The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion | Page 4

in that affair. With this exception
his past life had been uneventful, but his future was fated to be marked
by considerable variety of incident, and by actions which even the most
favourable judgment cannot regard with unmixed complacency.
The twelve jurymen sat in their places, in the jury-box to the left of the
judge. The witnesses summoned on behalf of the Crown were the
Honourable William Dickson and the Honourable William Claus, both
of whom were members of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada.
The former gentleman was an enterprising Scotchman who had settled
in Niagara while it was yet known as Newark, where he had first kept a
general store, and afterwards practised law and speculation with great
pecuniary success. Like the Jarvis above mentioned, he was disfigured
by a red right hand, having shot his man in a duel fought in the autumn
of 1808 behind the United States fort on the opposite bank of the river.
It is fair to Mr. Dickson, however, to say that he was the challenged
party, and that the duel was in a measure forced upon him by the
barbarous usages of society in those (happily) far-off days. The other
witness, Mr. Claus, was at the head of the Indian department at Niagara,
the abuses in the administration whereof were notorious. It was well
understood throughout the district that Dickson and Claus between
them had contrived to make a tolerably good thing out of the Indians,
and that they had been concerned in some decidedly shady transactions.
If it be true that Heaven helps those who help themselves, certainly

both those gentlemen were entitled to look for divine assistance. They
possessed and exercised a wide influence throughout the settlements in
the Niagara peninsula, as well as at the Provincial capital, and were
commonly regarded as being on the high road to great wealth. Two
years before the date of the trial forming the subject of the present
chapter, Dickson had purchased the whole of the splendid township of
Dumfries, comprising 94,305 acres, at a trifle over a dollar an acre; and
he had already begun to realize upon his investment. Claus and he
occupied seats at the barristers' table, in close proximity to the
Attorney-General. The spectators included pretty nearly every
prominent resident of the town of Niagara and its immediate
neighbourhood.
But the most conspicuous figure in that crowded court-room yet
remains to be considered. It has been mentioned that the prisoners' dock
was large enough to hold five or six persons. On this occasion it held
but a single, solitary prisoner. A man large and bony, who, when in his
ordinary state of health, must have weighed not less than fifteen stone.
Just at present he was very far from being in ordinary health, for during
the preceding twelvemonth he had undergone sufficient worry and
suffering to destroy the life of any man of average vitality. After having
successfully defended himself through two criminal trials, he had been
cast into prison, where he had languished for more than seven months.
During his long confinement he had been subjected to a course of
treatment which would have been highly culpable if meted out to a
convicted criminal, and which was marked by a malignant cruelty
hardly to be comprehended when the nature of the offence charged
against him is considered. His own account of the matter is a plain and
simple narration of facts, the truth whereof rests upon the clearest and
most indisputable evidence. "After two months' close confinement," he
writes, "in one of the cells of the jail, my health had begun to suffer,
and, on complaint of this, the liberty of walking through the passages
and sitting at the door was granted. This liberty prevented my getting
worse the four succeeding months, although I never enjoyed a day's
health, but by the power of medicine. At the end of this period I was
again locked up in the cell, cut off from all conversation with my
friends, but through a hole in the door, while the jailor or under-sheriff

watched what was said, and for some time both my attorney and
magistrates of my acquaintance were denied admission to me. The
quarter sessions were held soon after this severe and unconstitutional
treatment commenced, and on these occasions it was the custom and
duty of the grand jury to perambulate the jail, and see that all was right
with the prisoners. I prepared a memorial for their consideration, but on
this occasion was not visited. I complained to a magistrate through the
door, who promised to mention my case to the chairman of the sessions,
but the chairman happened to be brother of one of those who had
signed my commitment, and the court broke up without my obtaining
the