Reports of the Commissioners appointed under the authority of the Act of the provincial Parliament la Vic., chap. 58.

Leslie's letter, dated the 12th April last, " to proceed immediately to the decision of " all claims investigated," which have not been adjudicated on, and to continue simul- taneously the investigation of the claims not yet proved, the Commissioners have now the honor to transmit their Report on 348 claims, amounting to the sum of 19,G83 17s.2d., with their awards, amounting to the sum of 7,809 18s.7d.It was not without regret that the Commissioners, in submission to Your Excel- lency's commands, deviated from their original determination of delaying the adjudication of every claim, until the investigation of the whole had been completed.This course was deemed necessary from the manner in which the claims were necessarily examined.The parties claiming choose their own witnesses to establish the nature of the loss, their conduct during the Rebellion, and the correctness of the valuation charged.These witnesses are frequently, and indeed, most commonly, the wives, sisters, brothers or children, and more distant relations of the claiming parties.This description of testimony, however objectionable in ordinary cases, they were compelled to admit, as the only producible evidence, such testimony might be impeachable as not coming within the terms of the 13th Section, as "indifferent and unsuspected witnesses" and but for the addition of the words, " or of other testi- mony," might mave excluded half the evidence on their Journals.This exclusion would have rendered nugatory the very aim and object of the statute.During the panic occasioned by the arrival of the Troops, ihe men generally fled to the woods, the women relying on their sex for safety and protection remained at home ; and are in a multitude of cases, the only witnesses of the burning or pillage.To refuse such testimony would have been a denial of Justice, from the utter impossibility to bring witnesses without the pale of propinquity.They therefore interpreted " other testimony," to mean the best testimony, which from the nature of the circumstances they were able to produce, and such being the only testimony present at the burning or pillage, it was considered eligible, because inevitable.But, in order that this latitude of construction might not admit of abuse or imposition, by the admission of witnesses who might by their relationship be supposed interested in the result, the Commissioners reseryed to themselves the right to call other disinterested and impartial witnesses to the nature and amount of the loss, as well as the character and conduct of the claimants, so that the main points of loss and conduct might be corroborated or disproved.It was after much debate and deliberation that the Commissioners deemed it advisable to suspend all action on the claims investigated, the more determinedly after the expiration of the Act on the 1st September last, and with the expiration, the compulsory attendance of witnesses, so necessary to give effect to it.It was evident to them that the promulgation of the awards could not accelerate the distribution of the sum appropriated by the Legislature, for if that sum proved insufficient for payment of their adjudication of the whole, the adjudication could only be regulated by a pro rata payment, which it required the adjudication of the whole to establish.That the investigation of their claims frequently elicited and brought to light facts necessary to the proper adjudication of claims much earlier or later investigated, both as to the conduct of the claiming parties, the amount of loss suffered, as well as the actual possession of property to the extent of the sum claimed for the loss.This course now deviated from, and with it, the safeguards which surround it ; the Com- missioners most respectfully beg to add, that the accompanying judgments are not delivered as their final and irrevocable awards ; that they reserve to themselves the right to alter, to review, or to revoke any judgments given, or that, in obedience to Your Excellency's command, they may continue to give, until the investigations of all the claims before them.To justify their claim to this reserve, the Commissioners solicit Your Excellen- cy's attention to their Report from St. Eustache, dated the 6th July last, in which they stated that they had only heard evidence on six hundred and ninety-three claims, on none of which had any judgment been rendered, leaving one thousand nine hundred and thirty-five claims still to be investigated.They further stated that " it must be apparent that no human '"intelligence or industry could accomplish this u within the time prescribed by the statute."In the decisions now reported, there will be found some to whom indemnity has been denied.That the ground of these decisions maybe more perfectly understood than in the summary of those judgments, the Commissioners feel it necessary to refer to the statute itself, and the interpretation which they consider themselves bound to give it.The Act was made to provide for losses incurred during the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 hi so far only as they may have arisen from the total or partial, unjust, unnecessary oi' wanton destruction of the dwellings, property, or efFects of the said inhabitants, previa ed that none of the persons who have been convicted of high treason" or who having been committed to the custody of the Sheriff in the Gaol of Montreal, submitted themselves to the will and pleasure of Her Majesty, and were thereupon transported to tier Majesty's Islands of Bermuda, shall be entitled to any indemnity for losses sustained during or after the said Rebellion, or in consequence thereof " If these-exceptions were intended to be the literal boundaries of proscrip- tion, their duty would have been simply to determine the actual amount of loss sus- tained and to awar d it.Such an interpretation would be contrary to any principle of public moral* Tl would reduce the loyal defenders, who risked lite, limb and property to maintain me integrity of the empire, and those who fought to dismember it, to one common an d degrading level.It would palliate the crime of : Rer^llion," and encour: nity.* by the inhabitants of Lower Canada, during the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838, so " far only as they may have arisen from the total or partial, unjust, unnecessary, or " wanton destruction of the buildings, property and.effects of the said inhabitants, " and from the seizure, taking and carrying away of their properly and effects, " claims which had been already rccognzied by the deliberative Acts of preceding " Parliaments and Governments."It concludes by informing the Commissioners that " Mis Excellency commands me to say that in this spirit was the measure " under which you are called upon to act, introduced and passed through Parlia- " ment, and that in the same spirit, he doubts not, you will discharge the important " and delicate duty imposed upon you by the Commission issued under it."The Commissioners comprehend the true intent and meaning of ihe Act " which Your Lord- ships fiat gave force to, in the sense as conveyed in the instructions above, and in the despatch to Earl Grey; in effect that persons who, by their examination, or the testimony of others, shall be proved as guilty as those in the two excluded classes, shall be no more entitled to the indemnification than they are.They have in every case made this their rule of action.That it was so interpreted by Her Majesty and Her Majesty's Ministers, they have the assurance of Earl Grey in the Despatch of 13th June, 1850, in reply to Your Lordship's Despatch cited above.His Lordship observes, " We certainly should not " have decided on adopting this course, had we regarded the Act as one, under which, u persons guilty of the heineous crime of Rebellion could be relieved from losses " brought on them by their own offences.If the Act had appeared to us to be either " intended to provide compensation for losses of this description, or even to have been " drawn up so loosely as to afford facilities for such an abuse, we should have felt " it our duty to advise Her Majesty to avail Herself of Her power to disallow it, be- " cause a measure tending to palliate the crime of Rebellion, could not be sanctioned " without injury to the safety and honor of the Crown.One further question remains." Will the execution of the Act be in conformity with the terms in which it is drawn ?" On this point, likewise, Her Majesty's Government are entirely satisfied.For as " the appointment of the Commissioners by whom the law is to be carried out, is " entrusted to the Governor, I cannot entertain the slightest doubt that persons will " be selected, whose honesty and firmness in applying the rule laid down for their " guidance, may be implicitly relied on."The commissioners feel it due to make this explanation, because they have not been unanimous either as to " the true intent and meaning of the Act itself, or of their power under it of their right to question claimants as to their conduct, of the validity and application of testimony given before their predecessors, or of the decisions them- selves."It has been contended that, to ask a claimant where he was when his property was burnt or pillaged, whatever the antecedents which might occasion or explain it, in short, directly to ascertain from the claimants or witness whether the losses were brought on him by his own conduct or offenses, was putting him on his trial, a mode of inquiry more consonant with the practice of the Star Chamber, than of a Court of Justice ; that to inquire of a claimant or witness of the conduct of a neighbor (whose claim had been before investigated) as to his conduct during the Rebellion, or to summon a witness to corroborate or disprove testimony, unless in the presence of all wdiose testimony might be effected, was alike contrary to any rule of justice.But the majority of the Commissioners deny that this is a violation of justice, but a true and equitable administ

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.