that parliament would feel a just indignation at the
attempts which had been made to excite discontent and to organize
sedition, accompanied by the hint and suggestion that should it appear
to parliament that a convention of delegates could not exist without
danger to the constitution, in framing a law of prevention,
parliamentary wisdom would be careful that it should not unwarily
trespass on that sacred right of the subject to seek a redress of his
grievances by petition. Mr. Robert Gourlay, of Craigrothie, Fifeshire,
in Scotland, had emigrated to Upper Canada, with the view of settling
himself and family and indeed of making a settlement in some suitable
spot. Mr. Guthrie had peculiar ideas with regard to emigration, free
trade, and liberty of speech. He was a democrat, but not, by any means,
a republican. He was not politically connected with either Cobbett or
Hunt, although he seems to have known both of these gentlemen. He was
not in the habit of attending such meetings as those that were held at
Spa-fields and were then termed "radical" meetings, although he had
been at a meeting in Spa-fields. He had been both in Ireland and in the
United States, but he was neither an Irish rebel nor an American
revolutionist. He had only a bee in his bonnet, which has since buzzed
in the bonnets of a very great number of men, whose loyalty or
patriotism has not been even doubted, and, who, consequently, have
never been marked "dangerous" by a colonial Justice of the Peace. Mr.
Guthrie conceived that Canada was capable of absorbing about 50,000 of
the poor of England, Ireland, and Scotland, annually; that a land tax
was preferable to taxes on trade and manufactures, especially in a new
country; that there should be three description of roads--provincial,
district, and township; that it would be advantageous to connect the
lakes of the St. Lawrence together, and permit the free navigation of
the Canadian inland waters from Lake Superior to the sea; that free
trade should exist; and that there should be no hindrance to the
expression of public opinion, however offensive to the authorities such
public opinion might be. Mr. Guthrie arrived in Canada in the summer of
1817, and after looking around him, determined upon establishing
himself as a land agent. He had, in truth, conceived schemes for a
grand system of emigration, and set about obtaining statistics with the
view of setting forth the capabilities of the country to the people