action during the tour. Mackenzie returned to York in the third week of November with a plan to start an armed rebellion on December 7. Morrison was concerned that Mackenzie was being reckless creating plans for the rebellion without consulting him and protested against the amount of authority Mackenzie was giving himself. Morrison and Rolph insisted Mackenzie convince people with military expertise to help lead the rebellion, and Mackenzie promised to recruit Anthony Van Egmond who had combat experience. During the Upper Canada Rebellion, Morrison remained in his home. On December 6 Morrison and Rolph sent a message to Montgomery's Tavern encouraging Mackenzie to disperse the men assembled there. Mackenzie ignored the letter. Trial A loyalist militia arrested Morrison on December 6 for participating in the Upper Canada Rebellion and held without bail until his trial in April 1838. He appeared before a government committee investigating the revolt to proclaim his innocence and deny knowledge or participation in the rebellion. The scaffold used to hang previous participants of the rebellion was dismantled two days before Morrison's trial. This could have been a sign of leniency from the government, or a signal to Morrison's jury that a guilty verdict would not result in Morrison's execution, thus making them more likely to convict him. The trial took place on April 25, 1838, and began at 10 am. Jonas Jones was the judge because the chief justice, John Robinson, ran against Morrison in the 1828 election for the legislature. Hagerman was the prosecutor and Robert Baldwin was Morrison's defence counsel. Morrison was charged with levying and the Crown called three witnesses who claimed to have seen Morrison on Yonge Street with Mackenzie on the night of the rebellion. The Crown admitted in their opening arguments that the witnesses might be mistaken. One witness stated he saw Morrison wearing glasses, but Morrison's defence attorney argued that Morrison often wore sunglasses during the day but would not have worn them at night. Fifteen witnesses also testified that Morrison was not on Yonge Street during the rebellion. The Crown brought a second charge of conspiring to form a rebellion and brought forward evidence of his signature on the reform declaration in July 1837. Hagerman struggled to explain why Morrison was not charged when the declaration was originally published, stating that the rebellion showed the true, violent intention of the declaration. The defence counsel stated that the