^. '^^nOU A^ > IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 V^ 1^ itt 122 12.2 ■" U° 12.0 I.I — !!& Photographic Sciences Corporation NJ v (meening "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Les images suivantas ont At* roproduCtes avec le plus grand soln, compte tenu de la condition at de la nettet6 de l'exempiaire filmA, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim^e sont filmte en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dsrnlAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, salon la cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont f ilmAs en commen9ant par la premiire page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustratlon et en terminant par la darnlAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur ia dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ► signh!« "A SUIVRE", le symbols ▼ signifis "FIN". IVIaps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning In the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, plenches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de reduction diff Arents. Lorsqus le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un ssul cllchA, 11 sst film* A pertir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche i droite, et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images nAcesssire. Les disgrammes suivants illustrsnt la mithoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 i-^ns K S'^STJt-ercBT^ ' > H0¥ I LOST MY MONEY. $n (Bpsoh in 3u lift. 1 i. I I . Avant dejuger le juste 8'informe.—-4no«. G'est moins la perversity des m^chants que la foiblesse des bona qui fait le malheurs des families.— Xa JBoc/^^ottTcaw/^. r l i \t- V' It is understood that there are secrets in all families, and every man is said to have a skeleton in his own house. In a suit in whith I was Plaintiff, tried by a Montreal Jury in the year 1847, it was proved that there had been some secrets in my family. It was also proved that I had a skeleton or two. Louise de Shaffalis- koy — Widow Sutherland— was one of them This woman, whom my late father had for many years supported, at my expeme^ fur- nished my opponents with a letter which she had elicited from him. My natural, long my secret, then, as now, my open enemy, this woman, in return for the kindness I showed her son, thus endeavored to ruin me. But the trial extended over nine days, during seven of which it engaged the attention of the Jury till late, sometimes, indeed, until nine in the evening ; and, happily for me, thousands in daily attendance in Gourt necessarily heard all the details. f \ .t. ■1 h The Jury estimating Mrs. Sutherland at her just value, gave me a yerdict for a thousand dollars. Baffled on that occasion, she has returned to the charge, and in a trial between me and her son, the offspring of her adulterous intercourse with my late father, the same letter has been produced and fyled. In a case conducted under the new system, in a corner before a single Judge, the amount of publicity which attends a trial by Jury is unattainable. How, then, is that woman's malignity to be neutralised? The letter has been copied, and, from obvious motives, is industriously circulated. Thousands may have seen or may see it, and unexplained, uncontradicted, that letter is calculated to work irreparable injury. Fortunately the woman has thus released me from the obligation to keep her secret, always in such cases more or less implied ; and using the right of self-defence, I propose to show the form and pressure of the case. I publish, then, the leading facts of a domestic drama, of which I have been the victim if not the hero. It is a resolution formed twenty years ago. Sbme incidental disclosures may, it is true, affect those for whom it will be said that I am bound to manifest the utmost respect, a consideration which naturally had its influence with me. Parents, and especially aged parents, necessarily enlist public sympathy. A child contending against them must expect to be overwhelmed by an irresistible flood of prejudice. Was I to bfave this dangei^ or to continue to breAthe an atmosphere of calumny and opprobrium ? Undeservedly to endure life-long obloquy was one ailteirHative, to bring down upon my head a; per- fect avalanche of vituperation and odium in ftn attempt at ex- culpation was the other. It was a terrible dilemma : aild utterly disheartened, I intended to have trusted to a posthumous defence or at least to have t)ostponed it until I stood upon the brink of the grave. But I rtckoned v^ithout nliy host, for who could take into account the pertinacity of Mrs. Sutherland? It is that pertinacity t^rhich has Confirmed, and not otaly confirmed my resolution, but impelled ihe to hasten its execution. Admonished, too, by certain symt)tom3 indicating approaching loss of sight, and driven to the verge of frenzy by a decision rejecting a niost righteous claim, I dare affront the proverbial danger of Writing / a book. Granting ibat I owe much to those who giEtre me birth, I owe sorae.b'flg to myself; to truth and my descendants more. They may not repine at the sacrifice of a Ibrtune which (as chil- dren hare rights) they might justly have expected to inherit . but they have an undeniable interest in the matter debated be- tween Mrs, Sutherland and me. The poison that has blasted my hopes and prospeets may after my decease infect them. Am I not in duty bound to supply the antidote ? Foreseeing that the hatred and malice of Mrs. Sutherland, which has now en- ji<4 dured twenty-three years, may last for another score, I can calculate upon the inevitable result. Judges are but men, and ! prejudices extending to them may affect their decisions. It is at least certain that I am both assailed and resisted in the I Courts by men who speculate upon the unfavorable interpreta- * tion which is necessarily put upon my acts. Anticipating, then, a probable contingency, come what may, I propose to console and sustain those whom I have most tenderly loved, and in whom I hope to survive. What would be their sensations were I to sink silently into the grave, to die and make no sign? The narrative as well as the evidence on ^vbich it rests will be offered in the language of witnesses open to no suspicion, nor will any statement be found to rest upon my unsupported asser- tion. I shall, on the contrary, content myself with a word of explanation when the text might be unintelligible. I shall sub- ' mit a translation wherever it may seem requisite, and supply a connecting link. I may or may not suggest an inference, and I shall close with a few reflections. Such is my design^ ^ In June, 1821,» my father borrowed XCOO from Mr. J. E. Du- moulin, executor to the late Mr. Cress^. It was stipulated by the lender that Sir John Caldwell, my brother Thomas, and myself, should intervene as sureties. We all three subscribed a bond to that effect, but my brother died in 1826, leaving barely enough to pay his debts. Subsequently Sir John unfortunately became embarrassed, and my father never repaid the money. Uood before Badeaux and colleague, 30th Juno, 1821. Let me then note here JE600 0* I subsequently became surety for my father for £41,000 Of In December, 1836, my father's embarrassments were much increased, and with the knowledge of that fact I could not well request any man of fortune to join me in a bond on his behalf. I then had friends who possessed ample means. No man, however, could be expected to accede to such a request unless upon the understanding, express or implied, that he runs no danger, or at least without a full disclosure of all the cir- cumstances. Now there was danger, and I could not disclose the circumstances without ensuring my father's loss of office. I therefore applied to Mr. Morrison, then a student-at-law, avow- edly in narrow circumstances. In order to qualify him to become my father's surety, I divested myself, by a previous deed, of six * Until 1856 1 paid the interest upon this sum annually. In that year, to pay the principal, I disposed of some property in the very room in which 1 had contracted the obligation 35 years before. ' ' ^?' ^ • t Here follows a memorandum extracted from the records of the Office in which the bonds are deposited : — Memorandum of Names of Sureties, Dates and Amounts of Security affixed , to the several Bonds given by the Honorable Lewis Gugy, as Sheriff of th6 District of Montreal, viz. :— NAMES OF SUBBTIES. L. Gugy, A. Gugy, &, Ed. Burroughs, L. Gugy, Chas. Oakes Ermatinger, & A. Gugy, Lewis Gugy, by his Attorney, Wm. Stevenson, Chas. Oakes Ermatin- ger, by his Attorney, Cliarlcs Du- chesnay, and A. Gugy Lewis Gugy. by his Attorney, A. Gugy, James Charles Grant, by his Attorney, Ch. Duchesnay, and A. Gugy, • Lewis Gugy, S. C. Grant, & A. Qugy, L. Gugy, A. Gugy, & 8. C. Grant, .... L. Gugy. by his Attorney, A. Gugy, A. Gugy, and M. Morison, DisxmcT. Montreal, Ditto,... Ditto,... Ditto,... Ditto,... Ditto,... Ditto,... DATES. 19th June, 1837, . 4th May, 1829, . Ml 4th Jan., 1831,.... 28th Sept., 1833,. 7th May, 1835,. 30th Aug., 1839,. 26th Deo, 1836,. ▲M'TS. £5000 6000'= 6000 6000 6000 6000 6000 £41000 The four last of the above-mentioned Bonds were subscribed afl;er I had ascertained that my father was insolvent. In every case, a second surety appears to have intervened, but in fact I alone was responsible, for by a separate instrument I undertook, iu every instance, to indemnify and save harmless my fellow surety. i ■i^ Im I houses in the upper town of Quebec, then my property, which I transferred to him. There again I assumed the whole burden. Engrossed by professional pursuits at Quebec, I seldom repaired to Montreal. My father's income was large, and I inferred that he was prosperous. In August, 1833, however, I was present at the marriage of a lady, once the affianced bride of my deceased brother. On the thirteenth of that month I there learned that my father was involved. As f'iw people will have the patience to read the correspondence wuich follows, I submit transcripts of statements prepared by Mr. Perry, at once the Managing Clerk, Confidential Agent, Book-keeper, and Deputy of my father. Mr. Perry was empowered to draw checks, and accord- ingly did draw for many thousand pounds, under his own signa- ture. The statement bearing date the *lth November, 1834, was the only one delivered to me. The others were found in the Office after Mr. Perry's removal in a state of insanity to New York. It is there made manifest that a considerable deficit existed, and it was known to exist, long before 1 was made aC' quainted with the fact, ,.;^Hf^ «^.>^.n: ^r ... *;^ < ^ Abstract of the Affairs of Sheriflfs Office, Montreal, 1st October, Dr. 1831. Amount of public money in hand, per statement fyled this day, £20905 12 1 Amount of money returned between 10th Septr , date of compiling statement, and this day, .... 5654 18 6 Amount paid into Office on writs not returned, 1st October, 1120 9 4 Amount returned to Office at Quebec, 600 Cr, ' ^ ' V j£28280 19 11 Amount of Cash deposited in the Bank of Montreal this day £13329 Y ' • Amount of do. in Office, 28'7 10 ; Amount of Obligations, 2110 / Do. of Notes of hand, 1152 2 8 , Interest on the aforesaid Notes and Obligations, 400 Value of 35 Shares of Bank Stock, at 8 per cent, premium, 1890 Life Insurance, 1000 20168 19 8 Deficit, £8112 3 \r ill 4*1 I. e ■ . 6tati!mbnt of the Affairs t>f the Sheriff's Office at Montreal, 1st Dr. October, 1832. Amount of Public Monies in hand, . . * £22145 14 4 Cr. Amount of Cash deposited in the Bank of - Montreal, £6775 12 10 , Do. in the Office, 150 Do. of Obligations, Notes of hand, &c., , 4315 13 5 Do. interest on do., say 500 Value of Bant Stock, 1890 Do. of Fire Assur., &c., 62 10 Life lusurance, 1000 ^ ; ^ ' 14693 16 h .'■■■.»' i' ' !..;• Deficit,..,...............^......,. £7451 18 1 Statement of the Affairs of the Sheriff of Montreal, extracted from his books for the information of A. Gugy, Esq. 1834, Nov. 7. Balance of Monies retained on Executions unpaid, JS2322S 14 11 Beceived not yet retained, say . ... . • • ......... 650 , . .- - ' . Sv . . . . -C237Y5 14 il Amount procured by A. Gugy, Esq., for his father, and paid the Sheriff through A. G., 3500 ; > i : £27275 14 XI Cash,. XY585 7 11 ;.^, ^ Bills receiyable. including Stocks, . , Obligations, &c., 6700 19 8 Government Balance, 1000 Estate of Co. Ermatinger, 1500 7 ^ Balance due on Accounts, say ... . *1250 . , ,,.b Amount due by A. Gugy, balance of his outstanding account, 300 1S396 7 1 Deficit,...?... £8879 7 4 * A gvfttiL portion of this sum cannot be collected without delay and difficulty. Tor the Sheriff; ^' ' Frans. Perry, Gross amount of Revenue received the last year, £2t64 ^,4 H And taken by and charged to the Sheriff during the same period^ ending 7th inst., .........>•• 1^*^^ ^ ^ £1091 6 3 Office Expenses, . . ,., ,,,,. ..... ... .......... ... . 435 1 8 - -'•• ^ " '■ "'£656 4 7 Statbmbnt without date, supposed to be May, 1836. Dr. Cr, . £6257 18 lOi ^ , £1798 16 U - 341118 4i ] "''*;* 2519 .4 li ., 2251 5 4 ' 1202 |6 3 2550 7 OJ 1863 15 11 1267 19 7 , J ' ^65 1^ 3^ : 15214 1 9 "^: 356113 6 ^i . .1976 7 8 , V \v 404 8 £32928 18 6i v (.•**, livt^ k 12023 6 51 ... £12023 6 51 £20905 12 1 Deficit. „,■ Kt ffi'ffl. - <•■ A However notorious it may be, or may have been, that I had at one time money to lose, I may be expected to prove it. I ac- cordingly submit a letter, written by a well-known matter of fact, painstaking, and accurate man. Those persons with whom when practising at the bar I was in daily contact, the students in my office, for instance, will recollect how hard I worked, with what ease to myself, and that I rose generally some three .or four hours before most men of the s^me calling. • '>•/"'* QuEB.EC, 23i /u?y, 1836. Dear GuoY, ' ^^ .^-*« Agreeably to your request, I have cursorily passed over my books, and 1 am perfectly satisfied that the avails net of your practice annually for many years must average about— to wit:— . ^ , . . ^ . ■ i 4 n 8 Taxed Bills, &c., in ordinary cases at £1A1 per term, will bo per annum, £2988 Retainers in one half, say 500 Your appeal practice averaged at that of Mr. Valliere's, say 500 Besides your practice in Quarter Sessions and in the Inferior Terms of King's Bench, and also your OflSce practice, which I should say (not having, however, correct data other than general observation for the time being), to wit :— Quarter Sessions, 100 Inferior Court, . 20^ O^ce Practice, 500 Exhibiting the very large sum annually of. £4788 Your practice continued much upon this footing for about eight years. Believe me to be really and truly yours, Edw. Bub BOUGHS. B. 0. A. GuGT, Esq., &c., &c., &c. >i In corroboration of the statement of Mr. Burroughs, I submit the underwritten note, addressed to mv father by Mr. Willan, an advocate also practising at the Qu'ebec bar, who had married my sister :— Mt Dear Colonel, I thank you for the kind and affectionate letter I re- ceived last week. Julia and the baby are going on veiy well. Gugy is till a-head of us all in the coming term^ and I am not at all dissatisfied with my own share. , ,^, My dear Colonel, Faithfully yours, . . T. W. Willan. t^\ sr 'nr hJi -Ui <■ J. '1 t The tale "whieh I bnye to anfold,— the aeconnt of mj father's embarrassments and wants, — the relief which I spontaneously gave him— not once, but frequently — not on one occasion, but during a series of years, — the extent and amount thereof, — are all matters relative to which, or to part of which, for to prove the whole would be impossible, I tender his own testimony. The first letter is published, however, as conveying the views which at one time he entertained of me, and the prospects he, not unnaturally, held out to me. It will be found also to contain a reference to a promissory note which he had given as an entrance fee to one Tonnancour, a lawyer with whom he had placed me as a student. Unwilling or unable to meet that claim, he caused a demand of the amount to be made on me, suddenly and with- out any advice, at a moment when I was not prepared for such a demand. Hence the complaint noticed in the following let- ter :— Tbbieb Bivers, 24th April, 1824, My Dsab Son, I must confess I do not feel quite comfortable since our mutual communication on the subject of Tonnancour's note of hand. Yours is evidently the type of displeasure, and mine I plainly see was not altogether consistent with good manners. Nevertheless, if we cannot recall the past we can at least acknow- ledge an error or even a fault, and this I am now willing to do towards you. For surely we must not fall out about this mat- ter. It is to me the most cutting thing to be out of kind terms with those I love ; it would be cruel, indeed, if a mere matter of interest should interfere between us. This is, therefore, what I wish to avoid in addressing you now. Remember, my dear boy, that in you chiefly lie the fond expectation of my day dreams ; that I look upon you as my successor in everything, be it name or property, not to mention the not irrational desire of seeing our race perpetuated. — — Learning that my father is pressed for the payment of claims which he cannot meet, I supply the requisite amount :— * ■ Dbaeest Son, Three Rivers, 4th Nov.j 1826. I am so enfeebled with a diarrhoea of four days stand- ing that I write from my bed room, and with great difficulty and • • a2 ^f ' II \4 10 1^ It 1 I t fatigue, so cannot enter into any subject that reqnires exertion of mind at present, let it suffice that while I live I will not forget your kindness to your poor father in his trouble. I have much to say but no physical power to express it. People say I am much altered, but I feel no pain but weakness, and trust to be well in a few days. God Mmighty bless you, my very good son. My father owes me a large sum. I had besought him to con- iSde in me. Nevertheless he does not make a full disclosure ; and I learn that other sums are due, and that his name is con« sequcntly bandied about ofifensively. I write, and elicit the fol- lowing reply :-^ Three Rivers, 15th Nov., 1826. Dear Boy, t ■-"'- You handle your poor father a little roughly, and, let me tell you, as is invariably the case with you when strongly excited, very unjustly ; but the kind heart pierces through, and God forbid I should overlook your good feelings as a dutiful son merely because your expressions are somewhat hard, as well as your accusations of want of confidence ill-founded in fact. Pray, my dear son, when did I ever refuse you a candid answer when you chose to question me about my affairs ? Did I not do so the last day we met ? But when before did you go the same lengths in offers of assistance. God be praissr that you have now the means, but it has not always been the case, and why should I have then distressed you with the know jdge of facts you could not help. Beside, although I am noT dis- tressed through Willan's improvident drawing, had his b i not returued, I should have escaped the disagreeable affair it t now gives me so much uneasiness. As it is, I have looked to lim to assist me in getting out of the scrape, and I have reliy, ' on a broken reed as far as exertions may go, but of his goodness of heart I have no reason to doubt. The note of £2 10, due 3d inst., I wanted to take up on payment of jC40, by getting another dis- counted for the difference, and Willan writes me that the thing would have been done but for the unfortunate circumstance of the warrant of forty pounds not being ready, as it ought to have l^een. As it is^ boats no longer running, I have no means of V I 11 forwarding money to the bank. As you require confidence, here To re-establish my credit, never before impeached, I require With the bank, say £60 Public demands to be met, say 150 Beside the note in question, and Mr. Bell's, 100 Now, my dear child, since you offered your assistance, you have here the fullest statement I can give, considering the short time I have to prepare it. Any other demands I shall be able to meet as they fall due, but for the large sum I owe you I con- fess my inability to pay you it, still less what you may now bo induced to add with a view to my clearance. For a time I could not now fix, but would make you proposals to that eftbctj which cannot be stated within the compass of a hasty letter. To complete what your letter demands of me, I do hereby promise you that henceforth (if you continue to desire it) you shall be my only agent, and whatever arrangement the state of my affairs may require shall be transacted through your inter- ference. Can I say more ? I could say a great deal in my justification, either regarding your supposed want of confidence on my part, or in accounting pretty satisfactorily for my seeming improvident state just now, but time fails me. ' . . So adieu, my true^ my dearest son. Do what you please with the matter foregoing. T. ask not, for I do not know the extent of your means of relief ; you have the facts and are incapable of using the knowledge to my prejudice. God Mmighty bless you. , i , • ' I remain. Your wio«^ ajfcch'ona^e friend. I am to pay Mr. Bell an amount now forgotten. Thrbb*!Rivbrs, 18th Nov., 1826. MtDear Son, I cannot better express my sense of my obligation to you than by using the words of Willan ia his letter of four lines containing three omisions and two words illegible,—" Gugy haa t I; r " 12 behaved like a prince both in snbetance and manner," Your anxiety respecting mj name and credit is as honorable to your feelings as it is gratifying to me to possess such a son. All the pride I felt in your unexampled success and growing fame is nothing to this and other marks of affection you have lately evinced tovrards me. If you recall to memory the past, you will admit that I have not at any time been deficient in affection. As to confidence there was every disposition, but I generally saw you for such short moments that opportunities were more wanting than proper dispositions on my part ; as it is, hence- forth I shall take no step of any importance either pecuniary or otherwise, without your knowledge— on that you may rely. As to Mr. Bell's note I certainly wish to see it taken up, as the man has invariably behaved towards me in the most friendly manner. You will therefore oblige me much by telling him that either to- day (Saturday) or Monday next, I shall pay Mr. Grieve on his account £50, and you will see the balance paid him. And now Bichard is himself again. jit present f my dearest &oy, I have nothing more to say. Mere thanks are too coldy and do not besides express my feelings^ so gather my sentiments from the context, and receive the hearty blessing of your good friend and affectionate father. I am to pay the last note of i)2 10. Threb Bivers, 24th Nov., 182G. My Dbab Son, Yours of 21st came yesterday, late in the evening. I again have to thank you for the promptness with which you proceed in the work of my extrication. I now breathe pretty freely, which was not the case some time ago. As to the last note of £210, you gave me to understand you would take it up, and I rely on your doing so, for I certainly have not the means to do it, in time at least, but afterward I will have it in my power to meet all demands, hC they fall due. The amount is not large, nor likely to cause me any trouble. My dear boy, when friends have disagreed and come again to f^n unde^ptaadiag, th^ lo|}9 rocrimiQattoi) that is offered the bet- » IB ter. Yon cannot snppose I would feel inclined to be over nicQ with one who so nobl j came to my relief in my need. Yet yon are not just in citing Thompson's affair, in which my first step was to call on the Chief Justice and offer bail to any amount, when I was told the thing was impossible. None but a legal character, and a friend to boot, could be of the least service ; and you may remember that I did not leave until I had assur- ance of the business being in the very best hands for the pur- pose. As to the act itself, Greig and other friends will tell yon that I applauded your conduct rather than blamed it. Depend npon it that causes may have operated in more ways than one to produce the seeming distance of which you complain, for I myself have at times thought I perceived similar symptoms. There may, therefore, have been faults on both sides, The sooner a veil is drawn on the past the better for us — -here endeth the litany. The scene now changes to Montreal, to the Shrievalty of which my father was appointed early in 1827. By law he was bound to provide two joint and several sureties in the sum of JC6000. It was natural that he should apply to me, and that I should acquiesce. But he was no sooner installed than he spent large sums unnecessarily, and I received such accounts as posi- tively terrified me. The following letter is sufficient to show that I had intended to produce some impression on him. I eventually became his surety ; but the result will prove how well-founded were my " forebodings " ; — • 18th March, 1827, Dear Son, Your two letters came in due course by the same mail, A laudable anxiety dictated your admonitions, and so I take them meekly, considering the intention. But let me ask you, my dear boy, with what patience, or rather impatience, would you listen to the like on my part, and yet our relative situations would go some way in justifying my offering a dose of that cheap ware, advice, but I have seen the little good it does, and have trusted much more to your own good sense, which has done wonders. It will still operate the great work of your con- % m\ \'l 14 version to wisdom more and more. Pray give me some credit for a little share of judgment, and do not enlarge upon an un- fortunate expression of mine (dignity), spoken at a moment o^ strongly excited feelings. Now that I am cooler I beg to ex- plain what I think I then meant, i. e., that I wished not to ex- hibit any unbecoming meanness, and no more. Therefore be easy, and trust to the bonhomme^s small share of native sense, which (being Sheelah's day) I will say I must have inherited from you. ' ' ■ ' Adieu, my good fellow. I am alarmed at the accounts of my father's expenditure which have reached me. — Mr. Perry is charged with his cash concerns. — To be his surety is a matter of mere form. — To en- tertain doubts of his prudence is sharper than a serpent's tooth. Montreal, 16th July, 1827. My Dear Son, A thunder-bolt falling at my feet in serene weather would have astonished me far less than your cruel, unkind, and unmerited letter. After undertaking a matter of mere form, to enable me to hold a most important and lucrative office, and doing that in a way most gratifying to my feelings, you decline and leave me in the lurch I How can I now apply to strangers, when it shall be known that my own son shrinks fi'om the obll- g-ition. And what am I to do now to satisfy Government ? Am I to declare that I can get no security ; in fact, my son you have left me in a situation such as I cannot describe. How could you be so unkind, and above all, how could you carry the insult to your poor father so far as to find even a similitude between his case and that of . Have I bought and fur- nished a splendid houPv, with the public monies ? No, for I re- ceived none due prcions to my appointment, and what I did since is safe in the bank. Have I been duped by artful and greedy friends / No. 1 have not lent a penny, neither will I. The accounts you say you have received must have been dic- tated by misconception, or more probably by envy or malice. And let me tell you, you should (if you consider your father's \ -, 1 • h. \l u welfare as something) have taken the trouble to come (and I still invite you to do so) to inspect my cash accounts kept by Mr, Perry, when I will empower him to communicate with you freely on the state of my cash concerns. When you must be truly ashamed of the base opinions you hare conceived of one; who, setting aside his being your parent, I am sure you have ever known to be an honest man, and not such a fool as to run counter to his own interest, or to be the destroyer of his own fame as well as comforts in life. Does not the absurdity and folly of the thing strike ycu. But I can safely say, on my honor, that all my outgoings while I am here alone, cannot exceed £500 per annum, every article included. Now when it is known to you that my office surpasses £2000 a-year, you will not deny that one-fourth is not too much for the one who fags late and early in filling it. ^^-^ ' a. . .> w , . , ; >?,. • > ^ But how you could have had such ridiculous accounts of my extravagance, and how you could have credited such infernal nonsense, baffles my powers of speculation. Yet opinions are free, and were it not for the dreadful effect your late declining may have on my prospects, I should grieve in silence that my own blood should turn against me, and repay all my cares and affection with a contempt in which, I am happy to say, the world at large does not participate. There, indeed, I might say with poor Lear — " OK how sharper than the serpent's tooth." My dear boy you have been sadly misled, and thence have still more sadly aspersed and villified your affectionate father. Opinions predicated on false conceptions must ever be false. P.S. — Be not too slow, for if addressed by Qovernment| I should be sadly put to it for an answer. v ^- ■ •:■-'■■■ My father cannot apply to strangers to become his sureties. Unless I do so is disposed to resign. — Refers to Mr. Perry's cal- culations : ,,. ..,_ ,; ,,, , . , Montreal, 13th August, 1827. My Dear Son, Now in good earnest let me ask you whether you really intend to decline becoming one of my sureties for my ofuce. If ^■1 if f 1« lit .; SO, haye yon reflected on the incaleulable mischief yon have done me by undertaking the task in the first instance. And when I conjured you, for the honor of our name, to come to me and examine my office, my books, and my mode of life, to con- vince yourself of the absurdity of the report you had too lightly given credit to, you neglected giving me that satisfaction, leav- ing me open to the reflections which your withdrawing from mo your confidence must very naturally excite. You who are so sensitive as to the conduct of others towards yourself, how would you relish so unmerited a direliction of an essential en- gagement. Be assured that had I foreseen what has happened I should not have applied to you to be one of my sureties, neither would I urge you now but for the dangerous effect an application to strangers must produce As to Mr. Burroughs, is there no other person in the province willing to give you or me that mark of friendship upon a proper view of the case. The security now demanded could only be claimed or be bind- ing in favor of Government, to whom I never can owe beyond a trifling amount in fines, regularly accoui>ted for every six months. As to the public monies, they are lodged in the bank as soon as received, indeed generally paid there. If my expen- ses on first coming here have been a little high, when I had everything to procure and some debts to discharge, I may tell you, that from Mr. Perry's own calculation, the profits of the office since I came to it exceed i)600, and that from the multi- pliuity of large seizures, the first year's income of the office can- not i'uU short of three thousand pounds I I still speak after Mr. IVrry. I was prompted to writing by the certainty that Government cannot be long in calling on me for the desired secuuUy, and whenever that shall come, what am I to say or do? On that point yoa do not give me even what most men are in general so prodigal of, your advice. My present impression is to reply to such an application by my resignation. However, I may think better of it. » I s ■■^ -I C4. .. 'I' $1 I yield, and, "as there is not the slightest risk," am to assnme the whole responsibility :— Montreal, 27th August, 1827. My Dear Son, Since I now begin to despair of seeing you here, I deem it but your due to offer you thanks for your final determination to reixeve me of much anxiety by completing the original en- gagement to become my security in my present office, in doing which I can with safety assure you, on my sacred word of honor, that yon run not the slightest risk, and that your assum- ing the whole responsibility, instead of only one-half of it, makes not the slightest difference, as the income of the office is quite sufficient to support me and family in a moderately decent style of living, and at same time (added to my other resources) to leave a large overplus, in the first instance to be applied to- wards the discharge of my debts, which are already reduced to the amount I stated in my last. I have further come to a deter- mination to acquire independance ; and as to our mode of living when once united here, you shall be welcome to enquire of any one capable of giving you correct information. Having said thus much, may I hope to hear no more of your cruel forebodings. The complete distrust that expression conveys is really too in- sulting, and I am sure has not been well considered when you used it. Proof that my fears well founded, my father now has fore- bodings :— Montreal, 19th October, 1833. Dear Son, Until I hear from you I confess my feelings shall not be much more enviable than when I doubted whether I should be able to give the required security. I have some unconquer- able forebodings, which you alone can dispel ; and to you, under a bountiful Providence, I leave the whole, in hopes five days at furthest will add peace of mind to the other blessings fate has latterly heaped on me, in a degree of prosperity I could not reasonably look for, under all circumstances. This morn- ing B. Froste paid his acceptance for £600, for which many thanks. Adieu. Your affectionate Father, L. G. 18 1^' ' i"f Proof that there was " risk,"-!-.m^ father is embarrassed.-— I recommend that an intelligible system of accounts be kept, and am urged to borrow X5000 :— Montreal, 11th February, 1834. My Dbar Son, ' « Early this morning I received yours of the 9th inst. But had I even not had that my mind was fixed on writing you this day, as the state of the times does not exactly render my couch a bed of roses. In that unenviable position I cannot, therefore, but thank you for the solicitude you say you feel about Xay concerns. You appear now to be on the right scent. jLater- rlere once, many years ago, lent me a small sum (jC200), which he did in a very gentlemanly manner, and thanked me for my punctuality in repaying the same. In the present iustance I can't bring myself to think he wants much of an additional dou- ceur for his bills, and I would strongly urge you to do your utmost to close with him, if possible. I feel some satisfaction in telling you that I had anticipated you in the article of accounts, having for a long time jiast wi&hed Mr. P. to adopt a better system, and one to be understood by pihers as wejl as by himself. With ili's he has coni'^ilipJ, aijd we have opened a regular set of books, whereby the state of my affairs will be made plain, and on the inspection of which you will observe such improvement as will convince you of the de- gree of atteuwion paid to your recommendations, and also of the unusual productiveness of the office. Mr. Perry bids me say (he knows I am writing to you and no more) that it is not the actual cash we want, but the command of a certain sum in April. He says that in no case it can exceed JE5000 as a maximum, not at all likely to be required. As to which, if he can dispose of his Gale purchase he will assist for a part, but not plhenvise I fear.* Dear Son, ' ' tth July, 1834. I have spoken to Wentworth Monk, and also, from Perry's advice, to Scott. Both P. and myself urged all in our • It was on the day following the date of this letter that Mr. Perry bor- rowed £1105, witlwut interest* t Mj Mr.pJ my fat was m cciveil f>isi;ors Hadtl fereufl V ', (I I m power to decide them to sign ; but, from the selfish reasons they both offered, they both appeared perfectly indifferent to consequences, as far as I am concerned. This is too evident ; BO that my avenir is the worse, by a useless disclosure to beings who would see me hanged for the sake of a few pounds. NO" thing is to be expected from such heartless men* ; they will find their mistake when it will be too late, for me at least. My heart is full and my head giddy. In you alone rests the small glim- mering of hope I may retain ; and, if I can believe my dreadful misgivings, I am doomed already, and must prepare to meet my faie like a man. Adieu, and my blessing be upon you and upoQ your children. Unless my mind becomes a little moje settled^ expect me no .more to write. My father complains of hope deferred and vague expectations, and urges me to get money " for the love of God and as I value his peace of mind," — just as if it were a mere matter of course. Montreal, 8th August, 1834. My Dear Son, Be not uneasy on my aci-ount. I have been a little unwell, but it never stopped me from attending to the business of the office, while Perry could not do so himself, and now I am as well as ever I was in my life, that is, in bodily health ; not quite so well in mind, from certain causes you know of. Time flies with fearful rapidity, and no prospect opens to my longing eyes. Remember, my dear child, that hope deferred maketh the heu'-L si< k. >loihing but vague expectations as yet. This state oriblngs is not very cheering you will allow. Yet my mind Sii)l retains a good portion of elasticity, and I shall not give t My father was oblivious of a fact which would justify those gentlemen^ Mr. P. or he, or both, had often misrepresented me, had often affirmed thaib my fatlier was lieaping benefits on me. Making it falsely mppear that I tons nit, father's debtor was a fatal error. It was saying in fact that I re- cci ved an undue proportion of a fund in which ray much-loved and excellent ftisiers, the wives of those gentlemen, were entitled to share as fully as T. Had the truth been adhered to, the result would doubtless have been dif- fereut. Bee Mr. Perry's letter of the SQth May, IBS*. ^^1 I 20 way to despondency nntil I see sufficient cause ; and my reliance on you remains strong and firm ; indeed the firmer from your kind and affectionate expressions in your last and former letr*^r. I thank you for the proposal [to repair to Montreal to conduct his business], but your coming here, unless to forward you*- own views, would be useless, as I am fully adequate to attend to the office should P. not be capable of doing so, but I trust it will be the case, as he appears in a state of palpable improvement just now. Perry, whos^ letter I enclose, has not told you the fact of the complete reform in our house expenditure. The allow- ance is abundantly sufficient so far, and no other source of ex- pense open, therefore when the now stagnant stream of income is re-opened, I trust it will tell to your satisfaction. This ren- ders the main object still more important. Attend to it for the love of God, if you value the peace of mind of your most affec- tionate father. I have done something not specified with precision, and am expected to do more :— ^ Msr MoNTBBAL| 5th Sept., 1834. MyDbabSon, '■■■■■■.-, Your letters to me and to Perry are received. You are entitled to my thanks for what you have done and mean to do, and I hope in God it will succeed. Whatever you undertake I am willing to join in, either jointly in a general mortgage or as security in an undertaking to repay as need may be. Enough on the subject for the present. m My father requires £3000, which I am urged to raise on my own credit, to save his office. Holds my blank signature : — Montreal, 23rd March, 1835. My Dear Son, Yours of yesterday is just come. It is to be regretted that Perry's letter was forwarded, through an over-anxiety of III e i- le m re lo, I as oy ed of mine, in total ignorance of yonr notions ; bat it cannot now be helped, except by repeating what was contained in Perry's let- ter. It was written in anxious and pressing terms, calling on you to save the office and my credit together, by contriving to rpise a sum of three thousand pounds at least (said letter men- tioned four or five). The judgment in the case of the N. W. property has been rendered and paid, with several others not expected. This has reduced my balance in the Bank very low- between 3 and 4000 ; in fact, to a sum quite inadequate to meet the demands of a new term. If you could procure me this help, toithout using my corresponding security, I would make bold to exonerate you from all further calls as my own resources are considerable, although some are not immediately available, and some contingent on my demise ; for instance, whenever I am repaid my advances on behalf of Government, I would under- take to repay you a thousand pounds. In fact, the crisis is fast approaching, and nothing r.p.^n avert it but this timely assist- Ai^ce. If you could raise the means without my appearing in th^ business, it would leave my own credit, which is still good, ready to supply any deficiency that might remain, or, if not wanted, available for your reimbursement ; but we can only do what we can, and doubtless you will do your best to save your father's life, and, what is still more precious, his honor. Remem- ber that in some emergencies half measures are destructive, without effecting the end in view. The credit my signature can add to your own, will be ready. I still hold your blank note of hand and will not attempt using it until I hear from you, as the relief it can afford must at best be of a temporary nature. P.S. — ^You are too much a man of business not to see, that, should even a sacrifice of property* be necessary, it may still be held as cheap, when compared to the forced winding up that my vacating the office must bring about at the present inauspi- cious moment ; while another year — nay, half-year — ^may restore property to its former value ; indeed, if that effect was to be produced, improvement must inevitably follow. ' 4 * This hint points to my property, which my father suggests I should sacriHoe. > >* 22 ^ fi' ■0 r, ! The crisig has arrived.— The deficiency trill fall on me.— What availeth it me that he solemnly protested that " I ran not the smallest risk " ?— Imposes silence on me. — ^Whether he is to be saved depends on me. Circular from H. Craig, Civil Secretary, requiring the Hon. Louis Gugy to provide securitj in the sum of £6000 cy. Montreal, 14th April^ 1835. My Dear Son, The crisis of my fate is on this cast ; and as you will have ta come forward to make good any deficiency that may ultimately appear, I inform you of the state it places me in without loss of time, that you may be prepared to do the need- ful, if you see fit, or abandon your father to his fate at a moment when the fairest prospect was opening in my view. I trust in God I shall surmount this difficulty, as it is not owing to any fault of mine ; and I shall yet live to repair the past, and see you clear of all responsibility, if you are the son of whom I have been at times so proud. Keep my counsels and yoursj as blabbing might be fatal. Perry will tell you that strict economy is observed on my part. Whether I shall have the means of being saved or not depends on you, my dear son. I therefore await your answer with an anxiety I leave you to imagine. Your affectionate father. My father hints darkly his disapproval of Mr. Perry, but con- fesses his inability to point out the evil. — Accuses me of perse- cuting him, and threatens that he will not endure so much injus- tice ! Yet Was supporting Mrs. Sutherland, and making her *• munificent gifts " : — Montreal, 18th Bee, 1835. My Dear Son, You write me in so strange a manner, that I decline answering matters so vaguely set forth. It appears by your correspondence with Mr. Perry, or rather your communications with that gentleman, that he has accused me of extravagance ago. -J 1- S- iir ir 13 5e 23 before you. This is not a fair proceeding, for whatever he has slated was never mentioned in my presence. On the contrary, Mr. Perry nsed to me these words, — • * Now a marked improve- ment appears in the accounts." This was three or four months ago. Since that conversation he never intimated a word to the contrary, and I challenge the whole world whether I have squandered or misapplied a single penny. If you mean really to drive me to desperation, you take the right way, and my spirit will not stand so much injustice. What, when I submit to privations and self-denials of all sorts, I am a prey to com- plaints of extravagance I never was guilty of. This is really too much, and if you continue this persecution J shall give up for a bad bargain. I thought I did my best, and that matters were improving accordingly. I even went so far as to expect jout acknowledgment of the fact, but I am sadly disappointed. It will be in vain to mince matters, there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. I have long suspected it, and with the help of God truth will be out, probably too late for my benefit. But as it will flash into your eyes yon will* do justice to the memory of your poor father, for believe me I am more sinned against than sinning. In conclusion, I would be more thankful to Mr. P. if he would apply to me and show me his statements rather than tell you of complaints which he withholds from me. Such reserve appears to me strange when I am the person ulti- mately to suflfer. I cannot observe on a statement which I have reason to disbelieve As to fact, while at the same time my pre- vious ignorance deprives me of the power of denegation. My case is therefore hopeless indeed. I swear, in conclusion, that during the present year I have been guilty of no extrrvagance that I know of; if any be specified I shall be ready to qualify or confess, when it is stated to me. If I alone am to blame I wish you joy, as you can never lose a farthing through any fault or misconduct of mine. The utmost of your danger is, that you may fail in benefitting ; this is a contingency I shall regret, especially in consequence of the state of the times. But, except to a trifling extent, it is not you who are to despair. ., Adieu, God bless you. •?^ ^! 24 If I have been misinformed, and that you do not really intend to leave town without seeing me, pray send me word when I can have a minute's conversation with you at your friend B's. or elsewhere. Again, aa I understand it, my father adverts to Perry. — Letter not dated, nor can I supply the date from memory. My Dear Son, I have waited in vain for your coming, and it is, one thing is cruel, very cruel, to know the diflferent charges you are subject to, it is hard indeed to know all the calls you have oi you, and pressing too ; you may be overwhelmed in them, and I, miserable. what a fate ! I was decided to suffer, but what a fate I What I hammered at and could not bring out, is that you pretended not to understand me when I endeavoured to express to make you understnud that he would try to make you under- stand that your meaning was not understandable, and yet I knew too well howit was — how that I cannot die, there lies the misery ; speedy death is what I implore. Oh death take pity on me. I am aware of the fault of this, but I cannot write it over. The following should have been 1836, but my father's mind had been for two years failing. — Wants a substitute for Mr. Grant. — Evidently unable to act, and expects me to procure a surety :— Montreal, 23rd Nov., 1821. My Dear Son, I am truly concerned to be the messenger of ill news : poor Mr. Grant, the King's Counsel, died last night ; he was only ill three or four days. He was a good man and a true one ; as such I regret him exceedingly. I have another reason, and rather a selfish one, to regret him : it is owing to my security. It is of the utmost importance to renew that as soon as possible, and before it is done I have no peace of mind. Pray put your- self into my place in this awkward dilemma. If you have a in Qu^ him tc that ol Ihoiu. 25 proper person to offer in his place, make sure of hin? at once • and if you can discover one, do so, that you may bring the bond with you. It would be a capital affair. I hope the ofiScial men will not be severe on you or me at this juncture of our fate. You will see the extremity this leaves me in at the present crisis of my fate, and for yourself do for the best. I add not another word, as I have said enough to make you sensible of tiij press- ing nature of the case.* The reader who has perused the foregoing pages will doubt- less admit that my ^^forebodings " were prophetic, my alarm well founded, my reluctance to become my father's surety natural and just. It will have been also remarked that from the very first my father entrusted his " cash concerns " to Mr. Perry. At the period of my father's appointment this Mr. Perry was, as he had for some time been, in the situation of clerk in the office. MyJ^father found him there ; he was acquainted with the daily routine of the office, was useful, was deferential, indeed humble, and he soon ingratiated himself with his new employer. It will have been probably noticed, too, that my father reposed unusual confidence in Mr. Perry ; it was indeed unbounded ; and touch- ing the condition of my father's finances, the latter referred me — doubly involved in his fate as his son and his surety — for in- formation to Mr. Perry. Until he was put under restraint as insane in the summer of 1836, Mr. Perry managed my father's affairs. He stood in fact between us. The very first of the following letters — that dated the 21st May, 1834— is a proof of the fact. It is written by Mr. Perry on the first two pages of a sheet of letter paper ; its purpose is confirmed if not repeated by my father on the third page of the same sheet. This is all that seems to me to be necessary to offer by way of introduction to the letters of Mr. Perry. i t * It was on this occasion that I assigned six houses, tlien my i)roporty in Quebec, to IMurdocli Morison, Esq. (then a student-at-law) to qualify him to subscribe the rcniuisito bond. I may, porliaps, properly state hero, that owing to my engagements on behalf of my father, I have lost four of them. 26 ,1. I' n :\ i 'li At least £3000 must be raised on my notes. Unless I ^et it, he writes " that I leave him in a worse state than I found him in/' — a most discouraging and (may I not add) ungrateful re- mark : — Montreal, 21st May, 1834. Mt Db^ a Sir, I find that it is almost certain that the amount that will be distributed in the next term will exceed the funds by a considerable amount. I am using every exertion to collect the sums due the office ; still, I have no reason to change my be- lief that at least £3000 will be required. Your father thinks with me that it will be necessary, in case you cannot raise money, to send him your notes — say one for £2000, the other for £1000, at 3 months — to be used only in case of absolute necessity. At the sanie time you must bear in mind, that the chances are, that, ere long, you must make up that amount at least, " or leave your father in a worse state than you found him^ " for the disappointment of the hopes you encouraged him to '^ indulge in. You must also bear in mind, above all things, that " the relief eventually to be required, once afforded, together with " the obvious improvement now going on, and the fair prospects " of benefits to the office, will, I trust, secure you from any chance " of further trouble." Your letter of Saturday only reached me to-day, with that of Mrs. M.* Your father happened to be standing by at the mo- ment ; I could not help showing them to him. He, poor man, seems determined to do his best. I think and hope something may, therefore, be expected. I have written the remarks above, marked with inverted commas, to please your poor father, who seems now, as ho should, to put his whole trust in you. He expressed very fully his gratitude to your more than amiable wife. I can hardly reply to your letter of the 17th, as your father has not returned it to me. He has left the office. For God's sake do everything in your power. And believe me, yours sincerely, F. Perry. C( My statd ren( • Mrs. Monk, my sister, who had written to mc accusing mo of having pluudorcd my father. 27 P.S. — You see what your father has written. Let me hear from you as soon as possible, as we intend to sound Mr. McGill to ascertain what may be expected from the Bank. I cannot enclose Mrs. M.'s letter, but will do so first opportunity. My father referring to the charges preferred against mo on "account of his afifairs," calling the females of his family " Furies," and describing the temper of his wife. — Sympathises with me. — ^I suffer because of the state of his affairs. 21st May, p.m. Dear Son, Another letter from you has reached our friend Perry, which he has communicated to me. You will believe me when I profess to sympathise fully with you in the vexatious corres- pondence inflicted on you on account of my affairs, and I beg you will suffier these provocations for my sake. With such Eumenides like persons a reply ever produces a rejoinder, and the delicacy of my situation forbids my urging rights always disallowed, as likely to produce nothing but unprofitable strife. Upon that principle I have (subject to your better judgment) desired P. to withhold yours for Mrs. M.* as not likely to do Rny good. P. did not think proper to show me hers to you, be- lieving it would only give me useless pain. But I know the fury-like violence of the temper of the mother who bore her, and can readily imagine the contents. Pray try to forget the whole. The groom is gone, and no horse is dreamt of being bought and no impertinent clamour shall prevail on me, depend on it. I may have been led, but am not to be driven. My father " runs a great risk of losing his office and property" unless I can procure JE5000 : — Montreal, 9th April, 1834. My Dear Sir, You misunderstood my letter. If I rightly recollect I stated that unless you could at no distant period, without refe- rence to this Term, get the control of about JE5000, in other ♦ My reply is withhold. 28 hi'M m^ words, that in case it should be requisite, a sum equal to that might be obtained from time to time, as it may be required, a sacrifice must be made, which I must now repeat. You know that when such an amount is subtracted from the funds of a Sheriflfs office, and applied in such a way as to pre- clude the chance of any portion beio^ brought back, it must be very dangerous to the incumbent not to have some means to look to in case the amount distributed should much exceed that receired ; unless some funds can be looked to, a sacrifice must be made, either property must be disposed of, or your father will run a great risk of losing his office and property. You can easily suppose what would follow a refusal to pay an order for want of funds. In a word, a sum of about X8000 beyond all the means your father possesses, exclusive of his property, is due on demand. I am afraid no funds can be obtained here. If it was known your father wanted money it would give rise to suspi- cion, and make things worse. I believe I may safely say that some retrenchment has taken place in his expenditure, yet the sum that can be saved, say from X500 to £700 per annum, is not sufficient to be depended on. Yours sincerely, P. Perry. i H i I It I have been urged to send, for my father's use, promissory notes, and am chidden because they have not reached. It is necessary to sacrifice me by falsely representing me to be my father's debtor. Montreal, 28th May, 1834. My Dear Sir, Your father was much disappointed at not [receiving the notes you promised. The crisis is just approaching, it be- hoves us therefore to be as well prepared as possiblo ; it will be well to send the notes, as the chances are ten to one they will be required, and should you wait to the last moment inconve- nience may i-esult from the necessary delay that would be re- quired, besides, in order to sound the president of the bank, it will be necessary to exhibit them to him. The best pace that CAN NOW BE PUT ON IT, IS TO MAKE IT APPEAR THAT YOU ARK HIS Debtor, ue holding your notes. Of course the notes will not ba v\ SI dj til bf s^ ii 29 used except in case of absolute necessity ; I therefore respectfully think that you had better transmit them to him as soon as pos- sible. I think it my duty again to remind you that the time for calculating chances is over. Your doings in this matter, and one short month, is to decide whether your father's office, pro- perty, and reputation. In which your own is deeply involved, is to be preserved or not. For my part the view of the precipice, on the brink of which both he, you, and your families stand, is so clearly before me, that I can hardly think of anything else. For God's sake send the notes immediately, that we may know what to expect. At all events write to me as soon as conve- nient after the receipt of this. ' In haste, yours sincerely, A. GuGY, Esq. Fns. Perry. The perusal of old letters is always trying, and the sensations nseparr.ble from my self-imposed task have compelled me in some measure to depart from my original plan. When my father only needed hundreds I could supply his wants without troubling myself much about records, but when he required thousands and proposed to put the whole burden of the odium on me, some precaution was indispensable. Accordingly, for obvious reasons, I kept a copy of the following letter. It con- tains some strong expressions, wrung from me by my agony. But though I could now write more coolly, the eflPort would be so painful, that by way of explanation I offer that old letter, with all its imperfections on its head. Quebec, 30th May, 1834. My Dear Sir, Although there is no post to-day, I hasten to reply to your letter. I can conceive that my father should be disap- pointed, because he has often been deceived ; but no time was specified, and therefore I must be acquitted of any intentional delay. I postponed transmitting the accommodation notes un- til I had ascertained that no money could be had here. I have been promised £300 . . . JC2000 ; but people are so suspicious,* so tardy, they seem purposely to withhold the money. • The natural result of "putting the beat face on it," and defaming mo, which was much ovordono. 30 \f ■»' I .i t ■■ has behaved like an arrant scoundrel, when he might have been instrumental in forwarding my views. This is the man I have fed and five times bought out of jail. This is the clirjax. There is no one redeeming point in any of these men. Well, Sir, how am I to draw these notes ? — in whose favour?— to what amount? — and at what date? I feel how unworthy almost all those in whom I have reposed confidence have been. I feel too how delicately you are situated, and that you will go great lengths to serve my father. For this last point I certainly do not like you less ; but, whether or not, I confide in you sincerely and altogether. I mean no invidious compa- risons ; but a sense of justice, — a knowledge of the people who surround my father, — the length to which he has suffered him- self to be goaded by them, (of which his pressing me in that detested measure in the case of Grant, is sufficient proof), — all combine to make me repose my confidence on this occasion in you. Mark me, I mean no disrespect to my father apart from others ; I do not in the least doubt him ; but the truth must be told, that a man who allows himself to be governed, let it be by his wife, daughter, or any other woman, cannot be depended upon on trying occasions. This is my unalterable opinion, and I will act upon it. If he murt know it, do not hesitate to give him the information, and the grounds of it. I shall not enlarge on them, but proceed to business. 1st. Not knowing what notes you may require, I transmit three blank signatures, which you will fill up as you may please upon the following conditions : let the amount be what may be required, and no more than £3000. 2nd. Before parting with them you will prepare a short docu- ment recording the real transaction — that I am not indebted to my father, but have given the notes in order to accommodate him only ; that although I consent to appear to be his debtor for the above purpose, the debt will be his debt, and not mine. 3rd. You will write this in your own hand ; my father will sign it. You will refer to the notes to prevent mistakes. You will witness the act, and certify it to be a true statement. 4th. You will forthwith transmit the acknowledgment to nif, ObsorvO| that hereafter I will not have to deal with my father. "i I . < 31 but with the Crown or his creditors. Therefore I may and must establish, in a manner admitting of no doubt, and capable of being at all times proved, the facts of this transaction : espe- cially as it is one of the principal objects that it should (for the present) bear an appearance at rariance with the truth, and that I must myself be accessary to what I believe to be a pious fraud ; but which is at all events a deception and one affecting me. As I must now pass for the debtor of my father with my own consent, that very consent may hereafter be urged against me as a proof, or at least a presumption, that I was in truth the debtor. Hence my instructions will, I hope, be adhered to strictly. If the note or notes should be discounted, something in the meantime may turn up to enable us to swim a little longer. If you do not use the three blanks, return to me any one or more you do not want. If I get money, I shall transmit the amount, whether more or less. The whole will be done in confident hope that the spirit in which I act will be appreciated. The past, God knows, — ^but I will not talk of that. It is strange that your letters contain nothing but details of what I am required to do. Nothing is said on the subject o retrenchment j my inquiries, often and anxiously repeated, re- main unnoticed. What can this mean ? I have my fears, some- times amounting to conclusions, that Williamson* has been retained, — that the servants are (with all my mother's un- founded boasting) plundering as before, — that the expenses (except the horses) are undiminished, — and, in one word, things going on as usual. If it is so, I may well curse the hour of my birth. Perhaps you decline telling me ; perhaps you don't know. But on whom can I rely — from whom can I receive information, living as I do at a distance ? It is vain for my father to complain of my want of confidence in him. On this point I am unsettled. Time, and nothing but a display on his part of persevering energy, and a spirit never as yet exhibited, can restore my mind to its proper tone. But I ask you, to whom^ I ^^^ laying bare my heart — my lacerated feelings entitle me to ask — whether or not my father is regain- il w * An expensive, unnecessary servant. 82 l! t ■ ■'I '■■'i ■ r-n i. i '.p ."■4 ing the ascendancy in his household ? whether he has partially carried his resolutions into eflfect ? On you, placed as you are, I must rely ; and I do distinctly instruct and request you to withhold and return to me forthwith the blank signatures, if you are not perfectly convinced, from suflBcient observation, that you ought to give me a satisfactory answer. It were bet- ter I should be no worse, if I cannot improve my father's con- dition. I have had Mrs. Monk's* letter ; as bad, if not worse, from Stevenson. Mr. J. G. Scott took the pains to write a libellous letter to the latter about me. I am covered with odium. I shall be more so, that is evident, as soon as the appearance we are giving the transaction becomes known. I feel that and can bear it, if it can benefit my father ; but otherwise I will not move, though the hell they have prepared for me should encir- cle those women. . My dear Sir : finally, what precedes is for my father. One word for myself. If I am (in your opinion — in my father's) doing right, let him do the same ; let 1 im protect me. This cannot be the subject of a notarial agreement. His grocer and his baker may rank with me. If he acts rightly, (unless I am much deceived), he will readily and at once subscribe the act of sale of the Township lands, prepared by Crawford, and left with my father last summer ; that he promised — that you recom- mended.! If my heart does not mislead me, I may justly expect • Mrs. Monk was my sister. Mr. J. G. Scott had marriod another.sohad Mr. Stevenson. Under an erroneous impression of my conduct and posi- tion, they were not unnaturally much incensed against me ; neither did tliey refrain from publishing their opinions. On the contrary, they had been loud in their complaints before they reached my ear, and long con- tinued to denoimce me, but I durst not undeceive them. t This relates to 6000 acres held by my father, of which I was naturally desirous that he should not dispose to my prejudice. For nearly a year he had evaded the performance of his promise to transfer them to me, and assuming my right to all the security which under the circumstances ho v'ould give me, to be unquestionable, I pressed hihi. They were shortly after sold, for my father's beneflt, to the British A mcrican Land Company but as I could not affirm that they were not mortgaged, the sale was de- feated. Eventually they remained over, and wore publicly disposed by ; f 33 IIP him to do that ; but he will say, with the feelings natural to a man in hl3 situation, " First serve mo and make no conditions." The answer to this must strike you. I have said : let it be done. May God preserve my father. •>-• Yours always, P.S. — ^It would be considered a generous act, if my father would give his daughters such a hint as would prevent them from abusing me. Indeed, I cannot help thinking it a weakness on his part to shrink from a partial disclosure ; his own com- fort would thereby be promoted. He need not state the whole. Tell him I have just ringing in my ears the horrible words used in his presence, in your drawing-room, by my mother.* He Sheriffs sale, as part of my father's assets in a suit afi^ainst me. Relative to that event it is necessary to state a fact. On the 13th March, 1840, 1 was sensed with writ of summons at my father's suit, demanding £100,000. Even- tually that suit was dismissed, and two judgments in my favor were shortly afterwards pronounced, condemning his representative to pay me nearly £10,000 for money paid on his account to his creditors. It was in virtue of one of those judgments that the lots were taken in execution after my father's death. This statement, founded on the public records, is made to meet an imputation that I had stvindled my father out of those lots ! Until he sued me I was silent and passive, but when an action for so enor- mous a sum as one hundred thousand pounds was brought in his name against me, I deemed myself entitled to prove tliat he was my debtor, simply. • At that interview I had proposed that a competent person, sworn to secrecy, should make a searching enquiry into my father's affairs. Mr, Perry objected to this proposal, and it was over-ruled ; whereupon, though no accountant, I offered to devote two or three weeks, if necessary, to the investigation. Judging after the event, I dare to say that had it taken place the fate which overtook my father and me would have been averted. It seemed, however, to be doubted whether I was qualified for the task, and just at that moment Mr. Perry went out. He shortly after returned, ushering in my mother, who lived next door. I recollect my father's im- ploring look as he covered his face with his hands, and thought the storm would burst upon him. But she came straight up to me. She cvffed me long and violently with both flsts (as she did so to speak habitually long after I was turned of thirty), and accused me of robbing my father of the above-mentioned lots. Turning to my father she threatened to with- draw her countenance from his son' (by Mrs. Snlherland). But for that menace, I am even inclined to believe that my father would have insisted upon my remaining to make the requisite investigation. Mrs. Sutherland b2 i 84 ||i It: knows I am not popular. If my own family join in the cry, as they will unices silenced, what will become of me I I could escape ; but my children . My dear Sir, I am indeed to be pitied. . . t I /-■.;.,.. I have accounted for the horses. — " My notes of hand " ore required. ' ' » ?. i •• MoNTEBAL, 31st May, 1834. My Dear Sir, I received yours this day stating the manner in which you had disposed of the horses^ which I shewed your father ; he expressed no opinion whatever. Indeed we have been so busy to-day preparing the returns he could hardly think about the matter ; besides I think he fancies he has got a good riddance of them under any circumstances. It is not my fault that your former letter was not answered. I put it into his hands, and thought he had communicated with you. I wrote to you the day before yesterday stating the necessity of having y:ur notes of hand.* It is very clear a large amount will be called for next term, aud without them we cannot feel at all prepared. Your father is very anxious ; and so well he may, for his all depends on the smallest chance. My principal object in trou- bling you with this is to renew my request that you vf'xW forward the notes without delay ^ should you not have done so before now, for the state of anxiety is hardly to be borne. It \i t uch that I assure you I have serious fears about your father's health. He seems to think the notes will be his salvation. It is a severe and her son were however already paramount, and to avoid the evil with which the latter was menaced, my father, who had then ceased to contend with his wife, urged me to return at once to Quebec. Mortified, huml led, in despair indeed, I withdrew, and the investigation was not attemiit«d. 1 have since felt tliat there was much in that interview to strike a man In possession of his reason, but I was perfectly bewildered, if not partially insane, else the proof of Mrs. Sutherland's power, the use made of it, and tlie preference shown her son, had perhaps induced me to demand the in- tervention of the law officers of the Crown. Yet, strange to say, until j saw her letters, I was reluctant to name her, aud allucled to her always with some delicacy. . •} • To be discounted for my father's use, ,. ., ,, ,, - 1' • r -, 35 lesson to him, and one lie will not easily forget. I have no doubt, should he get over this term, his expenditure will be very much reduced ; and, from the prospects of the ofQce at present, I am led to hope a considerable sum will yet be saved. The writ is now in the office to sell Desrivieres property, valued at J£30,000. There ^re also several others to be brought to sale including that of Gates ; consequently, with your assistance, he may jet look forward to brighter days. I must conclude by renewing my request, and begging of you to recollect that it will require all your best exertions to save all that man can hold dear in this life, the loss of which would be felt more acutely by you than any one else. ;. - • Believe me, my dear Sir, . '. Yours sincerely, Frans. Pebbt. Amount received from Walker's acceptance, JC116 10s. I send the notes. — ^I must prepare for the worst. — Mrs. Monk and Mrs. Scott are aware of the state of my father's affairs. So is my mother :— Montreal, 2nd June, 1834. Mt Dear Sib, , ' '<: m -. • -o The receipt of your letter with the enclosed blanks* this morn- ing relieved me of a load of anxiety ; believe me when I tell you that for the last week I hardly knew what I did. I shall as far as I can strictly follow your instructions, and do every- thing in my power to meet your views ; in doing which I have now every reason to hope I will be supported by your fathelr. He states on conviction that his expenditure will now be consi- derably reduced, and he certainly seems determined not to be turned from his purpose. I need not tell you that the note or notes will only be used in case of the most urgest necessity ; at the same time, you must bear in mind that you must make every exertion to prepare for the worst. I have not forgot your direc- 1| If • Pieces of paper with my S7gnature at bottom, over each of which a promissory note for any sum could be written. >» ' • • - 36 ft,; ■?'■ '■ Ml ! > ■ ' ■ 5,1' ■^i !.-i tions about a room : I bare no doubt one may be bad to suit you. I hinted to your mother the propriety of undeceiving your sisters about the aflFairs, and to my surprise she led me to believe Mrs. Monk and Scott were aware of the state of them. She seems much cooler, and somewhat alarmed at the prospect. Your father is truly grateful to you, and desired me to state he would write to you as soon as he can. All things considered, I trust we have reason to hope better things from the future. Yours sincerely, Frans. Perry. P.S. — So anxious was I that I wrote to you by the steamer on Saturday. , ' I then owned the surveying schooner, Gulnare, and proposed to apply part of my claim for the hire of her, to my father's relief. — My family is indisposed against me. — My intention to repair to Montreal noticed. Montreal, Yth June, 1834. Mt Dbab Sir, I received yours of the 2nd, kindly offering for your father's service the amount you are entitled to draw for on the Qalnare. I showed him the letter. He felt your goodness sensibly, and stated he would soon write to you. The greatest exertions are making to distribute money this term, and un- doubtedly a large amount will be demanded, yet I am not with- out hopes that we will be able to get through the vacation without using your means, at the same time allow me to sug- gest that the amount you may be entitled to draw may be left in case it should be required, as distributions sometimes takes place in vacation. I mentioned to you in my last that I thought your coming up may be productive of good, at all events it cannot do harm. Your father says his expenditure will be much reduced ; I hope it may be so. Your family here are much enraged. I have done what I could to remove some erroneous impressions under which 37 your mother labours, 1 fear to little purpose.* I have nothing nothing '^ore to add ; between business and anxiety I assure you my il ad is Tnuch employed. Yours very truly, j. ^,- ^^^ :,:■■' : .'' . ,':''■' ; : : : F. Perey. ." .: ;■':, ■> I'. : J i., j ij . «.-l. ■-_"■ i''-' f!V.'j,. t ■ ,. ii'.iusu.; Varenhes recommended as a place of residence, to avoid ex- citing suspicion. — Though aware of the state of my father's affairs, my father's household " are laboring under wrong im- pressions, ' as I infer, to my prejudice. ! •1. ■ MoNTBEAL, 12th June, 1834. My Dear Sir, '" I am glad to hear I may soon have the pleasure of seeing you. Since my last it has occurred to me that Rasco's establishment at Yarennes will be as good a place as you can find near here to spend some time, now that it is probable Mrs. G. and your family will accompany you. I think it is the best. A steamboat leaves there twice a day for Montreal. Your so- journing there will not create any suspicion, which it is advis- able as far as possible to avoid. I beliieve I shall be able to keep oflf one or two large judgments : in one I am personally interested. I can, therefore, count pretty freely on that. It will amuse you to hear my plans. I have had some conversa- tion with some of your family here. / believe they are aware, to a certain extent, of the state of your fathefs affairs ; at the same time they are labouring nnder wrong impressions, which I fear it will be difficult to remove. Yours very sincerely, % _ / Frans. Perry. * Yet in the preceding letter she is described as cooler— as somewhat alarmed, and by implication as being aware of the state of my father's affairs. Was there not enough in all this to drive mo stark mad P h'A If m '■A S'^ 'I' Mr. Scott sets up a claim to pecuniary assistance in right of his wife, my sister. — Mr. Monk seems to have been undeceived. Montreal, Tth July, 1834. My Dear Sir, I had a long conversation with Monk & Scott to-day. Scott seemed to think he had a legitimate claim for £50 per annum, exclusive of dower. I removed that idea by stating that the deficiency arose prior to his marriage ; consequently he could not expect anything from that in a legal point of view. Monk seems sensible of the kind part you have acted towards your father. Believe me, yours truly, F. Perry. Mr. Monk, the intimate friend of Mr. Grant, my fellow surety, is anxious about the safety of Grant. Thursday Evening. My Dear Sir, I had a conversation with Monk to-day, and explained matters to him in the best — I mean most advantageous — man- ner. He seems determined to save the office, provided any hopes could be held out to him that the expenditure could be reduced — a circumstance he seems much to wish ; in fact, he said Mrs. G. should be now living in the suburbs at a rent of £30. I removed all suspicion of your having interested motives, and he more than once expressed his deep regret that he ever entertained any of you ; indeed, he acted in the way we could wish. I regretted much you were not here. He seemed very anxious about Grant's safety, which I hinted might be in danger — I think with some effect. The present seems a favorable opportunity to get your family here to put their shoulders to the wheel. The dread of exposure seems to weigh much with them. ,, , . ! Yours very sincerely, F. Pbrry. 39 Unless I procure £5000 the office can't be saved. Unless I do, I must come up at once. I must be the greatest suflferer : — Montreal, 28th August, 1834. My Dear Sir, Since I last addressed you Mr. Gale has been appointed successor to Mr, Uniacke. The promotion of that gentleman, I fear, will be rather unfortunate in the state of your father's affairs. He has a great direct interest in the distributson of the two largest sums now in hand, besides, I am told, he intends making it a principle to allow suitors to get their monies with the least possible delay. I cai^not conceal fj,'om you that your father's anxiety seems to have a very injurious effect. He fears much his fate is sealed ; for some days back he seems to have lost almost all hope. The shortness of the time, and your absence from Quebec, gives rise to those feelings. It will require the greatest exertion, joined to good fortune, to save your father's office. The state in which we all now are is almost unsupportable. Should you not succeed to the extent of £5000, it will be ab- solutely necessary for you to come here as soon as possible. Let me then, my dear Sir, request of you to do all you can in and about Quebec as speedily as you can, and should you not succeed to the extent required, come here,* for rest assured^ as you exist, that amonnt will be required by the next term to save the office. It would be madness to leave anything to chance. Your prospects are at stake ; better make any sacrifice than risk them, for should things come to the worst you will be by far the greatest sufferer. I intended to have mentioned that the plan of retrenchment gets on well. Believe me, my dear Sir, to be yours sincerely, F. Perry. i vp : • Thi8 word " come here." which it cost nothing to write, was unneces- sarily repeated ; and deprived of the blessings of that homo whicli I loved BO much, I became a perfect shuttle. 40 : / '• i # I had written to my father, but my letter was withheld. — My father is despondent. : ' ^' : . ; ^ Montreal, 20th January, 1835, Dea-r Sir, I received yours yesterday with that enclosed to your father, which I read attentively ; and, although I perfectly agree with you in every particular therein stated, I did not pre- sent it to your father, because, although he is in good health, he seems frequently to be labouring under a kind of despon- deney, which I fear has been brought on by his seclusion. Of late he seldom sees any of his family. Should you, however, wish the letter delivered, I will of course do so. I thank you for the information of Smith's cause ; I learnt as much from the parties here. The chances are now that we will get over the two ensuing terms, as the Court of Appeals meets after the April term of K. B. In the meantime, should any opportunity occur of getting funds, do not lose it. I shall do everything in my power to lessen the burden to you. We have the prospect of an excellent term. I see from the actions taken out that a vast quantity of real property will be brought to sale by the Sheriff during the current year. It will be well for you to re- view the state of things here as often as you can ; not that I have any fear now of their becoming worse, but that, if possible, they should be improved. I remain, my very dear Sir, Yours very sincerely, « Frans. Perry. The probable sum to be probably required is now il 10000. — I am severely taxed. Yet at this date, and long before as well as after, Mr. Perry had some JC4000 and odd of my father's money not bearing interest :— Montreal, 24th January, 1835. My Dear Sir, When I addressed you a few days ago I was in hopes that it would not be necessary to trouble you lOr some time. I oar that I was disappointed, as I accidentally discovered this ?) 41 morning that the projects of the judgments of distribution in two cases in which near j£5000 is in hand, is actually made, and the amount will certainly be demanded early in term. When that amount is added to the amounts of the smaller demands, a sum of at least £10,000 will be required in probability for the term. Your father therefore thinks with me that it would be well to repeat the former operation at Quebec, to the extent if possible of JC1500, which demand will of course be forthcoming should it not be demanded. I am nware that this is taxing you severely, but you are the only one to whom your father can apply. I trust you may be able to relieve him. Mr. M'Gill has not yet returned, he is expected at the latter end of the month. No exertion shall be wanting on my part to increase the funds here. Unfortunately, a good portion of your father's means cannot immediately be converted into cash, and the time left us to provide money is clearly very short. Should you approve of discounting at Quebec, please send up the notes as on the for- mer occasion. / I remain, my dear Sir, yours very lincerely, F. Pbrry. M nil I have sent a blank signature, to be used for my father's relief. Montreal, 3d February, 1835. My Dear Sib, ' - .^ I received yours with the blank enclosed, which I should have acknowledged sooner. I waited to ascertain whether we should require to use it, as I thought it would bo better to leave it for a last resource. I am happy to say the pro- bability now is that we will get over the next term without dis- counting, having received £1000 from the estate of Mr. E., and as much more for Bank stock. I will, however, with your per- mission, keep the blank in case it should be required. Yours, very truly, F. Perry. m hi fe': • lI I 42 Mr. Perry feels for me — as well he might. Montreal, 30th March, 1835. My Dear Sir, Your father has just seen Mr. McGill, who had applied on your behalf to Mr. Keith, who stated that he could not lend you any amount ; so we can have no hope from that quarter. He however promised to use his influence to get your note en- dorsed by your father for JE2,500, discounted ; so that we may count upon that, with almost a degree of certainty. We shall know to-morrow. I shall communicate the result of the appli- cation to you without delay. Two terms will intervene before the note will become due ; it is, therefore, more than probable the amount that will be obtained will be paid on judgments before that period. You will, my dear Sir, of course see the necessity of using every exertion — to be prepared to pay at least one-half the amount, as by doing so a renewal may be got. I almost despaired on reading your letter this morning : I felt deeply for you. However, hope for the better. It is within a few minutes of four. I must conclude. Yours very sincerely, F. Perry. Montreal, 16th April, 1835. My Dear Sir, You are at this time in possession of your father's let- ter, stating that the Government had called on him to renew his security. I trust this step may not cause any inconvenience. You are, and must be, the real security as the heir of your fa- ther, whose property, under any circumstances, must be liable in the first instance. Yours sincerely, Frans. Perry. Montreal, 3rd May, 1835. My Dear Sir, I received yours with the blank* endorsed, which I should have acknowledged sooner. I wanted to ascertain whe- * My blank signature to bo used for his sorvice. Ill 43 l\% lied md ter. |en- lall ther we should require to use it, as I thought it would be better to leave it for a last resource. Yours very truly, F. Perry. Amount for which my father is liable exceeds £19000. He has only £4000, and of that £2500 are the proceeds of my note. — Refers to the case of Smith against Brown. Judge Smith, of Montrsal, claimed and received from me (as levied by my father in that case) about £3000, of which £1000, kindly advanced by Sir George Simpson, is still c! ue : — MoNTBfiAL, 12th May, 1835. My Dear Sir, I deferred writing to you until now in order to be en- abled more fully to state the position of your father's affairs. I have just finished closing the several accounts for the last half year; and, being fully informed of the late decisions, as well here as in the Court of Appeals, I can form a pretty accu- rate idea of our prospects, which I regret to say are not by any means flattering. The emoluments of the office have been fully «qual to those in the preceding periods, and we have been equally fortunate in not meeting with any loss. I regret at the same time that the amounts withdrawn from the proceeds ot the office fall little short of the profits. Your father's balance in deposit at the Bank is much reduced, being only about £4000, including the proceeds of the note discounted, £2500, while the balance of public monies exceeds £19,000 ; a large proportion of which, in all probability, will be awarded next term. One case, that of Brown & Smith, in which judgment was given in the last Court of Appeals, will claim £3000 ; so that it will be necessary, in order to meet the claims for public monies, to turn everything into cash. Even should the above-mentioned case be further contested, I fear the demands will be as much as we can meet. Under these circumstances it becomes my duty to you to state that on the first of July, on which day the note becomes due, your father may be unable to make up the amount necessary to obtain a renewal ; an event that would at once expose his circumstances, and of course endanger his office. It * iii! m 1/ f I i'ii 1 1 "■ ■ J 'I I 44 is useless for me to say more on this unfortunate subject. You know all the facts as •well as I do. It grieves me doubly to refer you, who must be the [greatest sufferer, to a course of events that seem destined to bring every one at all connected with them to destruction. I expect you here : you stated in one of your last letters that you would come up in one of the first steamers. Pray let me hear from you at your earliest convenience, and believe me, Yours sincerely, Frans. Perry. My father's head much aflfected. — He rejects my proposal to sell the Seigniory. — Admits his inab'lity to do a very simple thing. — Mr. Perry dreads my seeing him. Montreal, 27th August, 1835. My Dear Sir, It is not my fault if you have not heard from me before now. The fact is, I cannot get your father to do anything, not even to state his own views of his affairs. He was very unwell during my stay at Quebec. He became indisposed the night of my departure, and on my return I found him exceedingly wn- well ; his head is evidently much affected.* This being the first day of the Criminal Term, and everything connected with the office having gone on well, he is mv^h better. I yesterday sub- mitted to him the proposal of your letter, about selling the Seigniory ; but he will not hear of it. I have also spoken to him about our plan of getting money from the Bank, through Mr. McGill. This he partly objects to, and states his inability to make the necessary arrangements, kc, &c. I am still almost confident it will succeed, if properly managed. Under these circumstances, I must appeal to you. It is clear we will want money in October. I do not like applying myself to Mr. McG. : I fear it would not look well. I am in dread your father will botch the affair should he apply alone. At the same time I almost dread the idea of your seeing your father about his wn- * There arc in this letter indications of an infirm state of mind, which might account for or bo the effect of the power exercised by Mrs. Suther- and. 1 45 fortunate affairs. The Bank is evidently our best resource. We can give it better security than any other lender. There is still .£3000 Stock, which we would leave as part security ; besides it is almost certain that as much more will be always in deposit, on which the Bank would have a Lien. The dividends on the stock would at all times ensure the payment of the interest, or a great portion thereof, of the sum that may be required. Which is best to be done ? Let me hear from you soon. Believe me, Yours, very sincerely, Fbans. Perry. Things as bad as possible. £ •70,000 due, and only a few hun- dreds to my father's credit. — Again " I'm to come up." Montreal, 1st June, 18 — . My Dear Sir, I received your letter this day, to which I shall attend. I expected to have heard from or seen you on the state of things here, which are as bad as they possibly can be ; indeed^ I fear a few days vnll wind them up. I have balanced the pub- lic accounts, and find to this day the amount on hand* exceeds seventy or seventy-one thousand pounds ; to meet which there is only a few hundred pounds, exclusive of the amount borrowed from Mr. Holmes, which of course must be paid before the Bank Stock can be disposed of. The amount due to your father is considerable, but it will take a long time to call it in : I am trying to do so as fast as I can. We have not received JE1500 since the last term ; and we have paid some thousands. Under these circumstances, I think you had better come up imme- diately, in order that we try what can be done. For my part, I do not know what is best. It is near six ; I must close. Yours sincerely, F. Perry. P.S. — I beg you may come or write immediately. :iA J • '\ That is. public money levied by the Sheriff. ?'»; -i'l '. ',' fill!' I Wi: \P m m m . '■■■.-(I. i' I! Mi ••^^^' M ■: ''^i It i I ' 1^ ''' f 46 My father's household is, 1 infer, enraged against me. — My fellow surety, Mr. Grant, wishes to be discharged. Montreal, 16th June, 1.836. Mr Dear Sir, I see by the Quebec papers that his Excellency and the other Commissioners leave for Montreal this day. Perhaps our affairs can, through the Chief Justice, be best arranged here. The people* here are all actually savage. Your mother J fear, will give as much trouble as she can. On reflecting on the plans you made I am convinced they are the only mode of relief; if they fall, I do not see what can be done. Mr. McGill has not given me an answer. I feel it will be what Holmes stated. I think you had better come up when Lord G is here. The Bank would probably, if the oflSce was on a sure basis, be inclined to assist us. Mr. Holmes' remarks led me to observe that the principal objection arose from the state of your father's health. If they could be made to believe that he would continue to receive the fees of the office, many of their objec- tions would be put aside. Mr. Grant ha^ again applied to he discharged from his secu- rity; he seems determined upon it. It is now very evident this state of things cannot last long. Pray let me hear from you as soon as you can, and believe me, Yours sincerely, F. Pbrry. P.S. — ^Your father has asked me to state to you that you had better, if you can, dispose of his property, as a dernier resort; as, should the sale be forced, the property will be sacrificed. I send another i^tter.— Its effect :— < Montreal, 20th June, 1836. Mt Dear Sir, I have received both your letters, with your note in one, which I hope to turn to good account. We may, by good luck and the interference of Providence^ get over the term, should there be no large judgments in vacation. I am in hopes 41 the illnes? of your Chief Justice will prevent the Northwest case, in which we hold £4000, from being heard. We have now about an equal sum to the credit at the Bank. Grant and Monk are .... a great work about the security ; they seem determined to give it up. Your poor father is in the same state ; I fear he's much wor- ried. Do not relax your exertions. Believe me, yours sincerely, F. Perry. It behoves me now explicitly to state a fkct perfectly incom- prehensible, or at least susceptible of no satisfactory explana- tion. It will have been noticed how pathetically Mr. Perry de- plored the want of funds, and how urgent as well persistive he was in his exhortations and prayers to me to fill the vacuum. Yet on the 12 th of February 1833* that Mr. Perry had borrowed from my father no less a sum than £4,105, without interest ! On the 11th of July 1834 my father subscribed a receipt* for £350 cur- rency on account. On the "Ifth of April 1836, a short time before Mr. Perry's insanity became a matter of public notoriety, and certainly long after a palpable decline in my father's faculties, the former exacted and the latter subscribed another receipt.* By that document my father is made " to acknowledge and con- " fess to have received to his full and entire satisfaction, of and " from Francis Perry of Montreal, Esquire, the balance of prin- " cipal and interest due on the said amount, and doth conse- " quently for ever hold, quit, release and discharge, &c., &c." The amount of the balance paid, or to be paid, is not stated, nor is the amount of interest nor the aggregate composed of both ; and, having found no trace of the money, I never could ascer- tain the precise amount. "What is inexplicable, however, is that Mr. Perry should stipulate for an exemption from the payment of interest, and subsequently pay interest. It is inconceivable too that neither Mr. Perry nor my father ever deemed it fitting to make me acquainted with those interesting facts ; they came to my knowledge, it is true, but too late to avail me. * These documonts are of record in the oiliuc of Arnold!, notary. ^ •■ ::f = '-if t : : 'I r I.:/'" ;'!:'}' mjjk 48 Bound in a large sum, as the surety of my father, then avow- edly embarrassed, I was justly entitled to take some interest in the management of his affairs. It was not only i^atural bul right, for I, too, had a family. The disposal which he made ol his means was assuredly a subject relative to which I could claim to be informed, and if I found any diversion of his funds from their legitimate channel, to interpose. In reference to any other person, my father would have acquiesced in that claim ; but because I was his son he maintained that the sacrifice of my fortune, time, comforts, and prospects, in the endeavor to retrieve his affairs, or the propriety of repaying the advances I had made him, were not grounds upon which he could be expected to lay puy restraint upon himself. In the order of nature fathers are generally called upon to restrain sons. Mine was an anomalous and unnatural position, for it was my misfortune to be a check upon my father. The son of his old age, residing in his house, the son of Mrs. Sutherland, eventually engrossed all his affection : indifferent to my fate, docile to her voice, involved in the mesh of her blandishments, her wiles, and her artifices, he cursed me for remonstrating. This was the work of Mrs. Sutherland. How he acted in relation to her, and the gifts he made her, the sequel will show. He had excited my sympathy in favor of his son by Mrs. Sutherland, he had urged me to call and see her. Finding her in the immediate vicinity of my place of business, learning that she corresponded with my mother, having ascertained that she ruled my father, and desirous of making her instrumental in saving him, I sought her acquaintance. I learned that she knew him to be embarrassed, and communicated to her as much of my intentions, as well as of the facts to which they related, as was expedient or necessary for my purpose. With many pious ejaculations*, she solemnly promised, and I assumed that she • I was not surprised to And the letters of Mrs. Sutherland full of whining pretension to superior piety, charity, disinterestedness, sensibility, and Roodness. Slio deals largely in cant phrases of the school in which she was reared. Thus she subscribes herself now tlie "mother of pity," then tho " mother of mercy," then the " mother of pain " ; and she spurns this earth as a land of exile, from which (for a quarter of a century back) she affecta to exult, at the prospect of bein>? sliortly released. She has not, however, as yet winded her flight uiiwards. 4d Would throw her weight into my scale. I had attempted to demonstrate to her that the interests of her son were identical with mine. As she knew how aflfectionately I had treated him, I could not have suspected her of any design to injure me. In one respect, however, I found her absolutely obdurate, for whether from conviction or affectation, she maintained that I had more money than I needed — that I was, in fact, a miser. This is a pretension by no means uncommon. It is [an easy way of reconciling oneself to the imposition upon others of burdenn and privations intended for one's own convenience or benefit. It is a mode of concealing the condition of one's victim with a mist of prejudice, and of depriving him of the sympathies of mankind. Thus the thief who abstracts an article that suits him, consoles himself with the reflection that the owner is rich and won't miss it. Before I produce her testimony and that of her son, I should state, that shortly after that interview I was informed that she frequently received presents of great value from my father. This was clearly against the letter as well as the spirit of our com- pact, for my father, an insolvent, had nothing to give. It is plain that his engagements having devolved on me, he could give his mistress nothing which he did not abstract from me* I would now introduce Dr. William Sutherland, of whose letters the under-written sentences are extracts. If his acknowledg- ments were sincere, I was entitled to his lasting gratitude. I had repaired (as I was compelled to do from fifteen to twenty times during three several winters) from Quebec, before the era of railroads, to Montreal on my father's business i-^- [bxtraots.] I Montreal, Feb. 15th, 1836. ; My Dear Gugt, How and when did you get to Quebec? Hardly on Tuesday night. You had terrible weather both days ; but you will have something to boast of when telling your exploits in future days, for few men would undertake such a journey in this country and in the depth of winter, except in a case of life and death. Yours truly, Wm. Sutherland. ^^•1 if li I t I I n: 50 'W n ■i' t had remitted money to him when, as he knew, I was in great distress. The lines in italics (which are mine) are significant. The words " kept afloat " relate to a period anterior to the two remittances.— ^Admits my usefulness : — i*OET fiaiB, January Uth, ISSt. My D«ar Gu(»y, I have been compelled to make use of the second draft you sent me. On Saturday I went to Buffalo, and there Brown & Buckland cashed it at once. Some time ago I wrote you that I would require a winter carriage, if there should be snow roads ; the paraphernalia hare cost upwards of £12 lOs. From this statement you see that I was obliged to draw as I did* Since I last wrote you poor Grant has died. This will make things still more disagreeable. Whom have you got as bail ia his stead 7 Unless you exerted yourself, I think that it would be difficult to find one within the limited time-— a month, I be^ liere, after the death of the individual. You live altogether now at Montreal^ I suppose. The Office requires your whole attend tion^ or that of another as trusty a person, for without U I ant convinced that it would long ago have gone to deetruction, J for one have to thank you for it, and for the assistance you have given me ; and believe me that it shall never be forgotten. While you yot^selfwere sinking^ you kept me ajloai, even (U your own risk. For this and many benefits^ I am deeply^ deeply grateful^ and I hope that some day I shall be able to make some slight return. In one of your letters you ask me for a receipt of the money I have got from you. Here it is— Received from the Hon. L. Ougy, two drafts (which have beeh cashed), each of £16 Halifax currency. WU. SUTHBRIiAND, M.D. Fort Erie, Jan. 11th, 1831. m 51 The following letter is his reply to my appeal to him to urge his mother to surrender what was left of the gifts which she had contrived to extort from my father. It is honorable to him ; but that frame of mind continued only until his first interview with her : — Fort Erie Rapids, March 26th, 1838. My Dear Guqy, I am partly aware of the disclosures you make to me, I mean as far as the munificent conduct of Parain* extended to mamma. I shall at once come to the point : of the two £50 presents I know nothing, but of the JE200 I do. They were not public money, but the balance due to Parain by Mr. Hughes for his house at Three Rivers. Indirectly, how- ever, that sum may be considered as belonging to the pub- lic ; since he, being a defaulter, ought to make available every fraction he possesses or did possess. As far as I am concerned, the money will be refunded, and though I think that I as a son ought not to press such a thing upon a mother, more especially one utterly destitute, yet I say that I shall use my influence with her to have the assignments altered or cancelled, I don't understand the difference. I feel the more sore about it because I rather think that my mother's only object in refusing to accede to yonr demands was her being desirous to place that sum at my disposal. I am not sure of this, I only suspect it. I personally, and indeed the whole of us, have experienced such unvarying generosity from the family, that even were a sum totally in my power, I would gladly yield up the whole rather than that anything should touch even a hair of Parain's head. I shall at once write to mamma, and explain as well as I may my ideas upon the subject, and recommend her to give all monies now not paid to you. I know nothing of what has passed, but I place confidence in your honor should I be mistaken then. •'- Yours truly, Wm. Sutherland. • Param, (Godfather), the name which he applitid to my father and his. i '. 1 52 ,V>i! i! fi Ifvi I ' U: m m Dr. Sutherland admits that I have been kind to him ; and so I was. As to his sense of my services — obligations he calls them — he evidently counts the intention as nothing : — Fort Erie Rapids, May 20th, 1838. My Dear Gugy, Your favours to me are not yet at an end. I have another and great one to request of you, in which, should you succeed, I shall still more be under obligation to you. Yours truly, ' ' . "Wm. Sutherland. Mrs. Sutherland was represented to me to be living on her own means, nor did my father in any way at any time intimate that he supported her. The fact, however, could not be always concealed, and those who will compare dates may possibly ad- mit that I had some right to complain of what her son calls the " munificent gifts " made to her by my father. On the 18th July, 1834, my father's agent delivered to her an indefinite quantity of wheat and hay. On the 9th December following, my father assigned to her £200. - On the 10th January, 1835, she acknowledges receipt of suf- ficient money to pay for her pew in church, and other debtSi On the 21st March following, she admits that "she costs my father a great deal, and acknowledges certain gifts not dis- tinctly specified. On 25th April of the same year, she acknowledges two diflfe- rent assignments, of which the precise amount is not stated. On the 6th May following, she appears to have received two other assignments — amount not stated. On June, 1835, she acknowledges the receipt by her own son of a great load of presents. In her joy and surprise at the mag- nitude of the gifts, she asks, "avez vous id^e de remplir un steamboat? — "did you intend to refill a steamer?" On the 13th April, 183G, my father assigned to her £225. On the 26th June, he gave her £50. In fine, she admits distinctly that she is supported by my father. Then her daughter Caroline, since married to one Mon- Im.V li 63 dor, boarded in my father's house, and at Mrs. Sutherland's re- quest, he lent to her son Dunbar large sums, which were never returned, at least to my knowledge. My father was even charged with the care of a negro servant of this Dunbar. Eventually my father paid the expense of this negro's travel through the States as well as of his passage to the West Indies. Notwithstanding the precautions which were taken to con- ceal these things from me, I eventually learned enough to excite alarm. An annual donation of fifty or a hundred pounds would have been intelligible : but here were daily gifts of an unknown amount made to his mistress by a man who had reduced me to the greatest straights, who had compelled me to renounce many of the comforts of life, who hourly harrowed me with the details of his necessities and his dangers, and who was, in fact, playing upon my affection like a musician upon a stringed instrument. In the reports which reached me the expenditure incurred on her account n.lght be either greatly magnified or understated : but how much lie gave that woman I never could ascertain, and the amount herein above stated may not be a tithe of what she got, Yet when I complained he considered himself very ill used, and taxed me with "persecuting" him. See his letter of the 15th December, 1835. In fact, having no hold on his affections, I was a doomed man, doomed to penury, sorrow, and degradation, and all for Mrs. Sutherland. She is " sincere," she says, and I shall now allow her to speak for herself. The "grosse maman" herein under-mentioned is my father's wife and my mother, not the mother of Dr. Sutherland. — My father is urged or commanded by his mistress (aimez is in the imperative mood) to love his wife as much as possible. That wife is even said to have some claims, inasmuch as having six children of her own she adopted the adulterine son of her husband by Mrs. Sutherland :— 21st March, 1834. [COPIB.] J'espere que la chore grosse maman a petit n'est pas pire qu'a I'ordinairc. Qu'ellc est bonne de prendre taut d'intdret d nous.... qu'elle g<5ndrosit6 d'ame, et quelle belle action n'a t'elle pas ^1 'B ^ 11 I ■rh « i i, : i- 1 54 ait pour nons. All parain aimez la soyez lui bon antant que possible. . . . comment ne pourrais-je pas I'aimer d I'adoration, elle m'a si bien remplac^ aupres de men cher petit, oui ma vie don- ne pour elle ne serait rien en comparaison. . . .est-il possible quo e mourrerai sans pouvoir lui t^moigner ma reconnaissance. i' 'i.i- ':i>i 'i XI- ;;') ,- V,- ! f TRANSLATION.] I hope that our pet's dear fat mamma is not worse than usual. How good she is to take so much interest in us. What a gene- rous soul, and what a good action did she not perform for us. Ah 1 god-father, love her and be good to her — as much ag possible. It is quite impossible that I should not love her to adoration, she replaced me so well in relation to my pet. Verily were I to give my life for her it would be nothing in comparison. Can it be possiWe tl^at I shall die without proving to her how grateful I am. n; fp. ;ii- r F.ii- >i rjl Tn a letter of the 18th July, 1834, she accuses me of beiflg a thief, of taking away my mother's horses and coach, as also the horse Lorenzo, kept for the use of her dear William :— Je sais que votre fils 6tait ddvor^ do son int^ret personnelle et s'il creve san fils ce ''era comme je lui ai 4^ja dit des gendres qui en h^riteront en riant de lui : triste ambition qui tue lea meilleurs qualit^s chez I'homme. II a fait main basse partout, 6t6 les choveaux de sa pauvre mere et son carrosse qu'on lui avait donnd sans qu'elle I'ait demand^ et le cheval de mon cher Wil- liam ce Lorenzo qu'il aimait tant. J'cspere qu'il a fini de CQ cotd, je tremble a present pour moi. . [TRANSLATION.] ' I know that your son was devoured by his personal interest, and if he bursts without a son, it will be, as I have already told him, sons-in-law who will inherit (his property), wiiile they will be laughing at hira, — Melancholy ambition, which destroys the better qualities in man. He has pillaged in every direction- deprived his poor mother of her horses end of her coach which had been given to her unasked for by her. Also the horse of my to sc S| ill 85 dear William* — that Lorenzo which he loved so much. I hope that he has finished in that quarter. I now tremble for myself. My father proving that his mistress accuses me falsely : — Montreal, 21st Sept., 1833. My Dear Son, Zohrab is come safe, also the note ; for both of which thanks. As you seem to be aware of my state of anxiety, I rust that you will put an end to it as speedily as you possibly can, for I am not on a bed of roses, as you appear fully to under- stand. I thank you kindly for the offer of a saddle horse. At present I must decline it ; the bandage round my leg and thigh would render riding too unpleasant. Should I, contrary tc expectation, get better, I shall apply for the animal, if you still possess any. I went to Orr's to inquire about Judge Panet, but learnt that he had returned and was at Quebec. The expectation of that bar- gain had made me neglect my first intended private sale, so if you see him, propose to him the bargain on whatever pretence you please. Carriage, JClOO, harness, quite new, i)20, horses, pair,f from £10 to £75 — payment at his convenience. You know the carriage, it is in the highest order, new painted this year, Lon- don built, &c. By the bye he must pay freight or passage for the cattle, and for John, whom I shall send with the concern ; his return will be my affair. To close the subject, I [shall warrant the horses under my hand, if required. I am so low in spirits that I can only add, God bless you, my dear son. P.S. — Leg still much swelled, but less painful. i^ ' * So far fi'ora doprivinf? hor son of a horse, T think that ho would, if in- torro>?ated, admit something very like the gift of a mare, and perhaps something more. t Those are the horses and oarrinire wliich in the preceding letter Mrs. Sutherland nceuses mo of having taken from my niotiier. My father's Intention to sell them by private sale, and the order to propose to sell them on whatever pretence, should bo sulllcient to exculpate me. C 2 'I, Sii ■*«:: ■^W r, 66 Mri3. Sutherland objects to my presence ; wishes to see my father alone.— She calls me " The Sultan " :— 16th October, 1834. Je vous prig en grace ne d^rangez pas votre plan de venir le 22. Le Sultan voudrait se rencontrer ici avec reus et noug nous verrons pas plus que la dcrniere fois que vous etes venu avec lui, et nos aflfaires resteront la, qu'il aille se faire lanlire il est vraiment tannant. II ne pense que pour lui et voudrais vous menez comrac un enfant, ne le mettez pas trop sur ce pied I'ambitieux qu'il est. [translation. 3 I beg of you earnestly adhere to your plan to be here on the 22nd. The Sultan wishes to meet you here, and we shall see no more of each other than the last time, and our affairs will remain where they are. Let him go to Jericho. He really wearies one. He thinks only of himself, and would drive you like a child. Don't put him on that footing — the ambitious fel- low that he is. A short written text, introductory doubtless of a long verbal commentary :— 10th January, 1836. J'aurais bien des choses a vous dire que j'ai d^couvert dernie- rement au sujet du Sultan. [TRANSLATION.] 1 would have many things to tell you which 1 have lately dis- covered upon ihe subject of the Sultan. My father complimented, at my expense, on his Christian virtues. — Ohien, which I have translated " Pet," literally Dug, was a term designed by her to apply to her son, in order to excite my father to raise him from the low position in which that word supposes him to be placed :— 25th Apiii, 1835. Notre charmant chien est bien fier qu'il se fait faire de beaux habits. Le grand Sultan on sauterait je pense s'il voyait cela^ 67 car il aurait le courage de tout bannir, il ne considere pas en Chretien comme vous. . . . Oh le vilain, s'il est ce qu'il nous parait il est a plaindre, et Dieu ne le benira pas. [TRANSLATION.] Our charming pet is very proud as he is getting fine clothes. The great Sultan would stamp (with rage) I think were he to see that, for he would have the courage to banish everything. He does no tconsider as a Christian as you do. Oh the base fellow, if he be what he seems, he's to be pitied, and God will not bless him. Mrs. Sutherland complaining of me for rising too early in the morning, to suit her purpose. — She compares me to tier beauti_ ful and perfect dog : — 7th July, 1835. J'aurais 6te bien contente, boa ami, d'avoir la terre en ques- tion, mais le Sultan I'a lou^ pour un an a raison de douze cents bottes de foin. Mondor, avec mon chien y avait 6t6 pour s'en emparer bien fiers tons les deux, mais maitrc Bellemard dit I'a- voir lou.6 et Bazin dit la meme chose a Mondor. Ne craignez pas le Sultan ramasses partout, riche comme il est c'est un ava- re de la premiere classe, qui fait rapiamus par tout. Je vous remercie toujours pour votre attention. Cher ami, ce n'est pas votre faute si je ne I'ai pas, seulement on aurais du le devancer. Saurait 4t6 pour notre beau chien qui est presque parfait, soyez en fier. [TRANSLATION.] I should have been much pleased, dear friend, to have had the farm in question, but the Sultan has leased it for one year in consideration of 1200 bundles of hay. Mondor (her son-in- law) went there with my pet to take possession of the farm, both of chem very proud. But Master Bellemard (tl.^ man who had hired the farm) said that it was leased to him. Bazin (my father's agent) told Mondor as much. Fear not, the Sultan plun- ders in every direction. Rich as he is, he's a miser of the first water, who robs in every direction. I thank you, however, li -■,! ^^ Ill, iiJ;5 ^^ tf! I '■■ 'H ■•li '■ • 1 It •5^^!; ' 58 for your attention (here attention means intention — a common error among the uneducated part of the French Canadians — the intention of giving the farm to Mrs. Sutlierland). Dear friend, it is not your fault if the farm be ^ot mine, only we ought to have been beforehand with the Sultan. It would have been for our handsome pet, who is almost perfect. You may be proud of him — or rather, be proud of him. Incredible, though true : Rapiamus the plunderer is noble and generous ! She cannot possibly be hindered from loving the aforesaid Rapiamus ! ! She invokes the blessing of God on that very identical Great Sultan, Rapiamus 1 ! Machiche, 19 Mai, 1837. MoN Cher Monsieur, II est impossible pour moi, nee sensible, de paraitre vi- vre dans l'indiflf6rence avec une personne que sincerement, je ne puis m'empecher d'aimer, et, qui ne m'empechera pas d'en agir autrement malgr^ suivant les apparances, les duretes qu'il m'a fait eprouv^es depuis un certain temps. Mais que je lui pardon- ne car il croit avoir ses raisons, tout juste que Ton soit, on pent bien se laisser induire en erreur. La providence, au moins je I'es- pere, fera peut-etre connaitre mon innocence en attendant il me semble que vous m'avez assez punie, de grace laissez vous flai- chir par la voix d'une infortun^e : et revenez je vous prie dans voire caracUre noble et genireux a mon dgard dont vous etes par un mal entendu resortie et me rendez votre estime, car je vous assure que je suis bien a plaindre sous toutes sortes de rap- ports. Je ne vous d^taillerai rien, car mieux que personne vous ne devez de rien ignor^, je succombe sous le poids. Que Dieu b^nisse ceux qui en sont I'auteur et ne les reduise jamais dans ma penible situation. Si c'^tait un effet de votre bontd de mo dire si vous reprenez les deux pointe du domaine ou si vous me les laissez, comme ci-devant, je ne voudrais pas en jouir malgre vous d'une fa^on ou d'autre je me resignerai en silence a votre volontd. Que Dieu vous benisse cher enfant et ceux qui vous Bont chers. Je reste avec estime et consideration mon cher Monsieur, Votre aifectionn^e, B, 0. A GuGY, Ecuyer, Louise Sutherland. Guebec. ■M 59 [TRANSLATION.] .. Machiche, 19th May, 1837. My Dear Sir, '^ It is impossible for me, who am of an affectionate dis- position, to appear to live on terms of indiflference with a person whom sincerely I cannot but love, and who will not prevent me from acting otherwise, despite the seeming hardships he has appeared to cause me to suffer for some time past, which, how- ever, I pardon him, for he no doubt thinks himself justified in adopting such a co'.i^i . However just we be, we may err* Providence will, I ho^:, shew me to be innocent. Meanwhile, I do think you have sufficiently punished me. For God's sake listen to the voice of an unfortunate woman, and resume, I pray you, your noble and generous character towards me, from whom by some inexplicable misunderstanding, you have permitted yourself to be estranged. Let me enjoy your esteem, for I do assure you I am to be pitied in many respects.* I will not enter into details, for better than any other person you must know all.f I am overburdened with sorrows ; I yield under their weight, which crushes me to the ground. May God bless those who are the authors of my suflferings ; may they never be placed in so painful a position. Be pleased to let me know whether you w^U resume possession of the two points of the domaine, or whether you will allow me to retain them as heretofore ? I would not wish to keep them without your consent in any way, directly or indirectly. I resign myself in silence to your will. May God bless you, dear child, and those who are dear to you. I remain, with esteem and consideration, my dear Sir, Your afiectionate Louise Sutherland. To B. C. A. GuoY, Esquire, Quebec. * Kspecially m receiving so many muuificont gifts ! t Especially what was carofuUy concealud from me I :fr I?. 60 m y-M!' t It ' It':! i| i The acknowledgments for substantial pecuniary proofs of my affection, coupled with blessings, which are contained in my father's letters from Three Rivers, are somewhat indefinite. At this distance of time the precise amounts cannot be specified. I however submit a letter from the Honorable Mr. Tache, as also four acknowledgments, as well as an extract from a will writ- ten by my father when in the possession of all his faculties. Without noting these documents and their dates, the perusal of the letters of Mrs. Sutherland might not be as fructuous as I design it to be. Letter to me from the late Honorable J. B. Tach^, a gentle- man of well-known probity, veracity, and honour : — Kamoukaska, 29 D^cembre, 1840. MON CHER GUGY. J'ai re(}u votre lettre du 23 du courant, par laquelle, vous me demandez de rendre t^moignage, s'il m'en souvenait, des circonstances sous lesquelles vous pretates, a feu M. votre pere, £lQl 5s. 6d. courant, pour laquelle somme il vous con- senti une obligation pour argent pret^, devant moi, le 10 juin 1827. Que cette obligation ait ^t^ pass^e par moi, pour la somme et les causes sus-mentionn6es, cela est un fait de record dans mon €tude, attests par la signature de M. votre pere. Quant aux circonstances sous lesquelles cette obligation fut consentie, elles m'affecterent et me surprirent assez drns le temps, pour pouvoir encore m'en souvenir aujourd'hui. Je croyais M. votre pere dans I'aisance alors. Quelle fut done ma surprise, quant il me dit, la veille de la passation de cette obligation : " Si mon fils " ne vient point a mon secours, dans le moment, il faut que je " me brule la cervelle." [translation.] My Dear Gugy, I have received your letter of the 23d instant, request- ing me to put on record the circumstances, so far as I recollect, under which you lent £*181 53. 6d. to your late father, on the 61 loth February, 1827, for which he signed a bond before me. That he signed such a bond for the above-mentioned cause is a fact recorded in my office, attested by the signature of your late father. With respect to the circumstances under which the bond was executed, they afifected and surprised me so much at the time that £ recollect them well to-day. I had thought that your father at that time was in easy circumstances. What then was my surprise when on the eve of the execution of the bond he said to me, " If my son don't come to my assistance at this moment, I must blow my brains out." I acknowledge that I have this day received from my son, B. C. A. Gugy, Esq., the sum of two thousand five hundred pounds currency, as a loan to relieve me from embarrasment, being the amount of his promissory note in my favor, dated 11th September, 1834, discounted at the City Bank, for my use and benefit, and at my request, which sum of two thousand five hundred pounds I piomise to repay and reimburse to my said son, with interest. < £2500. Montreal, 13th September, 1834, L. Gugy. Francis Perry, J wwneggeg Geo. Lewis, J witnesses. Montreal, 28th December, 1834. Received from A. Gugy, Esq., by the hands of W. Stevenson, Esq., one thousand two hundred pounds currency for the Hon. L. Gugy. F. Perry. Montreal, 9th January, 1835. I do hereby acknowledge and declare that I have no claim or demand whatever on B. C. A. Gugy, my son, by reason of three notes endorsed by me, dated 30th and 31st December last, which notes have been taken up by me as having been granted for my use and benefit. L. Gugy. 4' 62 I hereby acknowledge that the notes of hand given to me by my son at different times, including one for £2500, discounted at the Bank of Montreal, were accommodation notes, granted purely to serve me, and not in consequence of any debt due to me. L. GUGY. Montreal, 23rd September, 1835. My father's opinion of me. — Extract from his olograph will, dated 19th July, 1834, a period at which his faculties appeared to be still unimpaired : — I name and appoint my said son my sole executor for the execution of this my will and testament, divesting myself in his favour of all my assets from the hour of my decease, without limiting him to the time specified by law, but on the contrary extending and prolonging tlie period of his execution of this my will so long as in his discretion, on which I rely, he shall find or deem necessary. And I desire that my^said son shall not be accountable to any human being whatever, trusting completely as I do in liis dis- cretion, probity, and intelligence, and also in his readiness to obey any paternal commands. 1(1 Seeing that they could transform a miser and a thief into a noble and generous character, " the two points of the domaine " do really appear to have possessed great virtue. Overlooking the bad spelling as well as barbarous phraseology, that last letter to myself (compared with those endited to my father) may furnish some index to the character of Mrs. Sutherland. Calculating upon the inevitable fate of a dog with a bad name, in order to deprive me of my father's love she gave me a bad name. This is a course frequently pursued by step-mothers, and she was, to all evil intents and purposes, my step-mother. So she nick-named me "The Sultan," "The Great Sultan"; and, accusing me of a design to govern (literally to drive) my father, she roused his paternal pride and his self-love. Siie soon caused the bare mention of tlie word " Sultan" to become offensive and ever insulting to my father : so she harped continually upon it. 03 by d at rely irritating my father and indisposing^^him against me. Thence- forward, like those unhappy men who were In the dark ages said to have sold their souls to the devil, he was laid under a epell. Having established a breach between my father and me, she felt that at his age and ^n his circumstances he must lean upon her, and upon her alone. Blinded by satanic arts he did not see that she was actuated, by tjhe very rapacity which (in her letter of the 7th July, 1835) she ascribed to me, and he deemed me guilty of the very wrong which she meditated, and, so far as she could, actually committed. He did not ask him- self what title she or her son could have " to the farm in ques- tion"; he did not weigh their claims against mine. Having originally acted upon Mr. Perry's suggestion, " to put the best face on it, and m^e it appear that I was his debtor," he may, consideriujg his failing faculties, have repeated the assertion so often as — a not uncommon result — to have at last believed it himself 1 He was not contradicted ; for, in obedience to his commands, I never " blabbed." I was silent when my credit was ruined, and my person held up to execration as one who had reduced his father to want. There is certainly no merit in keeping a secret which one has no interest in divulging ; but I may perhaps take credit for concealing for years facts which I had a direct interest in disclosing. When my father described me a9»«the borrower, I could at any time have proved that I was the lender. Yet how could I tax him with the perpetration of a falsehood ; how could I expose him to expulsion from the oflSce of Sheriff? Again I confess it, the war which society made upon me only confirmed me in what I thought the point of honor ; and, trusting in God, I suflfered in silence for my father's sake. Happily for him I was then ignorant of the nature of his correspondence with Mrs. Sutherland, and I even hoped that lie appreciated my devotion. Having thus been more or less a tacit accessary to a much undeserved ill opinion, it be- hoves me to endure my fate manfully, and to acquit, as I cor- dially do, every man, woman and child who may entertain tht«.t opinion ; excepting always Mrs. Sutherland, and the son who has adopted her views. From tlie tenor of Mrs. Sutherland's letters and her absolute ^:' I t if I ' ^ W 1 1,* . 64 power over his mind, I infer her to hare persuaded my father that I possessed inexhaustible wealth. To inculcate that doc- trine was evidently her game. It is true that my income had been large, my tastes simple and inexpensive, and my wants few : but considering the amount expended in relieving my father, I could not but be much straightened. I was indeed embarrassed, and compelled to forego not only many comforts but some of the necessaries of life. My revenue — the mere re- sult of professional industry — depended on my practice. Now, under the pressure of my father's condition, my mind was un- avoidably more or less disturbed, and I somewhat neglected (per- haps was unfit for) practice. Eventually, however, I became altogether absorbed in his affairs, and lost my place at the bar, never to be regained. How then, knowing all this, could he, without a surrender of his judgment, permit that perfidious woman to persuade him that I was " rich " ? How otherwise could he tolerate, much less countenance, any aspersion of a character which in an act so solemn as a will he had i^ronounced excellent? It would seem further that she did not attempt to seize upon " the farm in question" for the benefit of her son without my father's concurrence ; and I fear that he had even agreed to en- rich her or her son, or both, to my detriment. The "beauty" and " perfection " of that son were themes upon whicn she dwelt with all a mother's partiality ; and, held up as they were in strong contrast with my deformity, they must have influenced my father's mind. Thus was he artfully and perseveringly wrought upon, until step by step he was led to discard me, to forget what he had solemnly declared " he never would forget," and to transfer to Mrs. Sutherland's son all the parei. tal affec- tion to which I had an acquired as well as a natural title. To give one undoubted proof of my father's infatuation and (shall I say) injustice, I would refer to that letter of Mrs. Sutherland in which she taxes me with pillaging and depriving both my mother and her son of their horses. It is dated 18th July, 1834. She was well aware of the then existing necessity for economy ; and my father, left to himself, would have assuredly stigmatised the keeping of a saddle-horse for the use of a natural son on the 65 part of an insolvent debtor as a fraud on his creditors. But his letter of the 2ist Sept. 1833 shows that, being at Montreal and desirous of parting with tlie horses, he directs me, then living at Quebec, to sell them. I submit further that the context proves that 1 J" id not take them, and that he sent them. So far whatever may be predicated of my opinions and recommenda- tions, I was passive. Then Mr. Perry's letter of the 31 at May 1834 contains an acknowledgment that I had accounted for the disposal of the horses, a troublesome and unpleasant task. Now, without infatuation, the result of infernal arts, how could my father so far forget what was due to himself and to his own blood in my veins as to countenance any person who could falsely prefer, as his mistress had preferred, such a charge against me being, to his certain knowledge, innocent? I fear- lessly appeal upon this point to all fathers, to all sons moved by natural instincts. Yet did my father until the day of his death remain in habits of familiar intercourse with the accursed ca- lumniator of a child on whom, as " his very good son," he had often Invoked "the blessing of Almighty Godl" Suppressing the anguish which I felt and feel, I pause to inquire through what channel Mrs. Sutherland got her informa- tion. Assuredly my father could not himself have belied me so far. But Doctor Sutherland, who in the foregoing letters recog- nises, in terms certainly not exaggerated, the kindness I evinced for him, was then an inmate of my father's house, and he cor- responded with his mother. Was it he who enabled that mother to poison my father's mind ? Did he furnish that false informa- tion, or suggest that false accusation ? Now when I furnished the funds which preserved my father's office and life, I could have made my own terms. When ray father threatened suicide, I might have claimed the expulsion of his natural son ; I might have insisted upon his being bound to a shoemaker. Had I taken that step, instead of supplying money for his support and edu- cation, I sh(^uld have extracted the fangs from the mouth of his mother, and saved my money ! The magic of the money I should have thus saved, its pro- verbial properties and power, at least, would have exempted mo from the endless difficulties with which, for a quarter of a oen- ■if ll. W '* ;! I. uy: I'i V ! 66 tury I have painfully struggled. I shall doubtless be charged "with disturbing the ashes of the dead, but my own ashes will need protection, for I, too, will shortly be numbered with the dead, and the malice of those who have thriven upon my ruin ■will survive me.* Taking no note of the many calumnies and libels by •which I have been assailed, I shall, by way of illustra- tion, if not in my justification or defence, relate a recent inci- dent. It was the spark that fired the train, and roused me from the defiant inactivity in which I passively awaited the end that is approaching. In July last I embarked at Montreal on board one of the mail steamers for Quebec. Being in the upper cabin, and having occasion to go below, I placed my foot upon the first seep of the [companion] stair case communicating with the deck. As a short sighted man, without glasses, I naturally moved slowly, for it was unusually dark, a result, as I soon became aware, of the presence of a woman on the ledge holding up a boy to the window. As quick as thought she dropt the boy and struck me a sharp blow on the face ! " Take that, you wretch," said she, " I swore I'd do it, and thank God I've done it." Restricting myself to a verbal notice of the act, I was passing down when the woman, piously praying to God that her husband were present to com- plete my discomfiture, actually kicked me in the face. " Take that," said this kinswoman of a worthy mother-in-law. It was indeed none other than Mrs. Sutherland, number two, Mrs. Sutherland not the mother but the wife of Doctor Sutherland, thus inaug-urating a pleasure trip to Ireland. I did not strangle her, but I thought that had I not " kept her husband afloat when I myself was sinking," he might not have married so happily, nor would his wife have been enabled to exhibit her feminine feline ferocity at my expense. I thought, too, of what would occur after my death, and I was roused to exertion. 1 wil die list as] me wai con var me, ad^ tha res enc cia I ab( I am * I take the rifrlit to make disclosures afTccting tlio dead to depend upon th(! interest of the living. It .seems to mo that the exercise of the right of Bolf-defenco cannot be defeated by tlie death of another, nor should tiio mere death of that other sullleo to impose all the responsibility of his acts upon an innocent survivor. 67 The apparent egotism inseparable from the foregoing details will operate to my prejudice, and I look for no unanimous ver- dict. I'm even told that the sympathies of the world are en- listed by other actors in the scenes herein above described, and as I have lived so I can die. But my father's afifairs have involved me in litigation. I have consequently been engaged in up- wards of one hundred law suits, and have lost the ear of the court. Unhappily the most unfavourable construction has in- variably been put upon my acts and words . It has seemed to me, indeed, as if I never could be right even by chance, nor my adversaries wrong even by accident ; and at one time I feared that a catastrophe was inevitable. If, as I am told, this be the result of a belief that I have wronged my father, I hope that enough has been said to undeceive such members of the Judi- ciary as may have been misinformed. Doctor Sutherland has seen all the letters and papers herein above cited, and on oath admitted them to be genuine. Here ends my tale. A second part will probably follow; and) after my decease, a third. A. GUGY. r ■I ''in ''I? Kl'j v-^ R :''l'm H II Ui spec lem chos quel ly i li I t' ■^1 'I I H0¥ I LOST MY MOIEY: BY COLONEL GUGY. II denaro e un compendio del poter humano. Un homme sans argent est un corps sans Ame — ^un mort ambulant, un spectre a faire peur. On I'^vite comme un pestif6r6. La necessity reveille le matin, et la mis6re Taccompagne le soir au lit. S'il a besoin do quelque chose chcz Ics marchands, on lui demaude d'avance le paiement, et s'il a quelque dette il passe pour unfripon .' — Oxenstiehn. I •■{ m «r J^5 75 PAET II. Showing how much the estimation in which a man is held depends upon money ; and how low, when his funds have been expended, he may fall in the opinion even of his best friends ! It will serve my purpose to compare life to a journey. Now the progress of one journeying may be obstructed by a deep and turbid stream, and he may irresolutely " stand shivering on the brink,"* as on the voyage of life I have done for years. But the traveller may dread the peril in his front less than the dangers in his rear, and as a choice of evils he may plunge in desperately. In that event, unless he can stem the current, he must be con- tent to perish and be seen no more. Such is my position and the origin of this publication. I shall add that the domestic difficulties in which I have been involved owe much of their intensity and publicity to the struggle for place. The fabrications, the exaggerations, the acrimony and rancor with wMch I have been persecuted, certainly ori- ginated more or less in the desire to exclude or supplant me. Political capital, a significant popular phrase, is seldom derived from the possession of positive merit. It is more frequently made out of the delinquencies of a rival, and whether those de- linquencies be real or only exaggerated, or altogether imaginary, they serve the purpose equally well. The condition of a colony furnishes a most promising field for detraction, and the cole- I. ,3^ 'i I, •lUm \\ ir / nists, to which class I belong, lie at the mercy of hungry design- ing metropolitans. These men, the natural enemies of the colo- nists, always have the ear of the Governor. Looking to office as their birth-right, invariably sustained by the sympathies of the metropolitans, they generally commence their career by pry- ing into the secrets of families. Men of energy and action in- variably excite envy, or at least they make enemies, and their private aflfairs or domestic histories are used for their destruction. But the hungry metropolitans, themselves, by two of whom I have been supplanted, are not without private histories. "Would to God that they could be known and measured by the standard annlied to the colonist. The weariness of a life consumed in vain aspirationi; and in disappointments incessantly recurring never tempted me to re- sort to the mendicancy by which fortune, or what is the same thing, office, has been made to wait upon the footsteps of medi- ocrity. Most certainly I have never tried the efficacy of self- abasement and importunity. Nevertheless I may complain, I do complain, that one act of opportune subserviency can outweigh years of efficiency in the public service. I complain of the calumny by which the mean and the base raise themselves upon the ruin of their betters. At my time of life I can expect or de- sire no chr,nge in my condition, but something tells me that I am entitled to contend against the inveteracy of detraction. I desire, then, before I uie, to contradict arrant falsehoods indus- triously circulated to my prejudice, partly from interested mo- tives, partly from inherent malignity. From the moment that the public takes part in domestic quarrels they cease to be sus- ceptible of accommodation j and should the tale of my difficul- ties and my sorrows deter men and w^imen from intermeddling in those dissensions which exist in iQOSt families, something will be gained. In controversies of th\t kind the world unhappily never pauses to require evidence, still less to examine into its nature or sufficiency, nor are the motives of the accuser scruti- nised, and any complaint, especially a complaint often loudly repeated, is assumed to be proved. In such contests, too, for 5 1 > obviot ; reasons, •women have manifest advantages over males.* By the performance of signal services at a critical period, I necessarily excited the envy and the malevolence of the pusil- lanimous, who preferred inaction. I studiously abstained from claiming nor did I reap the reward to which I was justly en- titled.! Nevertheless, a sort of conspiracy to defeat my claims was formed, and to further it the name of my mother was suc- cessfully used. It is so easy to thrust a deserving competitor from his vantage ground by poisoning the ear of a stranger, a Governor-General for instance ; and while endeavouring to de- plore the depravity of the age, to blast the prospects of a rival by trumping up some story, no matter what, that he had be- haved ill to his mother, no matter how. By such a fable, hypo- crisy assuming the garb of piety and morality, persuaded Lord Cathcart to legislate me out of oflfice. The maledictions with which I was covered originated in no sympathy for her. They were, on the contrary, the result of the mere desire to ruin me on the part of men quite indifferent to her fate. These men were enabled to attain their end only by the use of her name. * It is not only because the complaints of a female excite a sympathy never extended to the other sex, but that the frailties and weaknesses of men though they may aggrieve, never dishonor the females of their families. Hence, the latter will go from door to door telling the tale, but what man ever willingly published the weaknesses or frailties of the women of his family. Thus, a woman will be ever found ready to proclaim the adultery of which she suspects her husband ; but how many husbands conceal the adultery of which they are convinced that their wives are guilty. It is be- cause the frailties of women not only injure, but dishonor the men witfi whom they are connected. t There is a wide difference between the soldier and the volunteer. The latter incurs all the same risks, without the chance or hope of promotion or distinction, and generally at a great sacrifice of personal interests. A professional man, for Instance, is sure to lose his connexions, and his pa- tients or clients, as the case may be, go elsewhere. Then the volunteer incurs everlasting odiura. Thus, in my case, I am execrated by the French Canadians as a sacrilegious heretic, who rode into one of their churches and made Ms horse drink ottt of the sacred vessels ! It is a feature in such 0, case that no denial, no refutation, is of any avail, and, indeed, the greater the falsehood the more tenaciously do the mass of mankind adhere to it. §^ ^- \. : !l- ':■. ■.,, 6 Hence I am entitled to inyoke it in my turn, and I offer her written testimony, spontaneously prepared, as if she had fore- seen that I should need it. Letters containing oft-repeated recognitions of my services, unmistakeable eulogies, indeed, hare been for years in my pos- session. Gould I have been as fully convinced as I now am, of the propriety and necessity of producing them, they would have been long since published. But the victim of calumny is often the last to learn the full extent of the evils and dangers to which he is exposed ; nor did I until lately form a just estimate of the perversity and tenacity with which a small community can hug mere delusions and oft-refuted charges. It is doubtless principally because they are mischievous that they are hugged, just as the dram drinkers and opium eaters adhere to the vile habits which they have contracted. A certain coarse appetite must also be taken into account, such as that which impels the dog to return to his Tomit. Among the difficulties which surround mo there is one which will not immediately strike an indifferent person. It is that those who repeat and circulate statements ascribed to my mother, affect to speak with her authority, and to hold me guilty of disrespect if I venture to defend myself even by a contradiction. But I must be allowed to plead not guilty, and having at length made the plunge, I shall use the evidence in my hands for self-defence — the first law of nature. The following record, made and written by my mother needs ,110 preface, but her description of her husband merits attention. Friday, 1 Tth November, 1826. I have many reasons to take a serious interest in you, my son, besides the ordinary one of my being your mother. The filial and manly way in which you came forward lately (and still offer to continue to do) claims and has my warmest thanks, my gratitude — the gratitude of a mother. It does you the highest honor, and all who know it — was it of a nature to be known— must think so. Having said this much as regards you, my son, I must add, that so far as it concerns your father, I highly disapprove it. a >- Rely on it that troubles, however serious, that are vanquished with so little difiSculty, are as easily forgotten, and that however your feelings may be harrowed, your father cannot feel them so keenly or they would not recur so often. . . . But though he should be on the road to ruin, it is no reason why he should pull down his son into the vortex. Let him borrow of a stran- ger. You cannot, may not, sue your father ; though sued, though imprisoned yourself, you may not, and the conviction of this circumstance and of your being an easy creditor will cause him to be more than commonly regardless how he ob- tains the means of payment. Your father cannot keep money ; if he has it, spend it he must. Let us once more set things to rights but not through you. You may marry* and have a family. You may lose your health and be unable to practise. t Your father expressed himself in the highest terms of the generous manner in which you had assisted and offered still further to assist him. The letter from me, adverted to in the underwritten answer had some merit, for I had admitted that I alone was to blame, when, to say the least, she had been unnecessarily passionate and violent, and I had made amends by a valuable gift, Saturday, January 13th, 182T. My Dearest Boy, God knows what an interest I take in all : but in you my son, whose conduct towards me, or what is the same thing, towards your father so recently, has been such as to entitle you to my most sincere gratitude, were you not allied to me either by blood or connexion I cannot fail to take the most intense interest in you. I know how to value the act and to estimate the manner, and every line of the letter which you wrote me is engraved on my heart, as a talisman against the remembrance of • My marriage was certainly delayed by the state of my father's affftirt. t These lines arc written across over the others. 8 past sorrows, and a memento to recur to when the headlong passions of man in their full tide may cause him to ftill into sin, which, the moment that reason resumes her empire, he will be the first to deplore. Nay,, the circumstance of your having for- borne to dine in company with a lawyer who had taken an in- famous advantage of a man's birth, though not guided by worldly wisdom, proves to me that your nature is as generous and noble as I can wish my son's to be. Is it not then, my boy, distressing, tenfold more distressing to see such bright points in a man's character obscured even partially by imprudence or impetuosity. The merits of this last business I cannot come at. You will not tell me, and as to the Willans they cannot write. Stevenson and Willan (her sons-in-law) respect and regard you. I have frequently heard Stevenson express his obligations to you. As I once before said, apart from the affection that I bear you as a mother, your life and well-being are to me even as a matter of self-interest, of the utmost importance. So when you stand before the judgment seat of your Maker, may the obliterating tear be shed over the frailties of the man who soothed the latter days of his parent, and whose many great and good and redeeming qualities will, I trust, bring on his head that blessing which I pray God from the bottom of my Boul to bestow upon him. — ^Your own Mamma. ' a A sample of the mode of reference to me when my parents differed, as they generally did. Wednesday, August 1st, 1827. I think it would net be altogether ri^^ht towards you, either as a friend or a son iv^ho came forward to assist his father in the day of need, not to acquaint you that his — your father's — plans have undergone an entire change. I therefore desire your ad- vice as a friend whose interest is inseparable from your father's. A I An exhortation to prefer my wife to my parents. God that I could have been allowed to do so. Would to Montreal, 29th Deer., 1828. Monday. Saturday's post brought over your kind and afiFectionate let- ter, my dearest boy, and I need scarcely say how grateful and cordial it was to my heart. The Christmas did indeed bring remembrances of you, my first-born and only son. Among life's blessings I reckon the knowing from all I can hear that you are happy in your domestic life. May God in his great mercy grant that you may long and ever continue, and protect and bless you and your wife, and grant you happiness in each other. Cherish it, my son, as you value existence. Let'your wife be your first consideration. You have voluntarily chosen, and in the face of God and man sworn to be all to her. Be so, and let no other duty or aflfcction, even to your parents, interfere. I, my dear Gugy, embrace you with my whole heart, and pray God to bless you. — Mamma. My father, a lion in personal bravery, was deficient in moral courage and wanted support during the pending of a bill affect- ing his office. 3rd January, 1829. You would do well to encourage your father and give him all the various reasons that can be advanced why that bill should not pass. He is of a nervous temperament, and when all is not quite smooth is perfectly desponding. jIs in all cases we differ^ we differ much in that, and he vexes me. The bill will pass or it will not pass, but in either case where is the use of fretting over it and unnerving himself? I am only sorry that Mr. Stevenson got so much out of him ; that also is done and cannot be undone. But it was very wrong, extremely unfair to the other branches of the family, for should any of them be equally in want they could not be equally aided, and what extraordinary merit has Stevenson that he alone should . '1 10 derive benefit. As to myself I candidly say that I think your Father must always be wrong, when he does not acquaint me with his money transactions. ■ My father has again involved himself and I have come to his rescue. Montreal, Jan. 21, 1829. Wednesday. My husband and your father has been in this instance, as in every other similar transaction throughout life, rash, precipitate, and I must add unjust to all his family, no doubt from very good motives towards one branch — a most unworthy one, and one with whom he could not by any means cope ; a knowing, plaus- ible, humbugging fellow, v^hom I knew from the first time I saw him, but my knowledge was termed prejudice, and so I, a party concerned, the only true friend, yourself excepted, that your father has in this world, have been left in profound ignor- ance of this transaction. That there was something wrong, and that Stevenson was at the bottom of it, I kncAv from cir- cumstances which I put together, but after all that has passed, well as I know your father, I could not fancy that human folly could go so far, short of actual insanity. Three times he has placed the community in danger, yet the moment that he breathes again, again he returns to the same conduct. That Willan is not worth a fraction I have long since been aware ; that millions would not enrich a man of his or Stevenson's habits, I am also aware. That though I shall not let my daughters perish while 1 have the means, which may not always be, yet I do not mean to save candle ends to support a parcel of lazy idle drunken fellows in grog-drinking or any other discreditable habit. However, my son, once again I thank you for knowing the truth, and for all that you have done now and heretofore for your father. My memory is never unfaitliful, and I shall never furget it ; circumstances, and I have no doubt misrepresentations, have caused you to be very ignoraut of your mother's character. 11 My father is unable to obtain sureties without me, and my mother can't offer me a bed, because Dr. Sutherland occupies it. Montreal, 27th December, 1830. Your father was saying yesterday, that he expected you up here, something relating to his security, which must, I think, be renewed. I was, strange to say, provoked at hearing your father mention your coming up this way, first because it must always give me pain to see a son, an only son here, and not be enabled to offer him a bed ; next, that at this season of the year it must be not beneficial to your health and perhaps to your affairs ; however, I suppose it can't be helped. A slight but not encouraging description. Montreal, June 5th, 1830. Julia's concerns, though I was fully prepared for the result of his manner of living and general habits, almost annihilated me, and I have not since been myself, perhaps never may, since in advanced life we have under any circumstances few sunny days to hope for, — to witness the besotted, material, gross habits of one man, or the more etherial but plausible and unworthy conduct of the other, the beggary of both and the utter ruin of us all. At the underwritten date I thought my father rich and had songlit his assistance b} way of loan, to enable me to purchase the signiory of Deschambault held by my wife's family. He however, rejected my application. Montreal, August llth, 1830. You are most dear and valuable to us all, and there will come moments of your life, when your heart will bear testimony to this truth, should you not now have the full conviction of it ; therefore, my dearest boy, say what you wi.-h, and should jour father, to whom of course you will comi unicate it, be willing, n ■ii w depend on it that I shall oflfer no opposition. I well remember how generously and promptly you once came forward to aid us. Shall we be backward ? God, it is hoped will reward me, and I yet cherish that hope, though both my parents soon " lost sight " of my services. MoKTREAL, 25th April, 1831. Your father is most sensible and so am I (nor shall I ever lose sight of it) of the generous manner in which you came forward to aid him in his need. I trust that God will reward you for it. An unfortunate event and my presence again needed. Mr. Perry has just brought us the distressing news of tlie death of Mr. Ermatinger. There is one good man the less in the world. Your father still continues indisposed, has now sore throat, and thinks your presence here essential^ which is the cause of my troubling you. — Very truly yours, Sept. 5th, 1833. I. GUQY. Having made many sacrifices for my father, having indeed deposited in his hands all my assets, I thought that when sud- denly called upon for X150 I might draw on him with a reason- ble hope that he would accept my draft, and thus afford me a few days to procure funds. He, however, curtly refuses. Still I must procure sureties and " come up,^' notvvithstaudiug the indisposition of my wife. Montreal, Dec. 5th, 183G. Your father, who is not well, is a little more uncomfortable than usual, due to anxiety, I imagine, lie is unable to write, and deputes me to say, in answer to the question you put him, as to the note for ,£150, that having been piqued at your not having advised him, ho did not lienor the draft ; that he would be very desirous that you should state whether you think that 13 bail could be found in your district^ or if you would wish him to look out here, and who you would think proper persons to apply to, and perhdjis you would come up at once, as these tbings are better transacted viva voce than on paper. I think your pre- sence would be necessary, your father seeming to be too infirm to transact even ordinary business. We all reg'^et Mrs. Gugy's indisposition. The question is simply will you endeavour to procure the secu- rity there where you are, or must jour father seek it here, or will you come up at once, which will be the best way. Excuse haste and a bad pen. My father is in danger of losing his office, (as, in fact, he shortly after did.) My mother, as usual, objects to all I propose and do. She discloses her own plans, which, however, I never could understaud and do not now. Montreal, Feb. 15th, 1837. Nine o'clock a.m. I received your letter at the above date ; meantime Mr. Walcot's* for your father was put into his hands, and he had read it by the time that I had got down stairs. On my silence and quiescence you may re!y. At all times I can at least be a persou of lionor in that sense. I have no doubt that your con- jectures are right as reg'irds the mind, but I do not view it in the same light that yoi. do. Your father has done ail that man could do to convince Ihe world that that mind had undergone a change, when I felt that he was only acting the part of Junius J^rutus.f His tutal abandonment of all society, his retiring alto- gether from the all'airs of his ollice and all other alfairs, — a man who hud been in the midst of everything, — the cluinge in his style of living, not moderate, but from one extreme to another, your presence here with your family, notwithstanding your great * Mr. Walcut wjis the; Secretary of the Proviuoo. + Tills i.s -'•. fact, tiixiu!,' !icr ha;,');iud with f(;i[iiuMg iusanity. I, for )uy piu't tiiuUc'lii otliorwLso. k- 14 utility (of which there can be no doubt), all have tended to at- tract public attention to the office he holds, nor is it to be won- dered at that it has done so. There has been long a storm brewing, and oome it will, if not now, when the Legislature meets. These cruel family dissensions, the having lawyers* to interfere for the payment of a child's pension, of a child's clothes, all, all has been known, and the observation has been thoroughly attracted, even the necessary acts, as eulng Perry,t &c., have increased the evil. People of couise know if so much money has been abstracted, what money It is. All tbib I f ared and suggested long since, and I con"/ider these the causes which may lead to an investigation. I trust that I have not given offence when my intentions are so pure, and I risk suggesting the above in the hope that if your better judgment might be convinced, and if it was yet time, which it may not be, you might see that though your plan in many parts may be essential, it is also fraught with danger. I write because I may not see you in time. I entreat your excuse, wearied and harassed as you must be. I have suggested silence to your father ; it will not be difficult, since to speak pains him. I have also suggested his calling up his intellect ; it is dormant for want of use : his faculties are rusted for want of being employed. Extreme in- dolence would deteriorate the finest capacity. Once more excuse me. 1 mean well, though perhaps I am imprudent, it is my idea, in saying anything ; but 1 should wish the man whose name I bear to lose his office if it must be, but not his honor. — I have the honor to be, &c., Julia Guoy. • My father liad promised my 'iisttir, Mrs. Wil.au, an annual allowance to supply her wants during the iueapacity, causod by paralysis, of her hus- band. Now, both my mother and Mrs. WiUancouccMved it to bo but uatunil jtllf\t the allowauee sliouhl be reu:\dar1y paid, even after my father Ijad lost airTTiTTliTTi;Ktr-lJia\'asJ_o('n force this claim that these hidios caused " lawyers to interfere." ~'^' . 1 1 myself had sued Mr. Perry's representatives, aTid (drtaiueil ind'i:ment for eiM:ht or ten tliousaud pounds, I ror^i-t whitrh, but they appealed, aiKl~ 'u England tlie judtfrnout was reversed on a point of law. 15 An admission in strong contrast with language since attributed to her. Sir, I am aware of all your difficulties, and even though you had full means to meet all demands, still the winding up of your father's affairs (to say nothing of your discomforts person- ally during your stay here), would be an arduous task. This being Sunday, I have thought it best to address you to-day, knowing how busy you are on all others. J. GUGY. 15th October, 1837. Reports reach me of a painful character. They are ascribed to her. I write to enquire and receive the underwritten answer. Montreal, March 2Gth. 1838. Sir, Having finished the second reading ofyour letter this morning, I am compelled by that love of truth which actuates all who have any feeling, principle, or honor, to reply to one paragraph in it at once, since it demands neither reflection nor examination of accounts. The paragraph is as follows: — "To my unnutterable regret, on Saturday last a gentleman related to a friend of yours, who is on familiar terms with me, in allu- sion to you, told me as a fact, tliat with reference to the state of my father's affairs, you had declared that tliey would be flourishing but for me ; that I luid absorbed great part of his funds, and had derived gre^.t advantages from him." Now who- soever that person may be, whatsoever his rank, or however connected, one thing is certain, he is not a gentleman, for ho has told a falsehood, a palpable, direct, and useless falsehood ; one of those atrocious and gross lies, apropos to nothing at all, which are doubtless less dangerous than the lies that pay ho- mage to truth, by taking her for a foundation, building a fabric false and base over !.hat, and so mingling tlio two that'it requires no little cleverness to separate them. Once for all, however, I declare on the honor of my word as a gentlewoman, born and. ' li ■! 16 educated, and as a Christian woman, which I should hare placed first, that no such words ever escaped me ; moreover, that your name has not been called in question at all to any stranger. I have no intimates of either sex, or can have so long as the se- crets of the prison house must be veiled, and no genius for in- timacies, and that with the exception of the lawyers whom from time to time I have consulted, especially when your father left me in so unjustifiable a manner, and Mr. Monk, and perhaps twice before Mr, Scott, you have not been even named. I am aware of all the trouble, fatigue, anxiety, and annoyance that you have had. I am aware that few men would have had even the physical capability of extricating themselves from such a mass of intricate and difficult concerns, and I am fully con- vinced tliat you have done all that it was possible to do as re- spects the liquidation of your father's debts ; and moreover you are perfectly at liberty to make ivhatever use you think proper of this letter. Mr. Monk when he is so kind as to come to me, will also go to you after he has seen me, and will assure you that my opinions have not undergone any change as regards your father's concerns. Julia Gugy. I had sent my accounts for inspection. 2Pfh March, 1838. Dear Gugy, Here is your book, and I have not the least doubt of its being strictly correct. Therefore there is no need of my detaining it longer. Adieu, my son, affectionately yours, J. Gugy. Fearing that an execution might folloAV, and that her furni- ture would be seized at a time when I should not have the means to redeem it, I had suggestoJ a mode of securing it lor her benefit, but as usual, she disapproved. My Dear Gugy, I call God to witness that T have no doubts of you ; that I am firmly persuaded that was there no Jaw to enforce my 11 claims, you would not see your mother want, nor indeed a rela- tive less near and sacred, but dependence even on a child is a bitter draught, and I have indulged the hope that with time the debts might be paid, and that we might still have something of our own. You have done wonders in liquidating such a load of debt, and whatever assets there were have evidently been well employed. If these private creditors will not wait, why the law must even take its course. But I hope they may. After all, the furniture is not of the value that they or you may fancy. I thank you much for your intentions about the horse, but I have no place for a decent man to sleep, and the stable is not proper for a good horse. I thank you all the same. I trust and pray God, my son, that you will not take amiss my not yielding the furniture, and that you will see that I could not. Should it be taken by force (by law), why I may go beg, as your father often prophesied that I should ; but freely and voluntarily to denude myself of all that I can call my own, is more than I am adequate to. I pray God to bless you and yours, and reward your good intentions. Julia Gugt. ■I '4 30th March, 1838. My mother refuses to be dependent on me. The alternative, if any, is not suggested. Montreal, 2nd July, 1838. vou : •CO my Mine is an unnatural position ; a parent ought not to depend on a child, however good that child maybe, but more es])ecially when that cliild is himself so much taxed as you are. Eelieve me, I have no unworthy thoughts of you. 5 i : f m ' fni ri. 18 My mother seems to consider that her claims should have been preferred to those of the creditors, when there was not enough to pay them. Such were my embarrassments that Oxenstiern's description of the man without money, falls far short of the ter- rible reality. Montreal, 24th July, 1838. Dear Gugy, As to the large sums that are due, the pittance that you give me to keep life and soul together, would have no in- fluence on them, and therefore it is that I beg you to send me something to enable me to live. Therefore it was also that I ever mentioned a boarding house, feeling the impossibility of maintaining your father on the means that I got, and most re- luctant to call on you, who seem so short of means, and who are worried attending to the winding up of your father's aflfairs. Truly yours, J. Gugy. Two hard-headed lawyers who have read my pamphlet, agreed in holding it to be incredible ; that is, incredible not as to the facts disclosed, but the motive. Nobody would believe, they said, that any man could make such sacrifices even for his father, without an interested motive; without, in short, a pe- cuniary consideration. They eventually admitted, however, that the thought was not original, and they told me that I had been repaid by the gift of what, in this country, is called a Seigniory. Such, they said, was generally understood to be the fact. On this score, then, a short explanation may bo justly expected. The Seigniory in question 7icver ivas the pro- perty of my father. He had only a life interest in it. Fortu- nately he could not dispose of it, else he would certainly have sold it ; or, at least, have disposed of it in favor of Mrs. Suther- land, in trust for her *' handsome pet." My great uncle, an ofHcer in the army . i the capture of Quebec and conquest of Canada, acquired the property and gave it to me, reserving for my father tho usu- . 19 fruct. For cogent reasong, the usufruct, was, it is true, assigned to me, in consideration of an annuity which I agreed to pay my father. Long before the date of this assign- ment, I had made to my father large pecuniary advances, and had on his behalf, incurred considerable pecuniary liabilities. The transfer of the usufruct to me then, was obviously uncon- nected with those advances ; neither was it a gift. It is enough to say, however, that the property was mine from the day of my birth, and that the acquisition could never have been contemplated as a cause of acts, which, without any affectation, but in accordance with strict fact, were I affirm, the mere results of filial piety. It may be recollected that I had proposed to refrain from ten- dering my own testimony. But one of those lawyers suggested the propriety of publishing some of my letters, to shew, he said, the motives by which I was actuated. Complying with his recommendations, I submit the following communications, ad- dressed by me to my father, proved by the Postmarks (among other evidence) to be genuine : — Quebec, 12th July, 1827. My Dear Father, When I applied to Mr. Burroughs the other day, to become security for you he happened to be absent, and I left to one of the clerks the power of attorney to Thompson, with a request to the above effect. He writes on the back of the paper the words which you will there read. That the notary employ- ed should draft and execute a counter-bond from me to him. Burroughs to secure him and . I regret infinitely that I cannot do this. I am in hopes that you will not consider me as having been unmindful of my duty towards you, nor selfish- ly averse from giving you even more than that assistance which prudence would have authorised. But you know enough of the world to feel how entirely dependent I am on my own exertions, and how mad it would be in me to venture all the fruits of years of labor, and all the Iiopes of a competence, even to please a parent. I won't offend you by entering into details, but as I I-' i II; 20 must account for not becoming your surety, and as I am some- what interested in another manner, I am driven to the necessity of making known to you, that I have heard the most alarming accounts of your expenses. It is, of course, no business of mine, further than that it has made it my duty (not to reprove or advise you) but to preserve mysg// from being ruined, to apprize you of the cause of this resolution. The very extraordinary -s', has, I confess, resemblance between your case and — forced itself upon my notice, and fc some days put me into a situation little short of delirium. But, my dear father, I have done, no one knows of this letter, , nor have I communicated my intention of addressing you, nor have I at any time but once been betrayed into an acknowledgment that I participated in the fears which others have expressed. No- thing but self-preservation could have tempted me to have even the air of interfering in your concerns. God knows it is not a wish to meddle or obtrude my thoughts and feelings upon you, but a strong, ungovernable conviction, that this step was abso- lutely necessary to my own existence. I cannot describe to you the anguish it has given me, but as we are now better known to each other than formerly, I hope you will believe me when I assure you that my only wish in this case is to reconcile my duty to you, with what I owe to myself, and that I am your distressed, but always aflfectionate son, A. GUGY. Marked private on the outside. My father replied to the foregoing by letter, dated 16th July, commencing "A thunderbolt, &c." See page 14 of part first. Quebec, 16th June, 1831. My Dear Father, I know enough of the world and of your situation, in particular, to claim no redress or reparation ; nor do I ask any interference. I have always disdained to complain, and I shall not now commence. But I must speak, lest as on former occasions, my silence should be misinterpreted. I was prepared '"- '^ 21 to accommodate myself (though no infant) to my mother's im- perious and peculiar temper. But I can find no terms suffi- ciently strong to express what she has made me suffer. I will not dilate on this subject, but I pray that I may not suffer for the inevitable results of her conduct, at least, (if she complains) until I am heard in my defence and cannot satisfy you. Dutifully your's, A. GUQY. Marked private on the outside. t Quebec, 18th August, 1833. Dear Father, I have been often reminded of you since our de- parture from Montreal by my little girls, who have almost incessantly exclaimed poor grandpapa, poor grand papa. ' r That expression in their minds, indicated their regret at parting from you, and nothing more. Your kindness was felt, but not by them alone. It made an impression on me, and now, when the bitterness of the cup is still upon me, and after full time for reflexion, I cannot avoid reassuring you of my devotion to you. I write but little, and that little badly, but I feel myself impelled to Support you so far as I can, under existing circumstances. Before I quit, I may hope for ever, a subject pregnant with every evil to those I hold dear, I will permit myself to reproach you for having permitted me to become sole security to Ermatinger, when you must have known you were insolvent. I will not add that you intimated that I was acquainted with your circum- stances. God knows that during four years that I have not entered your doors, (owing to the treatment I received from my mother) I believed you to be in the most affluent and inde- pendent state. Now, that I cannot doubt that you stand on the brink of a precipice, I shall venture to see you oftener ; I may serve you, but whether I do it or not, I call God to witness I am ready to do so. Be true to yourself! Be economical and jou must avert the evil day that otherwise may aAvait you. I have often thought and must now tell you, that my mother's ^, ^ ^ ^^^^o. -> IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // // ^ >. V ..* ::^ 1.0 14.5 1 1.1 11.25 2.5 2.2 lis S L£ BIO %. V Photographic Sciences Corporatton a>^ <^ 23 WIST MAIN STRUT WnSTM.N.Y. 14SM (71«)l7a-4S03 ^^2^ ^ ^ ^ ;\ ,* 22 i kindness to William,* the child of your old age, had rivetted your chains and made you more her slave than formerly. There is, there can be no question, that she did wrong, but you are and ought be master in your own house. I belieye expen- sive living, added to some other imprudencies, to be the cause of your embarrassments, and I confess that some anomalies in your household and establishment pass my understanding. But, far from despairing, I should borrow courage and energy from circumstances, and I should pique myself on recovering my in- dependence by persevering in a right course. I may, with the blessing of Providence on my industry, shortly command some thousands. These shall be at your service ; but not on the same terms as formerly. I shall insist on a thorough reform in every matter involving money. I will not distress you by adverting to the end of an imprudent career. If you act henceforth wisely, I and my children will share with you, if otherwise, we must all suflfer. Yours in haste, • A. GuoY. P. S. — I hope you have made It a point to inform my mother fully, your fears of her in that respect have always appeared to me unfounded ; and now that her co-operation is requisite you must try her. Farewell ; I shall soon see you. I would send home Stevenson's children. ' Addressed on the back, Hon. Sheriff Gugy, Montreal. Owing to the mislaying of a manuscript, the underwritten items were omitted in the printed statement of the " munificent gifts " extorted from my father by Mrs. Sutherland. In a letter dated 10th January, 1835 Mrs. Sutherland states tha; she had assigned to her son-in-law, Mondor, in payment of a deb due to her by him, the amount of a note of one Bazin to my father, and given her by the latter. Amount not stated. • Tho present Dr. Sutherland, son of tl\e woman who poisoned my father's mind against me, on which son, as well as on the mother, largo sums w«re lavished,— all which fell on me. 23 i riretted formerly. , but you '^e ezpen* the cause malies in ig. But, Tgy from ig my in- with the ind some the same in every dverting h. wisely, must all GUOT. '■ mother appeared site you Id send •written nificent tes tha; ■ a deb to my mod my er, largo In another letter, dated 24th March, 1835, she acknowledgei another letter, and its contents again, " ce quelle contenait." Amount not stated. In another letter dated 19th June, 1835, she acknowledges a Bank note, she begs of him not to ruin himself for her. Amount not stated. She also acknowledges the assignment of a debt due to my father by one Henry Adams, £*l. In a letter dated 7th July, 1835, she discloses a scheme for possessing herself of Fairfield's farm and mill site worth about j£500, which however, I prevented. On 16th January, 1835, Dunbar, the son of Mrs. Sutherland, draws on my father for 80 or 100 dollars, and the draft is ho- nored. On 3rd May he draws on my father for $40. On 23rd February, 1835, Dunbar Sutherland writes from Dominica that he has entered into a speculation in corn-meal, and to conclude it, he draws on my father for $127 50 cents.* By letter 9th May, 1835 he requests my father to furnish him with a copy of all the laws in force in Canada. On 21 St May, 1838, Dr. Wm. Sutherland writes to me that his brother, Dunbar, will ship me some rum to repay the debts he so contracted, which, however, never reached me. Quebec, Saturday, 21st Sept., 1833. Dear Father, I received to-day yours, enclosing Sophy's. Unhap- pily Dalyt is absent at Niagara, and the day of his return is not known. It would be necessary he should be here ; but if he does not come before the 24th I shall give the notice and at- tend. In that case it will not be your fault, and no harm can ensue. My beloved father, I fear that your illness has made you nervous, and I fancy I see you annoyed and fretting at this delay. I entreat you to discard those feelings and to rely upon my * Mrs. Sutherland adds a postscript, threatening to sell h(C move- ables by auction if my fathor does not furnish the money, t Then Provincial Secretary. ^fft 24 m 4'A I ^■f: ii I \ effecting the object we have in view, so as to secure you com- pletely, and that on the very day of Daly's return. Now do, pray trust to me, and make yourself easy. The delay is una- avoidable, but security shall be put iUj and that as soon as pos- sible, by affectionately yours, A. G. Hon. Mr. Sheriff Gugy, Montreal. [written in court.] Quebec, 24th Sept., 1833. My Dear Father, I have met with considerable diflSculty, but I have at length fixed on Saturday next at ten, a.m., when I shall put in security. Prom various circumstances I have found it necessary to avail myself of Grant's offer to Monk, repeated to me. You need not give yourself the trouble of conversing on the subject, only saying that you leave it to me, and in your place I should avoid concerning myself about it. I have transmitted two procurations to Grant, with a request that he would return them forthwith. Forgive me, I write in great haste. I am defending two respectable men accused of perjury. Excuse baste, I am very anxious. Ever yours, A. G. Three Rivrrs, 26th March, 1835. My Beloved Father, I have received the dreadful intelligence contained in your letter. One thing is certain, that I shall leave nothing undone to relieve you. This occurs most awkwardly, for I must go to Quebec to-night. Hence I have nothing for it but to re- turn to Montreal, from thence, which I shall immediately do. I shall be with you on Monday, with the blessing of God. In the mean time let Mr. Perry see this, that he may immediately use my note for your benefit. It must be filled up in his hand- writing on one of your checks, from an original previously set- tled upon and made. Then, do you endorse it and let Mr. Perry or you try to get it discounted. Be under no uneasiness 25 yon com- Now do, 17 is una- >n as pos- A. G. ., 1833. )ut I haye lall put in necessary ne. You 6 subject, i I should Ltted two turn them defending iste, I am A. G. I, 1835. contained nothing or I must )ut to re- lately do. od. In aediatelj lis hand- msly set- let Mr. tieasiness about the result, if the note be discounted fop JC3000. Either McGill or Laterriere will procure me the amount, for they have both promised ; at all events, I will sell something in three months. I would wish Mr, Perry to call on Mr. McGill in my came. The latter stated that he would, if possible, procure jESOOO from Keith. Mr. Perry has only to advert generally to the supposed grounds for which I want the money — to pay off charges on the real estate. McGill said he would exert himself; perhaps, probably something is now done. Dearest father, I am truly sensible to the distress of your situation. If I could only at any sacrifice improve it I should readily, but people will not at ail talk of buying my property even at the lowe»t prices /or money. They say, there is no money. I believe Mr. McGill to be sincere, I hope Mr. Perry will see him. Yours my beloved father lest you doubt me, I shall go a step farther, — sell my prO" perty if you can. Again, McGill will assist in getting a discount At all events, at tiie worst. Farewell for a little, A. G. Outside ^ pressing." QusBSO, Itth April, 1835. Mt DiAB FiLTBIB, I have jujit received your letter, announcing to me the call made upon you by Government to give Aresh security, requesting me to renew my security oa your behUf, and (hav- ing previously taken time) to give you an answer. You seem to feel, and almost to express doubts of my readiness, in Which respect you are ui^ust. I have my sourcea of uneasiness and grounds of complaint, but I cannot hesitate distinctly, unequi- vocally to declare that I will renew my liability for you, and aecure to you, so long as I can, the honors and profits of your office. But, may Almighty God protect and bless you with long life and happier days than it has been your lot heretofore to enjoy. You can safely answer the letter addressed to you, de- claring that, although a sum of the amount in question (£6000) i-t. I : H: f'S; 26 requires some consideration, and that you may not immediately find a second : yet, that I (who con qualify to J&I200t), exclusivo of all demands on me) am ready and willing. Indeed I should think that one (above all cavil, as I believe I am) ought t» satisfy them^ and on this head I shall sound Ogden to-morrow, and communicate what he says ; but I would not take mor* than the time necessary to read your letter and write this beforo I conveyed to you the answer of my determination to adhere t(» you under all circumstances. I feel that I ought to end here> and even my children shall not force me to make a condition with you. But I will,.must remind you,, of the part played by my unnatural mother upon the last occasion when the step I am about to take, became necessary, and of her diabolical, avowed design to injure you and me.* She succeeded in urging you to disregard my advice,, and induced you to extort from me what I ought not to have granted even to you. However,. I make it a solemn request that you will not suffer her to interfere between or with us in the slightest degree ; my resolution is formed and I can«> not recede in either case. I renew my prayer for your healthy life, and welfare, and am, my beloved father, your unaffectedly attached and dutiful son. P. S.— Please acknowledge this^ Half-past three, p.m. Fve seen: Ogden \ on reflection, you had better merely write that you are ready to renew security, without talking of any diffioulty in getting another. Probably you could ask Grant,, or cause it to be intimated to him. His^ liability cannot be increased, since of course any responsibility incur- red would lie against him now; and,, if I am to presume^ he knows nothing of the^ state of things ; I suppose there could be no insuperable obstacle.. I'll write again on Monday, the Post is going. At all events I'm ready. Do all you can to get • NoTB.~The explanation which may be expected, is intentionalljr deftrred until the publication ot port No. 8 aftwr my death. Valesa I be driven to explain prematurely^ 27 lediatel/ xclusivo I should >ught t» morro'vry ke mor» is beforo dhere to ind here, ondition ed by my xm about id design lisregard I ought a solemn 1 or with ad I caik* r healthy bffectedly .m. Fve ly write Iking of )uld ask liability ,y incur- presume^ ire could day, th9 m to get entionalljr i. ItTalesft another and I will have him hr^rmless. But take yonr time, and be not in too great a hurry. God bless you. A. O. Ke-opened by myself. QuBBEO, 14th December, 1835. Mt Dbab Fathxb, Mr. Perry informs me that during the year expiring on the first of NoTember last, you expended no less a sum than two thousand one hundred pounds. I shall not imitate you in assuming that this is a correct statement, but I consider myself entitled to put you the question — ^whether it is correct, or is it not? I beg you will haye the goodness to answer this as soon as possible. I may, perhaps, be justified in expressing my hope that you left the table on St. Andrew's night, when the party ofifered such an uncalled for insult to Lord Gosford. Believe me you are often in my thoughts and in my dreams. Tour affairs are the bane of my life ; for if it had pleased heaven to have enabled you to keep within the limits of your income, I should consider my prospects as the most flattering, and my situation as the most enviable. God knows, that as it is, I am in a most pitiable plight. Yours always, affectionately, A. QUQY. Private outside. There were also, it seems, persons who deemed the cause which I describe myself to have pursued, and my solicitude on behalf of my father, as so much at variance with the disposition and cha- racter ascribed to me by my relations,as to be on that score in- credible. Unwilling to mince matters, and stating the charge broadly, I am understood, I find, to be moved by narrow motives. I am said to be of a sordid disposition ; in other words, I am called a miser. When I had the command of money, no such disposition was imputed to me, not even by Mrs. Sutherland. In common with many others, indeed, she ascribed to mo a ge- i 28 iM nerous and even a noble disposition. I shall probably refer to this accusation and to the author of it, but there are such things as irresistible inferences. If a man spend his money, he can't continue to have his money, — this is an irresistible inference. Just as no man can eat his loaf and have his loaf, so no man could deal with his money as I have done and have money to spare. If then, as I assert and maintain, it be an irresistible inference from the facts that I could have and can have no money to spare, how could I meet the wishes of those, who, having had a great deal wanted more ? The accusation in the mouth of Mrs. Sutherland, connected with the disclosure of her own rapacity is monstrous and detestable. But Mr. Stevenson, to be hereafter mentioned, also preferred that accusation, and I believe it to have originated with him. It is, however, exceed- ingly probable, that in order to supply my father's wants, I may have applied to my debtors a degree of pressure which may have appeared to be the result of greed. I grant that those debtors may reproach me. But the present disclosures should relieve me fcom the censure to which, in the performance (ad- mittedly carried too far) of a natural duty, I have exposed my- self and Mrs. Sutherland, who absorbed part of the funds which I painfully procured, and who was herself indebted to me for much consideration and kindness, had not the slightest reason to complain. It is marvellous indeed that she should a£fect to believe, that after I had bestowed all, I could have more to give. I have, however, to draw a comparison between the charac- ter of my mother and that of Mrs. Sutherland, who was my step- mother. Writing to my father, the latter eulogizes his wife " la grOsse mamma & petit " as having performed a generous action in adopting her son, and in supplying the place of Mrs. Sutherland, his own mother. It is most true, my mother, with rare kindness long continued, nourished and protected the boy at my expense. Now, judging her by her own rule, what becomes of the character of Mrs. Sutherland, who, doubtless, to shew her gratitude, deliberately, systematically, and perseveringly calumniated me, the son of u refer to I things le can't ference. no man money isistible laye no e, whO| n in the B of her yenson, n, and I ezceed- s, I may ch may ett those I should Qce (ad- •sed my- s which me for t reason iffect to to give, charac- ny step- lis wife enerOus of Mrs. itinued, udging of Mrs. erately, son of 29 her soir's protectress, wearying heaven with prayers to effect my ruin? The course which I am pursuing amounts clearly to a chal- lenge to such as may have, or may imagine that they have an interest in disproving the facts on which I rely. I speak to men of sound sense and for men of f^ound sense. It is, it must be by such men admitted to be a postulate, that in every contrt- versy he who asserts must prove. It is difficult to prove a negative. Nevertheless, were I charged with taking money out of my father's chest, the charge would be disproved from the instant that it was shewn, that he had no chest and no money that I could take. I say then, that mere assertion must be considered as idle and vain, especially in the teeth of such evidence as I have produced. Were it otherwise, the greatest liar would in every conflict of assertion infallibly and invariably succeed. It is indeed to put down inimical falsehoods that I have resolved to offer, during my life these statements. There is one however, of these state- ments, a statement atrociously and stupidly false, the nature of which is such a proof of the folly, as well as of the malignity and credulity of mankind, that I must fain notice. It is by no means new. In a publication in the columns of the Herald newspaper, published some time in IS 46, in Montreal, I was charged with having applied to my mother publicly, in open court, an epithet of an infamous nature. Plainly and unmis- takeably this offence was laid to my charfre when I as a can- didate for election) in the County of M ' '"luoi opposed Mr. Badgley, then the Attorney General. Had there been, in my apprehension, any ground for imputing to me an offence so un- natural, I would not have had the audacity and folly to bring an action for damages against the proprietors of the Herald* The controversy is long gone by, and I speak of those gentle- men in all kindness, but I did sue them and did get damages. Now, the love of one's mother is the first developed of all our instincts, and all men do so naturally and instinctively love their mothers, that had I been guilty of the outrage imputed to me, I I 80 should certainly not have obtained, and vonld not bare de- served to hare obtained a verdict. But I did obtain a verdict, atid a thoroughly conclusive verdict. It was obtained in spite of all the efforts of the defendants to prove that I had used words of the offensive import laid to my charge. Now, as the occasion on which it is for me, most fortunately alleged, that I had spoken the words was a public occasion, a court room, a large court room crowded to suffocation ; had there been any particle or basis of truth for the charge, some witness could have been produced who had heard lae utter those words, or words of similar import. Many persons who had been present had heard me on the occasion in question, deliver all that I had to say to the Court were brought up as witnesses. - They all had heard it reported that I had used such words. Yet, not one had heard me utter them, and on that evidence the verdict manifestedly turned. Now, I dare in the most solemn manner to deny that those words or any words of simi- lar import escaped me ; nor did I accuse my mother by impli- cation, or in any shape whatever, nor did, nor could any one of those summoned as witnesses against m^, pretend that I had in any way so accused her. Some grounds of complaint I doubt- less had and have for, the fabled powers of Midas had not been conferred on me, nor had I Aladdin's lamp, nor did my kitchen garden abound in the metal so plentiful in California, which I was expected to furnish without limit or stint. Nevertheless, the honor of a mother is a matter of unspeakable interest to her only son, himself a husband and a father looking forward to some years of life ; a man not without pride, condemned to vege- tate in a small community, barren of incidents, and so con- foundedly in want of subjects of conversation, as to depend principally upon calumny and slander for its topics. Differences arising out of money matters are intelligible ; but such words as are imputed to me were calculated to sear upon my forehead an indelible stain. On the ground of self-love, alone, then how could I make a parade of that? How could I knowingly expose myself to be pointed at as a sort of matricide? how could 81 had could I make myself a bye-word among men ? Not having brass enough to overlook the consequences of such an outrage, I must have foreseen that I should be entailing disgrace upon myself, a disgrace unavoidably prejudical to those excellent, dutiful and affectionate daughters, whom I loved so well, and whom I reared with such undeniable tenderness and care 7 It is known too, that I have never hesitated to brand, nor shall I ever hesi- tate to brand as a calumniator and a liar, any man affecting even to insinuate a charge which, although always emphatically re- pelled, has hung over my whole life like a pall. The will of my late mother, dated 4th April, 1842, is of record in the office of Mr. Guy, notary, Montreal. In a clause of that will she affirms that I whom she therein styles " Colonel Gugy," " sent in two executions into her house, in virtue of which all the furniture was sold, and bought in by her daughter Clara" I This statement, holding me up as a monster in a solemn docu- ment, the last of her life, is certainly untrue. Executions may have been and doubless were sent in. I expected and did all I could to avert that calamity. Had she listened to my entreaties I should have succeeded in averting it, but when I suggested the probability of such a climax she seemed to take a sort of pleasure in " letting the law take its course." Most certainly I did not send them in, either directly or indirectly, nor did I know, nor was I informed that they were " sent in " until long afterwards. In the order of nature every mother so loves her offspring, and in return is so beloved, that in some quarters the truth of my contradiction will possibly be doubted. It is, how- ever, susceptible of proof^ and, I invite enquiry in the proper office. I thus content myself with a bare enunciatiou of the statement, coupled with a positive contradiction. After my death, how- ever, a paper referring to this, among other circumstances will be found ready for publication, and my executrix will disobey my paternal commands if that explanation be not published. I now submit a statement of fact. On the death of my father I offered my mother an annuity of £260, payable quarterly in ad- vance. It was more than I could afford, but I was resolved to 1 4 ! 32 support her. That excellent man, Mr. McGill, lent me the money to teftder the first quarter, and it was tendered accord- ingly. Some objections were raised, but Mr. Wicltsteed*, who benevolently interposed, received from her an intimation that she accepted my ofifer. She however retracted in a manner which Mr. Wicksteed, in a paper in my possession, stigmatizes as at variance with the truth. Subsequently, by deed, executed before Guy and colleague, notaries at Montreal, dated 5th April, 1841, my mother transferred to Mr. Stevenson (the person mentioned in her letterf) her right to sue me, and formally promised to refrain from having any transact tion whatever with me. On the other hand, Mr. Steven- son undertook to allow her JC200 per annum, and to prosecute me vigorously. Whether there were any connection between Mr. Stevenson's undertakings to prosecute me, and her consent to forego £50 per annum is a matter of inference. It is, how- ever, an unquestionable fact that, by rejecting my offer and ac- cepting that of her son-in-law, she did consent to lose £50 annually. The sequel will prove that I had a good defense to any suit that she might bring. 1 had of course waived it to offer her the means of subsistence, but I was naturally much relieved when Mr. Stevenson undertook to perform that duty. In the following pages will be found some account of Mr. Stevenson, one of the parties to the contract. It was not meant in kindness, nor was the firat intimation of the fact pleasant. Having repaired on business to Quebec, I bad taken my passage for Montreal, and while seated in the upper cabin of the steamer, awaiting its departure, I saw a son of Mr. Stevenson (whom in his infancy I had often pressed to my heart) point me out to an ill-favored stranger. This ill-favored stranger was a bailiff and he served me with a writ at the suit of my mother. The writ was issued, and I think served on the 19th July, 1841. My father having died on the seventeenth the action could scarcely have been brought sooner. As my mother dwelt in Montreal, where * Law Clerk of t}ic Legislative Assembly, t Of 21st January, 1829, and 38 I also resided, I was induced to enquire why I was sued in QuebeC) and being eventually informed of the deed in question, I obtained a copy. In due time the defence, at the existence of which I have hinted was pleaded. However, so strong was the force of prejudice, that defence was summarily pooh-poohed, and judgment was rendered against me without time for reflec- tion, and certainly contrary to law and justice for i)250. Re- flecting men will scarcely believe that this was exactly the sum which I had offered her*. She might have had it without litigation, but then it would have been nece^isary for Mr. Ste- venson to forego the pleasure of sueing me. From that judg- ment I proposed to appeal, but Mr. Stevenson found means to terrify one of my sureties, who at the eleventh hour withdrew. Mr. Stevenson thereupon sued out a writ of execution. In virtue of that writ, my wretched moveables, including the sofa upon which my dying wife reclined were seized, and a day in June, 1842, was assigned for their sale. On that day at the hour fixed in the advertisement, the bailiffs came to sell, but the public humanely abstained from bidding. In the course of that night, between twelve and one, my wife died. I accompanied her remains for interment to Beauport, and returning to Quebec procured sureties in appeal. In due time the four judges in appeal, without hesitation, unanimously reversing the judgment above mentioned dismissed the action brought by Mr. Stevenson in the name of my mother. Thus, the claim set up by my mother through Mr. Stevenson was declared to be unfounded, but my effects bad been seized, my credit so impaired : that no one would trust me for a pint of milk for my children. I had been held up to execration as a rich, avaricious, unnatural wretch, who refused to support his mother. I lost upwards of £100 in costs and travelling and incidental expenses, and the last moments of my gentle wife were embittered (doubtless shortened) by her knowledge of the agony of her husband. Fearing that this statement may be doubted, I offer for B 2 {>■ 1^ :1 ; ' ( li! 34 perusal some proofs,* and an extract from the deed. The precautions taken by Mr. Stevenson to secure his loan^ the mortgage for which he stipulates, and the transfer of my mother's claim on me, all prove that he was moved by no mistaken sense of liberality. He intended that I should pay the piper — costs included ; but what he meant to do with the fifty pounds, which were to be screwed out of me, over and above the annuity which he had agreed to pay, does not appear. My pro- posal was less complicated ; it was to give her £250 simply. I restrict myself to these two samples, it is true, but verily, I was not on a bed of roses. About this time one Louis Labontd, whom I had met for the first time by the bedside of my dying father, was in some capa- city employed by my mother. Being intelligent and amiable he took some interest in bringing about an accommodation. The following is a copy of his affidavit : * Tho underwritten proofs of the fact may be advantageously contrasted with tho extract from thu deed, in virtue of which I was sued : to compre- hend the case they must be compared. STATEMENT MADE BY TIU. WICKSTEED. Mr. Gugy will bind himself to pay his mother, M' ". Gugy, £250 a year during her life, the paymeut to be made quarterly ir advance. Thu first payment to be made on the day on which the agreci ent shall be signed, reserving always to Mrs. Gugy the advantages of pr, rity or privilege, of hypothequo ; in fact, effecting no novation of the a i. Having commu- nicated this proposition to Mr. Mitchell (her Attorue having ascertained that he considered it advisable that Mrs. Gugy shov , accept it, I advised Mrs. Gugy to do so, and she authorised me to decla? that she accepted it, and gave me her word that she would sign the ai eement, but that she has promised to wait the arrival of Mr. Stevens i, who is expected be- tween the 20th and 2Sth of this month, and wo^.. . keep her promise though she pledged her word that, ou no account would she decline such agreement as Mr. Mitchell should approve, as carrying ouii the foregoing conditions. Mr. Mitchell (her attorney) Mr. Monk and Mr. Scott (her sons-in-law) all approve of her acceptance of the said sum, and Mrs. Gugy has told me that Mr. Moudelet, Mr. Chorrier (two distinguished lawyers) and Dr. Robertson, (a very old friend and her medical attendant,) all advise a compromise. For my part I think the oiVcr a fair one, &c. [Signed,] G. W. WIUKSTEED. Montreal, IGth February, 18il. Tho ** Qu'il a connaissance d'avoir en plusieurs entretietis. dans le common* cement de Tan dernier, taut avec le Colonel Gugy qu'avec Madame sa mbre, au sujet d'une pension alimentairo, que le flls offrait d> sa m6ro. Que cotte dame aurait consenti d. accepter deux cents vingt livres courant, mais que son fils pour finir d, I'amiable tons leurs diff^rents offrit de lui payer deux cent cinquantc livres sa vie durante. Que le delf, , her not Lor whatso- 1 rights 'to give for any lich the has these laid W. of the ds him- ecessary it may Juliana He stipulates for interest, and binds my mother to have no intercourse with me. O'Connor, to be put in full pos- session and receipt of her said rights, with respect to her said dower only, to make all the necessary advances for that effect, and to pay annually unto the said Dame Juliana O'Connor, during her natural life only, or until she be put in receipt of said rights in respect to the dower, the sum of £200 currency, by quar- terly payments of £50 each from this date. And the said Dame Juliana O'Con- nor, on her part, promises to return unto the said William Stevenson's order such advances as he make unto her, as well for the prosecutions of her said rights, as for her said mainte- nance and support, together with ex- penses of deed with the legal interest thereon from the respective dates of such advances, so soon as she will be put in receipt and possession of her said rights with respect to her said dower only. In the meantime she promises, not on any account or pretext whatsoever, to assign or transfer any of the said rights to the said B. C. A. Gugy, nor to give him any power of attorney for any purpose whatever, &c., on pain, &c. And, for security whereof, the said Dame Juliana O'Connor has mortgag- ed and hypothecated all and singu- lar, her real and personal property, present and future, and has transfer- it i! The suit, No. 1*70 7, Gibb plainti£f vs. Stevenson, defendant, for £151 14s. No. 180, Hunt plaintiff vs. Stevenson, defendant, a seizure for JC180 or thereabout. In November, 1828, 1 found him in the hands of the bailiffs, on four writs of capias, namely :— At the suit of Birch for X12 5 do do of Gauvin for 15 12 3 do do of Usmar for 39 do do of Gibb, for m 10 I relieved him in each and every case, and he dined with me on the evening, a free man. My excellent wife, who had seen him in custody, was radiant with joy. She could not read the future. p. I 42 In 1833 my father's difficulties absorbed much of my attention, and his claims being as I thought superior to those of Mr. Stevenson, I could not be quite as much at the disposal of the latter, as in happier times I had been. Nevertheless, on the 22nd January, 1836, I made Mr. Stevenson a present of the schooner Gulnare. Those only who have read my first pamphlet or who choose to refer to it, to ascertain my then condition, can estimate this act at its just value. He had built that schooner in part with the money which I had from time to time furnished. Eventually, on his being unable or unwilling to meet his engagements, his creditors caused the schooner to be sold at public auction, and I bought it. I must add that Mr. Stevenson did not contribute one fraction, not one fraction, and the schooner became as absolutely my property, as free from any claim on his part, express or implied, as the pantaloons which I now wear. The Custom House records are, I presume, open to inspection, and the fact of my being sole owner can be verified. I will here pause to shew that this act was not entirely free from danger. The schooner was during that winter sent to Trapani, in Sicily, for Mr. Stevenson's benefit. On the way thither she was boarded, as I understood, by a boat's crew from the French fleet or from a French vessel, then on its return from Algiers. This was enough to subject the vessel to quarantine, but the fact was concealed, and had a discontented or drunken sailor disclosed it she might have been confiscated ; the loss would not have fallen upon Mr. Stevenson. Be that as it may, here follows a fact :— • By deed, containing the terms usually found in a deed of sale, dated the 22nd of January, 1836; before Archibald Campbell and colleague, notaries, I transferred to Mr. Stevenson, my schooner, the Gulnare. On reference to that document, which was apparently a sale, but in reality a gift, the following clause will be found : — " The present sale and assignment is thus made and granted <' for, and in consideration of the price or sum of two thousand 43 ttention, B of Mr. il of the , on the t of the >amphlet )ndition, lilt that ) to time illing to ler to be bhat Mr. ion, and rom any which I ipection, . I will '86 from rrapani, she was French Algiers. but the n sailor s would ay, here i of sale, ampbell 3on, my t, which ►Rowing granted iiousand " pounds, current money of this Province. Prom the pay- ** ment of which sum the said Bartholomew Oonrad Augustas " Gugy for and in consideration of the love and affection which " he bears towards his sister, the wife of the said William Ste- " venson, doth make a free gift to the said Willian Stevenson." Having adverted to some of the services which I rendered Mr. Stevenson, I would now refer to what he did for me. The deed before Guy, by which he prevented an amicable adjustment of my Mother's claims and undertook to sue me, has been al- ready mentioned ; nor should it be forgotten, that by sending the bailiffs to sell me out, he hurried my wife into her grave. It was thus that he requited the hospitable and kind reception ** which in happier days she had habitually extended to him, and which he bad affected to acknowledge most gratefully." On obtaining a transfer of the usufruct of the seigniory I had undertaken to allow my sister, Mrs. Stevenson, (among others) £500. Not being able to pay at maturity, I was sued as a matter of course. As soon as he obtained judgment, again as a matter of course, Mr. Stevenson on all sides, seized everything seizable. He seized among others in the hands of my tenants, Doctors Morrin, Fremont and Douglas ; in the hands of Laughlin, Thomas McPherson ; in the hands of Henry Pemberton and in those of J. G. Benson, also my tenants. It was natural that costs should follow. They did follow, but I refrain from specifying their amount. But I had had the folly to lend a lot of scales and weights to somebody who forgot to re- turn them until after my father's affairs had compelled me to remove to Montreal. This person then carried them to the office of my attorneys Messrs. Lelievre and Angers, where they were seen by Mr. Stevenson. Hurrying from thence to his Attorney's office, Mr. Stevenson sued out a writ and seized the scales and weights. He caused them to be duly advertised at the church door and to be regularly sold according to law, in my absence. They had cost me about twenty doilars, they were sold for eight shillings and siz-penco to George Ruthman the pork butcher. i ? 44 The costs attending the sale alone (exclusive of the writs and other incidental proceedings) amounted to two pounds, nine shillings and two pence. The account may be thus stated :— Costs of scales and weights, about £5 Costs of writs and service about, 13 Attorneys fee, 2 6 Costs of seizure and sale, 2 9 2 Total of costs on this single seizure, XlO 8 2 C ontra Creditor. — ^By amount of sales, 8 6 Kett proceeds of " unlimited affection" on this single transaction.* , £9 19 8 Thus did Mr. Stevenson requite that " true and unlimited affection " to which he was indebted for his early capital and his rise in the world. I have been told too, that he habitually villified me and as he was a systematic diner out, I doubtless guffered., Without the name of Mr. Willan, another brother>in-law, this account would scarcely be complete. He had an English- man's love of fair play, was manly, cordial and true : he always evinced great regard and respect for me, and I speak of him in all kindness. That I speak of him at all indeed, is a result of my just desire to neutralize the venom of Mrs. Sutherland, and to prove that in my domestic relations I was not the heartless miser and thief which she describes me, to have been. Mr. Willan had thriven at the Bar, but he was attacked by paralysis and of course the bailiffs followed. In March, 1830, all his fUrniture, all he pos- sessed in the world, was sold by execution, and I bought in the whole. There were young children for whom milk was necessary. Accordingly providing a cow, I gave it to him, or to my7si8ter, together with the whole furniture. For his protection, it was necessary to call it a loan, but I never saw or heard of any one article from that day to this, and it was, in fact, a gift. During 45 rite and is, nine 5 13 2 6 2 9 2 8 2 8 6 9 19 8 alimited ital and bitually oabUess '-in-law, Bnglish- i always r him in St desire >ve that ^nd thief thriven urse the he pos- t in the cessary. y^sister, , it was any one During his illness he was necessarily, both indirectly through my father and directly, somewhat of a drag upon me. But I must close this narrative and bring it to an end. Being then in Parliament, and not without some slight influence, I urged some claims on the Government, which Mr. Willan had, and succeeded in obtaining for him the office of Clerk of the Grown. He wat then in Eng- land^ but my wife's brother, the Honorable Mr. Duchesnay, kindly consented to occupy the position, and to perform the duty dur« ing Mr. Willan's absence, as well as to resign immediately o\ his arrival in this country. The Commission to Mr. Duchesnay accordingly issued, and to oblige me, he performed the duty. Like a perfect gentleman, as he is, he vacated the office on Mr. Willan's return, leaving the latter all the salary and emoluments without the exception of ft. fraction. I myself paid the fees in accordance with ila.f. then existing tariff, on the' issuing of com- missions, and I confess that I thought I had done as I could wish another to do unto me. Not so, Mr. Willan, who was dis- pleased because a better office had not been obtained for him. He knew that I never could solicit anything for myself, and couldn't understand what he called that sort of sensitiveness in relation to his case. The prevailing taste for exaggeration may operate to my pre* judice, and this narrative intended to be calm may be considered tame. But having determined to refr&In, or having at least en- deavoured to refrain, from giving my own testimony, many telling incidents have been necessarily omitted. The time de- voted by me to the affairs of my connexions is one of them. Thus Mr. Stevenson, so long as I had money, absorbed upon an average, I should say, about one-fifth of every working day, and the settlement of my father's affairs, the payment of his debts, not yet fully accomplished, has extended over twenty-six years, with the wolf always at the door. Of my anguish, my sleepless nights, the humiliating depths to which I fell, I cannot speak. Some of the foregoing statements may also be thought inex- plicable, but I shall furnish a key to be used after my death. I have said that there are secrets in all families, but in royal fami- I [ 40 lies there are few secrets, for kings and queens, so to speak, livo in public. Thus we know that from his very infancy Frederick the Great was detested by the king his father. The latter had even determined to put " the rascal Fritz^" as he called his son, to death, and the prince had a very narrow escape, having been saved indeed only by the earnest intercession of Austria. It is true that the father's judgment has been reversed by posterity, but the fact above stated is unquestionable. It is admitted to have been unnatural, and historians add, unaccountable. Such a disposition of the parental heart as that evinced by the royal father, is not to be presumed nor to be lightly believed, but such things do occur ; and they must have occurred previous to the composition of those writings which all Christians regard with reverence. In the 12th verse of the 2Yth Psalm will be found these words : " When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord taketh me up." A. GUGY. Quebec, March, 1859. ipenk, live Frederick latter had id his son, .Ting been ria. It is posterity, Imitted to »le. Such the royal 1, but such )us to the gard with be found ke me, the GUGY. %