was sent on the expedition to
the Cape of Good Hope, where, in the reduction and conquest of that
most important settlement, with the co-operation of Admiral Sir G. K.
Elphinstone and Major General Clarke, he attained to the highest pitch
of military reputation. Nor were his merits less conspicuous, it is
said, in the admirable plans of civil regulation, introduced by him in
that hostile quarter, when invested with the chief authority, civil and
military, till succeeded in that position by the Earl of Macartney, who
was deputed by the King to invest General Craig with the Red Ribbon, as
a mark of his sovereign's sense of his distinguished services. Sir
James served, subsequently, in India and in the Mediterranean, where he
contracted a dropsy, the result of an affection of the liver. This was
the officer, of an agreeable but impressive presence, stout, and rather
below the middle stature, manly and dignified in deportment, positive
in his opinions, and decisive in his measures, though social, polite,
and affable, who was sent out to govern Canada because a rupture with
the United States was considered probable. Sir James on arrival at
Quebec did not, however, consider hostilities imminent. Nor did he
immediately organize the militia. But he lauded the Canadians for the
heroic spirit which they had manifested. One of his first acts was to
release from prison a number of persons convicted of insubordination,
and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the gaol of Montreal.
The militia of the parish of L'Assomption, in the district of Montreal,
had formed a painful exception in the spirit which they exhibited on
being called upon to enrol for service, to that which had been
exhibited everywhere else. But the rioting had been immediately
suppressed, and the rioters punished by the ordinary Courts at
Montreal. In gaol the rioters manifested contrition, promised good
behaviour for the future, and Sir James, overlooking the faults of the
few in consideration of the general merit, set the prisoners free. On
the 29th of January, 1808, he convened the Legislature. He regretted,
in his opening speech, that there was little probability of a speedy
cessation of hostilities, in Europe. He congratulated the "honorable
gentlemen," and "gentlemen," on the capture of Copenhagen and the
Danish fleet, defending the morality of the offensive measures against
Denmark. He lamented the discussions that had taken place between His
Majesty's