ere were others of his class not so fortunate.
A gentleman named Francis Collins, lately arrived in the country, from
Ireland, with a small competency, established a newspaper which he
called _The Canadian Freeman_. Mr. Collins commented on the
ruinous policy of the administration. But he did it too fervently for
the tories. Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Governor, ordered him to be
prosecuted, and upon what grounds may be gained from the fact of the
trial being put off, and the proceedings afterwards discontinued. The
end was answered. Smarting under a sense of ill-usage, he became more
severe upon the government, and perhaps did ascribe to them more than
was true. He was prosecuted by Mr. Attorney General Robinson, a
wonderfully able man then, and now Sir John Beverly Robinson, and Chief
Justice in Canada West, and with the aid of Messrs. Justices Hagerman
and Sherwood, a verdict of guilty was brought in against him. According
to a "resolution" of the House of Assembly an "oppressive and
unwarrantable sentence" was passed upon him. Whether or no, he was
thrust into prison. The House of Assembly applied to the Governor for
his release in vain. It was not until the king came to hear of his
situation that he was released, with a broken constitution, which
brought him to the grave in the flower of his manhood. It was so that
Sir Peregrine Maitland and the clique who surrounded him persecuted the
press, with the view of concealing from England the true state of
public opinion, in the colony. Men submit to terrible injustice before
they rebel. An able despot might so manage as to inflict almost unheard
of cruelties upon individuals without driving a population to arms. Men
with wives and families and properties, however inconsiderable in value
such properties may be, are unwilling to risk their all, at the tap of
the drum, until wrought up to it by desperation. There is a feeling of
respect for authority, a regard for that which is believed to be law, a
peculiar sense of duty towards the State in most men, which prevents
them from assuming a position even of firmness in the assertion of
their rights. In a colony there are thousands who bring with them
recollections of home and of home institutions, and who cannot be
brought to believe that an English gentleman will pursue a course of
policy, as the governor of a colony, which the Queen of England has too
much good sense to assume, even if she could do it, in the United
Kingdom.