ness cannot be described, and although escape from the island in which the fort is situated is impossible, the prisoners were not permitted to breathe the fresh air but for a short time daily. I beg to remark that my examination before Mr. Kennedy preceded the order from Mr. Secretary Seward for my discharge upn taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.

When typhoid fever broke out in Lafayette and the prisoners were dying so rapidly as to arouse public attention and produce an outery of indignation I was removed to Forw Warren, Boston Harbor, and it was now that an active correspondence was carried on with the Canadian Government and my friends to obtain my discharge. They insisted that either I should be dishcarged or at once brought to trial. I was now allowed to correspond with Lord Lyons and to have interviews with the British consul, but all my communications to Lord Lyons were opened after they left me and all his reples to me, although bearing his signature on the envelope and the seal of the legation, were opened before delivery.

At last on the 6th of January, 1862, after a [illegible] confinement of nearly three months I was permitted to leave my prison upon certain conditions which your lordship will find attached* to this my humble representation, as well as copies* of the correspondence which passed between the Governor-General of British America and Lord Lyons and my friends who interceded for my release.

My Lord, the consequence of this most unjustifiable arrest has been to me a great source of trouble, loss, grief and injury. In consequence of it I have lost the lucrative position I held, and in consequence of my arrest I shall not be able to resume the business in which I was formerly engaged, as it points me out to my employers as a man intermeddling with the dangerous affairs of the revolutionary States when in fact the charge is entirely without foundation. I have also suffered in a very serious manner from the fact that my arrest broke up an engagement which would have proved a most lucrative undertaking for the winter season, a period during which my time as railway agent is but little occupied. To which the injury inflicted by the arrest, the wound to a man's feelings, the grief, trouble and sorrow of one's family and my long and protracted detention as a prisoner whrn it was well known by the U. S. authorities there were no charges against me and that I was only held in durance to cover the blunders of the officials of the United States Government and the false reports of their spies prosling about the Province of Canada, induced me to seek for reparation and redress and to seek the interposition of the Imperial Government to enable me to recover such damages ast the wrongs committed against me and the sufferings inflicted and insults offered to me will entitle me to recover [illegible].

I therefore most respectfully solicit the interference and support of Her Majesty's Government in urging my demand for reparation and redress and ask your lordship to give such early instructions to Her Majesty's ambassador at Washington as will insure a speeedy and satisfactory settlement of the demand. As a British subject I feel that there can be no necessity for offering any apology for bringing the matter under the notice of your lordship; that the rights and liberties of Her Majesty's subjects are too dear i of both our gracious Queen and her imperial advisers to allow them to be trifled with.

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* Omitted here; see ante.

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