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The lots selected by the Laird of McNab to cover his grant of 5,000 acres made to him in Council, 29th June last, are principally those lots located in the names of his followers. I was therefore under the necessity of withholding the description until the pleasure of Your Excellency could be had thereon.
(Signed)J. Radenhurst.
Sur.-General's Office, 20th July, '38.
In Council, 11th Oct., 1838.
The Council cannot recommend a location to the Laird of McNab of lands located to his settlers.
(Signed)R. B Sullivan.
(Signed)G. A.
This was a wholesome scheme of vengeance as flagitious and vindictive as it was heartless and unprincipled. The Laird had, when marking out the lots to be patented to him, inserted in the diagram of the Township that some of the original locatees were dead; others had fled to the United States; and others again had abandoned their lots and gone to reside in a neighboring county; and he was believed. The nefarious intrigue was frustrated by a mere accident. The hand of Providence had interfered to save the poor and oppressed settlers from utter ruin. Mr. T. M. Radenhurst, of Perth, was in Toronto on the 12th July, 1838, attending to some law business, when in a casual conversation with his brother, Mr. J. Radenhurst, of the Surveyor-General's office, the affairs of the Township of McNab came upon the carpet, and Mr. T. Radenhurst informed his brother that the settlers represented as dead and absconded were living upon the lands located to them by the Chief, and for which lots he had applied to be covered by his patent. Immediately upon hearing this intelligence, Mr. J. Radenhurst forwarded to the Lieut.-Governor the remonstrance dated the 13th of July, 1838. All further action in the matter was stayed until inquiries should be made.
In August of the same year Lord Durham appointed a commission to investigate the affairs of the township. It sat in Toronto. Not a single settler was examined. The archives of the Crown Lands Department were alone searched into. Discrepancies were discovered between the original assignment of the township for settlement and the manner in which McNab had carried on the business of his agency. The Chief was condemned. The Commission recommended the immediate deprivation from the Chief of all further power, and that the original grant should be carried out in all its integrity. That these settlers who came to the country at their own expense should receive their lands free, and that those brought out by the Laird should pay for their lands at a valuation, and the proceeds be handed over to the Chief. This report was made in October. Immediately upon its substance being communicated to the Government of Upper Canada, the order for the patent to the Chief on the located lands (that is the lots of the settlers), was rescinded, as appears by the Hon. R. B. Sullivan's and Sir George Arthur's order of October, 1838, already published; but the equitable arrangement proposed by Lord Durham's investigating committee was indefinitely postponed. That nobleman, proud, haughty, and unrestrained in his indignation when aroused, took mortal offence at the attack made upon him by Lord Brougham in the House of Lords. He at once threw up his commission, left Sir John Colborne in his place, and went to England. With the exception of Sir George Arthur, the Laird's friends were now in power. The Family Compact still held the reigns of government, and although they dare not patent the settlers' lands to the Chief, they allowed the question to remain in abeyance.
In the meantime McNab proceeded with his suits at the Fall Assizes. In that one against Mr. Allan Stewart, although the timber had been cut on his own located lot, the Chief was eminently successful, and obtained a verdict of some £40. His suit against Duncan McNab (Isla), also came on, and notwithstanding the law and the Judge's charge, the jury brought in a verdict for the defendant. It was a Dalhousie and Lanark jury that decided the case. They themselves had suffered oppression at home.
They looked to the justice of the case—not to the law of real property—and in spite of the ruling of the judge, the Chief was defeated. It was only a temporary success; yet, such as it was, it diffused unbounded joy throughout the whole township,—McNab was not invincible. He could be conquered by his own weapons. What was accomplished now might be achieved again. Threats of new trials did not deter them from determined resistance. A subscription was got up and placed in a common fund to defray law expenses in opposing the Chief. A regular and systematic organization of the whole township was effected; and this was the state of affairs in December of this year, when the second rebellion broke out. A party of American sympathizers had invaded the country at Windsor. Those in West were soon put down. At Prescott it was different. They had a determined leader end a good general. Von Schoultz had taken possession of the windmill and the house adjoining. The first attacks of the Glengarry Highlanders and the regular troops were repulsed with great loss of life. This was the news that reached the Ottawa. The Chief, as Colonel, called out his regiment. They assembled at Pakenham, 900 strong. A call was made for volunteers. It was almost unanimously responded to by Fitzroy and Pakenham; but the people of McNab held aloof. They would not volunteer under their Chief. They remembered the fate of some of the "Breadalbane Fencibles" under his uncle in 1798. They had volunteered to defend the country against the French,—Lord Breadalbane, as Colonel, and Francis Chief of McNab as Major, tendered the services of the Fencibles to the Government to put down the rebellion in Ireland. An order was made for their departure. They refused to go. It was contrary to their agreement when they entered the service. They openly mutinied, and go they would not. A cavalry and an infantry regiment of the line were drawn up to compel them to march. The Highlanders, instead of submitting prepared themselves for battle and resolved to lie dead on the field of Dunbar sooner than budge a step.—Muskets were loaded on both sides, and the novel spectacle of three British regiments drawn up in hostile array against each other, for the first time presented itself. The officers were obliged to submit. The order was countermanded, and the men returned peaceably to their quarters. Seven of the ringleaders were seized during the night, and were next morning tried by court-martial, and shot. The people of McNab remembered this, and they determined not to give McNab the slightest chance over them. In the evening of the same day, instigated, as some imagined, by the Chief, a fight took place between some of the Orangemen and Highlanders. The poor settlers were looked upon by the ultra loyal as rebels, not only to their Chief, but to the Government; and to punish them severely was now the object of the Irishmen of Pakenham and Fitzroy. Although they numerically surpassed the McNab settlers, about five to one, the Highlanders fought bravely. They were compelled to retreat to Mrs. McFarlane's old house, in which they defended themselves with the utmost resolution. Frying-pans, pokers, tongs, kettles, brooms, and every article of any solidity, were used as weapons of war. The fight lasted till night, when both parties became tired of the contest; some ugly wounds were given and received; and a man of the name of Porter was so badly injured that he died in ten days afterwards. News reached Pakenham that night that the rebels were totally discomfitted, and that Von Schoultz and most of his gang were taken prisoners. This was the final effort of the insurgents, or of their friends. Peace was finally restored, and the home Government earnestly set to work to redress the grievances of the colonies. Hope began to dawn upon the McNab settlers. Their petition to Lord Durham had not only been listened to, but acted upon. McNab's fraudulent scheme of obtaining their lands was completely frustrated, and at the close of this year the people looked forward to a speedy and equitable adjustment of all the matters in dispute between themselves and the Chief; but they had struggles yet before them; McNab was not going to yield up his advantages without a desperate effort. The struggle was yet to be protracted for four years before ample redress could be obtained.