Van Diemen's Land. Both Samuel
Lount and Peter Matthews suffered death. Von Shoultz, and a number of
Americans who had invaded the country in 1838, were also executed, and
some persons in both provinces were transported to New Holland or sent to
the penitentiary, but in the majority of cases the Crown showed clemency.
The outbreak was an unfortunate episode in the history of Canada, but it
caused the "family compact" to break up, and brought about a better
system of government.

The immediate result of the rebellion in Lower Canada was the
intervention of the imperial authorities by the suspension of the
constitution of that province, and the formation of a special council for
purposes of temporary government. Lord Durham, a nobleman of great
ability, who had won distinction in imperial politics as a Reformer, was
sent out {356} to Canada as governor-general and high commissioner to
inquire into and adjust provincial difficulties. This distinguished
statesman remained at the head of affairs in the province from the last
of May, 1838, until the 3rd of November in the same year, when he returned
to England, where his ordinance of the 28th of June, sentencing certain
British subjects in custody to transportation without a form of trial,
and subjecting them and others not in prison to death in case of their
return to the country, without permission of the authorities, had been
most severely censured in England as quite unwarranted by law. By this
ordinance Wolfred Nelson, Bouchette, Viger, and five others, then in
prison, were banished to Bermuda, while Papineau, Cartier, O'Callaghan,
Robert Nelson, and others beyond Canadian jurisdiction, were threatened
with death if they returned to the province. Lord Durham's action was
certainly in conflict with the principles of English law, but it was an
error of judgment on the side of clemency. He was unwilling to resort to
a court-martial--the only tribunal open to the authorities. A trial in
the courts of justice was impracticable under existing conditions, as it
was shown later. Lord Durham left Canada in deep indignation at the
manner in which his acts had been criticised in England, largely through
the influence of Lord Brougham, his personal enemy. The most important
result of his mission was a report, the credit for the authorship of
which was long denied to him through the misrepresentations of his
enemies, though it is now clear that he and not his secretary was