led
this question has already been seen in the record of the recent debates
in parliament. Having appointed a special council, consisting of
five members only, he, with the sanction of this council, issued an
ordinance, which, after reciting that Wolf Nelson, and seven others
therein named, had acknowledged their participation in high-treason, and
submitted themselves to her majesty's pleasure, and that Papineau with
fifteen others had absconded, enacted that it should be lawful for her
majesty to transport Nelson and his seven associates to Bermuda, during
pleasure, there to be subjected to such restraints as should be deemed
fit; and further, that if any person of the above classes should be
found at large, or within the province without permission, they should
be deemed guilty of high-treason, and on conviction of coming within the
province, suffer death. The ordinance further empowered the governor
for the time being to grant, whenever he should think fit, permission to
all, or any, of the above-named individuals to return to the province.
By a special clause two other classes of persons implicated in the
murder of Lieutenant Weir and one Joseph Chartrand, were excluded from
the operation of the ordinance, and from the benefit of any amnesty
which might be proclaimed. The ordinance was accompanied by a
proclamation of amnesty, which declared that, with the exception of
the persons named therein, all persons then in custody on a charge of
high-treason, or who had withdrawn themselves from justice beyond the
limits of the province, should, on giving proper security, be at liberty
to return to their own homes. What views were taken in the imperial
parliament has been seen. During the debates there, Lord Durham applied
himself to the consideration of questions connected with the management
of the crown-lands within his dominion. He formed a design for making
these lands more subservient to the purpose of emigration than they
had hitherto been. A commission of inquiry into the disposal of the
crown-lands to that end was issued by him, and he directed similar
investigations to be instituted in the other colonies subject to his
control. Subsequently his lordship commenced a progress through the two
provinces; and, according to his despatches, he was warmly greeted on
every hand. He writes:--"Everywhere, in the most insignificant village,
as in the most populous town, I have been received with the utmost
enthusiasm: in fact,