Canada. For years past I have been in the habit of traveling in the United States attending to my business and am almost as well acquainted there as in Canada. I was not a stranger but it was known and especially to those who were the instruments of inflicting the injuries whereof I complain that I am a British subject.

On the 15th of October, 1861, I started from Montreal for the purpose of closing up the business of the season and for making arrangements for the spring business of the company whose agent I then was, viz, southwestern passenger agent for the Grand Trunk Railway, my headquarters being at Louisville, Ky. I was arrested in Detroit while on the railway cars, on an order from Mr. Secretary Seward, but I was not then informed of the charge against me and it was not until after I had been a prisoner for some time that I was made acquainted with its nature, viz, conveying arms and carrying dispatches to the Confederate States and authorities. All I was told at the time was that the authorities had been telegraphed to effect my arrest. Let me here state to your lordship that there is not and was to the slightest foundation for the charge, and as soon as I was acquainted with the alleged grounds of my apprehension I demanded through Lord Lyons the Brithish ambassador at Washington my trial.

On my arrest in Detroit I was very roughly handled. I was stripped and even my boots cut open in search of dispatches and my baggage was searached after the same fashion. No arms, no dispatches-nothing that could lead to the supposition that I was engaged as alleged was found either on my person or with my baggage. Nothwithstanding I was thrust into a dungeon among a number of negroes and malefactors of the vilest kind until Secretary Seward's orders could be obtained, but as no evidence was found against me I was-instead of ordering my discharge-ordered to close confinement in Fort Lafayette.

After I had been it this fort for a few days an order was received from Mr. Secretary Seward that I was to be discharged upon taking the oath of allegiance to the United States which I refused to do. I answered I was a British subject, born in Canada of parents who were British subjects and who had defended the soil of Canada from the invasion of the Republic of the United States; that I wsa the descendent of a W. E. loyalist, and that intolerable and offensive as was my confinement I would submit to it forever before I would bear allegiance to the United States.

In the course of correspondence afterward it was found our or at least Mr. Seward assigned it as a reason to Lord Lyons that he was under the impression that I was an American or the order would not have been made; but still I was not discharged, and now it was that Mr. Seward announced that the American Government had strong proof against me for conveying fire arms and dispatches for the people of the seceded States and therefore I could not be then discharged. Upon this being communicated to me by my friends in Canada I at once repudiated the charge and demanded to be brought to trial without delay. I wanted no time for preparation; I was innocent; I was ready for my trial. But still no trial was given me.

On arriving at the city of New York I was taken before Mr. Kennedy, of the police department, who on going into my case said my arrest was an error and as there was no charge against me I should receive my discharge in a few days.

In the meantime, however, I was conveyed to Fort Lafayette and imprisoned in a dark, unventilated room with forty-eight other prisoners. I will not detail the condition of this chamber. The foulness and filthi-