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On the 27th ultimo, I had the honour of addressing to Assistant Commissary General Bailey, at Kingston, a letter respecting the transport of troops, &c., in other vessels than my own, across Lake Ontario, — (I having the contracts from Kingston to every British port on Lake Ontario, with the exception of the Bay of Quinte) ; and not having been favoured with a reply to that communication, I beg leave to bring the matter under the notice of His Excellency the Commander of the Forces ; and (o furnish His Excellency with a copy of my letter to Mr. Bailey. That letter waa as follows : — Sir, Toronto, September 27, 1847. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd instant, in which you state that you have received my letters acquainting you that I had placed the steamers Mmiral and Scotland at your disposal for the transport of troops, &c., from Kingston to Hamilton or Queenston, as might be required ; but that no requisition had been received by you for the service alluded to— and that due notice would be given to me at any time that my boats might be required. At the time you made that communication, you were aware that a requisition had been made to convey the troops on board the steamer Magnet (not one of my steamers, nor named in my contract for the transport of troops), from Kingston to Queens- ton, and that they would embark, either on that or the following day, on board the Magnetf but you made no allusion whatever to that circumstance. Perceiving that the military authorities at Kingston had deter- mined to disregard the contract made by you (on the part of Her Majesty's Government) with me, and to treat it on the present occasion ns a piece of biank paper, as if the engagements made ou ihe part of Government were unworthy of considera- tion, I submitted my contracts with Government, for the trans- port of troops, &c., to the Honourable Mr. Sullivon, Queen's Counsel, and for many years President of Hor Majesty's Executive Council of Canada, for his opinion thereon ; and I beg leave to furnish it for the consideration of the authorities at Kingston, to whom i allude : — ** Donald Bethunb, Esquire, of Toronto, requests ipy oj)inion, under the following circumstances ;— '* He has been for many years an extensive owner of steam vessels navigating Lnke Ontario; and, besides the general business of the lake, he has been a contractor with Her Majesty's Post Office for the conveyance of the mails, and with Her Majesty's Commissariat Department, for the transport by water of troops, baggage, horses and military stores. '< In the early part of this year, in pursuance of advertisements published by FI. M. Commissariat Department, he tendered for the conveyance by water of troops, baggage, horses and military stores, to and from the several British ports on Lake Ontario ; and his tenders being accepted, he entered into three several contracts, for the present season, with Assistant Commissary General Bailey and Assistant Commissary General Thomson, acting on behalf nf Her Majesty. " One of the contracts was for the conveyance of troopSj &c., between Kingston, Cobourg, Port Hope, Whitby and Toronto ; another contract was for the conveyance of troops, &c., between Toronto, Port Credit, Oakville, Wellington Square and Hamil- ton ; and another, for the conveyance of troops, &c., between Toronto, Port Dalhousie, Queenston and Niagara ; — upon which several routes he had lines of boats running, and made every preparation for the fulfilment of the contracts on his port, in the lull faith and expectation ihat he would be empbyed in the whole transport and conveyance of troops and stores on liakc Ontario, which might be required by H. M. Government, with the exception of the transport between Kingston and the Hny of Quinte, which was the subject of a contract with other jttaniboat owners. " He was bound with sureties under a heovy penalty in each of these contracts, to convey on board steamboats, all such i officers, soldiers and other peisons belonging to or attached to the army, with their families, horses, baggage and effects, and all such provisions and other public stores, as he or his agents might be required to transport to and from the ports mentioned in the contracts respectively, he not being required to deviate from the usual route or period of depart jtc, without a special agreement, into which, however, he was bound to enter if required. He was to furnish ample accommodation at all times in daylight usually appropriated for the transaction of public business, for the shipment of the passengers, &c.; and at later periods of the evening, should the boats remain so long in port, and the emergencies of the service render it necessary, his boats, when engaged in the conveyance of troops, were to be sulijcct to the inspection and approval or rejection of the Quarter Master General's Department : he was to notify the senior Commlssaiiat Officers, at Kingston and Toronto, of the days and probable time of departure established at the opening of navigation, and of any subsequent alteration ; and should lie fail to have bouts available to meet the requisitions of Government for any particu- lar service, not admittl.ig of delay, he was to engage such other boats in port as might be pointed out by the senior Commissariat Officer on the spot ; and in case of uncalled for delay, it was to be lawful fi the said Commissariat Officer to engage the same, and to deduct such expense as might be incurred in consequence, beyond the rate payable to the contractor from the next payment becoming due to him. The officers were to be boarded as cabin passengers: the non-commissioned officers and their wives and children, to be treated as steerage passengers ; and children under three years of age were to be conveyed free. " In the month of July last, he was furnished with a copy of a letter addressed by Major DeRottenburg to Assistant Commis< sary General Bailey, directing an enquiry of h';Ti (Mr. Bethune) whether upon his receiving two days' notice of tfie movement of any considerable body of troops, he would be prepared to move them from Kingston to Toronto, the same evening of tlicir arrival by the river mail steamer, in the event of her arrival being delayed beyond the usual hour for the boat's departure— five o'clock, P.M. — and whether he would consent to take three companies from Kingston to Hamilton without transhipment ; to wnich enquiries, with some qualifications, he answered in the affirmative. " He then received a letter, dated 19th July, annexing a copy of one from the Commissary General, and stating that it was the 6 intcjition of His Excellency the Commnnder of the Forces to cd'ect nn exchange of troops between Toronto and Kingston, and directing the Assistant Commissary General, Bailey, to endeavour to make arrangements with Mr. Bethune, the con- tractor, with a view, ii prncticuble, of a steamer being specially appropriated to that service. His Excellency being desirous to provide against soldiers being embarked with emigrants on board, in consequence of the typhus fever having broken out among some troops recently moved in this manner ; and further direct- ing that if the arrangement could not be carried out, to impress upon Mr. Bethune the necessity of excluding the lower class of emigrants in an unhealthy state, on the occasion of contemplated movements. <* To this requisition Mr. Bethune also assented, offering to be prepared to convey the troops in the manner required, and to carry no emigrants at such times. " He then received a letter from the Assistant Commissary General, enclosing one from the Assistant Quarter Master General, dated 27th July last, conveying His Excellency's orders that no troops were to be embarked on board of vessels which had carried emigrants, unless such vessels had undergone a puri- fying process, to the satisfaction of the Quarter Master General's Department. " To this Mr. Bethune answered, that he would be willing to adopt any method of purification which might be suggested; and stating the mode which had been adopted on board his boats, namely, the thorough washing and cleansing "^f the boats and offices, at the end of each voyage, and the use of chloride of lime. ** Mr. Bethune also received in the same letter from Mr. Bailey, a copy of a letter from the Assistant Quarter Master General, requiring that when small detachments of troops should be embarked in a vessel containing emigrants, the troops should be accommodated in the after part of the vessel, separated entirely from the emigrants. To this arrangement Mr. bethune also assented. " Mr. Bethune then received a letter from Assistant Commis- sary General Bailey, dated 29th July, with a copy annexed of a letter addressed to that officer from Major DeRottenburg, stating that Mr. J. H. Greer, of Kingston, for the purpose of preventing any possibility of infection from fever occurring amongst the troops to be embarked between Kingston, Toronto and Hamil- ton, had offered, on the part of Mr. Bethune, to provide steamers in which no emigrants had been carried (his season, naming the Scotland, Traveller, England, and Ireland, as being at his disposal for such service, and requiring to know whether Mr. Betoune would consent to such an arrangement. <* To this, Mr. Bethune replied, offering, as improvement upon the plan, and in place of the steamers named (which were freight boats, and without proper accommodation for officers), to send the Mmiral, a boat which had been employed between Toronto and Niagara, and which had not carriea emigrants, to bring up the officers and men, and offering the freight boats to bring up the women ond the baggage. To this offer Mr. Hethune received no answer. *' The Admiral steamer was then employed on the Kingston line, and for the purpose of preserving her in a condition to com- ply with the requisition of H. M. officers, she was not allowed to carry emigrants — Mr, Bethune employing other steamers for the conveyance of emigrants at great expense. He mformed the Baron DeRottenburg oi ibis arrangement, and who was shewn over that boat, newly painted throughout and in perfect order for the conveyance of troops. The Baron DeRottenburg /Assistant Quarter Master (Jeneral), on that occasion observed, Uiat tb€ boat would do very well. ** In the month of August, Mr. Bethune learned that the right wing of the 81st Regiment were conveyed from Toronto to Kingston, in Her Majesty's steamer Cherokee, and the right wing of the Rifles conveyed by the same boat from Kingston to Toronto. <* In the same month, about a hundred pensioners were moved from Kingston to Toronto in a steam freight boat, not belonging to Mr. Bethune, and which had carried emigrants during- the season ; and this, notwithstanding that one of Mr. Bethune's boats was in port at the time of the embarkation, and the Captain offered to convey the pensioners without any emigrants being allowed on board. *' On the 14th September, Mr. Bethune addressed a letter to Colonel Eraser, the Deputy Quarter Master General, stating that he had been informed that Captain Sutherland, of the steamer Magntt, had been requested to tender for the transport of troops from Kingston to Hamilton, and praying that the matter might be brought under the consideration of the Commander of the Forces, also offering to have the steamer Admiral, as well as another steamer in which no indigent emigrants had been conveyed, in readiness to convey the troops, so soon as their arrival at Quebec 8 should be heard ol. Tu this letter Mr. Betbune received no answer. « The master oi the Chief Justice steamer, at Queenston, reported himself to the senior Commissariat Officer there, in readiness to convey the troops going down ; and Mr. Bethune addressed iwo letters to inform the Assistant Commissary Gene< ral, nt Kingston, that he would have two steamers in readiness to convey the troops upwards. To these letters he received, for answer, that no requisitions had been received for the ser- vice, nnd that the arrangements for moving troops were not made by that department. " In the month of September, the Magnet (an opposition steamer) conveyed on the 23rd, a wing of the 82nd Regiment from Queenston to Kingston ; and on the 24th, a battullion of the 20lh Regiment, from Kingston to Queenston ; and, as Mr. Bethune is inlbrmed, she is intended to perform the service of conveying troops on the lake for the remamder of the season. "OPINION. " It appears to me, that Mr. Bethune was bound by his con- tract to furnish accommodation for the troops in vessels properly cleansed and purified. He was not bound to furnish vessels in which no emigrants hnd been conveyed during the season ; but as he, nevertheless, was willing to do so, and to comply with all reasonable requisitions on the part of H. M. officers, whether within the letter of his contract or not, there can be no reason why he should be deprived of the benefit of that contract, by the contemplated services being transferred to others. '< I think Mr. Bethune was intended to have the conveyance of the whole of ihe troops moved on Lake Ontario, with the exception of those intended for the Bay of Quinte, the routes mentioned in the contracts including all the usual ones upon the lake. " If Her Majesty's officers, either from extraordinary precau- tion, or from some other inducement, chose to alter their arrange- ments, and to carry troops in Her Majesty's ships, or in vessels not belonging to the contractor, I think Mr. Bethune, who had made all preparations necessary for the conveyance of the troops, is entitled to be placed in the same situation as if he had con- veyed them. *' He is not accountable, any more than Her Majesty's Government, for the extraordinary and unforeseen circumstance of typhus fever existing amongst the emigrants ; and had private I ieived no leenston, there, in Bethune ry Gene- readiness received, the ser- were not spposition Regiment ttbllion of d, as Mr. service of ! season. 1 y his con- Is properly vessels in ason ; but )ly with all s, whether "i r' 1 t no reason act, by the k onveyance 0, with the the routes iS upon the 1 iry precau- }ir arrange- r in vessels B, who had the troops, B had con- 1 1 Majesty's rcumstance had private ] ^ 9 persons contracted with him ibr iiassagc on board his boats, that circumstance would not have nvoidcd the contract. In that case, he would, I think, have hern bound to use reasonable pre- caution, but not to refuse passage to eniigrnnts, because some of them might possibly be diseased. I know of no diiference between private contractors and the Government, if either think fit, from extraordinary caution, to depart from their undertaking, because of events not provided for in the contract, those with whom they contract should not, be the sufferers. " There is not, however, any mode by which Mr. Bethune can proceed to enforce his contract against the Government ; but m the absence of any legal remedy, there is one usually found fully equivalent, namely, an application to the Lords Com- missioners of the Treasury, whose duty it is to see justice dene between him and the Government. It may be that their Lord- ships will approve of the acts of the officers in charge in this Province, but 1 think they cannot allow Mr. Hethune to be a loser on account of a change in arrangements made with him, where he has not been in fault; but on the contrary, where he has gone far beyond the letter of his contract in accommodating himself to all the requirements and suggestions of the military authorities. (Signed) " R. B. SULLIVAN." " Toronto, 27th September, 1847." I also submitted the case, and Mr. Sullivan's opinion, to the Honourable Robert Baldwin, late Attorney General for Canada West; and 1 have the honour to subjoin Mr. Baldwin's opinion : " I have read the case arising on Mr. Bethune's contract with the Government for the transport of troops, &c., in 1847 ; and Mr. Sullivan's opinion on it, dated this day. " I think, with Mr. Sullivan, that Mr. Bethune was intended to have the conveyance of the whole troops, &c., on the three routes contracted for by him. To pretend that the conveyance of troops from Kingston to Hamilton or Queenston, did not fall within these contracts on account of its being a direct voyage, would be a mere quibble, to which I cannot believe the Crown would resort, even if it could avail anything to them; which, I am of opinion however, that it could not. " a 'is true, we have no process by which Mr. Bethune can seek alegal remedy against the Government; but, concurring with 10 Mr. Sullivan as to the justice of Mr. Bcthune's claim, I cannot doubt but that the Crovvn will not allow that to be a bar to his obtaining his just demands. (Signed) " ROB'T BALDWIN." " 27th Sept. 1847." As it is my intention to submit the whole matter for the c igston and the wharf; 3ose, I cer^ carried no It wharf nt >f removing dance, for y said, no understanding of the case by His Excellency the Commander of the Forces, as a copy of my contract is, no doubt, in His Excel- lency's possession, or in that of the Commissary General. Since writing the foregoing, 1 have this day received a reply from Mr. Bailey, to my letter of the 37th ultimo, and containing Commissary General Filder's answer to Mr. Hailey*s letter to the Commissary General, of the 29lh, enclosing my letter of the 27th September; and now beg to add hereto a copy of my reply to the Commissary General : Toronto, October 9, 1847. Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, enclosing the answer of Commissary General Filder to my letter to you of the 27th September; and, in reply thereto, I beg to say that the Commissary General has wholly mistaken the nature of my contract for the transport of troops across Lake Ontario, in stating that I had '^ no contract for tne conveyance of troops direct from Queenston to Kingston;" and that he is also mistaken in the reason he gives for supposing that I had not the contract for all the troops to be moved across Lake Ontario, namely, that ** it is unreasonable to suppose that we are to pay for the direct and shorter voyoge the rates fixed for the two separate voyages from Kingston to Toronto, and from Toronto to Queenston." Formerly, and until, I think, the year 1844, the contracts for the transport of troops from Kingston across Lake Ontario, were to every port westward of Kingston — including Toronto, Ham- ilton and Queenston; and the rates were charged, so lately as 1843, es follows: — Kingston to Toronto, for soldiers, 10s.; Kingston to Hamilton, 15s.; Kingston to Queenston, 15s.; and so in proportion for officers, stores, &,c.; so that the opinion entertained by the Commissary General, as to there having been, at any time, a separate contract for the direct route to Q,ueens> ton, and at a cheaper rate than I have charged this year, is incor* rect. I venture to say,— having been concerned in that con- tract, either in my own name, or in that of some other party, since 1840, that there never was a contract within the l^t ten years, for the direct route from Kingston to Queenston, and at a reduced rate, as stated by the Commissary General. The con- tracts, until 1844, I think, always embraced every British port on the lake, west or south-west of Kingston; and the contracts from 14 '1 oronto to Hamilton, and from Toronto to Queenston, were never conr^dered as Interfering with the main contract from Kingston to all the ports us I have stated ; but were merely for the convenience of moving the troops from Toronto to Hamilton, and from Toronto to Queenston. Surely the Commissary General does not mean to say that there was no contract entered into this year for the transport of Troops between Kingston and Queenston, or between Kingston and Hamilton. If so, how has it happened that I have received so many requisitions for the conveyance of troops between these points 1 The division of the general contract into three, does not alter my right to benefit by it ; and your letters, enclosing those of the Assistant Quarter Master General, for the transport from Kingston to Hamilton of the very troops sent afterwards in the Magnet, shows that to have been the view entertained of the contract until very recently. It might as well be contended that, because there is no contract between Montreal and Queenston direct, or between Montreal and Hamilton direct, that notwithstanding the separate contracts entered into by the Commissariat with the Hon. Mr. Hamilton and myself for the transport of troops between those points, that it would be competent for the Commissariat to enter into another contract with another party for the direct route from Montreal to Hamilton or Queenston. Does the Commissary General seriously suppose that either Mr. Hamilton or I would have entered into the con- tracts with Government for the transport of troops from Montreal upwards, if we could have conceived it possible that such a construction would have been put upon our con- tracts as would have deprived us of the benefit of them whenever the Commissariat might think it advisable to do so ? Surely no man in his senses could think that we would have done so. As for the statement of the Commissary General that I have exacted exorbitant rates for the transport of troops from Kingston to Toronto, I beg to say, that they are one-third less than those charged by Mr. Hamilton from Montreal to Kingston, — the distance being the same or nearly so, and not higher than they have been ior the last ten years, but in fact lower. Mi liii 15 And I have also to state, that both Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Sullivan had before them a copy of the old as well as of the new contract between me and the Commissariat (including Hamilton and Queenston), when they formed their opinion ; and that it was with reference to the direct route from Queenston to Kingston that Mr. Baldwin said, " To pretend that the conveyance of troops from Kingston to Hamilton, or Queenston, did not fall within these contracts on account of its being a direct voyage, would be a mere quibble, to which I cannot believe the Crown would resort, even if it could avail anything to them— which I am of opinion, however, that it could not." It is, therefore, clear to me, that the Commissary General is misinformed as to the nature of the contracts formerly entered into for the transport of troops across Lake Ontario ; and that he has taken an erroneous view of the letter and spirit of the contracts entered into with me ; and I trust that, upon a reconsideration of the whole matter, he will not hesitate to acknowledge his error, and see justice done to me. I have only to add, that I have never heard of the transport of troops, dec, across Lake Ontario, or between Kingston and Montreal, or between Montreal and Quebec, in Govern- ment vessels ; and that, therefore, I cannot conceive how it can be the " universal rule throughout this command" to de- prive, in that way, the contractor of the benefit of the removal of the troops. I have the honour to be, &c., D. BETHUNE. To Assistant Comm'y Gen'l Bailey, &c. &c. &c , Kingston. From what has been said, I trust that His Excellency will be convinced that I was entitled to the removal of the troops under the contracts, and that I should not be deprived of the benefit thereof. I have the honour to be. Sir. Your most Obedient Humble Servant, D. BETHUNE. To the Military Secretary, To His Excellency the Commander of the Forces, Head Quarters, Montreal.