who resented any interference with a state of things which favoured themselves and their friends, and were not desirous of an investigation into the management of public affairs.  The subsequent treatment of Mr. Gourlay was shameful in the extreme.  He was declared a most dangerous character when he followed up his circular by a pamphlet, attacking the methods by which public affairs generally were conducted, and contrasting them with the energetic and progressive system on the other side of the border.  The indignation of the officials became a positive fever when he suggested the calling of public meetings to elect delegates to a provincial convention—­a term which recalled the days of the American revolution, and was cleverly used by Gourlay’s enemies to excite the ire and fear of the descendants of the Loyalists.  Sir Peregrine Maitland succeeded in obtaining from the legislature an opinion against conventions as “repugnant to the constitution,” and declaring the holding of such public meetings a misdemeanour, while admitting the constitutional right of the people to petition.  These proceedings evoked a satirical reply from Gourlay, who was arrested for seditious libel, but the prosecutions failed.  It was then decided to resort to the provisions of a practically obsolete statute passed in 1804, authorising the arrest of any person who had resided in the province for six months without taking the oath of allegiance, and was suspected to be a seditious character.  Such a person could be ordered by the authorities to leave the province, or give security for good behaviour.  This act had been originally passed to prevent the immigration of aliens unfavourable to England, especially of Irishmen who had taken part in the rebellion of 1798 and found refuge in the United States.  Gourlay had been a resident of Upper Canada for nearly two years, and in no single instance had the law been construed to apply to an immigrant from the British Isles.  Gourlay was imprisoned in the Niagara gaol, and when his friends attempted to bring him out on a writ of habeas corpus they failed simply because Chief Justice Powell, an able lawyer of a Loyalist family and head of the official party, refused to grant the writ on a mere technical plea, afterwards declared by the highest legal authorities in England to be entirely contrary to sound law.  Gourlay consequently remained in prison for nearly eight months, and when he was brought again before the chief justice, his mental faculties were obviously impaired for the moment, but despite his wretched condition, which prevented him from conducting his defence, he was summarily convicted and ordered to leave the province within twenty-four hours, under penalty of death should he not obey the order or return to the country.