An aspect of Howard's conduct, which won Stayner's warm commendation, was his withholding himself from all forms of political activity. "People in our department," wrote Stayner to Howard, some years before, "cannot too carefully abstain from identifying themselves with factions or parties of any kind."
Secure in the approbation of his chief, Howard, following his natural inclination, moved quietly through the troubled times, which were heading for an outbreak, and delivered the letters to Loyalist and Reformer, to Tory and Radical, with even-handed indifference. It would seem, too, that in the choice of his friends, he exhibited a like insensibility to the explosive possibilities of some of their opinions.
A few days after the public disturbances began, it was intimated to Howard that his general attitude towards affairs was not quite satisfactory, and he at once demanded an investigation. There was nothing to investigate. But a hint was conveyed to him that he was too intimate with "those people."
It was decided to have the correspondence of suspects placed under surveillance. But the duty was not confided to Howard. Letters supposed to contain information of the rebels were sent to the bank of Upper Canada, where they were subjected to scrutiny.
On December 13, 1837, eight days after the rebellion broke out, at Montgomery's Tavern, Toronto, Howard was removed from his office by the orders of the lieutenant governor. He was replaced by Berezy, the post office inspector, who throughout the rebellion was active as the confidential agent of Bond Head. Howard appealed to the lieutenant governor, protesting his perfect loyalty, and declaring that so far from concerning himself with politics, he had never voted in his life.
No statement could have been more unfortunate. Head, always a partisan, was unable to understand how a man could suppose himself to be loyal, and confess to such a degree of indifference, when the safety of the country was at stake. The admonition of the deputy postmaster general was pleaded. Bond Head would not listen. Friends of the government, of the tried qualities of Fitzgibbon, vouched for Howard's loyalty. It was to no purpose.
The lieutenant governor declared that he had his reasons for believing, not only that Howard favoured the disaffected party, but that he had actually become "subservient to the execution of the treasonable plans." No evidence has ever been produced to support these accusations. But Head, in his flamboyant style, prated about the struggle being waged between monarchy and democracy, and contrasted Howard's indifference with the zealous devotion of the chief justice and one of the judges, who, shedding the ermine, took up their muskets in the defence of the country—and their jobs and perquisites.
Head indulged himself in several similar excesses of authority, always justifying himself on the ground that he was a protagonist in a death struggle with the arch-enemy Democracy. When quiet was restored, Howard renewed his appeals for redress, but the clique surrounding the governor contrived to frustrate all his efforts in that direction.
In the spring of 1839, a robbery of the mails took place on the grand route, at a point between Kingston and Gananoque, under circumstances of peculiar aggravation.[256] The robbers, who lived on an island in the St. Lawrence, within the territory of the state of New York, made no attempt at concealment. They openly declared that this was only the first of a series of similar interferences with the courier passing between Upper and Lower Canada.
The New York state authorities, who were appealed to, were powerless to act, but the secretary of state at Albany intimated that it would not be regarded as a breach of amity if the Canadian officials arrested the robbers on the island. In view, however, of the excitement which prevailed at that period on both sides of the border, it was thought prudent to refrain from so provocative a proceeding.