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Tous les autres axempiaires originaux sont film^s en commenqant par la prorniAre page qui comporte une empreinte dimpression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la derniire page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la damidre image de cheque microfiche, seion ie cas: le symbols — ^signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Las cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent atre filmte ^ des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsquc le document est trop girand pour §tre reproduit en un seut cliche, il a&t filmd ^ partir da Tangle supirieur gauche, de gauche i droita, et de haut 6n bas. en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la methods. 1 2 3 4 5 6 \ I STAI vmi ^m^l STATEMENT OF FACTS RELATIVE TO A lATE TKANSACTIOM.v /i; ottttealt PRINTED AT THE MONTREAL HERALD AND MEW MONTREAL GAZETTE OFFICE. 1829. -7 ^ STATEHENT OF FACTS. MONKLAND, Tuesday, Nov. 3, l8f29. f . I It having been mentioned to me yesterday that a statement was in circulation at Montreal, dif- fering, in some material points, from one that I liad previously drawn out in reference to a late transaction, and which I thought proper to shew to some of my friends, I conceived it to be a du- ty that T owed both to myself and to the friend who had been guided by my advice, to ascertain how flu' his honour and my judgment might be compromised by the colouring given to that transaction in the said statement. I accordingly sought an interview with Mr. Kelly, from whom, I understood, it had emanated ; and meeting him in the street, told him what I had heard ; to which he answered, " that he believed Major Coflin had circulated, among his friends, a state- ment drawn up by liim, Mr. K., but that it did . 4, noldiflcr from mine." I asked him if I could see it— to wliicli lie replied, tliat he had it not about him, but that he would read it to inc, if I would accom})aii y him to his quarters, where we accordingly proceeded a sliort time after- wards. On our arrival, he did read it to me, when I observed, that there were two passages which differed from my statement, which I then read to him, and a copy of which I herewith subjoin. M(VNTRKAL, Monday, Oct. 19, 1829. As conversations are frequently liable to be forgotten or misconstrued, I have thought pro- per to commit to paper what I trust you will al- low to be the substance of what passed between us this morning.— I waited upon yoi., on the be- half of Capt. Piper, to know the nature of any communication you might have to make on the part of Major Collin, when you informed me tliat a conversation had taken place on the night of last Wednesday at Caj)tain Piper's house respect- ing some apples, in which it was alleged that Captain Piper had joined, and had thereby ag- grieved Major Coffin. To my repeated inquiries of how a conversation about apples could in any way justify Major Coffin in thinkino- himself a'>-- grieved by Captain Piper, you })rofessed yourself V iiniiblc to give any satisfactory answer; and you accordingly went to consult Major C. on the subject. It is not necessary to state all that passed before you went away ; but I feel confi- dent that you will recollect that we agreed as to the propriety of there being some precise, and definite cause of offence, before one Gentleman could call Tipon another to give him the satisfac- tion usually required in such cases. There was also mention made by you of Major CofUu's hav- ing adverted to Capt. Piper having on some for- mer occasion displeased him ; and on tliis point we joined in thinking that it should be discarded from our consideration. Upon your return from Major Coffin you told me, that he would be per- fectly satisfied if Captain Piper w^ould declare upon his honor that on the night in question he had made use of no disrespectful expressions regarding Major Coffin's conduct. My answer was, " that Captain Piper had placed his cause in my hands, and that I w^ould not allow liim to make any such acknow^ledgment, as I did not conceive that Major Coffin was authorized to make such a demand upon a bare surmise of his own, because Captain Piper had joined in a con- versation respecting certain apples." You then returned to Major Coffin, and when we again met, you said, that as Capt. Piper would not com- ])ly with Major C.'s request he would be expect- cil to meet him." 1 then related to you what 1 ]md partly touched upon before, " That I had understood the sanic morning from Mr. Forbes, that he had been called upon by Major Coffin to account tor certain opprobrious expressions he had uttered respecting Major C. and which had been communicated to Major C. by Lt. Matson ; that he had answered by stating that he was sure that Lt. Matson was too much of a gentleman to assert that he had made use of any expresdons without having good reason for so doing ; that he recollected nothing about it himself, but that he was willing to take them for granted, and to be responsible for them ; that Major Coffin then said to him, that he supposed that he would give him the satisfaction of a gentleman, to which Mr. Forbes replied, « most willingly ;" that dur- ing this discussion Major Coffin said that Mr. Forbes had called him a liar in respect to a certain transaction ; that Mr. Forbes answered, " be did not exactly know what he said when he had tak- en a little too much wine, but that if he had said so, he could only state that Major Coffin knew it to'be the case." I will not go into all the details of this business at present ; it appears, however, that Major Coffin has been satisfied with Mr. Forbes's saying, either himself, or througli Mr. Green, "that it was subject of regret to him that he had taken too much wine on the night in ques. lion, and that, if that had not been the case ho should not have made use of such gross cxprcs- sions regarding Major Coflin." So far, all may be well, but Mr. Forbes has declared to me several times that his reiteration of the cliarge of false- hood against Major Coffin was made when he had n A taken any wine, for which nothing like an apology had been demanded or given, which last circumstance Mr. Green, Mr. Forbes's friend, fully corroborates." To all this you answered, "That Major Coffin had denied Mr. Forbes's diarge of flilsehood, intimating thereby, as I un- derstood you, that Major Coffin conceived that Mr. Forbes and himself were upon equal terms in that respect. To this I answered, " That if any person had accused you or myself of having asserted that we had given 50 guineas for a horse, and having sold the said horse to another, impressing at the same time upon his mind for the purpose of making a good sale that we had paid the said sum of 50 guineas, whereas in truth we had only paid 25, I answered, I say, that in such a case the probability would be that neither of us would rest satisfied with hav- ing simply denied a charge of so disgraceful a nature." You assented to my proposition, and said, " That you would never thus com- promise yourself, that you did not stand there to vindicate Major Coffin's character, but mere- 8 ly to comnuinicalo liis wishos.*' I Hicn gave you my final answer, " That inulor tlio circum- stances above related, wliereiii it appeared that Major ColVni liad been ijfrossly insidted by Mr. Forbes without taking the proper notice of such insult, I did not think that Major Coffin (inde- pendent of not having stated any tangible cause of complaint) was worthy of receiving the satis- faction of a Gentleman from a Gentleman." I shall be obliged by your signifying to mc whe- ther you conceive the above to be a correct re- presentation of what took place between us thi> morning. Tuesday Morning, October 20. In consequence of some transactions that took place after the above was written, I think it right to state one or two circumstance* of which I was aware yesterday, but which I did not think it worth while to include in the above state- ment.* One of these circumstances is, that when Mr. Forbes reiterated his charge of false- hood against Major Coffin, he informed me that his words on that occasion were accompanied by an action, which he designated as shaking his fist at Major Coffin, and which from his repeating it. Or, to speak more correctly* to m»ke known to Mr. Kelly. i; I was I think justly aosignateil. Another is, that after Mr. Forbes had stated all he had to say on the subject, he distinctly and more than once said, that he did not think that Captain Piper was bound to meet Major Coffin, as in his con- duct to him he had proved himself a coward, or words to that effect, or even to a stronger effect. TuEiDAY Morning, Octobku «0. I called this morning upon Mr. Kelly, and read to him the foregoing statements,* which he allows to be a correct representation of what pas- sed between us. GEORGE WILLIAM AUBREY. Tuesday Mornimg, October 20. Mr. Kelly has this morning informed me that both yesterday and to-day, he stated to Major Coffin that he did not think there was sufficient matter to authorize him to call Captain Piper to an account. GEORGE WILLIAM AUBREY. • The first statement Is here only allud.d to as having been sanctioned by Mr. Kelly; the second was read to hiro. but had no reference to our contersatiou on Monday. 10 Now to place the whole of these proceedhigs in as clear a point of view as I am able, I shall begin by stating that on Tuesday the 'SOth Inst., I went to Mr. Kelly's for the aole purpose of en- deavouring to obtain his sanction to the state- ment I had drawn up, which was at first intended to have been conveyed in the form of a letter, and which, notwithstanding I offered to give him a copy with my signature, he declined signing, adding that he would first wish to consult Major Coffin, to which I objected, thinking the matter rested entirely between ourselves—he however did in the most unqualified manner by look, and tone cf voice, signify his assent to, and approba- tion of what I had submitted to him, which ac- knowledgment / urote down in his presence, and shewed, and read to him. Under these circum- stances 1 pointed out this morning to Mr. Kelly with some little surprise the first variation in his account, which not having a copy of his state- n-ent, I am unable to give in his own words, but the substance of it is, that passing over all the conversation which took place between us res- pecting the absence of any provocation on the part of Captain Piper, and which from the na- ture of the circumstance must necessarily have been the first topic of discussion between us, he solely asserts, that the ground of objection to the acceding to Major Coffin's demand was founded V 11 upon his not having received a proper apology, or any apology, from Mr. Forbes. The difFer- ence on this point between the two statements, is certainly, as I told Mr. Kelly, very trifling, beino- merely a difference of omission not affect- ing in any degree the merits of the principal question— but should there be any importance in it, which I cannot see, I can furnish collateral evidence of the correctness of my representa- tion, which was committed to paper five minutes after our conversation on the Monday, and it is this, *' That on the same day after endeavouring in vain for some time to find out the positive grievance of which Major Coffin complained, I told Mr. Kelly that there was other matter of great importance which I should have to com- municate to him provided we could not settle the business upon the grounds of the insufficien- cy of the provocation : that if the other matter could be properly explained, I might perhaps be induced to wave all objections on the score of there having been no offence, at least none com- municated to me, more especiallij as I knew that in such cases it Xi^as verj/ easy for the other party to hr'mg matters to an extremity hy means of some subsequent insuU^esides, Mv. Kelly left me twice that morning, once to ask Major Coffin what his grievance was, and a second time to sav that Captain Tiper would make no ac 12 kiiowledgment, all of which trouble would have been perfectly useless had my flat refusal to allow Capt. Piper to meet Major Coffin been gi- ven previous to his so going away. To repeat, however, what I have said before, the difference on this point is so trifling that I should not have deemed it necessary to give publicity to these proceedings, had it not been for the second va- riation, which, having already received some, will naturally receive farther circulation, and which, in whatever light I view it as affecting Capt. Piper or myself seems to be of that import- ance as imperiously to require my notice. For the reason before adduced 1 can only give the substance of this second variation, not indeed a variation from the statement of Monday, but a variation from what actually took place on the Tuesday morning, which in Mr. Kelly's state- ment amounts to this, " That in our conversa- tion on the Tuesday morning when he declined sanctioning by his signature, the statement I had drawn up, / did not seem to think of, or gave up the pohit of there having been no apology from Mr. Forbes, but rested my objections to Major Coffin's demand upon the absence of provoca- tion on the part of Capt. Piper. In respect to such imputed inconsistency on my part, (to call it by no worse name,) I told Mr. Kelly, " that he must have completely misunderstood me; that \s Xk t"- it there could have been any possible motive for my shifting my ground in such a way, the mani- fest absurdity of such a procedure ought to have ^ convinced him, and would convince any one.-- h- ^^ That he had only to look at my statement, submit- \fi\\ ^^ ted to him that very morning of Tuesday, where, . ^ in no qualified terms I had stated my sole ground of objecting to Major Coffin's demand, and where he would see that the mention of there being no tangible cause of complaint was in the form of a parenthesis, in no way connected with, or neces- sary to the understanding of the main sentence : that if any thing farther indicative of there hav- ing been no change in my sentiments could be required, it would be found in^my original state- , ment,/r6Y brought before liim'^n that very day, and in which more irresistible proof was to \><^ found, than in any thing I had before advanced, of a gross insult not having been atoned for." To this Mr. Kelly replied that his ''onli) reason for supposing that I had abandoned the ground of the no apology was that I had said notliing about it.'' To which 1 answered, " that I had called upon him on the Tuesday for the sole purpose of agree- ing upon something chat was to stand as a record of what had passed between us on the Monday, that the main point. Viz. the impossibility of Capt. P. meeting Major C. for the reasons already as- signed, h.ad been defuvtivebj settled the day be- tir'A- u-^-;! 14 fore, and that the result I supposed had been communicated to his principal, and that if I had not said any thing upon the subject it must have arisen from my not thinking it necessary to re- peat what had been so recently y so unequivocally y and so formall]/ communicated, especially as its nature was unpleasant, and that even at our first interview I had not introduced it into our discus- sion until it became necessary — I added that what he had just said materially altered the case, but that others would, I w^as sure, construe the passage in a different way, as they would have no opportu- nity of hearing his interpretation of it. I then asked him if he would give me that interpretation in writing, which he declined, saying, that ne w^ished to have nothing to do with any writing. I told him that I would not have made the re- quest, had I not felt myself, at all times, as well as at that moment, disposed to give Jtiniy in writing, any thing he might choose to demand of what had passed between us—I have only to add, up- on this subject, that had Mr. Kelly thought pro- per to furnish me, in writing, with his interpre- tation of the above passage, I should not have felt myself obliged to have recourse to the pre- sent mode of making it known to all those, into whose hands our respective statements have or may come, but should have allowed it to find its own wav to those who might be anxious to see it. I 15 ' Having now entered so far into this subject, I cannot forbear making a few observations, iu reference to its general merits ; and it appears to me that, although I availed myself of only o?ie, there were three sufficiently strong and ade- quate reasons for Captain Piper not meeting Major Coffin, as required. The first is, "the non-assignment of any precise and definite cause of grievance,"— the second, " The insufficiency of the apology from Mr. Forbes, for what took place at Captain Piter's"— and the third, " There having been no apology demanded or given for the subsequent tenfold aggravated insult offered to Major Coffin by Mr. rorbes."-With respect to the first, I believe there is no instance where the Principal, in such cases, has persisted av pushing things to an extremity, contrary to the declared opinion of the two mediators, or friends, "that there was not sufficient matter to found a complaint upon." This has been done in the present case, by Major Coffin, who has, thereby, precluded what is alv/ays most essential and de- sirable in such cases, " the possibility of an atone- ment in the way of apology, (unless, indeed, such an apology as was dictated by him, upon his own terms, and which would have involved an utter loss of character,) and has also deprived the mediators of what has, for a long time, been considered their first duty," that of endeavour- ing to effect a reconciliation. IG In respect to tlie second reason, from all that I have heard trom the whole of the parties con- cerned I can only draw this conclusion, " that Mr. Forbes regretted having taken too much wine, and that if he had not done so he would not have made use of such gross ej:pressio7ts ; but afterwards, when he had not taken any wine, though he does not, it is true, make use of gross expressions, yet he directly charges Major Coffin with certain gross conduct, upon which those expressions were founded, omitting the epithets, but asserting i\\Q facts, and, as Mr, Kelly has recorded in /^/^ statement, saying, " that he would be upon his oath that it was the case," (namely, that Major Coffin had asserted afi untruth.) In respect to the third reason, I have never heard from any one, not even from Mr. Kelly himself, one syllable respecting an apology hav- ing been demanded or given for the reiterated insult offisred by Mr. Forbes to Major Coffin, as related to me by Mr. Forbes, who knew, for I told him, that my conduct would be guided by what he had thus related, and who saw, correct- ed in one or two trifling instances, and sanction- ed, as far as he was concerned, my original statement, the correctness of which, in relation to what had passed between us on Monday the IQthj Mr, Kelly confirmed ^^"^^^2, this day, in the ast words he uttered as I left the Island. 17 November 6, 1829. Since the above was written, I have been in- formed that Major Coffin's conduct in reference to the late transactions has been approved of in Montreal and elsewhere, consequently we are now completely at an issue, for if his conduct has been correct, ray judgment must have been er- roneous, and my friend Capt. Piper will always have to lament that he entrusted his cause to my hands', it has therefore become still more impe- rative on me than ever to put forth this state- ment of facts, for which I court the strict est scru- tiny, with a full confidence that whep.^H^y shall have been thoroughly sifted, they will be found to bear me out in the deductions that I have made from them. It may be necessary to add that the foregoing statement was at first intended to have been pub- lished in the newspaper, but at the suggestion o2 i a friend I have presented it in the form it now bears. G. W. AUBREY. le *<'.