A LETTER TO HER MAJESTY THE BRITISH QUEEN, WITH LETTERS TO LORD DURHAM, LORD GLENELG AND SIR TO WHICH IS ADDED AN APPENDIX EMBRACING A THE NEW YORK ASTOR, LENOX AND Entered according to act of Congress, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, by TH: JEFFERSON SUTHERLAND, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. ADVERTISEMENT. Or those who were implicated in the late revolutionary movements in the Canadas, the writer and publisher of this volume was the first put upon trial, with the intention on the part of the British government that he should have been the first to be executed. Why he escaped will be understood after a perusal of these pages. There are now about 150 citizens of the United States, who were captured by the military forces of Great Britain in the Canadas during the late revolutionary movements, still held by that government as prisoners of state. They have been sent to Van Dieman's Land, one of the British penal colonies, where they have been reduced to the condition of common felons; and thrust into a convict station with thieves, robbers, burglars and others of the vilest of the overflowings of the prisons of the the British empire-without sufficient food or necessary clothing they are being compelled to labor for unreasonable hours at the most servile employment; and made subject to the lash and other severities, unusual to be inflicted by civilized people. Those men, having been induced to believe that a hearty struggle was about to be made by the Canadians for liberty, with a generous motive, volunteered their services to aid them in their efforts; and so doing became prisoners. By the publication of this volume, it is hoped to bring the attention of our own government, as well as that of Great Britain, to the condition of those, our unfortunate fellow-citizens; and that the British government may then be induced to set them at liberty. Should it prove one of the means of bringing about the desired result, the sole object of the publication will have been attained. Aside from the matters which bear upon the object expressed, this volume will be found to contain expositions of legal questions, which give it value, as a book of reference; particularly, on trials by Court Martial. |