ded rebellion, and at last warrants were issued by the
Attorney-General for their apprehension. It was this sudden and
unexpected issue of the warrants which may be said to have saved the
provinces. It defeated all the plans of the conspirators, who had not
intended to have flown to arms until the _next Spring_, when their
arrangements would have been fully made and organised. This fact I had
from Bouchette, and three or four of the ringleaders, whom I visited in
prison. They intended to have had the leaf on the tree, and the cold
weather over, before they commenced operations; and had they waited till
then the result might have been very serious, but the issue of the
warrants for the apprehension of the leaders placed them in the awkward
dilemma of either being deprived of them, or of having recourse to arms
before their plans were fully matured. The latter was the alternative
preferred; and the results of this unsuccessful attempt are well
described in Lord Durham's report:--

"The treasonable attempt of the French party to carry its political
objects into effect by an appeal to arms, brought these hostile races
into general and armed collision. I will not dwell on the melancholy
scenes exhibited in the progress of the contest, or the fierce passions
which held an unchecked sway during the insurrection, or immediately
after its suppression. It is not difficult to conceive how greatly the
evils, which I have described as previously existing, have been
aggravated by the war; how terror and revenge nourished, in each portion
of the population, a bitter and irreconcilable hatred to each other, and
to the institutions of the country. The French population, who had for
some time exercised a great and increasing power through the medium of
the House of Assembly, found their hopes unexpectedly prostrated in the
dust. The physical force which they had vaunted was called into action,
and proved to be utterly inefficient. The hope of recovering their
previous ascendancy under a constitution similar to that suspended,
almost ceased to exist. Removed from all actual share in the government
of their smaller country, they brood in silence over the memory of their
fallen countrymen, of their burnt villages, of their ruined property, of
their extinguished ascendancy, and of their humbled nationality. To the
Government and the English they ascribe these wrongs, and nourish
against both an indiscriminating and eternal animosi