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from an extract from a Toronto paper which we take from the Times of April 2d, 1836.

'On Tuesday morning, Sir John and Lady Colborne, with their family, left the Government house; almost the whole of the respectable population of the town and neighbourhood thronged round the spot, anxious to pay a last tribute of respect to a family endeared to them by their virtues. We took a last look of one who has not only discharged the social duties in the most exemplary manner, but who has ruled the province for many years, watching over its interests, and endeavouring to promote its advancement, with the solicitude of an anxious parent.

According to previous arrangements, the inhabitants of Toronto accompanied Sir John in sleighs, of which there could not have been less than 200, while an immense number of persons kept pace with the procession on foot and on horseback. The mayor (R. B. Sullivan, Esq.) and corporation, the judges, the gentlemen of the bar, many members of the Legislative Council, and House of Assembly, the merchants, &c., in fine, almost every body with a drop of British feeling in his veins, hastened to tender a parting homage to the virtues of their late lieutenant-governor. Every one uncovered as he drove by, and gave and received a last farewell. Never before did we witness so much feeling with so little show. Many persons were moved even to tears, and gloom and sorrow overshadowed every countenance. Throughout the immense mass of human beings assembled, ran but one kind of generous feeling of regret. Men gazed for the last time on the forms of those who had showered down blessings on the poor-on those who had lived among them so long, shedding the influence of pure and holy lives around them-on those in whom their bitterest enemies could never raise an angry or revengeful passion. This private sympathy was not unmingled with apprehensions for the public weal.

"The departure of Sir John Colborne seemed also the departure of the British constitution.

'It is pretty generally known that he left us because he would no longer carry into effect Lord Glenelg's unconstitutional and ill-judged instructions. This fact was generally known on the eve of Sir John's leaving us; and the consequence was, that a moral grandeur, or martyr-like glory encircled him, and every friend to monarchical institutions felt that the main prop in this colony was withdrawn. Rumours of changes, cutting at the very root of our dearest rights, are hinted abroad. The changes are, however, of such a rash and sweeping nature, that they have been already deprecated by several members hitherto styled Radical.

Upper Canada was chiefly of the loyal spirit indicated by the tone of this letter, and with comparatively little disaffection, but the lower province, then governed by Lord Gosford, was far more exposed to the influence of the United States, and full of the democratic aspirations incited by the events of the last few years in France and England. Joseph Papineau, one of the French Canadian members of the House of Assembly, and Wolfred Nelson, a distiller, had done all in their power to inflame the people by their seditious discourses, and in the October of 1837, a meeting was held at S. Charles, at which the representatives of six united counties bound themselves to form a nucleus for a confederation which was to demand the power of electing their own magistrates, and all the other

modest proposals of demagogues. At the same time they invited the British soldiery to revolt and join them!

Strong measures were at once taken for defence. Sir John Colborne took upon himself the heavy responsibility of ordering military preparations, involving an expense of 100,000l., collected troops, concentrated them in Montreal, fortified the city, built barracks, laid in stores, organised several corps of volunteers, and armed the loyal militia. Thus all was ready when, in November, the rebels began to wander about in masked bands between the rivers Richelieu and Zamaska, terrifying the quiet inhabitants into enrolling themselves in their confederation. It was probably intended that the outbreak should not take place till the rebel preparations should be matured, but a riot of the so-called Fils de Liberté,' at Montreal, and the sight of fourteen or fifteen volunteer horsemen patrolling on the Richelieu river precipitated matters. The peasantry thought them an easy prey, and fell upon them with muskets and rifles, and though these were beaten off, another party of insurgents, three days later, rescued by force two persons who had been arrested for high treason, and was being escorted by some of the volunteers.

This success encouraged the disaffected to rise to the number of 1,200 or 1,400 at the villages of S. Charles and S. Denis, under the leadership of Wolfred Nelson. Troops were instantly despatched by Sir John Colborne to dislodge them. At S. Denis they had fortified themselves with a stockade, and the exceeding cold of a Canadian November was also a powerful auxiliary, so that Colonel Gore, after much resolute fighting, was forced to give up the attack; but Colonel Wetherall's com plete success at S. Charles produced such a panic, that the rebels abandoned the village, broke up, and Nelson, after vainly attempting to rally them, was forced to take refuge in the United States, as did also Papineau. The rebels, however, remained in numbers in the country of the Lake of the Two Mountains, where they had driven away every loyal subject, and were pillaging an extensive tract. Sir John Colborne accordingly proceeded thither in person, with all his available force, in the middle of December, and crossed the river Ottawa on the 14th of the month. The rebels were in force at S. Eustache, where they had fortified themselves in the church and several adjacent houses; but Colonel Wetherall dislodged them after about an hour's firing, and they were dispersed with unimportant loss to her Majesty's troops. This success was of infinite value to the peacefully disposed of Quebec and Montreal, who had been in a state of great alarm, and were proportionately grateful for their relief.

The effect was universally felt and acknowledged of having a

man who had both a head and did not lose it in the moment of crisis, and who had the moral courage to take the responsibility of expensive precautions which the event only could explain-a kind of resolution which becomes the more difficult and trying in proportion to the influence of public opinion, pronounced prematurely. Who can guess what would have been the amount of misery and bloodshed had the disaffected been allowed to collect their full strength, or if the preparations for defence had been postponed till the attack had actually been made?

The same work had been going on in Upper Canada, but owing to the large preponderance of loyal men of British birth, had been less serious.

The Irish loyalist's exclamation mentioned by Sir Francis Head, in his Emigrant,' sufficiently epitomizes the result of the insurrection in that quarter:- If yer honor will find us ARMS, 'the rebels will find LEGS.' There is no doubt, however, that it was the fulfilment of the proverb forewarned, forearmed,' in the primary seat of disaffection, the Lower Province, that spared both alike from the horrors of civil war.

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Lord Gosford, having resigned the government of Lower Canada, the Home Government requested Sir John Colborne të combine this office with that of Commander of the forces. The despatch of December 6th, 1837, from Lord Glenelg, apprising him of his appointment, and giving him authority to proclaim martial law in the disaffected districts, concludes with the following expression of confidence:-'It might embarrass, but could hardly assist you, if I should attempt to 'address to you any more detailed instructions in the present emergency. Her Majesty's Government cheerfully commit 'to your hands the safety of the important part of the dominions of the Crown over which your authority will extend. In the 'discharge of that trust you will have the highest claim to every degree of support which it may be in our power to give.'

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However, by the time this despatch arrived, the rebellion was quelled; and when the Earl of Durham arrived in 1838 to take Sir Francis Head's place, and also to investigate the state of the country, and report on it to Government, all had become so quiet, that he ventured to release the prisoners. On his return to England, after a few months, he published a report so favourable to the demands of the disaffected as to be highly distasteful to the Tory Upper Canadians, and equally encouraging to those who had lately been in rebellion.

Upon his departure, however, Sir John Colborne had been appointed governor-general, vice-admiral and captain-general' of all her Majesty's provinces within and adjacent to the continent of North America, and thus had the sole charge

cf steering the vessel of state through the perilous waves of a subsiding revolt, further excited by aspirations for and rumours of a new constitution, and stirred up by underhand influence from the other side of the frontier.

In November, 1838, an outbreak actually took place at Napierville, in Lower Canada, headed by one Robert Nelson, who had obtained considerable support from American adventurers. A secret oath had been administered to the Canadian disaffected by which they bound themselves to establish a republic. Their numbers were considerable, and the alarm was renewed; but prompt measures broke their force once again, and a second time restored tranquillity, and this time without further disquiet; the disturbances had entirely subsided, and loyal addresses poured in on all sides.

Sir John Colborne had, however, been in Canada for eleven years, and both on private and public grounds was anxious to return; while, on the other hand, the new constitution which was in preparation, under which both Canadas were to be united, made the Government desirous of sending out a new governor to carry it out. The Grand Cross of the Bath was, at the same time, conferred on Sir John Colborne, and the Pique frigate was sent out to convey him to England.

'An affecting scene was witnessed at Montreal when their revered commander and friend, Sir John Colborne, took his final departure. A large concourse of the British population, with a most numerous military staff, escorted him to the wharf, and on his embarkation bade the veteran and venerable chief "farewell" in peals upon peals of loud, affectionate, and prolonged cheering. When at length the voice of the vast assembly was dying away, a man perched on a mast exclaimed, "One cheer more for the colonel of the 52d!" This touched a new chord of stirring recollections in the heart of the multitude, and the acclamation was instantly renewed as loud as ever.

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Finally, on the 23d October, Sir John and his family, accompanied by his attached Peninsula and Waterloo friend and military secretary, Colonel Brown, and his late civil secretary, Major Goldie of the 66th, embarked in the Pique, under a salute from the citadel and the shipping. The frigate got under weigh soon after, encountered a terrific thunder-storm the same night, by which her topmast was struck, but the lightning glanced harmlessly from the ship, for the laurelled head she bore was not destined to be thus laid low;

"The wreath which Glory weaves

Is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves ;"

and the Pique proceeded down the St. Lawrence amid the regrets and good wishes of every loyal and honourable man in the colonies.'-Trifles from my Portfolio, by a Staff-Surgeon, vol. ii. p. 229.

Sir John's services, both in the Peninsular War and the Canadian troubles, were acknowledged at home by his being raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Seaton of Seaton.

After a few unemployed years, he was appointed, in 1843,

Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, where his vigour and activity told as usual on the curious mixed population and government. Education was as usual taken in hand, the colleges in Corfu and the other islands were revised and placed on the English system, and the ladies of his family at the same time endeavoured to raise the tone of education among the Greek girls, both of the upper and lower classes, by establishing a school with an English lady at its head, who might endeavour to rouse them from their Levantine indifference. The condition of the town of Corfu, the state of the prisons, the improvement of the roads throughout the islands, all came under his improving hand. He was always on the side of progress. No old man's dislike and distrust of innovation as innovation ever seemed to grow upon him; but he went forward to the work of improvement in each new scene with a youthful freshness and power of adaptation peculiar to himself. Under him was inaugurated the free constitution of the Ionian Islands, the working of which he had not time to superintend, since it had been decided that the regulation five years' appointment should no longer be exceeded. That constitution has not worked well: but something of the failure may possibly be due to the removal of the framer of it at so critical a moment.

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A few years more of quiet succeeded, during which Lord Seaton was warmly interested in devising and carrying out the improvements in the arming of the troops, which had become needful. An article on the defences of England, and another on the Ionian Islands, contributed by him to the Edinburgh Review,' may be taken as remarkable evidences of the alertness and vigour of mind which, when past seventy, could turn at once to a mode of expression to which he had been hitherto entirely unaccustomed, and master it sufficiently for his purposes.

In 1852, the command of the camp at Chobham was placed in Lord Seaton's hands, and in them the experiment proved a complete success. Not only was every officer and man sensible of that courtesy and consideration that never demanded more than could be well performed, and, as in old times of real war, had caused the saying that there was nothing his men would not do for him, but the training under his experienced eye was felt to have been of the greatest service to the troops when the actual trial of the Crimean campaigns ensued.

In 1854, he was selected by Prince Albert to accompany him when invited to visit the French camp with the Emperor at Boulogne-a curious spectacle for one who, nearty forty years before, had been quartered as a victor upon the very ground where the French were now halted, among the trim little gardens, laid out and adorned by each regiment with true French dainti

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