Some are of the opinion that the fighting lasted an hour; but there are different opinions on this point. Mackenzie remained on the scene of action till the last moment; and till the mounted loyalists were just closing upon him. "So unwilling was Mackenzie to leave the field of battle," says an eye witness, "and so hot the chase after him, that he distanced the enemy's horsemen only thirty or forty yards, by his superior knowledge of the country, and reached Col. Lount and our friends on the retreat, just in time to save his neck."* Immediately £1,000 reward was offered for his apprehension. This day was the turning point

with rifles, and for a short time, favored by buildings, stood their ground." There were no buildings except a few scattered on the side of the road, through one of which the loyalists drove some shots.

* William Alves' letter to the Editor of the New York Reformer: Mr. Mackenzie's conduct, on this occasion, has been subject to much misrepresentation-chiefly the result of political malice. It is therefore better that I should give the statement of persons who were present, and who were in a position to know the facts. In an unpublished letter, addressed to Mr. Mackenzie, and dated Watertown, N. Y., August 13, 1838, I find the following statement:-"We are very sorry to learn from your kind letter, that any person should charge you with cowardice, in any part of your proceedings in Canada; and we are all ready to bear evidence of your courage and patriotism on the occasion of the first outbreak in that country." Signed, Edward Kennedy, John Stewart, jr., Thomas Tracy, Thomas Shepard, William Stockdale, Walter Chase, Michael Shepard, Gilbert T. Morden.

He always kept a copy of this proclamation framed and hung up in a conspicuous part of his house :

:

46

"PROCLAMATION.

By His Excellency, Sir Francis Bond Head, Baronet, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, &c., &c. To the Queen's faithful subjects in Upper Canada,

"In a time of profound peace, while every one was quietly following his occupation, feeling secure under the protection of our laws, a band of Rebels, instigated by a few malignant and disloyal men, has had the wickedness and audacity to assemble with arms, and to attack and murder the Queen's subjects on

in his career. It witnessed the almost total wreck of long cherished hopes. The hope of peaceable reform had for some time been extinguished; that of successful revolution had been next indulged. Instead of finding himself the hero of a revolution, he only preserved his life by going into exile. Foiled in an enterprise in which he risked all, he lost all. Ruined in pro

the highway, to burn and destroy their property, to rob the public mails, and to threaten to plunder the banks, and to fire the City of Toronto.

"Brave and loyal people of Upper Canada, we have long been suffering from the acts and endeavors of concealed traitors, but this is the first time that Rebellion has dared to show itself openly in the land, in the absence of invasion by any foreign enemy.

Let every man do his duty now, and it will be the last time that we or our children shall see our lives or properties endangered, or the authority of our Gracious Queen insulted by such treacherous and ungrateful men. Militia men of Upper Canada, no country has ever shown a finer example of loyalty and spirit than you have given upon this sudden call of duty. Young and old of all ranks are flocking to the standard of their country. What has taken place will enable our Queen to know Her friends from Her enemies. A public enemy is never so dangerous as a concealed traitor. And now, my friends, let us complete well what is begun. Let us not return to our rest till treason and traitors are revealed to the light of day, and rendered harmless throughout the land.

"Be vigilant, patient, and active; leave punishment to the laws. Our first object is, to arrest and secure all those who have been guilty of rebellion, murder, and robbery. And to aid us in this, a reward is hereby offered of one thousand pounds, to any one who will apprehend, and deliver up to justice William Lyon Mackenzie; and five hundred pounds to any one who will apprehend and deliver up to justice David Gibson, or Samuel Lount, or Jesse Lloyd, or Silas Fletcher; and the same reward and a free pardon will be given to any of their accomplices who will render this public service, except he or they shall have committed, in his own person, the crime of murder or arson. And all, but the leaders above named, who have been seduced to join in this unnatural rebellion, are hereby called to return to their duty to their Sovereign, to obey the laws, and to live henceforward as good and faithful subjects; and they will find the Government of their Queen as indulgent as it is just.

"God save the Queen.

THURSDAY, 4 o'clock, P. M., December 7.

"The party of rebels, under their chief leaders, is wholly dispersed, and

perty,* blighted in prospect, exiled and outlawed, with a price upon his head, how complete was the wreck of his fortune and his hopes!

The Lieutenant Governor thought it necessary, so he has told the world, to "mark and record, by some stern act of vengeance, the important victory" that had been achieved over the insurgent forces. In the presence of the militia, he determined to burn Montgomery's hotel and Gibson's dwelling house. In

flying before the loyal militia. The only thing that remains to be done is, to find them and arrest them."

* His ruin resulted from the failure of the insurrection. At the time of the outbreak, his printing establishment was the largest and the best in Upper Canada; and, although not rich, he was in good circumstances. In the previous year his account for public printing was $4,000. His book store contained 20,000 volumes, and he had an extensive bindery. He had town lots in Dundas, a farm lot in Garafraxa, and a claim to a proportion of the immense Randall estate. A large amount was owing to him; and all he owed was only about £750. Such of his moveable property as was not destroyed by violence or stolen was never satisfactorily accounted for; though part of it went to pay some of his creditors, who got judgment against him under the fiction of an absconding debtor.

† Emigrant.

Sir F. Head has given the following account of this burning: "Volume after volume of deep, black smoke, rolling and rising from the windows of Montgomery's tavern now attracted my attention. This great and lofty building, entirely constructed of timber and planks, was soon a mass of flames, whose long red tongues sometimes darted horizontally, as if revengefully to consume those who had created them, and then flared high above the roof. As we sat on our horses the heat was intense; and while the conflagration was the subject of joy and triumph to the gallant spirits that immediately sur rounded it, it was a lurid telegraph which intimated to many an anxious and aching heart at Toronto the joyful intelligence that the yeomen and farmers of Upper Canada had triumphed over their perfidious enemy, 'responsible government.'"-Emigrant. For this sneer at responsible government, there might have been some excuse at a time when opinion was divided as to the merits of the system, as applied to a colony; but when The Emigrant was written, responsible government had tranquilized Canada and made it prosperous and happy.'

surgent prisoners alleged that Sir F. Head was urged to include the residence of Mr. J. H. Price in the programme of destruction, but that he refused to act upon the suggestion. But if he executed stern vengeance, he showed that he was not incapable of performing an act of clemency. He released several of the prisoners almost as soon as captured, bidding them go to their homes and return to their duties of allegiance. In some cases, however, the men, though released, were arrested again almost as soon as they arrived home, without having been guilty of any new act that would have warranted such a procedure.* After the defeat of the insurgents, and their retreat above Montgomery's, it would be difficult to justify these burnings on the plea of necessity; and indeed, the Lieutenant Governor, by whom they were ordered, does not appear to have felt the least embarrassment in describing them as an act of vengeance.

The British Government afterwards pardoned some of these prisoners on the ground that the Proclamation contained a full amnesty of their offences.

CHAPTER V.

The Canadian Militia in 1837-Mackenzie's Account of his Escape from Montgomery's to the American Shore, with Notes by the Author.

THE militia who went to the succor of the Government was not generally a more warlike body of men than the insurgents under Lount. They were drawn from the same class-the agriculturists-and were similarly armed and equipped. A description of a party-as given to me by an eye-witness-who came down from the North, would answer, with a very slight variation, for the militia of any other part of the Province. A number of persons collected at Bradford, on the Monday or Tuesday, not one third of whom had arms of any kind; and many of those who were armed had nothing better than pitchforks, rusty swords, dilapidated guns, and newly manufactured pikes, with an occasional bayonet on the end of a pole. These persons, without the least authority of law, set about a disarming process; depriving every one who refused to join them, or whom they chose to suspect of disloyalty, of his arms. Powder was taken from stores, wherever found, without the least ceremony, and without payment. On Thursday, a final march from Bradford for Toronto was commenced; the number of men being nearly five hundred, including