both of the
government and of the Receiver General, with voluminous papers to be
submitted to the Lords of the Treasury. When, however, Lord Dalhousie
returned to Quebec from Nova Scotia, he was informed by the Receiver
General that he was unable to meet any further warrants to be drawn
upon him. Under such circumstances it only remained for the
Governor-in-Chief to appoint a commission of two gentlemen to inspect
and control the operations of the Receiver General; and he took upon
himself the responsibility of granting loans from the military chest,
to meet the urgent necessities of the civil government. But two days
before the House had been assembled, no intimation having been received
from the imperial authorities, that the claims advanced by the Receiver
General, on the part of the province, would be admitted, he had been
compelled to suspend the Receiver General until the pleasure of the
king should be known with regard to him, or, at least, until
arrangements should be made for replacing the deficient balance in the
public chest. Mr. Caldwell was to be pitied, if not excused. His
father, his predecessor in the Receiver Generalship, had left him a
defalcation of L40,000 to be made good from a salary of L500 a year.
Mr. Caldwell was compelled to engage in trade, and he did engage in
trade successfully. He acquired large property. His estate at Lauzon
was worth L1,500 a year, but then he bought his estate, to make good
his father's deficiencies, by trading on the public monies, and he
entailed the estate on his son, to prevent its falling into the hands
of the province, with whose means he had improved it, previously to
announcing that he was a defaulter towards the province to the extent
of L96,117. This was not honorable and deserves neither pity nor
excuse. The courts of law would not countenance the entail. The
pretended entail was dismissed in the Canadian courts and dismissed in
the courts of law in England. It was not to be supposed that Mr.
Caldwell could keep an estate improved at the public expense, on the
condition only of paying, during his life, L1,500 a year, out of it, to
government. But Mr. Caldwell had a claim upon the province. He had paid
out large sums of money, for which he was as much entitled to 3 per
cent as was the Receiver General of Upper Canada. He and his father had
received a million and a half, the per centage on which, at 3 per cent,
was L45,471, which ought in equity to be allowed him