in the army to distinguish himself by his defence of Minorca when besieged by the French and Spanish. The French fleet, on leaving Brest in June, joined that of Spain, and both fleets sailed to Minorca, and landed a large force under the duc de Crillon amounting to 12,000 men. The British garrison at St. Philip's castle consisted of the two British regiments, the 51st and 61st, and two Hanoverian regiments, the 2nd battalions of Prince Ernest and of Golacker, all of them greatly reduced by sickness. The story is well known of de Crillon making an offer of £100,000 to Murray to surrender the fortress, with a commission of equal rank, either in the French or Spanish service. Murray's reply was one of indignation and defiance. The struggle was prolonged during the winter, even with the disparity of force. On one occasion, a successfully directed sally drove de Crillon from his headquarters at cape Molas. The defence was desperately persevered in, even when the garrison was afflicted by putrid fever, scurvy and dysentery. At the close of winter, 700 men only were reported for duty, many of these suffering from dysentery. Minorcal capitulated on the 5th of February, 1782, with the full honours of war, the remarkable defence made gaining for the commander and his troops the most respectful treatment. Murray's connection with Canadian history exacts that his last appearance in public life should be recorded in his own words; there are indeed few narratives more touching or that display greater devotion to duty. "Such was the uncommon spirit of the king's soldiers, that they concealed their disorders and inability rather than go into hospital, several men died on guard, after having stood sentry; their fate was not discovered till called upon, when it came to their turn to mount again. Perhaps a more noble nor a more tragical scene was ever exhibited than that of the march of the garrison of St. Philipp's through the Spanish and French armies. It consisted of no more than 600 old decrepit soldiers, 200 seamen, 120 of the royal artillery, 20 Corsicans, 25 Greeks, Turks, Moors, Jews, etc. The two armies were drawn up in two lines, the battalions fronting each other, forming a way for us

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to march through; they consisted of 14,000 men, and reached from the glacis to Georgetown, where our battalions laid down their arms, declaring that they had surrendered them to God alone, having the consolation to know the victors would not plume themselves in taking an hospital.”*

Many of the French and Spanish soldiers were affected to tears as this handful of broken, wasted men marched between the lines more with the pride of conquerors than with the depression of defeat. The drums were beating, the colours flying, as with shouldered arms and ammunition in their pouches, the few hundred who remained of the British and Hanoverian regiments, without the tinge of a blush, passed before the thousands whom for six months they had kept at bay. Four pieces of cannon with two guns followed, the gunners holding two lighted matches. It is due to the conquerors, to bear testimony to the generous and considerate treatment they extended to these gallant men.

Murray died at his house, Great George street, Westminster, on the 19th of March, 1794, a major-general in the army, colonel of the 72nd foot, governor of fort William in Scotland, and M.P. for Perthshire. The family estates passed to his uncle the duke of Athol. When his body was opened for embalmment several bullets by which he had been wounded in Germany and America were discovered. †

Such was the first British governor-in-chief after the conquest. In the long roll of unblemished good service and the record of his honourable fidelity to his trust and duty, no passage of his life stands out in brighter colours, than the period during which he turned a deaf ear to intolerance and the spirit of persecution, and strove to shew to the new subjects of the crown how truly beneficent, just and noble, with all its errors, the rule of great Britain has ever proved itself to be.

GENERAL MURRAY'S LETTER TO THE EARL OF SHELBURNE.

Murray's letter to lord Shelburne was first brought to notice in "Lambert's Travels through Canada and the United States," which appeared in 1814. It had almost passed out of memory, when in 1886, in a volume written by me, "Canadian Archæology," I drew attention to it by publishing the greater portion of the text. As the letter is not there given in its entirety, and in order as an historical document that it may be generally accessible, I append it in full as it appears in the Haldimand collection in the Archive branch, Ottawa [B., 8, p. 1].

"MY LORD,

"LONDON, 20th August, 1766.

In Mr. Secretary Conway's letter to me of the 24th October, 1764, I am ordered to prepare for my return to England, in order to give a full and distinct account of the present state of the province of Quebec, of the nature and causes of the disorders and divisions which have happened in the province, and of my own conduct and proceedings in the administration of the government.

"In obedience to that command I have the honour to report as follows:

STATE OF THE PROVINCE.

"It consists of one hundred and ten parishes, exclusive of the towns of Quebec and Montreal. These parishes contain 9,722 houses, and 54,575 Christian souls; they occupy 955,754 arpents of arable land. In the year 1765 they sowed 180, 3001⁄2 minots of grain, and that year they possessed 12,546 oxen; 22,724 cows, 15,039 young horned cattle, 27,064 sheep, 28,976 swine, and 13,757 horses, as appears by the recapitulation of the recensement taken by my order in the year 1765. The towns of Quebec and Montreal contain about 14,700 inhabitants. The savages, who are called Roman Catholics, living within the limits of the province, consist of 7.400 souls, so that the whole, exclusive of the king's troops, doth amount to 76,675 souls, of which in the parishes are nineteen protestant families, the rest of that persuasion, a few half-pay officers excepted, are traders, mechanics, and publicans, who reside in the two towns of Quebec and Montreal. Most of them were followers of the army, of mean education, or soldiers disbanded at the reduction of the troops. All have their fortunes to make, and I fear few of them are solicitous about the means when the end can be obtained. I report them to be in general the most immoral collection of men I ever knew; of course little calculated to make the new subjects enamoured with our laws, religion and customs, far less adapted to enforce these laws and to govern.

"On the other hand the Canadians, accustomed to arbitrary and a sort of military government, are a frugal, industrious, moral race of men who, from the just and mild treatment they met with from His Majesty's military officers, who ruled the country four years, until the establishment of civil government, had greatly got the better of the natural antipathy they had to their conquerors.

"They consist of a noblesse who are numerous, and who pique themselves much upon the antiquity of their families, their own military glory and that of

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their ancestors. The noblesse are seigneurs of the whole country, and though not rich, are in a situation, in that plentiful part of the world where money is scarce and luxury still unknown, to support their dignity. The inhabitants, their tenanciers, who pay only an annual quit rent of about a dollar for one hundred acres, are at their ease and comfortable. They have been accustomed to respect and obey their noblesse, their tenures being military in the feudal manner. They have shared with them the dangers of the field, and natural affection has been increased in proportion to the calamities which have been common to both from the conquest of their country. As they have been taught to respect their superiors, and not yet intoxicated with the abuse of liberty, they are shocked at the insults which their noblesse and the King's officers have received from the English traders and lawyers since the civil government took place.

"It is natural to suppose they are jealous of their religion. They are very ignorant. It was the policy of the French Government to keep them so. Few or none can read. Printing was never permitted in Canada till we got possession of it. Their veneration for the priesthood is in proportion to that ignorance. It will probably decrease as they become enlightened. For the clergy they are very illiterate and of mean birth, and as they are now debarred from supplies of ecclesiastics from France, that order of men will become more and more contemptible, provided they are not exposed to persecution.

"The state of the Roman Catholic clergy I have already fully described in my report to your Lordship's office in the year 1763, it will therefore be superfluous to say more on that subject, as no alteration has happened since that time.

"I am really ignorant of any remarkable disorders, which have happened in the colony while I commanded there; the outrage committed on Mr. Walker, the magistrate at Montreal, excepted; a thorough detail of that horrid affair I have already laid before the King's servants in my letter to the Lords of Trade of the 2nd of March, 1765. I have annexed a copy of that letter, in case it may not have fallen into your Lordship's hands.

"Disorders and divisions from the nature of things could not be avoided in attempting to establish the civil government in Canada, agreable to my instructions. The same troops who conquered and governed the country four years remained in it. They were commanded by an officer, who, by the civil establishment, had been deprived of the government of half the Province, and who remained in every respect independent of the Civil Government.

"Magistrates were to be made and juries to be composed from four hundred and fifty contemptible sutlers and traders. It is easy to conceive how the narrow ideas and ignorance of such men must offend any troops, more especially those who had so long governed them, and knew the meanness from which they had been elevated. It would be very unreasonable to suppose that such men would not be intoxicated with the unexpected power put into their hands, and that they would not be eager to show how amply they possessed it. As there were no barracks in the country, the quartering the troops furnished perpetual opportunity of displaying their importance and rancour. The Canadian noblesse were hated because their birth and behaviour entitled them to respect, and the peasants were abhorred because they were saved from the oppression they were threatened with. The presentments of the Grand Jury at Quebec puts the truth of these

remarks beyond a doubt, the silence of the King's servants to the Governor's remonstrance in consequence of these presentments, though his secretary was sent home on purpose to expedite an explanation, contributed to encourage the disturbers of the peace.

The improper choice and the number of the civil officers sent over from England increased the disquietude of the colony. Instead of men of genius and untainted morals, the reverse were appointed to the most important offices, under whom it was impossible to communicate those impressions of the dignity of Government, by which alone mankind can be held together in society. The Judge pitched upon to conciliate the minds of seventy-five thousand foreigners to the laws and government of Great Britain, was taken from a gaol, entirely ignorant of Civil Law and the language of the people. The Attorney-General, with regard to the language, was not better qualified. The offices of the Secretary of the Province, Registrar, Clerk of the Council, Commissary of Stores and Provisions, Provost Marshal, &ca., were given by patent to men of interest in England, who let them out to the best bidders, and so little considered the capacity of their representatives that not one of them understood the language of the natives. As no salary was annexed to these Patent places, the value of them depended upon the Fees, which, by my instructions, I was ordered to establish equal to those in the richest ancient Colonies. This heavy task, and the rapacity of the English lawyers, was severely felt by the poor Canadians. But they patiently submitted; and, though stimulated to dispute it by some of the licentious traders from New York, they cheerfully obeyed the Stamp Act, in hopes that their good behaviour would recommend them to the favour and protection of their Sovereign.

"As the Council Books of the Province, and likewise my answers to the complaints made against my administration, have been laid before your Lordship, it is needless, I presume, to say anything further on that subject than that I glory in having been accused of warmth and firmness in protecting the King's Canadian subjects, and of doing the utmost in my power to gain to my royal master the affections of that brave, hardy people, whose emigration, if ever it shall happen, will be an irreparable loss to this Empire, to prevent which, I declare to your Lordship, I would cheerfully submit to greater calumnies and indignities, if greater can be devised, than hitherto I have undergone."