with projects of reform. The discipline inflicted upon him was
swift and severe. He was seized while in bed, in the middle of the
night, a hundred and fifty miles from home, conveyed to jail at Niagara,
and thence to York, where he was detained in prison for some days out of
the reach of friends to bail him. He was tried for sedition at the
Niagara assizes a day or two before Mr. Gourlay. In order that public
journalists of the present day may note in what comparatively pleasant
places their lines have fallen, I transcribe the sentence of the court,
which was as follows:--"Therefore it is considered by the said court
here that the said Bartemus Ferguson do pay a fine to our said lord the
King of fifty pounds of lawful money of Upper Canada: That he, the said
Bartemus Ferguson, be imprisoned in the common jail of the District of
Niagara for the space of eighteen calendar months, to be computed from
the eighth day of November, in the sixtieth year of the reign of our
said lord the King: that in the course of the first month of the said
eighteen months he do stand in the public pillory one hour, between the
hours of ten o'clock in the forenoon and two o'clock in the afternoon:
and that at the expiration of the said imprisonment he do give security
for his good behaviour for the term of seven years: he the said Bartemus
Ferguson in the sum of five hundred pounds, and two sureties in the sum
of two hundred and fifty pounds each; and further, that he, the said
Bartemus Ferguson, do remain imprisoned in the said jail until the
aforesaid fine be paid and security given."

The composition for which the editor was thus held to so stern an
account was a letter written by Mr. Gourlay, and signed by his name,
published in the _Spectator_ during the editor's absence from home, and
without his knowledge. It animadverted pretty sharply on the
Administration of the day. In the jingling and jangling phraseology of
the indictment, it was calculated to "detract, scandalize, and vilify
His Grace Charles Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, Captain-General
and Governor in and over the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick and their dependencies; and to scandalize and
vilify Sir Peregrine Maitland, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable
Military Order of the Bath, His Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor of this
Province of Upper Canada." Certain public officials, not specifically
alluded to by name, were referred to a