
any request for myself, and never, either before or after-
wards, asked anything from Lord Stanley. If these gentle-
men be appealed to, they will, I feel confident, declare that
the assertions of the Edinburgh Review, as above quoted, are
incorrect.
3. It is stated in the Edinburgh Review, page 369
" For the information of readers at home, it may be as well
that we should give a succinct narrative of the circumstances
that attended M'Kenzie's attack on Toronto. Our know-
ledge of such facts as are net taken from the official accounts
has been derived from written statements given to us by
Colonel F."
For about eight pages these " statements" are quoted at
tedious length, in order to blame me in every possible way
for not having attacked Mr. liPlienzie, &c„ &c., &c., accord-
ing to the advice of this officer.
It is, therefore, necessary that I should disabuse the public
by reluctantly stating, what is perfectly well known
throughout Upper Canada, namely, that the gallant militia
Colonel in question, from excessive zeal and loyalty,
gradually became so excited that on the day after the defeat of
the rebels it was necessary to place him under medical
treatment ; that during his illness I in vain endeavoured,
by every possible act of personal kindness, to remove
trom his mind a strange idea that I was his enemy ;
and that although he eventually recovered, this idea conti-
nued to haunt him so incessantly that when, a year after-
wards, on his visiting England, I was from feelings of regard
about to call upon him, I was earnestly warned by a Cana-
dian now at Toronto not to do so.
Now is it creditable that under such circumstances the
" written statements" and opinions of this brave and worthy
individual should have been selected as the foundation of an
elaborate attack upon me ?
4. It is stated in the Edinburgh Review, page 382, " Tbat
having quarrelled with Colonel F. and every independent
person who had once acted under him—have disgusted the
old officers of the army and navy by ordering them to serve
as privates under the lawyers and merchants' clerks of
Toronto, Sir F. Head was '!ntirely in the hands of the family
compact.' Commissions in the militia were given to every
relation and hanger-on of the principal members of the Go-
vernment. One regiment is said to have been entirely offi-
cered by persons of the same family name. Pmfitable con-
tracts enriched others of the favoured connexion."
Now, I never for a moment quarrelled with Colonel F. On
the contrary, on my arrival in Dowliing•street front Canada
I respectfully, but most earnestly, urged Lord Glenelg to
reward him ; and, as regards the rest of the charge, I feel
confident that if appealed to, the old officers of the army
and navy, as well as the Adjutant-General of the militia of
Upper Canada, who was officially cognisant of every appoint-
ment, will certify that the above assertions in the 'Edinburgh
Review, especially that relating to a regiment having been
entirely officered by persons of the same family name, are a
series of untruths.
Now, it will naturally be asked, " From what source has
the Edinburgh Review ventured to assail the character of a
retired public servant by a series of such unfounded asser-
tions?" The writer of these calumnies solves this mystery

himself.
After, in page 351, describing. the ringleaders of the rebels
as " the popular leaders," and the gallant men who defeated
them as "the illiberal party," he says (see pa.;e 380), "the
American Sutherland, who was one of the leaders of the ex-
pedition to Navy Island, when subsequently a prisoner at
Quebec, gave the writer of this article the following account
of the affair of Navy Island, of which, as misrepresentation
could not in any way serve him, there is no reason to doubt
the correctness. In all its main points it was exactly corro-
borated by a statement which an informant of ours received
from Van Ransalaer, Sutherland, and about twenty-three
others."
Now, Sutherland I committed to gaol at Toronto before
" the writer of this article" visited him when under sentence 1
of transportation; " he was a prisoner at Quebec," and Van
Ransalaer for nearly a year had been lying in the gaol of
Albany, in the United States!
How many of the " twenty-three other persons" whom
" the writer of this article" cites in evidence against me were
convicted traitors whose projects I had defeated and whose
prospects I had ruined, he has not deemed it advisable to
state. He only informs us that as they " exactly corrobo-
rated" the statements of Van Ransalaer and Sutherland,
"there is no reason to doubt the correctness."
In the strange admixture of impersonal testimony, of ano-
nymous witnesses, of evidence collected from gaols, of special
pleading, and of total disregard of truth and decency which
characterise the article before us, the British public will, no
doubt, at once recognise the old materials of that unfortu-
nate mass, or rather mess, of mis-statements, commonly
called "Lord Durham's Iteport."—l am, Sir, your obedient
servant, HEAD.
Athenaeum, April 24, 1847.

S 23
BRISTOL CIGAR MARKET, —We have
_PAIL •
no new features to notice in our sugar-market, wine con-
tinues extremely dull, and prices are again lower.—Bristol
Mercury.
THE SMITHFIELD NITISANCE.—Mr. Ormsby Gore
gave notice on Friday that he would nominate on Tuesday
the following members on the Select Committee respecting
Smithfield Market. It will be seen that the city interests
have been particularly consulted in the selection of Mr. W.
B. Baring, Mr. Thomas Baring, Alderman Copeland, and
Mr. Mastcrman. The following is a list of the proposed
committee: —Mr. Ormsby Gore, the Right Hon. Viscount
Morpeth, Viscount Mahon, Lord Seymour, the Right Hon.
W. B. Baring, Right lion. Sidney lierbert, Hon. Eliot T.
Yorke, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Bramston, Mr. Burroughes,
Alderman Copeland, Mr. Beckett Denison, Mr. Dlasterman,
Mr. W. Miles, and Mr. A. Stafford O'Brien.
SINGULAR AFFAIR IN HIGH LIFE.--On
Satur-
day information was received at the head station of the D or
Maryleboae division, in Marylebone-lane, and was from
thence circulated throughout the different divisions of both
the Metropolitan and City police, of the following singulard
imposition and robbery having been committed uponladla
y
of rank residing at the West-end :—The name of the
or
her title has not been permitted publicly to transpiraev,boauittv,hoe
particulars circulated by the police state, that I
before,foren ooub tawieserielutolii hours Frenchman,
ia
sohfi
oeul eal'elyn...adVss twelveed,
d o ova'ectir
an
ctlatbe
daof the noble owner's
to
porarythe doorabse
absence
ea rfernsiltniehnocemienl;,)tre=gaz uyr ng tli e
representingteni-
to the servant that he came from a friend
residing
hEtaiti Eaton-square, nl -az! obtainingas h
his
a al
lrz in-
terview
daorfe'thheeisiouucsceeed
hiant
object in doing an, or what took place at the interview, has
the lady
with a gold watch-key
not been made publicly known, beyondla,lyto him
,thdeelfiavcetr
ttoh
two b\
some means or other induced
gold watches, a gold guard -
attached, and a shawl of the value of upwards of 501., with
also 15/. in money. the lady receiving from him in exchangf
an enamelled gold watch, warranted perfect, and a gold chain
and key, very inferior articles, and of trilling value ; after
which he politely bowed himself out of the house. The
Frenchman is described as being about five feet seven or eight
inches high, from 35 to 40 years of age, of florid complexion,
can speak several languages. and is of very plausible manners.
He gave the name of Manley to the servant who attended
him when he entered the house, but to the lady he signed it
"F. Delan." The police are aware that an individual an-
swering the description recently obtained 201. from a Spanish
gentleman by a similar trick.
DEATH OF LADY ALICIA GORDON.—We have to
announce the demise of the above lady, which took place on
Saturday morning, at her residence inllertford-street, May-
fair. filer ladyship was born in 1788, and was only daughter
of the late, and sister of the present, Earl of Aberdeen. The
deceased lady was for many years Lady of the Bedchamber
to her late Royal Highness the Princess Sophia Matilda.
Mr. Greg, and a deputation, had an interviewD with Sir
George Grey, on Saturday. The Earl of ptevon had
also an interview with the Right Hon. Baronet.
A deputation from Rochdale. consistitiorfm'l'Vanir.oSfhtahr;
man Crawford. Mr. Thomas Livosey Wi
Grr(ecvnlaat
u(rcdl
3r,k ,
board of guardians), and Mr. William Roo its
had an interview with Sir George w
the Lime Office,