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PRESENTED BY JOHN MATTHEWS, ESQUIRE. .'V- Ordend, hy The House of Assembly, to be Printed. iBth January, 182S. .-'..«;} ..W«i sf ! ■tiii-ji" Vn*o the ffonourable tite Commons House of Assembly of Upper Canada, The humble Petition of William Forsyth, Proprietor of the Niagara Falls Pavilion, in the Township of Stamford, and County of Lincoln, BHEWETU: — THAT your petitioner did, sometime in the^ear 1821, purchase from William Dickson, Esquire, a tract of land in Stamford, adjoining the cataract of Niagara, being composed of Lot No. 159, with the broken front between it and the Niagara river — also other parts of lots, the whole of which was granted to one Francis Cllesworth thirty years ago, and has ever since been in his and his successors' peaceable possession. That in the original grant from the crown to said Ellesworth, the line in one place runs southerly parallel the shore of the river, " thence east to within one chain of the said river fifty chains, then northerly along the bank, always at the distance of one chain from the top of the bank." That your petitioner is the proprietor of two other farms on the bank of the Niagara river, both of which are bounded according to the description in the conveyances by the bank of the raid Niagara river, with the stream, save and except the government reservation of one chain from the edge of the bank of the river bounding tho waters thereof. That the said chain along the river's edge was reserved for public pur* {loses, ^V11I niHy appear hj tfic ctm^rms of n letter ^rem Mnjor General Dar- ing, by order of the commander of the forces, hereto annexed ; notwith- standing which, Messrs. 1 homns Clark & Samuel Street have warned your petitioner not to trespass on said lands, which they state to have been leased to them last August, under the great seal of the colony. it- That notwithstanding this their warning, it was argued by the Solicitor General, last assizes. u> open reurt, that the lease had been granted to said Street &, Clark, for a public highway. A THE PETITION OP WILLIAM FORSYTH. 4*. f^ That during the administration of Lieutenant Governor Hunter, his ex- cellency ill council granted a lease of the chain of reservation in front of the first named tract, to Isaac Swayzc, Esq. which lease has never been cancell- ed ; but is now in the possession of the lessee. That for a period of fortv four years, your petitioner and his father have been in peaceable and undisturbed possession of the estate in Stamford ; and also of the new farms, since the date of their purchase from the hon- ourable William Dickson, until the 18th May last. That early in May, Capt. Philpotts, Royal Engineapa, aooompanied by Col. ThoiBM Clark, surveved and laid out the chain of reservation on the bank of the river, ostensibly for a highway : — to this proceeding your peti- tioner had no possible objection. That soon after they had thus laid off a chain from the bank of the river at highwater mark, Captain Philpotts called upon your petitioner and stated, that he and Mr. Clark (one of the oldest residenters in the neighbourhood) had been mistaken in the surx'ey :-that the reserve came to the top of the hill in front of the pavilioa. — and that the top of the hill was the bank of the river, intended as the extreme point of the reserve. He ordered your peti- tioner to remove his blacksmith's shop and fences, which your petitioner refused to do ; said shop and fencea being upon his private property. That upon this refusal, Capt. Philpotts, acting as j^our petitioner has rea- son to believe, by command of Major General Sir Peregrine Maitland, came upon petitioner's premises, accompanied by a strong military force, to wit, a serffeant, three privates, and a Colonel, the latter being also high sheriff otthe district. The soldiers stacked their arms in front of John Brown^ hotel, and your petitioner took witnesses and warned th^ party to desist lirom trespassing on and cutting down and destroyine his Pfemises^ Mlfksmif^V ■hn n a-* ^ ^....-.t -..^^ lan^' and- I5tf |»ffirf^ y force of arms the peaceable possessor, in efiance of, and unkniwn to the civil authority, would have been a high breach of the rights cf the freeholders of the Province, whose privileges, your honorable house ia always watching over with the utmost vigilance: that throwing down, by iieans of British soldiers, and destroying the offices and fences of your petitivner's estate, wantonlpr exposing the fruits of the earth and growing crops tt waste, and attempting to eject him from off his property, without any process of the civil law, and for the ostensible par- pose of getting possession di a reserve not wanted, and about the location of which, from his several meqsuremenls, the officer of Engineers, evident- ly was at a loss, and which was then leased to and consequently under the control of Mr. Swayze ; committing those acts by the means of a band of hired soldiers, in a country not under martial law, by command of (as your petitioner expects to prove) a military officer, who was himself under the orders of a British Major General, is a darine and unprovoked encroach- ment upon the privileges of a people unfitted tor enduring slavery, and for- asmucli as the orderly book and other evidence will go far to prove, that the said acts of lawless military violence were done and committed by the ex- Sress command, and at the direct instigation of Major General Sir Peregrine [aitland, commanding His Majesty's forces, sent here to guard us against all oppression and tyranny : Tour petitioner humbly prays your honorable house to watch over and protect toe rights of the people from tiie encroachment of military power, and that youeaquire as speedily as may conveniently be, into the circum- stances attending his case, and if it shall appear that the allegations con- tained in this petition are true, that such representations may be made to His Majesty's Government in England by a safe cha nnfil. cpngcrn in g t h e a aid tramuuiliafgm, a|i,jf MI wiw »w tu jim ».|»*« *«ioih.i lUut iCPie grf'iU t*H!CH m 83 a British suiject is eiititled, and which, as has already been shewn, he cai>not obtain in the courts of this province ; but which your honorable house is at all times, very anxious to obtain for petitioners, who repose confidence in your wisdom, honor, and integrity. — And your petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray. WILLIAM FORSYTH. JStagara Falls Pavilion, 21s/ Janvary, 1828. 'i m «^' %^— _*--j- .,# /C'7. Foriy4K =^ --3-)»jfy." -^ ::::ri^ "''" - -m ■ -T--»rtr ft- = 5 5 -• •^ :%,